The

Where is Cuba?

• Fulgencio Batista was the president of Cuba form 1933 to 1944, and after

overthrowing the government, becomes the dictator of Cuba from 1952 to

1959.

• Batista was a corrupt and repressive dictator, but he was pro-American

and helped U.S. companies. American businesses and wealthy individuals

owned almost half of Cuba’s sugar plantations and the majority of its

cattle ranches, mines and utilities. He was also reliably anticommunist.

• Cuban citizens were unhappy with Batista’s rule. Civil liberties were

revoked, poverty increased, education and healthcare declined.

• Revolutionaries led by Fidel Castro began to rise up against the government.

• In 1953, Fidel Castro and 150 revolutionaries try to overthrow the government. Castro arrested and sentenced to 15 years. He was released in 1955.

• In 1959, Castro and his men drove Batista out of Havana and took over the government.

• Castro seized absolute power and

made himself dictator of Cuba.

• The US originally supported

Castro because he promised to

make Cuba a democracy

• Castro turned Cuba into a

Communist country and formed

an alliance with the Soviet

Union.

• The U.S. and the Soviet Union

were enemies fighting a cold war

at that time.

• Castro promised his people that he would:

• end American influence over Cuban businesses

• re-distribute the wealthevenly to all Cubans

• make every Cuban literate

• Give all Cubans healthcare

• All property in Cuba that Americans owned was taken over

and now belonged to the Cuban government.

• Cubans no longer had the right to protest against the

government.

• Cuban newspapers, radio, & TV were shut down and the

government owned and controlled all media.

• US didn’t like having a neighboring country that

was communist.

• US didn’t like Cuba having ties with the Soviet

Union.

• US didn’t like that Americans who owned land

and businesses in Cuba lost their property.

Cuba and the Soviet Union become allies

• In May 1960, Castro forms an alliance with the Soviet Union

• The United States responded by placing and embargo on sugar. Exports of sugar to the U.S. made up 80% of the country’s total sugar exports.

• To prevent the Cuba’s economy from collapsing, the USSR (Soviet Union) agreed to buy the sugar.

The CIA of the U.S. funded an invasion of Cuba to overthrow Castro’s government. They trained Cuban exiles (people who left Cuba because they supported or worked for the Cuban government when it was led by Batista). The U.S. didn’t want to be directly connected to the attack. They hoped it would spark an anti-revolutionary revolt in Cuba.

On April 15, 1961, a group of Cuban exiles took off from Nicaragua and conducted a strike against Cuban airfields. However, it turned out that Castro and his advisers knew about the raid and had moved his planes out of harm’s way. On April 17, the Cuban exile brigade began its invasion. They failed horribly and the battle was over in less than 3 days.

114 were killed and over 1,000 were taken prisoner.

• US planes spotted secret

Soviet missile bases in Cuba.

• This was an extremely

TENSE time (during the Cold

War) that could have led to

WWIII

• U.S. agreed not to invade

Cuba and to remove US

missiles from Turkey

• Soviet Union agreed to

remove the missiles from

Cuba.

• The U.S. ban sugar imports from Cuba in 1960

after Cuba established relations with the USSR.

• In 1962, the U.S. extended the embargo to

include almost all products coming out of Cuba.

An embargo is when a country decides not to

trade with another country.

• The embargo is still in effect today.

• Cuba’s economy has really suffered because of

the embargo and other factors, like poor

harvests, and poor government planning.

Photo: President John F. Kennedy signs the embargo legislation.

• There is still an embargo

on Cuba today.

• Large numbers of

Cubans escape oppressive

conditions in Cuba to

find freedom in the U.S.

• After a decline in health,

Fidel Castro gave up the

Cuban presidency

• His brother, Raul Castro,

is now the Cuban dictator.

• Fidel Castro died in 2016.