Cuba was a Spanish Colony One of the wealthiest in Latin America Economy based on Sugar exports to US and Europe

1. The Cuban Revolution

2. “”He who has money smokes cigars But who has no money smokes
paper."
A good Cuban cigar closes the door to the vulgarities of the world.".

3. • In the 1600’s, Spain colonized Cuba,
establishing their dominance in the
Caribbean

4. Background
• Cuba was a Spanish Colony
• One of the wealthiest in Latin America
• Economy based on Sugar exports to US
and Europe
• Spanish controlled the nation politically,
economically and socially
• Large underclass of Blacks (descendants
of Slaves) and poor mestizos

5. • In 1868,Cubans began their series of
revolutions against Spain
• With the help of the United States, Cuba
became powerful enough to defend their
independence.
• By the early 1900’s US still had strong
influence in Cuba
• The Cubans became autonomous and had
their fair share of corrupt presidents and
dictators.

6. 1823 Monroe Doctrine
• President James Monroe announced in 1823 that the
United States would consider any attempt by European
powers to extend their "system" to this hemisphere "as
dangerous to our peace and safety."
• The President's unilateral statement gained increasing
acceptance as the United States grew stronger, and in the
last century has served as a basic precept in this country's
hemispheric policies.

7. Hands-Off, Old World
• Monroe's policy came to be considered a
permanent "doctrine" at the turn of the
century.
• Secretary of State Richard Olney referred
to it in 1895 when he declared that the
United States was "practically sovereign on
this continent."

8. Americans in Cuba /1895
• In that same year, a rebel Cuban junta, directed by Thomas
Estrada Palma, an exile in New York, received United
States sympathy in its efforts to incite a revolt against the
Spanish in Cuba.
• In 1898, the doctrine was invoked as one of the
justifications for the Spanish-American war and United
States occupation of Cuba, following the blowing up of the
battleship Maine in Havana Harbour.
• The occupation lasted until 1902, when the Republic of
Cuba was formed.

9. Americans in Cuba
• In 1904, President Theodore Roosevelt added what was
known as the "Roosevelt Corollary" to the Monroe
Doctrine.
• He proclaimed that the United States would act as a
"police power" to force Latin-American republics to
honour their obligations to foreign-principally United
States-investors.
• In the years that followed, United States Marines
intervened in Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Cuba and
Haiti.

10. Americans in Cuba
• In 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt
repudiated the practice of intervention and
instituted a "Good Neighbor" policy of
mutual cooperation.

11. A Very Brief Summary of Cuba
• Cuba was originally ruled by Spain until a treaty in 1902
due to a war and United States intervention in the Spanish-
American War. The same year, Cuba became an
independent state on paper. However, US occupation
continued and applied the highly unpopular Platt
Amendment.
• However, Cuba has a history of rebellions, coups, corrupt
elections, and overthrows. Between 1902-1959 (57 years),
Cuba experienced 4 changes in leader through the methods
mentioned.
• Cuba is largely an agricultural economy. It’s top two
exports are sugar and nickel. It has a population of about
11,000,000 people.

13. Cuba is an island
nation located 90
miles south of
Florida

14. Background
 Independence Movement
against Spain developed
 Jose Marti was intellectual
leader
 Arrested in 1868 revolt
against Spain when he was
16
 Killed by Spanish troops in
1895
 National Liberation Army
fought on—Afro-Cubans
and Women played
important roles

15. Spanish-American War
• United States becomes involved as conditions
worsen—concentration camps established by
Spanish leader in Cuba (Valeriano Wyler)
• US had long been interested in Cuba: 90 miles
from Florida, Sugar grower, strategic location in
the Caribbean
• US businesses in Cuba unhappy with growing
violence

16. Spanish-American War
• After USS Maine blows up in Havana, US
invades
• Goal is to “liberate” Cuban people from the
Spanish
• In reality it was more complex—maintain
control over the island, secure business
opportunities for US companies
• Many Cubans not happy with US entry—feared
US taking control of the island
• US defeats Spain—Cuban forces relegated to
minor role

17. Spanish-American War
• US occupies Cuba 1899-1902
• US helped to write new Cuban
Constitution modeled on US version
• Platt Amendment was added—Gave US
the right to intervene in Cuban Affairs,
also Guantanamo Bay became US Naval
base

18. Post War
• US sent troops several times from 1902-
1953
• Huge US investment in Sugar ($200
Million by 1913)
• 1/5th
of all US investment in Latin
America at the time

