Editing Fidel Castro (section)

===Consolidating leadership: 1959===
{{Main|Agrarian reforms in Cuba|Revolution first, elections later}}
{{See also|Huber Matos affair}}
At Castro's command, the politically moderate lawyer [[Manuel Urrutia Lleó]] was proclaimed provisional president but Castro announced (falsely) that Urrutia had been selected by "popular election". Most of Urrutia's cabinet were MR-26-7 members.<ref>{{harvnb|Bourne|1986|pp=153, 161}}; {{harvnb|Quirk|1993|p=216}}; {{harvnb|Coltman|2003|pp=126, 141–142}}.</ref> Entering Havana, Castro proclaimed himself Representative of the Rebel Armed Forces of the Presidency, setting up home and office in the penthouse of the [[Hotel Tryp Habana Libre|Havana Hilton Hotel]].<ref>{{harvnb|Bourne|1986|p=164}}; {{harvnb|Coltman|2003|p=144}}.</ref> Castro exercised a great deal of influence over Urrutia's regime, which was now [[ruling by decree]]. He ensured that the government implemented policies to cut corruption and fight illiteracy and that it attempted to remove Batistanos from positions of power by dismissing Congress and barring all those elected in the rigged elections of 1954 and 1958 from future office. He then pushed Urrutia to issue a temporary ban on political parties; he repeatedly said that they would eventually hold multiparty elections.<ref>{{harvnb|Bourne|1986|pp=171–172}}; {{harvnb|Quirk|1993|pp=217, 222}}; {{harvnb|Coltman|2003|pp=150–154}}.</ref> Although repeatedly denying that he was a communist to the press, he began clandestinely meeting members of the PSP to discuss the creation of a socialist state.<ref>{{harvnb|Bourne|1986|pp=166, 170}}; {{harvnb|Quirk|1993|p=251}}; {{harvnb|Coltman|2003|p=145}}.</ref>

{{Quote box|width=25em|align=right|quote=We are not executing innocent people or political opponents. We are executing murderers and they deserve it.|source=– Castro's response to his critics regarding the mass executions, 1959<ref>{{harvnb|Bourne|1986|p=168}}; {{harvnb|Coltman|2003|p=149}}.</ref> }}

In suppressing the revolution, Batista's government had killed thousands of Cubans; Castro and influential sectors of the press put the death toll at 20,000, but a list of victims published shortly after the revolution contained only 898 names—over half of them combatants.{{sfnm|1a1=Wickham-Crowley|1y=1990|1pp=63–64|2a1=Guerra|2y=2012|2p=43}} More recent estimates place the death toll between 1,000{{sfn|Wickham-Crowley|1990|p=63}} and 4,000.{{sfn|Guerra|2012|p=43}} In response to popular uproar, which demanded that those responsible be brought to justice, Castro helped to set up many trials, resulting in hundreds of executions. Although popular domestically, critics—in particular the US press, argued that many were not [[fair trial]]s. Castro responded that "revolutionary justice is not based on legal precepts, but on moral conviction."<ref>{{harvnb|Bourne|1986|pp=163, 167–169}}; {{harvnb|Quirk|1993|pp=224–230}}; {{harvnb|Coltman|2003|pp=147–149}}.</ref>
Acclaimed by many across Latin America, he travelled to Venezuela where he met with President-elect [[Rómulo Betancourt]], unsuccessfully requesting a loan and a new deal for Venezuelan oil.<ref>{{harvnb|Bourne|1986|pp=169–170}}; {{harvnb|Quirk|1993|pp=225–226}}.</ref> Returning home, an argument between Castro and senior government figures broke out. He was infuriated that the government had left thousands unemployed by closing down casinos and brothels. As a result, Prime Minister [[José Miró Cardona]] resigned, going into exile in the US and joining the anti-Castro movement.<ref>{{harvnb|Bourne|1986|p=173}}; {{harvnb|Quirk|1993|p=277}}; {{harvnb|Coltman|2003|p=154}}.</ref>

