Editing Fidel Castro (section)

===Institutionalization and interventions: 1976-1979===
{{Further|Institutionalization process}}
{{See also|Foreign interventions by Cuba|El Diálogo}}
[[File:F0026167.jpg|thumb|Fidel Castro speaking at the first official meeting of the Communist Party of Cuba, December 1975.]]
Up until 1976, Cuba had been managed by a provisional government, headed by Fidel Castro, without a constitution. Cuba then [[1976 Cuban constitutional referendum|adopted a new constitution in 1976]], based on the [[1936 Constitution of the Soviet Union|1936 Soviet Constitution]]. This adoption marked the end of 16 years of non-constitutional government.<ref>Nohlen, p197</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.sudd.ch/event.php?lang=en&id=cu011976 |title=Kuba, 15. Februar 1976 : Verfassung -- &#91;in German&#93; |date=15 February 1976 |access-date=25 June 2012 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304003817/http://www.sudd.ch/event.php?lang=en&id=cu011976 |archive-date=4 March 2016 }}</ref> Up until this point, Castro had simply ruled by decree, but after the 1976 constitution, the Communist Party became the official decision-making body in Cuba.<ref>{{cite web |last= |first= |date=2016 |title=Cuba: Fidel Castro's Record of Repression
 |url=https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/11/26/cuba-fidel-castros-record-repression |website=hw.org |location= |publisher=Human Rights Watch |access-date=}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last= |first= |date=2013 |title=Cuba Foreign Policy and Government Guide Volume 1 Strategic Information and Developments |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BRazDwAAQBAJ&dq=castro+rule+by+decree+1976&pg=PA139 |location= |publisher=International Business Publications |page=139 |isbn=9781438711393 |access-date=}}</ref> Some scholars like Peter Roman, Nino Pagliccia, and Loreen Collin have written books concluding that the system that developed after the 1976 constitution, particularly the [[National Assembly of People's Power]], are part of a highly participatory democracy. Julio Cesar Guache offers a critical view of the "democracy" that developed, and argues it is informally controlled by the [[Committees for the Defense of the Revolution]], who vet candidates.<ref>{{cite book |last=Bear |first=James |author-link= |date=2024 |title=Citizen Engagement in Cuba Neighbors and the State in Pogolotti |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xCkREQAAQBAJ&dq=1976+participatory+democracy+cuba&pg=PR22 |location= |publisher=Lexington Books |page=xxiii |isbn=9781666907575}}</ref> Samuel Farber argues that the [[National Assembly of People's Power]] is legally prohibited form political debate, and that real decision-making power lied for a long time with the Castro brothers as heads of the [[Communist Party of Cuba]]. Farber mentions that the Communist Party often passes legislation without any consideration from the [[National Assembly of People's Power]].<ref name=Farber>{{cite book |last=Farber |first=Samuel |date=2016 |title=The Politics of Che Guevara Theory and Practice
 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SZ0fDAAAQBAJ&dq=guevara+%22industrialization%22&pg=PA22 |location= |publisher= Haymarket Books|pages=20–25 |isbn=9781608466597 |access-date=}}</ref> Fidel Castro would remain in the leadership position of [[First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba]] for 49 years, until stepping down in 2011.{{sfnm|1a1=''The Guardian''|1y=2011}}

{{Quote box|width=25em|align=right|quote=There is often talk of human rights, but it is also necessary to talk of the rights of humanity. Why should some people walk barefoot, so that others can travel in luxurious cars? Why should some live for thirty-five years, so that others can live for seventy years? Why should some be miserably poor, so that others can be hugely rich? I speak on behalf of the children in the world who do not have a piece of bread. I speak on the behalf of the sick who have no medicine, of those whose rights to life and human dignity have been denied.|source=– Fidel Castro's message to the UN General Assembly, 1979{{sfn|Coltman|2003|p=245}}}}

