The Cuban Revolution Essay

The Cuban government was not ideal for its people at the time, so they decided to initiate a change. Before Castro’s revolution, Cuba’s economy was highly based on tropical fruits, sugar, and tobacco. During this time, the government of Cuba mainly consisted of wealthy land-owning conservatives. Fidel Castro, a strong liberal who thought the Cuban government was corrupt, decided to bring together a band of two-hundred revolutionaries (Carey, Jr. 15). These revolutionaries attacked the Moncada Military barracks on July 26th, 1953 resulting in a failure that earned both Castro and the revolutionaries a ten-year prison sentence. Two years into his sentence, Castro was exiled to Mexico and began to plot another attempt in Mexico City. After many battles with Cuba’s National Army, Castro’s rebels were able to keep Cuba in a state of turmoil while other rebel groups were able to gain control. Through his actions, he was able to gain the support of the Cuban people who thought he was the logical choice for the new leader (Carey, Jr. 15).

Cuban history, like many other countries in Latin America and the Caribbean which have experienced colonial subjugation and imperial interference, is highlighted by tumultuous rebellions. Ever since the revolt of Carlos Manuel de Cespedes in 1868, who took up arms with his slaves to liberate Cuba from Spain’s colonial grasp, the existence of insurrectionists and adamant government opposition in Cuba has flourished. Social revolution and a strong will and practice of nationalism has indelibly characterized Cuban history. Nevertheless, the outcomes of particular movements and struggles for social justice have consistently frustrated revolutionary and radical leaders. Government regimes throughout

In 1959, Fidel Castro led a group of rebel forces to end and overthrow Fulgencio Batista’s regime in an effort to free the Cuban people from his tyrannous rule. For very many different political reasons this has been portrayed as an act of great injustice and hypocrisy in the modern world. A lot of this has of course been advocated primarily by the US due to the high level of political tension between the two nations that developed in the mid 1950s. Believing this conventional wisdom that Castro was simply an evil communist who oppressed his people and stripped them of their human rights is very dangerous because it

“A call to arms by Francisco Madero, a leader of the prodemocracy forces, united the disparate groups opposed to Diaz which succeeded in overthrowing the Porfirian government and forcing Diaz into exile” (Vanden & Prevost 319).

Methods: This investigation will describe Che Guevara’s involvement in Latin American independence movements, focusing specifically on his involvement with Fidel Castro’s “26th of July” movement. His actions and words will be analyzed, and his conduct this period of political upheaval will be used as evidence in order to answer the investigative question.

The Cuban Revolution began in 1952 when a former army sergeant named Fulgencio Batista seized power during a contested election. Fulgencio was the elected president of Cuba from 1940 to 1944 and dictator from 1952 to 1959. Another one of Cuba’s important men is Fidel Castro. Castro is a Cuban politician and revolutionary who governed the Republic of Cuba. Fidel and his partner Che Guevara were both in charge of the Cuban Revolution, and made the isolated Moncada Barracks his target. Castro estimated the trip would take 5 days. However, due to engine problems, him and his men arrived late in broad daylight. On the morning of July 23, 1953, Castro made his move, but he needed weapons, and he got them. 138 men attacked the Moncada at dawn, many were captured.

Castro had formed a revolutionary group called “The Movement”, as well as publishing a paper called El Acusador (The Accuser). Starting July 1952, Fidel and his revolutionaries went on a recruitment drive, gaining about 1,200 members a year. On July 26th, 1953, Castro and 160 of his revolutionaries led an attack on the Moncada Barracks in Santiago. The attack failed miserably and the revolutionaries were forced to retreat into the mountains. Another attack was being carried out on a civilian hospital, which was stormed by soldiers soon thereafter. The 22 rebels that carried out the attack were rounded up, tortured, and

In July 1953, Fidel Castro attempted to attack an army in Santiago de Cuba. Castro’s plan of assault backfired, his punishment was a 15 year sentence in jail. Two years later, after being captured, Fidel got released but ended up in Mexico. In Mexico, Castro met a revolutionary named Ernesto Guevara. Guevara helped Castro to plan his return to Cuba.