19. Post Independence
• Social structure was maintained
• Afro-Cubans were fearful of White Cubans—it
was reinforced by US military presence
• Upper classes were white, Criollos
• Lower classes were mestizos, Afro-Cubans
• Music reflected the cultural differences
between the groups
• Danzon( the official musical genre and dance
of Cuba) was favored by the upper classes--
traditional, based on French Contredans

20. Post-Independence
• Lower classes developed the Son--a
musical style thought of as vulgar by the
elites
• Rumba was the dance
• Became the musical backbone of Cuba

21. Machado 1925-1933
• Gerardo Machado wins elections in 1925
• Starts off making reforms
• But his rule developed into a tyranny--
political assassinations, strikes put down
violently

22. Attempted Revolution of
1933
• 200,000 sugar workers led an
uprising in 1933
• In the chaos, a group of military
leaders took control
• Led by Fulgencio Batista
• He continued to rule behind the
scenes in Cuba until 1952

23. Batista
• Took over in a coup in 1952
• Pro-US
• Anti labor
• Cuban Elites liked Batista
• Most Cubans did not
• Was a dictator
• Maintained social system, economic dependence on Sugar,
strong ties to US
• This was the time that Havana was the “hot” spot for US
tourists--night clubs, gambling
• Playground for rich playboys

24. More on Batista
• He was called El Hombre, "the Man," and
for three decades he was one of Cuba's
most controversial leaders.
• It would take Fidel Castro and the Cuban
revolution to unseat him.

25. Humble Origins
• Fulgencio Batista Zaldívar was born in
Cuba's Oriente province on January 16,
1901, in Banes, only miles away from the
Castro family plantation, Las Manacas.
• A mulatto of humble origins, he joined
the army as a private, and in 1932 he
became a military tribunal stenographer
with the rank of sergeant.

26. Strong Man
• The villain of pre-Castro Cuba, Batista began his political
career as a hero.
• As a young sergeant in 1933, he led non-commissioned
officers in a rebellion against dictator Gerardo Machado in
alliance with students and labor leaders.
• Later, he conspired with the U.S. ambassador, Sumner
Welles, to force the resignation of provisional president
Ramón Grau San Martín.
• By then a colonel, Batista became the strongman behind a
succession of puppet presidents until he was elected
president himself in 1940.

27. Coalition Builder
• Under Batista's rule a new constitution was
drafted which was, by all standards, a
progressive document.
• It called for government intervention in the
economy and provided a social safety net.
• In the late 1930s Batista legalized the Cuban
Communist Party (P.S.P.).
• In 1940, taking advantage of the P.S.P.'s ability
to keep labour in check, he brought the party
into his government.

28. Retiree
• In 1944 Batista, respecting the electorate's
choice of the opposition coalition, stepped
aside and the same man he had deposed
in 1933, Ramón Grau, became president.
Batista left Cuba to live in Daytona Beach,
Florida

29. Power Grabber
• For the next eight years, Cuba's Partido Auténtico presided over
corruption and irresponsibility in government.
• Corruption had been widespread since 1902, but the public was shocked
that the "pure" revolutionaries of 1933 -- Grau, then Carlos Prio --
participated in it.
• But democracy survived.
• As new elections approached in 1952, Batista saw an opportunity to
return to government, running for the presidency, alongside the
Auténticos and the Ortodoxos, the party to which Fidel Castro belonged.
• As election day approached, Batista was a distant third. Then, on March
10, 1952, he seized the government in a coup d'etat -- taking by force what
Cuban voters were about to deny him

30. Status Seeker
• Batista's return to power did not herald a return to
progressivism. He became obsessed with gaining the acceptance
of Cuba's upper classes, who had denied him membership into
their exclusive social clubs.
• Increasingly, his energies were devoted to amassing an even
greater fortune.
• Batista opened Havana to large scale gambling, announcing that
his government would match, dollar for dollar, any hotel
investment over $1 million, which would include a casino
license.
• American mobster Meyer Lansky placed himself at the center of
Cuba's gambling operation.
• At the same time, Batista sponsored massive construction
projects -- the Havana-Varadero highway, the Rancho Boyeros
airport, train lines, an underwater tunnel.

