A VERY BRIEF HISTORY OF SOME KEY EVENTS IN MODERN CUBAN HISTORY

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1 A VERY BRIEF HISTORY OF SOME KEY EVENTS IN MODERN CUBAN HISTORY February 1898 The Maine explodes A massive explosion of unknown origin sank the battleship USS Maine in Cuba s Havana harbor, killing more than half the 400 American crew members aboard. Ostensibly on a friendly visit, the Maine had been sent to Cuba to protect the interests of Americans there after a rebellion against Spanish rule broke out in Havana in January. Much of Congress and a majority of the American public expressed little doubt that Spain was responsible and called for a declaration of war. (In 1976, a team of American naval investigators concluded that the Maine explosion was likely caused by a fire that ignited its ammunition stocks, not by a Spanish mine or act of sabotage.) April August, 1898 Spanish American War The mysterious explosion that sank the battleship USS Maine in Havana Harbor triggered a war between the United States and Spain. America went to war against Spain to free Cuba from Spanish domination. But the war provided the US an opportunity to seize overseas possessions and begin building an American empire. After ousting Spain from Cuba, the US seized Puerto Rico. And subsequently it annexed the Philippines, Samoa, Guam, and Wake Island, followed by Hawaii. April 1889 The Teller Amendment At the conclusion of the Spanish- American War in 1898, the US controlled several overseas territories, including Cuba. In April 1898, the US Senate adopted an amendment to the American declaration of war against Spain, declaring that the US would not establish permanent control over Cuba. The Teller Amendment asserted that the US "hereby disclaims any disposition of intention to exercise sovereignty, jurisdiction, or control over said island except for pacification thereof, and asserts its determination, when that is accomplished, to leave the government and control of the island to its people." March 1901 The Platt Amendment Nonetheless, the occupation of Cuba by US. troops continued for several years after the war was over. In July 1900, the Constitutional Convention of Cuba started its deliberations and was notified that the US Congress intended to attach an amendment to the Cuban Constitution. Cubans reluctantly incorporated the amendment into their constitution, which essentially made Cuba a protectorate of the US.

2 The Platt Amendment, an unwelcome limitation on Cuban independence, was not abrogated until The new treaty coincided with Roosevelt`s Good Neighbor Policy as well as the declaration that was drawn up at the 7th International Conference of American States in December 1933, according to which no state has the right to intervene in the affairs of another. A notable exception to the policy of giving up America`s exceptional rights in Cuba was the maintenance of its rights at Guantanmo Bay "until the two contracting parties agree to the modification or abrogation of the stipulations of the agreement in regard to the lease to the United States of America for coaling and naval stations..." The US has agreed to no such modifications and has maintained its base at Guantanamo Bay to this day US assumes territorial control of Guantánamo Bay The Cuban American Treaty of Relations of 1903 stipulates that the Republic of Cuba lease to the US specific lands in Cuba, notably the land that surrounds Guantánamo Bay, for the purpose of coaling and naval stations, for as long as necessary. The lease stipulates that the US "shall exercise complete jurisdiction and control", while recognizing "the continuance of the ultimate sovereignty of the Republic of Cuba." The treaty fell short of the original desires of both the United States government and its military cabinet in Cuba. Their aim was to lease a four naval bases located in strategically favorable port areas of Cuba, including Guantánamo Bay. It is the home of the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base and the Guantanamo Bay detention camp located within the base, which are both governed by the US. The government of Cuba regards the U.S. presence in Guantánamo Bay as illegal and insists the Cuban American Treaty was obtained by threat of force and is in violation of international law Fulgencio Batista Fulgencio Batista was the elected President of Cuba from 1940 to 1944, and dictator from 1952 to 1959, before being overthrown during the Cuban Revolution. In 1952, he suspended the Constitution and revoked most political liberties. He aligned with the wealthiest landowners who owned the largest sugar plantations, and presided over a stagnating economy that widened the gap between rich and poor Cubans. Batista's increasingly corrupt and repressive government profited from the exploitation of Cuba's commercial interests by negotiating lucrative relationships with the American mafia, who controlled the drug, gambling, and prostitution businesses in Havana, and with large US- based multinationals who were awarded lucrative contracts. To quell the growing discontent among the populace, Batista established tighter censorship of the media and used his Bureau for the Repression of Communist Activities to carry out wide- scale violence, torture and public executions. Until he fled the country in 1959 with an amassed personal fortune, the Batista government received financial, military,