In 1977, the [[Ogaden War]] broke out over the disputed [[Ogaden]] region as Somalia invaded Ethiopia; although a former ally of Somali president [[Siad Barre]], Castro had warned him against such action, and Cuba sided with [[Mengistu Haile Mariam]]'s Marxist government of Ethiopia. In a desperate attempt to stop the war, Castro had a summit with Barre where he proposed a federation of Ethiopia, Somalia, and South Yemen as an alternative to war.{{sfn|Tareke|2009|p=190}} Barre who saw seizing the Ogaden as the first step towards creating a greater Somalia that would unite all of the Somalis into one state rejected the federation offer and decided upon war.{{sfn|Tareke|2009|p=190}} Castro sent troops under the command of General [[Arnaldo Ochoa]] to aid the overwhelmed Ethiopian army. Mengistu's regime was barely hanging on by 1977, having lost one-third of its army in Eritrea at the time of the Somali invasion.{{sfn|Brogan|1989|p=31}} The intervention of 17,000 Cuban troops into the Ogaden was by all accounts decisive in altering a war that Ethiopia was on the brink of losing into a victory.{{sfn|Brogan|1989|pp=31–34}} After forcing back the Somalis, Mengistu then ordered the Ethiopians to suppress the [[Eritrean People's Liberation Front]], a measure Castro refused to support.{{sfnm|1a1=Bourne|1y=1986|1pp=291–292|2a1=Quirk|2y=1993|2pp=761–765, 776–781|3a1=Coltman|3y=2003|3p=245}} 
[[File:BAM-Castro.jpg|thumb|Members of the [[Antonio Maceo Brigade]] with Fidel Castro in 1978.]]
On December 22, 1977, the Cuban exile group known as the "[[Antonio Maceo Brigade]]" took their first trip to Cuba, with the aim of cultural and political reconciliation.<ref name=Rev>{{cite book|author1=Teishan Latner|title=Cuban Revolution in America Havana and the Making of a United States Left, 1968–1992
|date=11 January 2018
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=53BGDwAAQBAJ&q=antonio+maceo+brigade|publisher=University of North Carolina Press|isbn=9781469635477
}}</ref> This visit came at the request of the Cuban government, after President [[Jimmy Carter]] briefly lifted the travel ban with Cuba.<ref name=Latinas>{{cite book|author1=Vicki L. Ruiz|author2=Virginia Sánchez Korrol|title=Latinas in the United States, set: A Historical Encyclopedia
|date=3 May 2006|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_62IjQ-XQScC&q=Antonio+Maceo+Brigade&pg=PA50|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=0253111692}}</ref> The brigade consisted of 55 Cuban exiles, who toured Cuba for two weeks.<ref name=Rev /> After the visit, Fidel Castro would call for [[El Diálogo|dialogues with Cuban exiles abroad]]. These dialogues resulted in the release of political prisoners, family unifications, and relaxing of restrictions to visit Cuba.<ref name=Latinas />

Castro extended support to Latin American revolutionary movements, namely the [[Sandinista National Liberation Front]] in its overthrow of the Nicaraguan rightist government of [[Anastasio Somoza Debayle]] in July 1979.{{sfn|Coltman|2003|p=249}} Castro's critics accused the government of wasting Cuban lives in these military endeavours; the anti-Castro [[Center for a Free Cuba]] has claimed that an estimated 14,000 Cubans were killed in foreign Cuban military actions.<ref>{{cite web |last=O'Grady |first=Mary Anastasia |date=30 October 2005 |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB113590852154334404 |title=Counting Castro's Victims |work=The Wall Street Journal |access-date=11 February 2015 |archive-date=11 February 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150211211043/http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB113590852154334404 |url-status=live }}</ref> When American critics claimed that Castro had no right to interfere in these nations, he countered that Cuba had been invited into them, pointing out the US's own involvement in various foreign nations.{{sfn|Quirk|1993|p=759}} Between 1979 and 1991 about 370,000 Cuban troops together with 50,000 Cuban civilians (mostly teachers and doctors) served in Angola, representing about 5% of Cuba's population.<ref name="Vines">{{cite web |last1=Vines |first1=Alex |title=Fidel Castro's Greatest Legacy in Africa Is in Angola |url=https://www.chathamhouse.org/2016/12/fidel-castros-greatest-legacy-africa-angola |website=Chatham House |date=6 December 2016 |access-date=24 October 2020 |archive-date=27 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201027011702/https://www.chathamhouse.org/2016/12/fidel-castros-greatest-legacy-africa-angola |url-status=live }}</ref> The Cuban intervention in Angola was envisioned as a short-term commitment, but the Angolan government used the profits from the oil industry to subsidize Cuba's economy, making Cuba as economically dependent upon Angola as Angola was militarily dependent upon Cuba.<ref name="Vines"/>

In the late 1970s, Cuba's relations with North American states improved during the period with Mexican president [[Luis Echeverría]], Canadian prime minister [[Pierre Trudeau]],{{sfnm|1a1=Quirk|1y=1993|1pp=750–751|2a1=Coltman|2y=2003|2pp=244–245}} and US president [[Jimmy Carter]] in power. Carter continued criticizing Cuba's human rights abuses but adopted a respectful approach which gained Castro's attention. Considering Carter well-meaning and sincere, Castro freed certain political prisoners and allowed some Cuban exiles to visit relatives on the island, hoping that in turn Carter would abolish the economic embargo and stop CIA support for militant dissidents.{{sfnm|1a1=Bourne|1y=1986|1p=289|2a1=Quirk|2y=1993|2pp=756–759, 769, 771|3a1=Coltman|3y=2003|3pp=247–248}} Conversely, his relationship with China declined, as he accused [[Deng Xiaoping]]'s Chinese government of betraying their revolutionary principles by initiating trade links with the US and [[Sino-Vietnamese War|attacking Vietnam]].{{sfn|Quirk|1993|pp=793–794}} In 1979, the Conference of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) was held in Havana, where Castro was selected as NAM president, a position he held until 1982. In his capacity as both president of the NAM and of Cuba he appeared at the United Nations General Assembly in October 1979 and gave a speech on the disparity between the world's rich and poor. His speech was greeted with much applause from other world leaders,{{sfnm|1a1=Bourne|1y=1986|1p=294|2a1=Quirk|2y=1993|2pp=782–783, 798–802|3a1=Coltman|3y=2003|3p=245}} though his standing in NAM was damaged by Cuba's refusal to condemn the [[Afghan–Soviet War|Soviet intervention in Afghanistan]].{{sfn|Bourne|1986|p=294}}