РефератыИностранный языкCaCastro Rise The Power Essay Research Paper

Castro Rise The Power Essay Research Paper

Castro Rise The Power Essay, Research Paper


Castro Rise The Power


Dr. Fidel Castro Ruz became involved with political protests as a young


student. After Batista s coup in 1952, he went to court and tried to have


the Batista dictatorship declared illegal. However, his attempt to


peacefully bring down the Batista government did not work, and so in 1953,


Castro turned toward violent means. On July 26, 1953, Castro led a group of


men to attack the Moncada military fortress. However, his little rebellion


was immediately crushed by the Batista army. In fact, the Roman Catholic


archbishop of Santiago had to make the government promise that the rebels


would live, if they would stop fighting and come down from the mountains.


Sure enough, the government kept its promise and Fidel Castro and his


followers were sentenced to three years of imprisonment. Batista, in order


to gain some popular support, released them after a few months.


Castro s rebellion failed, it sparked hopes of revolution everywhere in


Cuba. After a few years of exile in Mexico, Castro and a small band of about


eighty-five men returned to Cuba in December of 1956. Many of the men


perished during the initial landing, but a small group including Fidel


Castro and an Argentinian Marxist Ernesto “Che” Guevara, survived and went


into the mountains. During the next two years, Castro and Guevara fought the


Batista army continuously in small guerrilla wars. They called themselves


the Twenty-sixth of July Movement, after the earlier unsuccessful raid on


the Moncada barracks. Their group gained in numbers and popularity among


Cubans as the desire for political change in Cuba increased. Castro promised


sweeping changes including free elections, non-corrupt government, land,


improved educational systems, jobs and health care for all. Castro became


sort of like a Robin Hood for Cuba and many flocked to his banner. The final


blow to the Batista regime came when the United States withdrew its support


as Batista was falling from power. Seeing that a full scale war against him


was inevitable, Batista fled the country with his family and close friends


to the Dominican Republic. On January 8, 1959, the revolutionary forces


marched into Havana unopposed.


Tension between Cuba and the United States


Tension between Cuba and the United States increased dramatically after the


Castro takeover. The main reason was that Castro and Guevara were leading


Cuba toward communism. As a part of the sweeping reforms that Castro had


promise, he took all estates larger than one thousand acres and nationalized


it, meaning that it was made the property of the government. Most of the


seized land, including over 2 1/4 million acres owned by U.S. investors,


were made into large state-owned farms. The lost of sugar mills, banks,


hotels, utility companies, etc. totaled about $2 billion. By then, it became


clear that Castro was leading Cuba toward communism instead of his promise


toward democracy. This conclusion was further bolstered when the USSR signed


their first trade agreement with Cuba in February of 1960. Finally, in


January of 1961, only two years after the fall of Batista, the United States


severed diplomatic relations with Cuba and imposed an unilateral trade


embargo against the island country.


Even before the United States broke relations with Cuba, there had already


been plans made against the Castro regime. The U.S. supported Operation


Pluto, the secret name of an invasion on Cuba, in hopes of overthrowing


Fidel Castro. The Bay of Pigs Incident, as it was later known as, began on


April 15, 1961 with air raids on Cuba. Two days later, 1,500 U.S. trained


Cuban exiles landed on Cuba with weapons supplied by the United States. At


the time, the U.S. government was convinced that the Cuban people would join


the invading forces once they land and that the Castro army would disband.


However, this assumption was fatally wrong. The landing party were defeated


with forty-eight hours. About 120 people died and more than 1,200 captured.


The U.S. government had to pay $50 million in food and medical supplies to


ransom them.


The tension between Cuba and the U.S. grew to a climax during the Cuban


Missile Crisis of 1962. After the Bay of Pigs Invasion, Castro openly


admitted that he was committed to communism. “I am a Marxist-Leninist and


will be a Marxist-Leninist until the day I die,” he declared. In the summer


of 1962, U.S. spy planes saw that Cuba was receiving large amounts of


military equilpment from the Soviet Union. Photographs revealed that the


Soviets were building missile installations within Cuba. The U.S. felt


threatened because the missiles had a range of 1,000 miles and they were


capable of carrying nuclear warheads. With a nuclear threat only 90 miles


off the coast of Florida, President John F. Kennedy warned Americans of the


danger of a nuclear war. He further demanded that the Soviet Union dismantle


the missile installations or risk retaliation from the United States. Tw

o


days later, on October 26, Premier Nikita Khrushchev of the USSR stepped


back and accepted the demands, effectively bring the world back from the


brink of nuclear destruction.


