Editing History of Cuba (section)

==Early 20th century (1902&ndash;1959)==
{{Main|Republican period (Cuba)}}{{See also|Cuba during World War I}}
The U.S. occupation officially ended when Palma took office on 20 May 1902.<ref>Cantón Navarro, José. ''History of Cuba'', p. 81.</ref> [[Havana]] and [[Varadero]] soon became popular tourist resorts. Though some efforts were made to ease Cuba's ethnic tensions through government policies, racism and informal discrimination towards blacks and mestizos remained widespread.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.georgezarur.com.br/artigos/124/nation-and-multiculturalism-in-cuba-a-comparison-with-the-united-states-and-brazil|title=Nation and Multiculturalism in Cuba: A Comparison with the United States and Brazil|publisher=GeorgeZarur.com.br|year=2005|access-date=10 February 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150210181228/http://www.georgezarur.com.br/artigos/124/nation-and-multiculturalism-in-cuba-a-comparison-with-the-united-states-and-brazil|archive-date=10 February 2015|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[Guantánamo Bay, Cuba|Guantanamo Bay]] was leased to the United States as part of the Platt Amendment. The status of the [[Isla de la Juventud|Isle of Pines]] as Cuban territory was left undefined until 1925, when the United States finally recognized Cuban sovereignty over the island. Palma governed successfully for his four-year term; yet when he tried to extend his time in office, a revolt ensued.

The [[Second Occupation of Cuba]], also known as the Cuban Pacification, was a major US military operation that began in September 1906. After the collapse of Palma's regime, US President Roosevelt invaded and established an occupation that would continue for nearly two and a half years. The stated goal of the operation was to prevent fighting between the Cubans, to protect North American economic interests, and to hold free elections. In 1906, the United States representative [[William Howard Taft]] negotiated an end of the successful revolt led by the young general [[Enrique Loynaz del Castillo]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.spanamwar.com/delcastillo.htm|title=A Biography of General Enrique Loynaz del Castillo|publisher=Spanamwar.com|access-date=2 November 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071108023135/http://www.spanamwar.com/delcastillo.htm|archive-date=8 November 2007|url-status=live}}</ref> Palma resigned and the United States Governor [[Charles Magoon]] assumed temporary control until 1909.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://library.thinkquest.org/18355/charles_magoon.html|title=Charles Magoon (1861–1920)|publisher=Library.thinkquest.org|access-date=2 November 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071016191346/http://library.thinkquest.org/18355/charles_magoon.html|archive-date=16 October 2007|url-status=dead}}</ref> Following the election of [[José Miguel Gómez]] in November 1908, Cuba was deemed stable enough to allow a withdrawal of American troops, which was completed in February 1909.

For three decades, the country was led by former [[List of Presidents of Cuba|War of Independence leaders]], who after being elected did not serve more than two constitutional terms. The Cuban presidential succession was as follows: [[José Miguel Gómez]] (1908–1912); [[Mario García Menocal]] (1913–1920); [[Alfredo Zayas]] (1921–25) and [[Gerardo Machado]] (1925–1933).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/zayas-bio.htm|title=Alfredo Zayas|publisher=Latin American Studies|access-date=2 November 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071009032359/http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/zayas-bio.htm|archive-date=9 October 2007|url-status=live}}</ref>

Under the Liberal Gómez the participation of Afro-Cubans in the political process was curtailed when the [[Partido Independiente de Color]] was outlawed and bloodily suppressed in 1912, as American troops reentered the country to protect the sugar plantations.<ref>Richard Gott, ''Cuba: A New History'', pp. 123–24.</ref> Under Gómez's successor, Mario Menocal of the Conservative Party, income from sugar rose steeply.<ref>Louis A. Pérez, Jr., ''Intervention, Revolution, and Politics in Cuba'', 1913–1921, p. 4.</ref> Menocal's reelection in 1916 was met with armed revolt by Gómez and other Liberals (the so-called "[[Chambelona War]]"), prompting the United States to send in Marines. Gómez was defeated and captured and the rebellion was snuffed out.<ref>Richard Gott, ''Cuba: A New History'', pp. 127–128.</ref>

[[Cuba during World War I|In World War I, Cuba]] declared war on [[Imperial Germany]] on 7 April 1917, one day after the [[American entry into World War I|United States entered the war]]. Despite being unable to send troops to fight in Europe, Cuba played a significant role as a base to protect the West Indies from German [[U-boat]] attacks. A draft law was instituted, and 25,000 Cuban troops raised, but the war ended before they could be sent into action.

