Editing History of Cuba (section)

==Government of Fidel Castro (1959&ndash;2006)==
{{Main|Cuba under Fidel Castro}}
[[File:LaCaballeriaCorrales.JPG|thumb|[[Fidel Castro]]'s [[July 26 Movement]] rebels mounted on horses in 1959]]

===Political consolidation===
{{Main|Consolidation of the Cuban Revolution}}
{{See also|Revolution first, elections later|Huber Matos affair}}
On 1 January 1959, [[Che Guevara]] marched his troops from [[Santa Clara, Cuba|Santa Clara]] to Havana, without encountering resistance.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://www.marxists.org/history/cuba/subject/bay-of-pigs/index.htm|title=Cuban History: Bay of Pigs|website=www.marxists.org|access-date=2020-01-11}}</ref> Meanwhile, Fidel Castro marched his soldiers to the Moncada Army Barracks, where all 5,000 soldiers in the barracks defected to the Revolutionary movement.<ref name=":0" /> On 4 February 1959, Fidel Castro announced a massive reform plan which included a public works project, a land reform granting nearly 200,000 families farmland, and nationalization of various industries.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1959/02/04/89115664.html|title=Castro Outlines Sweeling Plans; Talks of Transformed Cuba in Five Years, Based on Agrarian Reform|work=The New York Times |language=en|access-date=2020-01-11}}</ref>

On April 9, 1959, Fidel Castro declared that elections would be postponed; under the rationale of "[[revolution first, elections later]]", inferring Castro needed time for domestic reforms before elections could take place.<ref name=Democracy>{{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>{{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> On October 11, 1959, army officer [[Huber Matos affair|Huber Matos resigned]] in protest of communist influence in the Cuban government. After Matos' arrest, a greater trend of political removals followed.<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>

Fidel Castro eventually purged all political opponents from the administration. Loyalty to Castro and the revolution became the primary criterion for all appointments.<ref name="Staten-Cuba" /> [[Mass organisation]] such as [[labor union]]s that opposed the revolutionary government were made illegal.<ref name="Lewis" />{{Page needed|date=July 2009}} The government of Cuba soon encountered opposition from internal opposition groups and from the United States.<ref name="Chomsky 2003">{{cite book|last=Chomsky|first=N.|title=Hegemony or Survival|year=2003|publisher=Metropolitan Books|url=http://www.chomsky.info/books/hegemony02.htm|access-date=3 November 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101213041009/http://chomsky.info/books/hegemony02.htm|archive-date=13 December 2010|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Break with the United States===
{{Main|United States embargo against Cuba}}
{{See also|Agrarian reforms in Cuba}}
The United States recognized the Castro government on 7 January 1959. President [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] sent a new ambassador, [[Philip Bonsal]], to replace [[Earl E. T. Smith]], who had been close to Batista.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QHWGwG71hzMC&q=%22+The+United+States+recognized+the+Castro+government+on+7+January+1959,+six+days+after+Batista+fled+Cuba.+President+Eisenhower+sent+a+new+ambassador,+Philip+Bonsal,+to+replace+Earl+E.+T.+Smith&pg=PA12|title=Conflicting Missions: Havana, Washington, and Africa, 1959-1976|last=Gleijeses|first=Piero|date=2011-03-01|publisher=Univ of North Carolina Press|isbn=978-0-8078-6162-2|language=en}}</ref> The [[Eisenhower administration]], in agreement with the American media<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Eisenhower era (article) {{!}} 1950s America|url=https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/us-history/postwarera/1950s-america/a/the-eisenhower-era|website=Khan Academy|language=en|access-date=2020-05-29}}</ref> and [[United States Congress|Congress]], did this with the assumption that "Cuba [would] remain in the U.S. sphere of influence". However, Castro belonged to a faction which opposed U.S. influence. On 5 June 1958, at the height of the revolution, he had written: "The Americans are going to pay dearly for what they are doing. When the war is over, I'll start a much longer and bigger war of my own: the war I'm going to fight against them."<ref>Castro to Celia Sanches, 5 June 1958 in Franqui: Diary, p. 338.</ref> "Castro dreamed of a sweeping revolution that would uproot his country's oppressive socioeconomic structure and of a Cuba that would be free of the United States".<ref>
Quotations from "Unofficial Visit of Prime Minister Castro of Cuba to Washington – A Tentative Evaluation", enclosed in Herter to Eisenhower, 23 April 1959, jFRUS 1958–60, 6:483, and Special NIE in: "The Situation in the Caribbean through 1959", 30 June 1959, p. 3, NSA
</ref>