3 and logistical support from the United States. He found asylum in Salazar s Portugal and died in Spain in th of July Movement Cuba s revolutionaries adopted this name in commemoration of an attack they launched on the Santiago de Cuba army barracks on July 26, The movement began formally in 1955 when Castro went to Mexico to form a disciplined guerrilla force. In early 1957, with Castro back in Cuba fighting in the Sierra Maestra, Civic Resistance groups were organized in the cities, and numerous middle- class and professional persons gravitated toward Castro. In 1958 the movement joined in a Junta of Unity with most other groups opposing Batista. After Castro s victory, the 26th of July Movement was integrated into the Organizaciones Revolucionarias Integradas in Cuban Revolution Fidel Castro led an armed revolt against the U.S.- backed authoritarian government of Cuban President Fulgencio Batista. The revolution began in 1953 and continued sporadically until the rebels finally ousted Batista on 1 January 1959, replacing his government with a revolutionary socialist state. The revolutionary movement later reformed along communist lines, becoming the Communist Party in The Cuban Revolution had powerful domestic and international repercussions. In particular, it reshaped Cuba's relationship with the United States, which still maintains a trade embargo against Cuba as of 2016, although efforts to improve diplomatic relations have gained momentum in recent years. In the immediate aftermath of the revolution, Castro's government began a program of nationalization and political consolidation that transformed Cuba's economy and civil society. October 1960 US Trade Embargo The United States embargo against Cuba (in Cuba called el bloqueo, "the blockade") is a commercial, economic, and financial embargo imposed by the US on Cuba. An embargo was first imposed almost two years after the Batista regime was deposed by the Cuban Revolution.) The US imposed an embargo on exports to Cuba except for food and medicine after Cuba nationalized American- owned Cuban oil refineries without compensation. In 1962 the embargo was extended to include almost all imports. The stated purpose of the Cuban Democracy Act of 1992 is to maintain sanctions on Cuba so long as the Cuban government refuses to move toward "democratization and greater respect for human rights". In 1999, President Bill Clinton expanded the trade embargo by also disallowing foreign subsidiaries of US

4 companies to trade with Cuba. In 2000, Clinton authorized the sale of "humanitarian" US products to Cuba. Despite the Spanish term bloqueo (blockade), there has been no physical, naval blockade of the country by the US after the Cuban Missile Crisis in The US does not block Cuba's trade with other countries. Beyond criticisms of human rights in Cuba, the US holds $6 billion worth of financial claims against the Cuban government. The pro- embargo position is that the U.S. embargo is, in part, an appropriate response to these unaddressed claims. At present, the embargo, which limits American businesses from conducting business with Cuban interests, is still in effect and is the most enduring trade embargo in modern history. Despite the existence of the embargo, the United States is the fifth largest exporter to Cuba (6.6% of Cuba's imports are from the US). However, Cuba must pay cash for all imports, as credit is not allowed. The UN General Assembly has, since 1992, passed a resolution every year condemning the ongoing impact of the embargo and declaring it to be in violation of the Charter of the United Nations and international law. Human rights groups including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the Inter- American Commission on Human Rights have also been critical of the embargo. 1960s Cubans flee + US enacts sanctions An early wave of Cuban emigration occurred in the late 19 th century arising from the establishment of Cuban cigar factories in Tampa and from attempts to overthrow Spanish colonial rule by the movement led by José Martí. There was also economic emigration, particularly during the Great Depression in the 1930s. Massive Cuban migration started after the revolution led by Fidel Castro. Between 1960 and 1962, 119,922 Cubans arrived in the US. They used whatever means were necessary to get out of Cuba. Most came from the educated upper and middle classes and were dissatisfied with the new leadership s political course. During that same period, more than 14,000 Cuban children arrived alone through a clandestine US program code- named "Operation Pedro Pan (Peter Pan). Initially, many sought temporary exile in the US, using it as a base to oppose the Cuban government. But after the exiles realized that Castro s government would not soon fall, many began to take advantage of resettlement assistance offered through the Cuban Refugee Program. They quickly established cultural organizations and became Cuban Americans. The overwhelming majority have settled in South Florida. A four- square- mile area in Miami s southwest section attracted so many Cubans that it garnered the nickname of Little Havana and become the heart of the exile community and a magnet to future Cuban immigrants.

5 The US government attempted to relocate the newcomers throughout the country. The stated objective of the government s resettlement efforts was to lighten the financial burden that the exiles presented to South Florida s strained social institutions. The federal government may have also feared the social and political implications of having a large, increasingly frustrated, and heavily armed exile population concentrated in Miami. Many Cuban exiles wound up in New York, New Jersey, Chicago, Boston, and Washington, D.C. In the 2010 census, 1.8 million people identified as Cuban Americans Soviet Union alliance with Cuba For 32 years, Cuba was nearly totally dependent on the Soviet Union for economic aid. In order for Cuba to receive financial security from Moscow, the Soviet Union demanded that Cuba make certain economic reforms. Cuba reformed its economy and political order to follow the Soviet Union s Marxist Leninist lines specifications. The Soviet Union gained an ally in its Cold War against the US located only 90 miles offshore from Cuba. This alliance led to the most serious confrontation during the Cold War when Soviet and Cuban governments placed nuclear missiles on Cuban soil in January 1961 US ends diplomatic relations Eisenhower closes the American embassy in Havana. This showed that the US was prepared to take extreme measures against Castro s regime Castro becomes a Communist When Castro came to power in 1959, his revolutionary movement did not profess communistic ideology, but only two years later, he announced that he was a Marxist Leninist and would remain so until his death. April 1961 Bay of Pigs President Eisenhower allowed the CIA to organize and Cuban exiles to overthrow Castro. Their plan was to move inland from the Bay of Pigs, gain local support, and cross the island to Havana. But, they were unsuccessful and it was a huge embarrassment to the United States Cuban Refugee Program