[[Alfredo Zayas]] was elected president in 1920 and took office in 1921. When the Cuban financial system collapsed after a drop in sugar prices, Zayas secured a loan from the United States in 1922. One historian has concluded that the continued U.S. military intervention and economic dominance had once again made Cuba "a colony in all but name."<ref>Richard Gott, ''Cuba: A New History'', p. 129.</ref>

===Post-World War I===
President [[Gerardo Machado]] was elected by popular vote in 1925, but he was constitutionally barred from reelection. Machado, determined to modernize Cuba, set in motion several massive civil works projects such as the [[Carretera Central (Cuba)|Central Highway]], but at the end of his constitutional term he held on to power. The United States decided not to interfere militarily. In the late 1920s and early 1930s a number of Cuban action groups staged a series of uprisings that either failed or did not affect the capital.

The [[Sergeants' Revolt]] undermined the institutions and coercive structures of the oligarchic state. The young and relatively inexperienced revolutionaries found themselves pushed into the halls of state power by worker and peasant mobilisations. Between September 1933 and January 1934 a loose coalition of radical activists, students, middle-class intellectuals, and disgruntled lower-rank soldiers formed a Provisional Revolutionary Government. This coalition was directed by a popular university professor, Dr [[Ramón Grau San Martín]]. The Grau government promised a 'new Cuba' which would belong to all classes, and the abrogation of the Platt Amendment. They believed their legitimacy stemmed from the popular support which brought them to power, and not from the approval of the [[United States Department of State]].

To this end, throughout the autumn of 1933, the government decreed a dramatic series of reforms. The Platt Amendment was unilaterally abrogated, and all the political parties of the Machadato were dissolved. The Provisional Government granted autonomy to the [[University of Havana]], [[Women's suffrage|women obtained the right to vote]], the [[eight-hour day]] was decreed, a [[minimum wage]] was established for cane-cutters, and [[compulsory arbitration]] was promoted. The government created a Ministry of Labour, and a law was passed establishing that 50 per cent of all workers in agriculture, commerce and industry had to be Cuban citizens. The Grau regime set [[agrarian reform]] as a priority, promising peasants legal title to their lands. The Provisional Government survived until January 1934, when it was overthrown by an anti-government coalition of right-wing civilian and military elements. Led by a young mestizo sergeant, [[Fulgencio Batista]], this movement was supported by the United States.<ref>Whitney 2000:436-437.</ref>

===1940 Constitution and the Batista era===
[[File:Prio Socarras 1948.jpg|thumb|right|President [[Carlos Prío Socarrás]] (left), with US president [[Harry S. Truman]] in Washington, D.C. in 1948]]

====Rise of Batista====
{{See also|Cuba during World War II|1952 Cuban coup d'état}}
In 1940, Cuba conducted [[1940 Cuban general election|free and fair national elections]].<ref name="Bethell-Cuba"/><ref name="Sweig-Inside">{{Cite book|title=Inside the Cuban Revolution|author=Julia E. Sweig|isbn=978-0-674-01612-5|year=2004|publisher=Harvard University Press|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/insidecubanrevol00juli}}</ref> [[Fulgencio Batista]], was originally endorsed by Communist leaders in exchange for the legalization of the Popular Socialist Party and Communist domination of the [[Labour movement|labor movement]]. The reorganization of the labor movement during this time was capped with the establishment of the Confederacion de Trajabadores de Cuba (Confederation of Cuban Workers, or CTC), in 1938. However, in 1947, the Communists lost control of the CTC, and their influence in the trade union movement gradually declined into the 1950s. The assumption of the Presidency by Batista in 1952 and the intervening years to 1958 placed tremendous strain on the labor movement, with some independent union leaders resigning from the CTC in opposition to Batista's rule.<ref name="U.S. Dept. of State">{{cite web |title=Cuban Labor Practices |url=https://2001-2009.state.gov/p/wha/rls/fs/2001/fsjulydec/4889.htm |website=U.S. Department of State Archive |access-date=17 July 2020}}</ref> The relatively [[progressivist]] [[Constitution of Cuba|1940 Constitution]] was adopted by the Batista administration.<ref name="Bethell-Cuba">{{Cite book|title=Cuba|author=Leslie Bethell|isbn=978-0-521-43682-3|year=1993|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge}}</ref><ref name="Sweig-Inside"/> The constitution denied Batista the possibility of running consecutively in the 1944 election.

