[1500s] [1600s
to 1900s] [THE REVOLUTION] [Elián] [Today]
1958
- present
At
first The United States supported the revolution of Fidel and his
buddies, until it became obvious that this new Castro Regime had
some different ideas about how the country would be run. Fidel and
company decided it was time the huge gap between rich and poor be
filled. Probably not since the arrival of the Spaniards had Cuba
experienced such a major change in such a short amount of time.
Literacy programs, nationalization of the businesses, health care
programs, stopping corruption, and a multitude of other programs
were started. To the people who didn't have this stuff before,
life was great! To the people who had been super rich and whose
lovely mansions were now being confiscated and cut up into small
apartments so more people would have homes, it wasn't all that great.
Many
of the rich Cubans left in a rage to live in Miami, swearing that
they would return to overthrow the Castro regime, and reclaim their
mansions and great way of life.
Cuba
was becoming c-o-m-m-u-n-i-s-t.
The
USA tends not to like communist governments. One particular USA
president, John F. Kennedy, said he would help switch the Cuban
government back to something a little more tolerable, although he
wouldn't send American soldiers or air support. Instead, Kennedy's
government helped finance a group of 1,400 angry now-residing-in-Miami
Cubans to sneak via the sea to a beach called Playa Girón, (or Bay
of Pigs in English) where they planned to begin a fight to overthrow
the Castro Regime. Well, Castro somehow knew about this little beach
party, and there at Playa Girón or the Bay of Pigs were 35,000 Cuban
troops, waiting to greet the Miami Cubans and to "assure" them that
they weren't taking over Cuba any time in the future.
Pretty
much all little countries need to have trading partners since, as in
the case of Cuba, men and women cannot live by tobacco and sugar cane
alone. Since the USA had a trade embargo against Cuba, Cuba turned
to the communist regime in the Soviet Union for trade support. Relations
between the USA and Cuba got worse since the USA and the Soviet
Union were bitter enemies at this time.
The
USA was definitely not interested in having an enemy nation just
90 miles off the coast of Florida! The USA certainly was not interested
in a communist neighbor at their back door! In 1962 the Cuban Missile
Crisis occurred when the Soviet Union was threatening to plant nuclear
missiles pointed at the USA on Cuban soil. President Kennedy set
up a naval blockade to stop Soviet ships from delivering supplies
to Cuba, the tension mounted and mounted, and there almost was a
nuclear war but the Soviets backed off at the last minute.
In
the meantime, the popularity of Fidel Castro soared with most of
the Cubans. He was a great speaker and very inspirational and many
people didn't seem to mind that he was becoming sort of a dictator.
He took away the rich people's things, used the resources to provide
free health care and schools for the people. He outlawed racism,
installed a food rationing system that assured everyone had access
to the same nutritious food, gave everyone jobs, etc. On the other
hand, he took away freedom of the press, he put people in prison
who disagreed with his government, he outlawed the Catholic church,
and people could only leave the country with government permission.
As
the years have gone by, there have been many people who have continued
to love Fidel Castro and his regime, and there have always been
many people who have hated it. Fidel Castro is what we call a very
controversial person.
In
1980 Fidel Castro allowed Cubans who wanted to leave Cuba to do
so via the Peruvian Embassy in Havana. About 10,000 chose to leave
this way. Then Fidel opened the Port of Mariel to any Cubans who
wanted to boat to Florida. In the following five months, over 123,000
Cubans chose to go to the United States. Among these people were
over 5,000 hardened criminals and political prisoners. While the
USA has always welcomed Cuba refugees, believing their desire to
leave their communist regime valid, this gigantic wave of both good
and bad Cubans was not exactly what the USA had in mind. Even harder
feelings developed against Castro, who many thought had played a
trick on the USA by sending over the criminals.
In
1991 the heads of state in the Soviet Union announced their nation
was dissolving. This was very hard on the Cuban economy since the
Soviet Union had been an important trading partner over the years
since the revolution. The Castro Regime had to search for new trading
partners throughout the world. Luckily, lots of countries like good
cigars and sugarcane, but these have definitely been tough times
for Cubans.
In
1996, seizing an opportunity to push for the end of the Castro Regime,
the US Congress passed the Helms-Burton Act, which penalized any
company in the world for doing business with Cuba. Because the USA
is such an important trading partner to many countries, it has a
lot of power. "We won't trade with you if you trade with Cuba,"
has kind of a childish ring to it, but, in fact, it has serious
consequences on the well-being of Cubans. The Helms-Burton Act has
been very controversial. Supporters believe that it can help overthrow
the totalitarian regime of Castro, saving the oppressed people there.
Others believe that the USA has no right to impose its beliefs
and trade rules on other nations, and that the people of Cuba
should be allowed to determine their own government. The USA trades
with other communist regimes, why not Cuba?
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Elián]