31. Brutal and Unpopular
• As he delayed plans to step down from office, Batista
faced growing opposition, and eventually, a popular
challenge.
• In the wake of Fidel Castro's Moncada assault, in 1953,
Batista suspended constitutional guarantees and
increasingly relied on police tactics in an attempt to
frighten the population through open displays of
brutality.
• Though he made some political concessions between 1954
and 1956 -- lifting press censorship, releasing political
prisoners (including Fidel Castro and his brother Raul),
allowing exiles to return -- his unpopularity continued to
grow.

32. Instability
• As popular unrest in Cuba intensified,
Batista's police proved adept at torturing
and killing young men in the cities.
• But his army proved singularly inept
against Fidel Castro's rebels, who were
based in the mountains.

33. Guerrilas
• Batista had Castro after Moncada, and let him
get away with his life.
• He had him prisoner at Isle of Pines and released
him in a general amnesty.
• He could have destroyed him after the disaster
of the rebels' Granma landing, and let him get
away. "

34. Inept
• Batista committed a huge strategic blunder," when the rebels
returned, in the judgment of writer Norberto Fuentes.
• "You push landings back to sea. But Batista pushes Fidel Castro
into the Sierra Maestra with the words 'in the Sierras no one
survives.'"
• A more indicting observation is that of author Carlos Alberto
Montaner: "Batista does not finish Fidel out of greed... His is a
government of thieves. To have this small guerrilla band in the
mountains is to his advantage, so that he can order special
defense expenditures that they can steal."
• By spring 1958 when Batista sent 10,000 soldiers against the rebel
army, Castro was too deeply entrenched and Batista's army too
rotten from within for the offensive to succeed.

35. Loss of US support
• Faced with Batista's military ineptness and growing
unpopularity, the United States began to seek an
alternative to Batista and to Fidel Castro.
• But Batista was determined to hold on. On December 11,
1958, U.S. ambassador Earl Smith visited Batista at his
lavish hacienda, Kuquines.
• There ,he informed Batista the United States could no
longer support his regime.
• Batista asked if he could go to Daytona Beach, where he
had a house. The ambassador said no, and suggested
instead that he seek exile in Spain.

36. Flight
• On New Year's Eve 1958, Fulgencio Batista left
Cuba before the break of dawn, with one
hundred and eighty of his closest associates,
having amassed a fortune of as much as to $300
million.
• Batista lived the rest of his life in splendour in
Spain and in Portugal. He died on August 6,
1973 in Marbella, Spain, two days before a team
of assassins from Castro's Cuba could carry out a
plan to kill him.

37. Fidel Castro

38. Castro
• Born in 1929 to well off family
• Studied law at University of Havana
• Cuban nationalist
• Joined aborted attempt to overthrow
Dominican dictator 1947

39. 1948 ,Pan American Conference, Bogota,Colombia
The aim of the conference was to develop
the old Pan-American Union of American
States.
Participated at the protest at the conference
to embarrass US .
Fees for his traveling were covered by Juan
Peron

40. Bogotazo
• A massive popular uprising in Bogota
over the assassination of a populist
politician, Jorge Elicier Gaitan.
• 3000 killed
• US blamed Communists
• The Bogotazo convinced Castro of the
masses in revolt.

41. 1950
• Graduated and began to practise law.
• Not interested in his legal career, had few
clients, little income.
• His father distantly supported him
• His marriage is a fiasco
• Politics remained his passion

42. Hugh Thomas, historian
• “Castro was now politician without a
platform as well as a lawyer without
clients”
• Risk taker, involvement into violence,
power hunger, no principles
• Castro would throw himself into ANY
group that could help his political career
• Patriotic ardour

43. Historical Background:
The Cuban Revolution
• When Fidel Castro was running for election, Fulgencio
Batista succeeds in staging a coup and became the dictator of
Cuba. March 10, 1952
• In response to the coup, Castro joined a group to overthrow
Batista.
• Cuban Rebels attacked the Moncada Barracks in Santiago,
Cuba and also the barracks in Bayamo, Cuba in July 26 of
1953.
• Castro had 150 followers ( outnumbered 10 to 1 by soldiers
from Batista)
o 60 rebels died: 5 died fighting, Batista killed 56.
• Fidel and his brother, Raul, were jailed in the Isla de Pinos
prison. Fidel for 15 years and Raul for 13 years.
• In 1955, Batista freed all political prisoners in Cuba because
of political pressure.