6 The Cuban Adjustment Act. The Cuban Refugee provided aid to recently arrived Cuban immigrants. It had begun in 1961 under President Eisenhower in response to the growing number of Cubans fleeing the Castro regime. President John F. Kennedy expanded the program. More than $1.3 billion of direct financial assistance, including income support, Medicare, free English courses, scholarships, and low- interest college loans was provided Cuban Missile Crisis The Cuban Missile Crisis was a 13- day (October 16 28) confrontation between the US and the Soviet Union concerning the deployment of Soviet ballistic missiles in Cuba. Along with being televised worldwide, it was the closest the Cold War came to escalating into a full- scale nuclear war. After viewing the missiles, Kennedy decided to put a naval blockade around Cuba to prevent more supplies from coming into Cuba from the Soviet Union. Many people around the world feared that the crisis would turn into a nuclear conflict. They also feared that it would lead to World War III. In response to the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion of 1961, and the presence of American ballistic missiles in Italy and Turkey against the USSR with Moscow within range, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev decided to agree to Cuba's request to place nuclear missiles in Cuba to deter future harassment of Cuba. After tense negotiations, an agreement was reached between Kennedy and Khrushchev. Publicly, the Soviets would dismantle their offensive weapons in Cuba and return them to the Soviet Union in exchange for a US agreement never to invade Cuba without direct provocation. Secretly, the US also agreed that it would dismantle all of its ballistic missiles in Turkey and Italy, targeted against the Soviet Union but unknown to the public "Marielitos" brought new wave of Cuban immigrants to US The Mariel boatlift was a mass emigration of an estimated 125,000 Cubans, who traveled from Cuba's Mariel Harbor to the US between April and October The boatlift was precipitated by a sharp downturn in the Cuban economy. 1990s and onward Wet Foot Dry Foot Policy Before the 1980s, all refugees from Cuba were welcomed into the US as political refugees. This changed in the 1990s so that only Cubans who reach US soil are granted refuge under the "wet foot, dry foot policy". While representing a tightening of US immigration policy, the wet foot, dry foot policy still affords Cubans a privileged position relative to other immigrants to the US. This privileged position is the source of a certain friction between Cuban Americans and other Latin citizens and residents in the United States, adding to the tension caused by the divergent foreign policy interests pursued by

7 conservative Cuban Americans. Cuban immigration also continues with an allotted number of Cubans (20,000 per year) provided legal US visas Collapse of the Soviet Union After the demise of the Soviet Union in 1991, Cuba lost its source of financial aid and entered an era of economic hardship known as the Special Period in Time of Peace Special Period in Time of Peace An extended period of economic crisis began in 1989 primarily due to the dissolution of the Soviet Union and, by extension, the COMECON. Cuba teetered on the brink of famine. Cubans survived drinking sugared water, and eating anything they could get their hands on, including domestic pets and the animals in the Havana Zoo Elian Gonzalez Affair In 1999, 5- year- old Elián González became the center of international controversy when he was found floating alone on an inner tube near Miami after leaving Castro's Cuba with his mother. Only Elian Gonzalez survived the crossing. In 2000, the custody and immigration status of this young Cuban boy was at the center of a heated controversy involving the governments of Cuba and the United States, González's father, González's other relatives in Miami, Florida, and in Cuba, and Miami's Cuban American community. After months of legal squabbling, endless press coverage, and heated demonstrations in both Miami and Cuba, U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, with the full backing of President Bill Clinton, ordered that Elián's relatives in Miami surrender him to U.S. Department of Justice custody. When they refused, Reno ordered a dramatic and controversial dawn rescue mission that unfolded in the early morning hours when federal agents, armed with submachine guns, forced their way into the Miami home of Lazáro González and seized a terrified Elián. Elián was reunited with his father in Washington DC. They returned to Cuba and were greeted with great fanfare. The González family enjoyed special treatment from the Castro administration. In fact, for many years, Fidel Castro himself attended Elián's birthday parties. Now 23 years old, Elián González is studying to be an industrial engineer Battle of Ideas

