The political career of Fidel Castro saw the country of Cuba undergo significant economic, political, and social changes. In the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro and an associated group of revolutionaries toppled the ruling government of Fulgencio Batista, forcing Batista out of power on 1 January 1959. Castro, who had already been an important figure in Cuban society, went on to serve as prime minister from 1959 to 1976. He was also the first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, the most senior position in the communist state, from 1961 to 2011. In 1976, Castro officially became president of the Council of State and president of the Council of Ministers. He retained the title until 2008, when the presidency was transferred to his brother, Raúl Castro, who was vice president. Fidel Castro remained the first secretary of the Communist Party until 2011.
Fidel Castro's government was officially atheist from 1962 until 1992. Cuba attained international prominence under Fidel Castro's rule for a number of reasons, including his staunch belief in communism, his criticisms of other international figures, and the economic and social changes that were initiated. Castro's Cuba became a key element within the Cold War struggle between the United States and its allies versus the Soviet Union and its allies. Castro's desire to take the offensive against capitalism and spread communist revolution ultimately led to the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias – FAR) fighting in Africa, South America and the Middle East. His aim was to create many Vietnams, reasoning that American troops bogged down throughout the world could not fight any single insurgency effectively, a position Che Guevara had advocated in the 1960s.Message to the Tricontinental (1967) A letter sent by Che Guevara from his jungle camp in Bolivia, to the Tricontinental Conference 1966, published by the Executive Secretariat of the Organization of Solidarity with the People of Asia, Africa and Latin America (OSPAAAL), Havana, 16 April 1967. An estimated 7,000–11,000 Cubans died in conflicts in Africa.
Castro died of natural causes in late 2016 at Havana. Castro's ideas continue to be the primary foundation and manner in which the Cuban government functions to this day.
Premiership (1959–1976) Consolidating rule (1959)
On February 16, 1959, Castro was sworn in as prime minister, and accepted the position on the condition that the prime minister's powers be increased.; . Between 15 and 26 April, Castro visited the U.S. with a delegation of representatives, hired a public relations firm for a charm offensive, and presented himself as a "man of the people". U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower avoided meeting Castro; he was instead met by Vice President Richard Nixon, a man Castro instantly disliked.; ; . Proceeding to Canada, Trinidad, Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina, Castro attended an economic conference in Buenos Aires. He unsuccessfully proposed a $30 billion U.S.-funded "Marshall Plan" for the whole region of Latin America.; ; .
After appointing himself president of the National Institute of Agrarian Reform (Instituto Nacional de Reforma Agraria - INRA), on 17 May 1959, Castro signed into law the First Agrarian Reform, heavily influenced by Che Guevara, which limited landholdings to per owner. He additionally forbade further foreign land-ownership. Large land-holdings (formerly mostly US-owned) were broken up and redistributed; an estimated 200,000 peasants received title deeds. However, the private ownership by the peasants was largely fictitious, as the new farms were largely ran by the state. To Castro, this was an important step that broke the control of the well-off landowning class over Cuba's agriculture.;
Castro appointed himself president of the National Tourist Industry as well. He introduced unsuccessful measures to encourage African-American tourists to visit, advertising it as a tropical paradise free of racial discrimination.. Changes to state wages were implemented; judges and politicians had their pay reduced while low-level civil servants saw theirs raised.. In March 1959, Castro ordered rents for those who paid less than $100 a month halved, with measures implemented to increase the Cuban people's purchasing powers. Productivity decreased, and the country's financial reserves were drained within only two years.. In 1960 the Urban Reform Law was passed, guaranteeing that no household would pay more than 10% of its income in rent.Ley de Reforma Urbana 1960 (Cuba) in Stuart Grider, “A Proposal for the Marketization of Housing in Cuba: The Limited Equity Housing Corporation: A New Form of Property,” The University of Miami Inter-American Law Review 27, no. 3 (Spring-Summer 1996): 473, https://www.jstor.org/stable/40176383?seq=21. Those who were retired, sick, or below the poverty line paid less than 10% or nothing.Roberto Veiga, “Informe Central del XXXIV Consejo Nacional de la CTC,” Granma 11, no. 31 (1975): 5 in Carmelo Mesa-Lago, "The Economy of Socialist Cuba", 172. Private landlords were abolished as tenants and subtenants gained titles to their residences. These reduced rents were to be paid to the state over a period of 5 to 20 years, after which the renters would become homeowners; the state was supposed to turn over this income to the former landlords as compensation, but there is disagreement as to how often it did.Grider, “A Proposal for the Marketization of Housing in Cuba,” 472; Jill Hamberg, Under Construction: Housing Policy in Revolutionary Cuba (New York: Center for Cuban Studies, 1986), 31, note 9. In the 1970s, plans to abolish rents altogether were reversed, but nonetheless, by 1972 just 8% of families were paying any rent.Ley de Reforma Urbana 1960 in Grider, “A Proposal for the Marketization of Housing in Cuba,” 472; Banco Nacional de Cuba, Desarrollo y perspectivas de la economía cubana (Havana: Banco Nacional de Cuba, 1975), 104 in Mesa-Lago, Economy of Socialist Cuba, 172; Louis A. Pérez, Cuba: Between Reform and Revolution, 280.