Rather than endorsing Batista's hand-picked successor Carlos Zayas, the Cuban people elected Ramón Grau San Martín in 1944. Grau made a deal with [[labor union]]s to continue Batista's pro-labor policies.<ref name="Dominquez-Cuba">{{Cite book|title=Cuba|author=Jorge I. Domínguez}}</ref> Grau's administration coincided with the end of World War II, and he presided over an economic boom as sugar production expanded and prices rose. He instituted programs of public works and school construction, increasing [[social security]] benefits and encouraging economic development and agricultural production. However, increased prosperity brought increased corruption and urban violence.<ref name="Dominquez-Cuba"/><ref>[http://www.answers.com/topic/grau-san-mart-n-ram-n "Ramon Grau San Martin"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090115175419/http://www.answers.com/topic/grau-san-mart-n-ram-n |date=15 January 2009}}. Answers.com. Retrieved 27 November 2011.</ref> The country was also steadily gaining a reputation as a base for organized crime, with the [[Havana Conference]] of 1946 seeing leading [[American Mafia|Mafia]] mobsters descend upon the city.<ref>[http://crimemagazine.com/havana-conference-–-1946 "Havana Conference – 1946"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181212125919/http://www.crimemagazine.com/havana-conference-%E2%80%93-1946 |date=12 December 2018}}. ''Crime Magazine''. Retrieved 2 December 2012.</ref>

Grau's presidency was followed by that of [[Carlos Prío Socarrás]], whose government was tainted by increasing corruption and violent incidents among political factions. [[Eduardo Chibás]]{{snd}} the leader of the [[Partido Ortodoxo]] (Orthodox Party), a nationalist group{{snd}} was widely expected to win in 1952 on an anticorruption platform. However, Chibás committed suicide before he could run, and the opposition was left without a unifying leader.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Gipson|first=Therlee|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sJWdDwAAQBAJ&q=However,+Chib%C3%A1s+committed+suicide+before+he+could+run+for+the+presidency,+and+the+opposition+was+left+without+a+unifying+leader&pg=PA11|title=Fidel Castro Negro Blood|date=2018-09-11|publisher=Lulu.com|isbn=978-0-359-08074-8|language=en}}</ref> Batista seized power in [[1952 Cuban coup d'état|an almost bloodless coup]]. President Prío was forced to leave Cuba. Due to the corruption of the previous two administrations, the general public reaction to the coup was somewhat accepting at first. However, Batista soon encountered stiff opposition when he temporarily suspended balloting and the 1940 constitution, and attempted to rule by decree. Nonetheless, elections were held in 1954 and Batista was re-elected under disputed circumstances.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Foreign Relations of the United States, 1958–1960, Cuba, Volume VI – Office of the Historian|url=https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1958-60v06/d12|website=history.state.gov|access-date=2020-05-29}}</ref>

====Economic expansion and stagnation====
Although corruption was rife under Batista, Cuba did flourish economically. Wages rose significantly;<ref name="gonzalez"/> according to the [[International Labour Organization]], the average industrial salary in Cuba was the world's eighth-highest in 1958, and the average agricultural wage was higher than in developed nations such as [[Denmark]] and [[France]].<ref name="gonzalez">{{Cite book|title=The Secret Fidel Castro|author=Servando Gonzalez}}</ref><ref name="beforecastro"/> Although a third of the population still lived in poverty (according to Batista's government), Cuba was one of the five most developed countries in Latin America by the end of the Batista era,<ref name="heroic">{{Cite news|title=The Cuban revolution at 50: Heroic myth and prosaic failure|date=30 December 2008|newspaper=The Economist|url=http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12851254|access-date=27 July 2013|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120920/http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12851254|archive-date=20 September 2012|url-status=live}}</ref> with 56% of the population [[urbanization|living in cities]].<ref name="Paterson-Contesting"/>