On 16 February 1959, Castro was sworn in as [[Prime Minister of Cuba]].<ref>{{harvnb|Bourne|1986|p=173}}; {{harvnb|Quirk|1993|p=228}}.</ref> Castro also appointed himself president of the National Tourist Industry, introducing unsuccessful measures to encourage African-American tourists to visit, advertising Cuba as a tropical paradise free of [[racial discrimination]].<ref>{{harvnb|Quirk|1993|pp=262–269, 281}}.</ref> Judges and politicians had their pay reduced while low-level civil servants saw theirs raised,<ref>{{harvnb|Quirk|1993|p=234}}.</ref> and in March 1959, Castro declared rents for those who paid less than $100 a month halved.<ref name="Bourne 1986 186">{{harvnb|Bourne|1986|p=186}}.</ref> The Cuban government also began to expropriate the casinos and properties from mafia leaders and taking millions in cash. Before he died [[Meyer Lansky]] said Cuba "ruined" him.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.nydailynews.com/latino/book-reveals-extent-mafia-cuban-empire-article-1.350649|title=Book reveals extent of Mafia's Cuban empire|last=Martorell|first=Carlos Rodriguez|date=17 July 2008|work=Daily News|location=New York|access-date=19 March 2017|archive-date=20 March 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170320052108/http://www.nydailynews.com/latino/book-reveals-extent-mafia-cuban-empire-article-1.350649|url-status=live}}</ref>

On 9 April, Castro announced that the elections, which the [[26th of July Movement]] had promised would occur after the revolution, would be postponed, so that the provisional government could focus on domestic reform. Castro announced this electoral delay with the slogan: "[[revolution first, elections later]]".<ref name=wright>{{cite book |last=Wright |first=Thomas |author-link= |date=2022 |title=Democracy in Latin America A History Since Independence |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UeGgEAAAQBAJ&dq=Revolution+first,+elections+later+1959&pg=PA88 |location= |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers |page=88 |isbn=9781538149355}}</ref><ref name=Martinez>{{cite book |last=Martinez-Fernandez |first=Luis |author-link= |date=2014 |title= Revolutionary Cuba A History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h37SEAAAQBAJ&dq=Revolution+first,+elections+later+1959&pg=PA52 |location= |publisher=University Press of Florida |page=52 |isbn=9780813048765}}</ref><ref name=Dominguez>{{cite book |last=Dominguez |first=Jorge |author-link= |date=2009 |title=Cuba Order and Revolution |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y1oF-WQmOPgC&dq=Revolution+first,+elections+later+1959&pg=PA144 |location= |publisher=Harvard University Press |page=144 |isbn=9780674034280}}</ref>

Later in April, he visited the US on a [[wikt:charm offensive|charm offensive]] where President [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] would not meet with him, but instead sent Vice President [[Richard Nixon]], whom Castro instantly disliked.<ref>{{harvnb|Bourne|1986|pp=174–177}}; {{harvnb|Quirk|1993|pp=236–242}}; {{harvnb|Coltman|2003|pp=155–157}}.</ref> After meeting Castro, Nixon described him to Eisenhower: "The one fact we can be sure of is that Castro has those indefinable qualities which made him a leader of men. Whatever we may think of him he is going to be a great factor in the development of Cuba and very possibly in Latin American affairs generally. He seems to be sincere. He is either incredibly naive about Communism or under Communist discipline-my guess is the former...His ideas as to how to run a government or an economy are less developed than those of almost any world figure I have met in fifty countries. But because he has the power to lead...we have no choice but at least try to orient him in the right direction".<ref>{{harvnb|Gaddis|1997|p=180}}</ref>