Although he refused to initially categorize his regime as 'socialist' and repeatedly denied specifically being a 'communist', Castro appointed advocates of Marxism-Leninism to senior government and military positions. Most notably, Che Guevara became governor of the Central Bank and then minister of industries. Appalled, Air Force commander Pedro Luis Díaz Lanz defected to the U.S.; ; . Although President Urrutia denounced the defection, he publicly expressed concern with the rising influence of Marxism. Angered, Castro announced his resignation as prime minister, blaming Urrutia for complicating government with his "fevered anti-Communism". Over 500,000 Castro-supporters surrounded the Presidential Palace demanding Urrutia's resignation, which was duly received. On July 23, Castro resumed his Premiership and appointed the Marxist Osvaldo Dorticós as the new president.; ; .
Castro used radio and television to develop a "dialogue with the people", posing questions and making provocative statements.. His regime remained popular with workers, peasants and students, who constituted the majority of the country's population,; . while opposition came primarily from the middle class. Thousands of doctors, engineers, and other professionals emigrated to the U.S. (mostly Florida), causing an economic brain drain.; .
Castro's government cracked down on opponents and arrested hundreds of counter-revolutionaries, many of whom were executed.; . Castro's government was characterized by the use of psychological torture, subjecting prisoners to solitary confinement, rough treatment, and threatening behavior.. Militant anti-Castro groups, funded by exiles, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and Rafael Trujillo's Dominican government, undertook armed attacks and set up guerrilla bases in Cuba's mountainous regions. This led to a six-year Escambray Rebellion that lasted longer and involved more soldiers than the revolution. The government won with superior numbers and executed those who surrendered.; ; .
After conservative editors and journalists expressed hostility towards the government, the pro-Castro printers' trade union disrupted editorial staff. In January 1960, the government proclaimed that each newspaper would be obliged to publish a "clarification" written by the printers' union at the end of any articles critical of the government; thus began press censorship in Castro's Cuba.; .
Castro feared a U.S.-backed coup and in 1959 spent $120 million on Soviet, French, and Belgian weaponry. Intent on constructing the largest army in Latin America, by early 1960 the government had doubled the size of the Cuban armed forces.; . Fearing counter-revolutionary elements in the army, the government created a People's Militia to arm citizens favorable to the revolution, and trained at least 50,000 supporters in combat techniques.; . In September 1960, they created the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR), a nationwide civilian organization which implemented neighborhood spying to weed out "counter-revolutionary" activities and could support the army in the case of invasion. They also organized health and education campaigns, and were a conduit for public complaints. Eventually, 80% of Cuba's population would be involved in the CDR.; ; . Castro proclaimed the new administration a direct democracy, in which the Cuban populace could assemble en masse at demonstrations and express their democratic will. As a result, he rejected the need for elections, claiming that representative democratic systems served the interests of socio-economic elites.Quirk 1993. p. 313. In contrast, critics condemned the new regime as un-democratic. The U.S. Secretary of State Christian Herter announced that Cuba was adopting the Soviet model of communist rule, with a one-party state, government control of trade unions, suppression of civil liberties, and the absence of freedoms of speech and press..
Soviet support and U.S. opposition (1960) By 1960, the Cold War raged between two superpowers: the United States, a capitalist liberal democracy, and the Soviet Union (USSR), a Marxist-Leninist socialist state ruled by the Communist Party. Expressing contempt for the U.S., Castro shared the ideological views of the USSR, establishing relations with several Marxist-Leninist states.; . The first Soviet official to visit Cuba (other than intelligence officers) was first deputy premier Anastas Mikoyan in February 1960, who struck a deal with Castro to trade Cuban sugar, fruit, fibers, and hides in return for crude oil, fertilizers, industrial goods, and a $100 million loan.; ; . Cuba's government ordered the country's refineries – then controlled by the U.S. corporations Shell, Esso, and Standard Oil – to process Soviet oil, but under pressure from the U.S. government, they refused. Castro responded by expropriating and nationalizing the refineries. In retaliation, the U.S. cancelled its import of Cuban sugar, provoking Castro to nationalize most U.S.-owned assets on the island, including banks and sugar mills, having already expropriated large land holdings the year before.; ; .
Relations between Cuba and the U.S. were further strained following the explosion of the Le Coubre, a French vessel carrying weapons purchased from Belgium, in Havana harbor in March 1960. The cause of the explosion was never determined, but Castro publicly insinuated that the U.S. government was guilty of sabotage.; ; .
Inspired by their earlier success with the 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état, on 17 March 1960, U.S. President Eisenhower secretly authorized the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to develop a plan to overthrow Castro's government. He provided them with a budget of $13 million and permitted them to ally with the Mafia, who were aggrieved that Castro's government closed down their businesses in Cuba.; ; .