In the 1950s, Cuba's [[gross domestic product]] (GDP) per capita was roughly equal to that of contemporary Italy, although still only a sixth as large as that of the United States.<ref name="gonzalez"/> Labour rights were also favourable{{snd}}Cuban workers were entitled to a month's paid holiday, nine days' sick leave with pay, and [[maternity leave|six weeks' leave]] before and after childbirth.<ref name="unnecessary"/> Cuba had Latin America's highest per capita consumption rates of meat, vegetables, cereals, automobiles, telephones and radios during this period.<ref name="beforecastro"/><ref name="unnecessary">{{Cite web|title=Cuba: The Unnecessary Revolution|url=http://www.neoliberalismo.com/unnecesary.htm|publisher=Neoliberalismo.com|access-date=17 February 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150422233141/http://www.neoliberalismo.com/unnecesary.htm|archive-date=22 April 2015|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Lewis"/>{{Rp|[https://books.google.com/books?id%3DLAvw-YXm4TsC&pg%3DPA186 186]}} Havana was the world's fourth-most-expensive city at the time.<ref name="Bethell-Cuba"/> Moreover, Cuba's health service was remarkably developed. By the late 1950s, it had one of the highest numbers of doctors per capita{{snd}} more than in the [[United Kingdom]] at that time{{snd}} and the third-lowest adult [[mortality rate]]. According to the [[World Health Organization]], the island had the lowest [[infant mortality rate]] in Latin America, and the 13th-lowest in the world.<ref name="beforecastro">{{Cite web|title=Cuba Before Fidel Castro|url=http://www.fiu.edu/~fcf/cubaprecastro21698.html|work=Contacto|access-date=27 July 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130608164200/http://www2.fiu.edu/~fcf/cubaprecastro21698.html|archive-date=8 June 2013|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="comparison">{{cite web|url=http://lanic.utexas.edu/la/ca/cuba/asce/cuba8/30smith.pdf|title=Renaissance and decay: A comparison of socioeconomic indicators in pre-Castro and current-day Cuba|author1=Kirby Smith|author2=Hugo Llorens|access-date=21 June 2009|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090713105818/http://lanic.utexas.edu/la/ca/cuba/asce/cuba8/30smith.pdf|archive-date=13 July 2009}}</ref><ref name="stuckoncastro">{{cite web|url=http://www.reason.com/news/show/125095.html|title=Still Stuck on Castro – How the press handled a tyrant's farewell|work=Reason|date=22 February 2008 |access-date=27 July 2013|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120920/http://www.reason.com/news/show/125095.html|archive-date=20 September 2012|url-status=live}}</ref> Cuba's education spending in the 1950s was the highest in Latin America, relative to GDP.<ref name="beforecastro"/> Cuba had the fourth-highest [[literacy rate]] in the region, at almost 80% according to the United Nations{{snd}} higher than that of Spain at the time.<ref name="cubafacts43">{{Cite web|url=http://ctp.iccas.miami.edu/FACTS_Web/Cuba%20Facts%20Issue%2043%20December.htm|title=Cuba Facts: Issue 43|publisher=Cuba Transition Project|date=December 2008|access-date=6 February 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120709162710/http://ctp.iccas.miami.edu/FACTS_Web/Cuba%20Facts%20Issue%2043%20December.htm|archive-date=9 July 2012}}</ref><ref name="comparison"/><ref name="stuckoncastro"/>{{disputed|date=August 2019}}

However, the United States, rather than Latin America, was the frame of reference for educated Cubans.<ref name="Bethell-Cuba"/><ref name="Paterson-Contesting"/> Middle-class Cubans grew frustrated at the economic gap between Cuba and the US,<ref name="Bethell-Cuba"/> and increasingly dissatisfied with the administration.<ref name="Bethell-Cuba"/><ref name="Dominquez-Cuba"/> Large income disparities arose due to the extensive privileges enjoyed by Cuba's unionized workers.<ref name="baklanoff"/> Cuban labour unions had established limitations on mechanization and even banned dismissals in some factories.<ref name="unnecessary"/> The labour unions' privileges were obtained in large measure "at the cost of the unemployed and the peasants".<ref name="baklanoff">{{Cite journal|title=Cuba on the eve of the socialist transition: A reassessment of the backwardness-stagnation thesis|author=Eric N. Baklanoff|journal=Cuba in Transition|url=http://lanic.utexas.edu/la/ca/cuba/asce/cuba8/31baklanoff.pdf|access-date=21 June 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090713105752/http://lanic.utexas.edu/la/ca/cuba/asce/cuba8/31baklanoff.pdf|archive-date=13 July 2009|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Cuba's labour regulations ultimately caused economic stagnation. Hugh Thomas asserts that "militant unions succeeded in maintaining the position of unionized workers and, consequently, made it difficult for capital to improve efficiency."<ref name="Thomas-Cuba">{{Cite book|title=Cuba, The Pursuit of Freedom|author=Hugh Thomas|page=1173}}</ref> Between 1933 and 1958, Cuba increased economic regulation enormously.<ref name="Dominquez-Cuba"/> The regulation led to declining investment.<ref name="Dominquez-Cuba"/> The [[World Bank]] also complained that the Batista administration raised the tax burden without assessing its impact. Unemployment was high; many university graduates could not find jobs.<ref name="Dominquez-Cuba"/> After its earlier meteoric rise, the Cuban gross domestic product grew at only 1% annually on average between 1950 and 1958.<ref name="Paterson-Contesting">{{Cite book|title=Contesting Castro|author=Thomas G. Paterson}}</ref>