8 Fidel Castro was obsessed by the idea that socialism might not survive him. As a result, he launched his last great fight, the Battle of Ideas. Fidel's goal was to reengage Cubans with the ideals of the revolution, especially young Cubans who came of age during the Special Period- a period of greater economic and civil openness in the 1990s. The Battle of Ideas, in a sense, became Cuba's Cultural Revolution, without the same violent intensity. As the Cuban economy began recovering from the worst of the Special Period, it was swept by a vast popular movement against Washington s kidnapping of Elián González. From the gains and momentum of that struggle, Cuba launched The Battle of Ideas to begin pushing back at least the ideological encroachments that capitalism was making on the island. The movement came to an abrupt end when Fidel stepped aside in SEVERAL PEOPLE YOU SHOULD KNOW A LITTLE ABOUT Jose Marti José Julián Martí Pérez ( ) is a Cuban national hero and an important figure in Latin American literature. In his short life, he was a poet, an essayist, a journalist, and revolutionary philosopher. He travelled extensively in Spain, Latin America, and the US, raising awareness and support for the cause of Cuban independence. His unification of the Cuban émigré community, particularly in Florida, was crucial to the success of the Cuban War of Independence against Spain. He was a key figure in the planning and execution of this war, as well as the designer of the Cuban Revolutionary Party and its ideology. He died in military action in 1895.Through his writings and political activity, he became a symbol for Cuba's bid for independence against Spain in the 19th century, and is referred to as the "Apostle of Cuban Independence." Che Guevara Ernesto "Che" Guevara, , was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, guerrilla leader, diplomat, and military theorist. A major figure of the Cuban Revolution, his stylized visage has become a ubiquitous countercultural symbol of rebellion and global insignia in popular culture. As a young medical student, Guevara traveled throughout South America and was radicalized by the poverty, hunger, and disease he witnessed. Later, in Mexico City, he met Raúl and Fidel Castro, joined their 26th of July Movement, and sailed to Cuba aboard the yacht Granma, with the intention of overthrowing US- backed Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. Guevara soon rose to prominence among the insurgents, was promoted to second- in- command, and played a pivotal role in the victorious two- year guerrilla campaign that deposed the Batista regime. Following the Cuban Revolution, Guevara performed a number of key roles in the new government. These included reviewing the appeals and firing squads for those convicted as war criminals during the

9 revolutionary tribunals, instituting agrarian land reform as minister of industries, helping spearhead a successful nationwide literacy campaign, serving as both national bank president and instructional director for Cuba's armed forces, and traversing the globe as a diplomat on behalf of Cuban socialism. Such positions also allowed him to play a central role in training the militia forces who repelled the Bay of Pigs Invasion and bringing the Soviet nuclear- armed ballistic missiles to Cuba which precipitated the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. Additionally, he was a prolific writer and diarist, composing a seminal manual on guerrilla warfare, along with a best- selling memoir about his youthful continental motorcycle journey. Guevara left Cuba in 1965 to foment revolution abroad, first unsuccessfully in Congo- Kinshasa and later in Bolivia, where he was captured by CIA- assisted Bolivian forces and summarily executed. Fidel Castro Fidel Castro was born out of wedlock on a farm in 1926, the son of a prosperous Spanish immigrant and his Cuban- born household servant. Fidel was the leader of the 1959 Cuban Revolution. He governed the Republic of Cuba as its prime minister from 1959 to 1976 and then as its President from 1976 to For the next two years, his younger brother Raul took over in an acting capacity, due to Fidel s poor health. In 2008, Fidel formally handed power to Raul, but, at 89, he still writes and makes an occasional public appearance. President Barack Obama did not meet with Fidel Castro during his historic visit to Cuba last week, but Castro wrote a rebuke of Obama and the visit, decrying the president s call to set aside the countries decades of animosity and look to a common future as neighbors. Despite the US trade embargo and numerous assassination attempts, Fidel Castro has outlived 9 U.S. Presidents. He's the world's longest- serving ruler. Raul Castro Born in 1931, Raúl is the youngest of the three Castro brothers. He has been president of the Council of State of Cuba and the president of the Council of Ministers of Cuba since Raul is considered a more practical reformer than Fidel, although the brothers remain close. After a meeting with Pope Francis in Vatican City in May 2015, Raul said that he is considering returning to the Roman Catholic Church. He said in a televised news conference, "I read all the speeches of the pope, his commentaries, and if the pope continues this way, I will go back to praying and go back to the [Roman Catholic] church. I am not joking." The pope visited Cuba before his September 2015 visit to the US. Raul Castro and Barak Obama met several times during the historic presidential visit in March Although cordial, there was some sparring between the two over historical events and human rights. Now 84, Raul announced in 2013 that he will step down in 2018.

10 Others to look up I ran out of time. Alan Gross Cardinal Jaime Ortega Eusebio Leal