The hostility between the two counties continuous today. U.S. citizens are


not permitted to travel to Cuba. The unilateral trade embargo of Cuba is


still effective. While the rest of the world has moved on to a policy of


engagement with Cuba, the United States is still stuck in the Cold War mode


trying to isolate the island nation. The most recent legislation against


Cuba is the so called Helms-Burton Law, which punishes third-country


businesses that invest in Cuba. Most businesses are unimpressed by the


threat, the opposite, they are very angry. Most businesses acknowledge that


Helms-Burton Law will probably slow investment in Cuba, but more investment


will continue as long as profits can be made. Even our allies, such as


Canada and Mexico have expressed deep regret in the passage of the


Helms-Burton legislation. So while the rest of the world move on and look to


the future, U.S.-Cuban relations continue to deteriorate.


The Cuban Economy


The Cuban revolution actually improved the standard of living from that of


pre-Castro times. When Fidel Castro took over, he guaranteed free education


and health care to all Cubans. In fact, Cuba s education is free at every


level, from elementary schools to the universities. It has the highest


education budget in all of Latin America, and literacy rate is virtually


100% in Cuba. Much of this was possible due to Soviet help. Cuba aligned


itself with the Soviet Bloc as Castro committed Cuba to communism. With


that, the USSR bought Cuban sugar at a highly inflated price. A ton of


sugar, which has the equivalent value of 1.4 tons of oil, was being bought


by the Soviet Union at the price of eight tons of oil to one ton of sugar.


The subsidy effectively pumped $5.7 billion into the island economy


annually.


However, due to mismanagement and inefficiencies, unemployment went up


during the 1970s. In 1980, 125,000 Cubans fled from Cuba to Florida, seeking


for a better life. As the Soviet Union itself declined, Cuba s economy


plunged with it. In 1987, domestic production declined 3.2% from the year


before. When the Soviet Union broke up in 1989, Cuba lost its much needed


economic support from the former Soviet Bloc. Castro himself admitted,


“[Cuba] have lost 70 percent of its purchasing power” after the breakup of


the Soviet Union.


The free fall of the economy finally stopped in 1995 after numerous economic


reforms. In 1993, Castro did something that was unthinkable, he let Cubans


to own and spend dollars and hold dollar denominated back accounts. In 1994,


Castro authorized Cubans to own small private businesses, a departure from


his policy of state controlled economy. But the most important reform


happened in 1995 when foreign investors were allowed to own Cuban


enterprises outright, not just in tourism, but in basically all sectors of


the economy. These reforms generated much needed foreign investment which


total about $5 billion as of 1996. While this money is not nearly enough to


make a significant difference in the Cuban economy, it has helped the


economy to rebound. After a decline of about 40% between 1989 to 1994, the


economy grew 2.5% in 1995. The price of the dollar dropped from 125 pesos to


25 pesos in mid-1994. Clearly, these reforms represent steps toward a market


economy, and as the desire for improved living standards increase, the Cuban


economy will undoubtably continue to open up.


Road To Political Change


Fidel Castro keeps a tight grip of the political scene in Cuba. The


Communist Party is the only legal party in Cuba. There are no opposition


parties or any kind of official political opposition. Fidel Castro, being


the President, basically have a monopoly of power in Cuba. Every decision


must go through him in order to be valid. Cubans have enjoyed free municipal


elections since the 1970s. The election is done by secret ballot, and


remarkable, you do not have to be a member of the Communist Party to run.


Yet these local elections do not affect anything on the national level.


National and international issues are handled by the National Assembly. In


the National Assembly, the equivalent of the American Congress, members are


appointed instead of elected.


However, the political grip loosened in 1993 when for the first time,


members of the National Assembly were elected by popular vote. The elections


were tightly controlled and only one candidate could vie for each seat.


Although as an election, this was a farce, it the high voter turnout rate


shows that Cubans were eager to legitimize the government s attempt at


reforms. This eagerness shows that Cubans are ready for political change and


they are willing to take an active role in making this happen. As more


economic reforms improve the economy, pressure for political change will


increase.

Сохранить в соц. сетях:
Обсуждение:
comments powered by Disqus

Название реферата: Castro Rise The Power Essay Research Paper

Слов:1792
Символов:11940
Размер:23.32 Кб.