====Political repression and human rights abuses ====
In 1952, while receiving military, financial, and logistical support from the United States,<ref>{{cite book|last=Guerra|first=Lillian|title=Beyond Paradox: A Century of Revolution|editor1-first=Greg|editor1-last=Grandin|editor2-first=Gilbert M.|editor2-last=Joseph|year=2010|publisher=Duke University Press|location=Durham, NC|pages=199–238|series=American Encounters/Global Interactions|isbn=978-0-8223-4737-8}}</ref><ref name="FidelUntold2">''[[Fidel: The Untold Story]]''. (2001). Directed by Estela Bravo. [[First Run Features]]. (91 min). [https://www.youtube.com/embed/NW1Yh8D-xCg Viewable clip]. "Batista's forces were trained by the United States, which also armed them with tanks, artillery, and aircraft."</ref> Batista suspended the 1940 Constitution and revoked most political liberties, including the [[right to strike]]. He then aligned with the wealthiest landowners and presided over a stagnating economy that widened the gap between rich and poor Cubans.<ref name="Dictionary1950">''Historical Dictionary of the 1950s'', by [[James S. Olson|James Stuart Olson]], Greenwood Publishing Group, 2000, {{ISBN|0-313-30619-2}}, pp. 67–68.</ref> Eventually it reached the point where most of the sugar industry was in U.S. hands, and foreigners owned 70% of the arable land.<ref name="FidelUntold1">''[[Fidel: The Untold Story]]''. (2001). Directed by Estela Bravo. [[First Run Features]]. (91 min). [https://www.youtube.com/embed/oPlnGiS488s Viewable clip].</ref> Batista's repressive government then began to systematically profit from the exploitation of Cuba's commercial interests, by negotiating lucrative relationships with both the [[American Mafia]], who controlled the drug, gambling, and prostitution businesses in [[Havana]], and with large U.S.-based [[multinational corporation|multinational]] companies who were awarded lucrative contracts.<ref name="Dictionary1950" /><ref name="EnglishNocturne">''Havana Nocturne: How the Mob Owned Cuba and Then Lost It to the Revolution'', by [[T. J. English]], William Morrow, 2008, {{ISBN|0-06-114771-0}}.</ref> To quell the growing discontent amongst the populace—displayed through frequent [[student riot]]s and demonstrations—Batista established tighter censorship of the media, while also utilizing his [[Bureau for the Repression of Communist Activities]] [[secret police]] to carry out wide-scale violence, [[torture]] and [[public execution]]s. Estimates range from hundreds to about 20,000 people killed.<ref name="CIA, 1963 P. 1">CIA (1963). Political Murders in Cuba – Batista Era Compared with Castro Regime</ref><ref name="Wickham-Crowley, Timothy P. 1990 P. 63">Wickham-Crowley, Timothy P. (1990). Exploring Revolution: Essays on Latin American Insurgency and Revolutionary Theory. Armonk and London: M.E. Sharpe. P. 63 "Estimates of hundreds or perhaps about a thousand deaths due to Batista's terror are also supported by comments made by Fidel Castro and other Batista critics during the war itself."</ref><ref name="Guerra, Lillian 2012 p. 42">Guerra, Lillian (2012). Visions of Power in Cuba: Revolution, Redemption, and Resistance, 1959–1971. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. p. 42 "The likely total was probably closer to three to four thousand."</ref><ref>''Conflict, Order, and Peace in the Americas'', by the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, 1978, p. 121. "The US-supported Batista regime killed 20,000 Cubans"</ref>