However, what came to pass the morning of July 26, 1953 was nothing short of a disaster. In the span of mere hours, Castro had not only lost the battle, but most of his friends and fellow soldiers as well. Even though the attack was a failure, Castro still reached his original goal. The flame of revolution was growing quickly In Castro’s heart, and

Before the revolution began, Che met with Fidel Castro in Mexico in 1955. During this meeting, Che seemed uninterested and reluctant about joining the 26th of July Movement at first, asking Castro if he “has a boat and fighters” (Che: Part One, Soderbergh). During this same conversation, Castro asks Che, “Do you think I’m

The most popular of Fidel Castro’s documents is La Historia Me Absolvera also known as History Will Absolve Me. This was a speech given by Castro at his trial for leading an attack on the Moncada Barracks. Castro’s speech discussed many of his ideas and beliefs that justified his reasoning to form his revolutionary movement against Fulgencio Batista. History Will Absolve Me, shows the revolutionary ideologies of Castro and how he later revolts to power. Although, his speech was about his thought on the revolutionary movement, it also was to show the foundation of his Moncada attack and what he was trying to achieve. Castro mentions in

Castro intended on helping Cuba’s high poverty, but Castro did not turn Cuba into a democracy like he said he would (“Cuban missile Crisis”2). In 1960 the soviet premier attempted to convince Castro to become communist, soon after this castro became communist, probably influenced by the soviet premier (“Cuban missile Crisis”3). A new american president, that could probably change the war, was coming into office around this time, President Kennedy. The new president would take on the problem of this new cuban leader (International Encyclopedia of the… 1). Before him, Eisenhower trained about 1,500 Cuban Exiles in secret to try to take over Cuba, Kennedy allowed this to go on. On april 17, the exils attempted to invade Cuba(“Cuban missile Crisis”3). Since Castro had found out about the invasion, he was ready and defeated the the incoming force easily(“Cuban missile Crisis”3-4). The failed invasion seemed to help the Cuban opinion of Castro. He was now an obvious threat and so the U.S. decided to start operation Mongoose. Operation Mongoose was a secret operation to get rid of Castro, it was an operation where the U.S. would try to sabotage Cuba, but Operation Mongoose never ended up happening. The U.S.S.R. did not want to lose Cuba so they decided to secretly send weapons into Cuba, including nuclear weapons (“Cuban missile Crisis”4). These arm shipments would lead to one of the

On July 26th, 1953, Fidel Castro led one hundred and twenty nine men and two women in a daring assault against the Moncada army Barracks in Santiago de Cuba to overthrow the government of Fulgencio Batista. Fidel Castro’s plan to overthrow the government of Fulgencio Batista resulted in eight deaths, twelve wounded and more than sixty Cubans were taken prisoner to be tortured and then executed.

Cuban exiles were trained to land on the south shore of Cuba and raise the Cuban population in an overthrow of his regime, but the plan went horribly wrong (Bay of Pigs). Not only did the bombers meant to cripple the Cuban air force miss many of their targets, but also the Cuban population then failed to insurrect against their government. Castro, having already garnered intelligence of the exiles’ training camps years earlier, ordered troops to advance on the exiles at the beach, and Kennedy made the decision to cancel air support in an attempt to disguise

Like the much used stencil of Guevara's determined visage, the general perception of his life is flat and two-dimensional. No where more so, it seems, then in the country richest in Guevara's history, Cuba. An article printed July 21st 1997 in Newsweek, entitled 'Return Of The Rebel', explored Cuban society in the wake of the long-awaited discovery of Guevara's skeleton in Bolivian town of Vallegrande. In it journalist Brook Lamer explains how 'the Cuban Government played a pivotal role in creating the Che mystique, and it is not about to let its franchise slip away'[2].