[[File:René Lévesque Fidel Castro Montreal 1959.jpg|thumb|left|[[CBC/Radio-Canada]]'s journalist and future [[Premier of Quebec]], [[René Lévesque]], interviews Castro during his trip to [[Montreal]] in late April 1959.]]
Proceeding to Canada,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/fidel-castro-visit-montreal-april-1959-1.3871200 |title=How 1 man brought Fidel Castro to Montreal in April 1959 |first=Brennan |last=Neill |date=28 November 2016 |access-date=21 February 2018 |archive-date=18 April 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180418221944/http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/fidel-castro-visit-montreal-april-1959-1.3871200 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Toy drive brought Fidel Castro to Montreal in 1959 |url=https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/toy-drive-brought-fidel-castro-to-montreal-in-1959 |access-date=20 March 2022 |website=Montreal Gazette |language=en-CA |archive-date=17 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220417134951/https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/toy-drive-brought-fidel-castro-to-montreal-in-1959 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Lowrie |first=Morgan |date=27 November 2016 |title=Fidel Castro welcomed by crowds, shunned by politicians during 1959 Montreal visit |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/fidel-castro-montreal-1.3869910 |access-date=20 March 2022 |publisher=CBC News |archive-date=20 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220320145029/https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/fidel-castro-montreal-1.3869910 |url-status=live }}</ref> Trinidad, Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina, Castro attended an economic conference in [[Buenos Aires]], unsuccessfully proposing a $30&nbsp;billion US-funded "[[Marshall Plan]]" for Latin America.<ref>{{harvnb|Bourne|1986|p=177}}; {{harvnb|Quirk|1993|p=243}}; {{harvnb|Coltman|2003|p=158}}.</ref> In May 1959, Castro signed into law the [[Agrarian Reform Laws of Cuba|First Agrarian Reform]], setting a cap for landholdings to {{convert|993|acre|ha}} per owner and prohibiting foreigners from obtaining Cuban land ownership. Around 200,000 peasants received title deeds as large land holdings were broken up; popular among the working class, it alienated the richer landowners, including Castro's own mother,<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A36359-2005Jan25.html|title=The Controversial, Charismatic Castro|last=Robinson|first=Eugene|date=30 January 2005|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|access-date=27 January 2019|archive-date=10 August 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180810175734/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A36359-2005Jan25.html|url-status=live}}</ref> whose farmlands were taken.<ref>{{harvnb|Bourne|1986|pp=177–178}}; {{harvnb|Quirk|1993|p=280}}; {{harvnb|Coltman|2003|pp=159–160}}, {{cite web|url=http://u.truman.edu/cuba/aboutme.htm |title=First Agrarian Reform Law (1959) |access-date=29 August 2006 }}{{dead link|date=December 2016 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}.</ref> Within a year, Castro and his government had effectively redistributed 15 per cent of the nation's wealth, declaring that "the revolution is the dictatorship of the exploited against the exploiters."<ref>{{Cite book|title=With Fidel: A Portrait of Castro and Cuba|url=https://archive.org/details/withfidel00fran|url-access=registration|last1=Mankiewicz|first1=Frank|last2=Jones|first2=Kirby|publisher=Ballantine Books|year=1976|location=New York|pages=[https://archive.org/details/withfidel00fran/page/83 83]|isbn=9780345249814}}</ref>

[[File:Sukarno and Fidel, 1960.jpg|thumb|Castro and Indonesian president [[Sukarno]] in Havana, 1960. Castro undertook many foreign visits during his initial years in power.]]

In the summer of 1959, Fidel began nationalizing plantation lands owned by American investors as well as confiscating the property of foreign landowners. He also seized property previously held by wealthy Cubans who had fled.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/fl-cuban-american-lost-property-20150405-story.html|title=Cuban exiles seek compensation for seized property|first=William E.|last=Gibson|website=Sun-Sentinel|date=5 April 2015 |access-date=4 March 2019|archive-date=12 April 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190412081851/https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/fl-cuban-american-lost-property-20150405-story.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/01/cuban-exiles-confiscated-property-diplomatic-thaw|title=Cuban exiles hope diplomatic thaw can help them regain confiscated property|last=Luscombe|first=Joe Lamar Richard|date=1 August 2015|access-date=4 March 2019|work=The Guardian|archive-date=3 February 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190203143546/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/01/cuban-exiles-confiscated-property-diplomatic-thaw|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.tampabay.com/news/nation/run-from-cuba-americans-cling-to-claims-for-seized-property/2223110|title=Run from Cuba, Americans cling to claims for seized property|date=29 March 2015|newspaper=[[Tampa Bay Times]]|access-date=4 March 2019|archive-date=12 April 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190412051419/https://www.tampabay.com/news/nation/run-from-cuba-americans-cling-to-claims-for-seized-property/2223110|url-status=live}}</ref> He nationalized sugar production and oil refinement, over the objection of foreign investors who owned stakes in these commodities.<ref>{{cite news| title=Cuba, you owe us $7&nbsp;billion| url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2014/04/18/cuba-you-owe-billion/jHAufRfQJ9Bx24TuzQyBNO/story.html| newspaper=The Boston Globe| date=18 April 2014| access-date=5 April 2016| archive-date=12 April 2019| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190412082117/https://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2014/04/18/cuba-you-owe-billion/jHAufRfQJ9Bx24TuzQyBNO/story.html| url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| title=1960 Dollars in 2016 Dollars| url=http://www.in2013dollars.com/1960-dollars-in-2016?amount=1700000| publisher=Inflation Calculator| access-date=5 April 2016| archive-date=26 October 2018| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181026182652/http://www.in2013dollars.com/1960-dollars-in-2016?amount=1700000| url-status=live}}</ref>

Although then refusing to categorize his regime as socialist and repeatedly denying being a communist, Castro appointed Marxists to senior government and military positions. President Urrutia increasingly expressed concern with the rising influence of Marxism. Angered, Castro in turn announced his resignation as prime minister on 18 July—blaming Urrutia for complicating government with his "fevered anti-Communism". Over 500,000 Castro-supporters surrounded the Presidential Palace demanding Urrutia's resignation, which he submitted. On 23 July, Castro resumed his premiership and appointed Marxist [[Osvaldo Dorticós]] as president.<ref>{{harvnb|Bourne|1986|pp=181–183}}; {{harvnb|Quirk|1993|pp=248–252}}; {{harvnb|Coltman|2003|p=162}}.</ref>