===Cuban Revolution (1952&ndash;1959)===
{{Main|Cuban Revolution}}
[[File:Castro-huber-matos-camilo-cienfuegos.jpg|thumb|[[Camilo Cienfuegos]], [[Fidel Castro]], [[Huber Matos]], entering Havana on 8 January 1959]]
In 1952, [[Fidel Castro]], a young lawyer running for a seat in the Chamber of Representatives for the [[Partido Ortodoxo]], circulated a petition to depose Batista's government on the grounds that it had illegitimately suspended the electoral process. The courts ignored the petition. Castro thus resolved to use armed force to overthrow Batista; he and his brother [[Raúl Castro|Raúl]] gathered supporters, and on 26 July 1953 led an attack on the [[Moncada Barracks]] near [[Santiago de Cuba]]. The attack ended in failure{{snd}}the authorities killed several of the insurgents, captured Castro himself and sentenced him to 15 years in prison. However, the Batista government released him in 1955, when amnesty was given to many political prisoners. Castro and his brother subsequently went into exile in Mexico, where they met the Argentine revolutionary [[Ernesto "Che" Guevara]]. While in Mexico, Guevara and the Castros organized the [[26 July Movement]] with the goal of overthrowing Batista. In December 1956, Fidel Castro led a group of 82 fighters to Cuba aboard the yacht ''[[Granma (yacht)|Granma]]''. Despite a pre-landing rising in Santiago by [[Frank País]] Pesqueira and his followers among the urban pro-Castro movement, Batista's forces promptly killed, dispersed or captured most of Castro's men.

Castro escaped into the [[Sierra Maestra]] mountains with as few as 12 fighters, aided by the urban and rural opposition. Castro and Guevara then began a guerrilla campaign against the Batista régime, with their main forces supported by numerous poorly armed ''escopeteros'' and the well-armed fighters of Frank País' urban organization. Growing anti-Batista resistance, including a bloodily crushed rising by Cuban Navy personnel in Cienfuegos, soon led to chaos. At the same time, rival guerrilla groups in the [[Escambray Mountains]] also grew more effective. Castro attempted to arrange a general strike in 1958, but could not win support among Communists or labor unions.<ref name="Lewis">{{cite book|title=Authoritarian regimes in Latin America|author=Paul H. Lewis}}</ref> Multiple attempts by Batista's forces to crush the rebels ended in failure.<ref name=Verano>
{{cite web|url=http://www.acig.info/CMS/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=259&Itemid=47|title=Air war over Cuba 1956–1959|publisher=ACIG.org|date=30 November 2011|access-date=14 June 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130318145436/http://www.acig.info/CMS/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=259&Itemid=47|archive-date=18 March 2013|url-status=live}}
</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://cuba1952-1959.blogspot.co.uk/2009/12/1958-battle-of-la-plata-el-jigue.html|title=1958: Battle of La Plata (El Jigüe)|publisher=Cuba 1952–1959|date=15 December 2009|access-date=26 June 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029195517/http://cuba1952-1959.blogspot.co.uk/2009/12/1958-battle-of-la-plata-el-jigue.html|archive-date=29 October 2013|url-status=live}}</ref> Castro's forces acquired captured weaponry,{{sfn|Clodfelter|2017|p=637}} the biggest being a government [[M4 Sherman]] tank, which would be used in the [[Battle of Santa Clara]].

The United States imposed trade restrictions on the Batista administration and sent an envoy who attempted to persuade Batista to leave the country voluntarily.<ref name="Bethell-Cuba"/> With the military situation becoming untenable, Batista fled on 1 January 1959, and Castro took over. Within months Castro moved to consolidate his power by marginalizing other resistance groups and imprisoning and executing opponents and dissidents.<ref name="Juan Clark Cuba 1992 pp. 53">
Juan Clark Cuba (1992). ''Mito y Realidad: Testimonio de un Pueblo''. Saeta Ediciones (Miami). pp. 53–70.
</ref> As the revolution became more radical and continued its marginalization of the wealthy and political opponents, thousands of Cubans fled the island, eventually forming a large [[Cuban exile|exile community]] in the United States.<ref>
{{cite web|url=http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/exile-community-statistics.htm|title=Cuban Exile Community|publisher=LatinAmericanStudies.org|access-date=9 July 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130118012909/http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/exile-community-statistics.htm|archive-date=18 January 2013|url-status=live}}
</ref>