44. 1953 Unsuccessful Revolt
• Also called July 26 th movement
• Nationalist, not Communist supporters
• Communists described Castro’s attack as
an ill organized putsch
• Captured tortured( eys gouged out,
genitals ripped off)
• Castro put on trial, gained fame

45. Why was Castro Successful?
• As a lawyer, he had a lot of charisma. He used it to his
advantage to convince people to his side. One of his well
known speeches was made as a self-defense in court after the
Moncada attack where he said, “But I do not fear prison, as I
do not fear the fury of the miserable tyrant who took the lives
of 70 of my comrades. Condemn me. It does not matter.
History will absolve me.”
• Even if people did not agree with his ideology, ex. the
peasants, who largely made up his support, were swayed by
the idea of improving their lives and of gaining land for
themselves.
• However, as Castro based nationalist and populist issues
known, the middle class started to side with Castro as well.he

46. Castro’s manifesto
• Return power to the people
• Redistribute land
• Introduce worker profit-sharing and pensions
• Attack corruption
• Improve education
• Nationalize public utilities
• Introduce rent controls
• Solidarity with other Latin Americans
• Diversify the economy

47. Batista’s Amnesty and
Mexican Exile
• Due to family connections and
Batista’s overconfidence, Castro
was released from prison
• Castro’s life was in danger and
there were rumors about his
death ( car riddled with bullets
was found after he “ was
fighting with police)
• Mexico
• Met Argentine Ernesto ‘Che”
Guevara ( buddy ) Marxist
• Che was anti-US and anti-
poverty (Socialism…)
• Organized troop of 82 to invade
Cuba in 1956

48. 26 th of July Movement
• Prompted uprisings, protests, strikes
• Batista revived torture and cruelty
• Castro ,Che military trained guerrilla
soldiers
• Did not get along with CCP

49. • The reason why Fidel Castro went to Mexico was to
prepare a revolution against Batista.
o There he met and joined forces with Che Guevara
o Trained by Alberto Bayo- a leader in the Spanish
Civil War.
• Undertook a fundraising tour of US( 9000
dollars)
• Resourceful ( exploited nationalist traditions
with great effectiveness ,presenting himself as
Marti’s heir)

50. The Cuban Revolution
• The Granma (yatch) arrived in Cuba and the rebels made
their way to Sierra Maestro, where they were attacked by
Batista’s army.
• Landed exactly where Marti landed 60 years ago.
• Not a landing but a shipwreck.
• The rebels ploughed their way through the thick undergrowth
of a swamp crawling with millions of tiny crabs ,then moved
across sugar cane fields towards the 90 mile long and 30 mile
wide Sierra Maestro.
• In the mountains, Raul and Che helped Fidel gain control by
killing Batista supporters and Castro rivals.
• In January 1 1959, Batista left the country and Castro took
leadership control.

51. Invasion
• Wrecked along a swampy coast
• ¾ killed by Batista’s men
• Dehydrated ,they sucked on sugar canes
• Barely moved for 5 days
• Hid in mountain forest
• Aided by sympathetic residents

52. Guerilla Warfare
• Used media to make people believe their
numbers were much larger
• Sabotaged Batista’s soldiers and sugar plants

53. Guerrila
• Launched attacks and hid in the forests
• Tied rats to a gasoline soaked sponge and
then set sponges on fire so that rats
would run to into the sugarcane fields
• Castro destructed his own sugar cane
plantation
• Permanently damaged his relationship
with his mother

54. Contributions
• The revolutionaries worked successfully
to create an infrastructure in liberated
areas, building rudimentary hospitals,
schools, cigar and ammunition factories,
training centre for recruits
• Peasants started thinking that Castro was
there to stay while Batista continued
terrorizing the peasant population

55. At times merciless
• One scout took 10000 from Batista’s army
to lead the guerrillas into Ambush.
• Che “gave him a shot into the right side
of his brain”
• Peasants were scared, suspicious and
willing to accept rewards to betray

56. Propaganda
• Castro was a superb propagandist.
• Herbert Matthew’s New York Times
• Che wrote that the presence of a foreign
journalist was more important than a
military victory.

57. • Castro inspired other revolutionaries.
• Urban revolutionaries
• Frank Pais, Castros’ associate, former
schoolteacher ( no military training but proved
to be exceptional military leader )
• Organized moral boost of the brigades along
with uprisings in Santiago
• Urged Castro to enlist the support of middle
class liberals, promising free elections,
compensations for landowners who would
suffer from any future redistributions of land.