On October 19, 1959, army commander [[Huber Matos]] wrote a resignation letter to Fidel Castro, complaining of Communist influence in government.<ref name=pbs>{{cite web|title=Huber Matos, a Moderate in the Cuban Revolution|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/castro/peopleevents/e_moderates.html |website=American Experience|publisher=PBS|access-date=4 February 2016}}</ref> Matos lamented in his resignation that communists were gaining positions of power that he felt were undeserved for having not participated in the [[Cuban Revolution]].<ref name=Eagle>{{cite book |date=2013 |title=Beyond the Eagle's Shadow New Histories of Latin America's Cold War |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rbPQAQAAQBAJ&dq=huber+matos+affair&pg=PA115 |location= |publisher=University of New Mexico Press |pages=115–116 |isbn=978-0826353696}}</ref> Matos planned for his officers to also resign en masse in support.<ref>{{cite book |last= |first= |author-link= |title= The Cuban Counterrevolution|year= 2000|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kr_qEEfEf24C&dq=matos+affair&pg=PA56 |location= |publisher= Ohio University Press|page= |isbn=9780896802148}}</ref> Two days later, Castro sent fellow revolutionary [[Camilo Cienfuegos]] to arrest Matos.<ref name="Matos">Cómo llegó la noche: Matos, Huber: {{ISBN|84-8310-791-0}} Tusquets-2004</ref><ref name=revworld>{{cite book |last=Brown |first=Jonathan |date=2017 |title=Cuba's Revolutionary World |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Js-5DgAAQBAJ&dq=huber+matos+affair&pg=PT39 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0674978324}}</ref> The same day Matos was arrested, [[Cuban exile]] [[Pedro Luis Díaz Lanz]], a former air force chief of staff under Castro and friend of Huber Matos, flew from Florida and dropped leaflets into Havana that called for the removal of all Communists from the government. In response, Castro held a rally where he called for the reintroduction of revolutionary tribunals to try Matos and Diaz for treason.<ref name=bonsal>{{cite book | first = Philip | last = Bonsal | year= 1971 | publisher = University of Pittsburgh Press | title = Cuba, Castro, and the United States | pages= 104–107}}</ref><ref name=revworld /> Shortly after Hubert Matos' detention various other disillusioned economists would send in their resignations. [[Felipe Pazos]] would resign as head of the National Bank and be replaced within a month by [[Che Guevara]]. Cabinet members [[Manuel Ray]] and Faustino Perez also resigned.<ref name=Castro>{{cite book |last=Leonard |first=Thomas |date=2004 |title=Fidel Castro A Biography |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=63sFubdrEVcC&dq=matos+affair&pg=PA52 |publisher=Greenwood Press |pages=49–51 |isbn=0313323011}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Gonzalez |first=Servando |date=2002 |title=The Nuclear Deception Nikita Khrushchev and the Cuban Missile Crisis |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OTXwLhjRleMC&dq=anibal+escalante+exile&pg=PA103 |publisher=Spooks Books |page=52 |isbn=9780971139152}}</ref>

Castro's government continued to emphasise social projects to improve Cuba's [[standard of living]], often to the detriment of economic development.<ref name="Bourne 1986. p. 275-76">{{harvnb|Bourne|1986|pp=275–276}}.</ref> Major emphasis was placed on education, and during the first 30 months of Castro's government, more classrooms were opened than in the previous 30 years. The Cuban primary education system offered a work-study program, with half of the time spent in the classroom, and the other half in a productive activity.<ref>{{harvnb|Bourne|1986|pp=275–276}}; {{harvnb|Quirk|1993|p=324}}.</ref> Health care was nationalized and expanded, with rural health centers and urban polyclinics opening up across the island to offer free medical aid. Universal vaccination against childhood diseases was implemented, and infant mortality rates were reduced dramatically.<ref name="Bourne 1986. p. 275-76"/> A third part of this social program was the improvement of infrastructure. Within the first six months of Castro's government, {{convert|600|mi|km|order=flip|sigfig=1|abbr=on}} of roads were built across the island, while $300&nbsp;million was spent on water and sanitation projects.<ref name="Bourne 1986. p. 275-76"/> Over 800 houses were constructed every month in the early years of the administration in an effort to cut homelessness, while nurseries and day-care centers were opened for children and other centers opened for the disabled and elderly.<ref name="Bourne 1986. p. 275-76"/>