58. Revolution 1959
• Castro’s forces take control of Cuba in 1959--
• Batista loses support of middle class and flees
• Cuban Revolution begins

59. Long Term Causes 1 Sugar
• The Cuban economy was based primarily on
Sugar—not diversified
• Economy rose and fell on Sugar
• Most of the Sugar plantations were in the hands
of Foreign (US mostly) investors or wealthy
upper class Cubans
• Seasonal unemployment high
• Created structural inequalities in the Cuban
population
• Markets tied to the US

60. Long Term Causes 2: Anti-
US resentment
• Since the Spanish-American War and
Cuban Independence a great deal of
resentment towards US control/effect on
Cuban economy and politics

61. Long Term Causes 3:
Poitical Instability
• From Independence on Cuba had no real
stable political experience
• Some attempts at reform from time to
time, but not much accomplished
• Power in the hands of the elites
• US essentially ran Cuba 3 different times
from 1900s-1930s

62. • Large economic gap between rich and poor
• Rich elites were white, small % of the pop.
• Rest of nation was mestizos, Afro-Cuban
• Land in the hands of elites or foreign interests
• Workers did try to unionize, but not
particularly successful
Long Term Cause 4:
soc/econ inequities

63. US Reaction
• Castro signed trade agreement with
USSR (end US economic stranglehold)
• Eisenhower boycotted Cuban sugar
• Castro nationalized US businesses
• All trade with US embargoed

64. Communist?
• Castro had not called himself a
Communist
• anti-US views led him into alliance with
Soviets
• Eisenhower cut off diplomatic relations in
1961, firmly putting Cuba in the “other”
camp

65. 1926: Castro is
born in Biran,
southeastern
Cuba; the third
of seven
children of
Spanish
immigrant
Angel Castro
and Cuban
Lina Ruz.
1948:
marries
Mirta
Diaz-
Balart
from a
wealthy
and
influentia
l family.
1945:
Studies
law at
Havana
Universit
y.

67. The Others: Raul Castro
&“Che”

68. Mini-Biographies: Raul & “Che”
• Raul Castro was the
younger brother of Fidel
Castro born June 3, 1931.
He is a loyal supporter of
Castro and his reforms. He
was exiled to Mexico
along with Fidel in 1955.
Raul played a vital role in
overthrowing along with
“Che” in military tactics.
In 2006 he became
President of Cuba when
Fidel was ill & needed
surgery. He strove for
economic reforms to
increase productivities in
the government.
• Ernesto “Che” Guevara was
born June 14, 1928 in
Argentina. He joined a leftist
movement in Guatemala with
Jacobo Arbenz. However,
when Arbenz was
overthrown, he fled to
Mexico where he met the
Castro brothers. Later, in
1956 he went with them to
Cuba to help overthrow
Batista. He was vital in that
he was a skilled guerilla
tactician. When the
overthrow was successful,
they implemented vital
economic policies in which
ties to the United States were
severed and nurtured ties to
Communist countries.

69. Cuban Revolution Leaders
Fidel Castro, Raul Castro, and Che Guevara in
Havana 1959

70. Castro's Ideology I
• Castro's plan was known as
"Stealth Socialism."
o He didn't want people to know what he
was planning.
• He wouldn't share his political
plan with anyone.
• Castro and "Che" created "The
New Man's Theory."
o Work to benefit everyone in the
society.
• He wanted to restore Cuba's
wealth, get back the land Cuba
lost, and strengthen the nation's
identity.

71. Castro’s Ideology II• Castro believed in “unitary
democracy” over
“adversary democracy.”
• Unitary democracy is
when each individual has a
vote and decisions are
made through a majority
opinion. Adversary
democracy is voting for
representatives.
• Another key difference is
that he believes in
“democratic centralism”
versus “liberal
democracy.”

72. Castro's Platform
• Castro implemented almost impossible reforms to nationalize
factories and plantations.
• Wanted to makes his armies stronger for Cuba's defense; created
an alliance with the USSR during 1960.
• Castro intended to build a socialist state with a state-
owned, government planning economy.
• Stopped private profit business so that all of Cuba had equal
job opportunities and boost the economy.
• According to constitution, all Cubans were entitled to receive free
medical, hospital, and dental care.
• All citizens had the same rights regardless of who they were.
• Provided payment for elders and pregnant women workers.
• The right to free education to the highest university level.

73. Elimination of Opposition
• The main idea of Castro’s over throw of Batista was to
deprive Batista of allies and forced him to flee, resign,
or killed. Though in the end, Batista did flee.
• Castro gave the option of dissenters to leave Cuba via
a port open for them.
• Other forms of elimination would be censorship.
Castro’s used capitalist ideas, but did allow petitions
and revision of government within socialist bounds.

74. Propaganda
“United we fought… united we win.”

75. TotalitarianismTotalitarianism• Attracting support
• 1947 Castro joined the Cuban People's Party
• 1952 Fidel Castro became a candidate for Congress for
the Cuban People's Party.
• The party was predicted to win the election
• but Fulgencio Batista won.
• 1953 Castro attacked the Moncada Army
• He was send to trial and was sentenced to 15 yrs. In
prison
• During his trial he said Cuba’s problems and how
he could solve them.
http://media.wkrg.com/images/sized/media/news/02-22-
2008_castro-300x225.jpg

76. TotalitarianismTotalitarianism
• Attracting support
• Batista allowed Castro to be released after 2 years due to
public demand.
• In 1956 Castro and many others went to Cuba they were
known as July 26 Movement.
• They wanted to set up a base in the Sierra Maestra
mountains
• Batista would order his army to attack civilians in order to
gain information.
• Caused many people to go against him
• 1958 ; 45 organizations signed an open letter supporting the
July 26 Movement
• Castro marched into Havana on January 9,1959 and became
Cuba's new leader.

77. TotalitarianismTotalitarianism
• Forms of government control
• controls the centralized economy, labor market and the media.
• 1959-Castro signed First Agrarian Reform Law (limited the size of
land holdings and forbade foreign property ownership.)
• Castro announced an end to democratic elections in Cuba
• denounced American imperialism.
• Repression of opponents
• Castro accepted economic and military aid by the soviet union.
• a trade agreement signed in order to buy oil from the Soviet
Union and established diplomatic relation
• 1966, Castro founded the Asia-Africa-Latin America People's
Solidarity Organization in order to promote revolution.
• executions and imprisonments, and forced emigration.

78. http://cuba.foreignpolicyblogs.com/files/2009/03/1nyprotest.jpg

79. TotalitarianismTotalitarianism
• Extent of opposition
• Proyecto Varela is a group that demanded freedom of press. They gathered over
10,000 signatures and the government responded by making their own petition
drive to make the socialist system "untouchable (99% voter approval.)
• In 1960 U.S. companies and properties are nationalizes.
• Defense of the Revolution committee is established to watch over enemies.
• January 1961 the US ends diplomatic relations with cuba
• 1962 Castro is kicked out of the group Organization of American States
• 1980 activist Ricardo Bofill is arrested for spreading "enemy propaganda“
• 1984 The U.S. and Cuba reach an immigration agreement,.
• An anti-Castro station funded by U.S. is launched. And the Cuban government
blocks the signal.

80. Castro and Status ofCastro and Status of
WomenWomen
• Once he took power he
believed in equality
between sexes.
• He believed that women
deserved rights.
• After the Cuban
revolution women’s
status changed
• The Cuban constitution
gives women economic,
social, political, cultural
and family rights and
opportunities that are
equal to men
• "The liberation of
women is
dependent upon the
Revolution's
success in
attaining its
primary objectives:
to establish a
wholly socialist
economy and
society. Women
can be free only to
the extent that they
commit themselves
first and foremost
to the Revolution.“1

81. Castro and Status ofCastro and Status of
WomenWomen
• Article 32: enforces that
women and men have
equal rights. (social,
economic, political,
cultural)
• Article 41: All citizens
have equal duties
• Article 42: Sex
discrimination is
forbidden
• Article 43:Everyone has
the right to education,
work and career
advancement, housing,
transport and public areas.

82. Castro and ReligionCastro and Religion
• After the revolution in 1959 Castro restricted
religious practices.
• From 1959-1961 many catholic priest left
Cuba.
• Believes in the separation between church and
state.

83. Castro and ReligionCastro and Religion
• In 1992 he agreed to loosen restrictions on
religion.
• Christmas became officially a holiday in 1997
• “I feel a great respect for all religions.” -1998
speech

84. The DownfallThe factors that led to Castro's downfall are:
• The Cuban Crisis
• The Decline of Cuban Sugar
• The Emergence of Anti-Castro Groups
• Alliance System
• The Unied States Embargo Act of Cuba
• Castro's Security Threats
• Castro's Illness
The factors listed above caused the downfall of Fidel Castro
which falls under political, ecnomical, and social issues in Cuba.
Thank you!
Marcelo Gomes Freire.