Only six months after Castro seized power, the Eisenhower administration began to plot his overthrow. The United Kingdom was persuaded to cancel a sale of [[Hawker Hunter]] [[fighter aircraft]] to Cuba. The US [[United States National Security Council|National Security Council]] (NSC) met in March 1959 to consider means to institute a régime-change and the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] (CIA) began arming guerillas inside Cuba in May.<ref name="Chomsky 2003"/> In January 1960 [[Roy R. Rubottom, Jr.]], [[Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs|Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs]], summarized the evolution of [[Cuba–United States relations]] since January 1959: <blockquote>"The period from January to March might be characterized as the honeymoon period of the Castro government. In April a downward trend in US–Cuban relations had been evident… In June we had reached the decision that it was not possible to achieve our objectives with Castro in power and had agreed to undertake the program referred to by Undersecretary of State [[Livingston T. Merchant]]. On 31 October in agreement with the [[Central Intelligence Agency]], the Department had recommended to the President approval of a program along the lines referred to by Mr. Merchant. The approved program authorized us to support elements in Cuba opposed to the Castro government while making Castro's downfall seem to be the result of his own mistakes."<ref>NSC meeting, 14 January 1960, FRUS 1958–60, 6:742–743.</ref><ref>Braddock to SecState, Havana, 1 February 1960, FRUS 1958–60, 6:778.</ref><ref>
Compare:
{{cite book
| last1 = Gleijeses
| first1 = Piero
| year = 2002
| chapter = Castro's Cuba, 1959–1964
| title = Conflicting Missions: Havana, Washington, and Africa, 1959–1976
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=QHWGwG71hzMC
| series = Envisioning Cuba
| publisher = Univ of North Carolina Press
| publication-date = 2011
| pages = 14–15
| isbn = 9780807861622
| access-date = 2018-02-25
| quote = At an NSC meeting on 14 January 1960, Under Secretary Livingstone Merchant noted that 'our present objective was to adjust all our actions in such a way as to accelerate the development of an opposition in Cuba which would bring about ... a new government favorable to U.S. interests.' He then asked the assistant secretary for inter-American affairs, Roy Rubottom, to summarize the evolution of U.S.-Cuban relations since January 1959: [...] 'The period from January to March might be characterized as the honeymoon period of the Castro government. In April a downward trend in US–Cuban relations had been evident… In June we had reached the decision that it was not possible to achieve our objectives with Castro in power and had agreed to undertake the program referred to by Mr. Merchant. [...] On 31 October, in agreement with the Central Intelligence Agency, the Department had recommended to the President approval of a program along the lines referred to by Mr. Merchant. The approved program authorized us to support elements in Cuba opposed to the Castro government while making Castro's downfall seem to be the result of his own mistakes.'}}</ref>
</blockquote>

===Domestic repression and Soviet relations===
{{Further|Grassroots dictatorship}}
{{See also|La Coubre explosion|Coletilla}}
[[File:Protestas en contra de la visita de Anastas Mikoyan a Cuba.jpg|thumb|Protests against the visit of soviet diplomat [[Anastas Mikoyan]], dispersed by a policeman firing his gun. (February 5, 1960)]]
A popular desire for some form of urban-based civil defence cumilated after the [[La Coubre explosion|explosion of the French freighter ''La Coubre'']].<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title=The Transformation of Political Culture in Cuba.|last=Fagen|first=Richard|publisher=Stanford University Press|year=1969|isbn=9780804707022|location=Stanford University|pages=[https://archive.org/details/transformationof0000fage/page/70 70]|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/transformationof0000fage/page/70}}</ref> Speaking the day after the explosion, at the funeral for 27 dock workers killed, [[Fidel Castro]] said that the United States was responsible for the explosion, calling it "the work of those who do not wish us to receive arms for our defense".<ref>{{cite news | accessdate = 21 March 2016 | date = 6 March 1960 | url = https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1960/03/06/99727202.pdf | title = Castro Links U.S. to Ship 'Sabotage'; Denial is Swift | first = R. Hart | last = Phillips | work = New York Times }}</ref> U.S. Secretary of State [[Christian Herter]] denied that on 7 March in a meeting with the Cuban chargé d'affaires in Washington, then delivered a formal note of protest to Cuban Foreign Minister [[Raul Roa]] on 15 March.<ref>{{cite news | work= New York Times | accessdate = 21 March 2016 | title = U.S. Note Is Delivered | date  = 16 March 1960 | url = https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1960/03/16/99852765.pdf }}</ref>

Relations between the United States and Cuba deteriorated rapidly as the Cuban government, in reaction to the refusal of [[Royal Dutch Shell]], [[Standard Oil]] and [[Texaco]] to refine [[petroleum]] from the Soviet Union in Cuban refineries under their control, took control of those refineries in July 1960. The Eisenhower administration promoted a boycott of Cuba by oil companies; Cuba responded by nationalizing the refineries in August 1960. Cuba expropriated more US-owned properties, notably those belonging to the [[ITT Corporation|International Telephone and Telegraph Company]] (ITT) and to the [[United Fruit Company]]. In the Castro government's first [[agrarian reform]] law, on 17 May 1959, the state sought to limit the size of land holdings, and to distribute that land to small farmers in "Vital Minimum" tracts. This law served as a pretext for seizing lands held by foreigners and redistributing them to Cuban citizens.

Finally, on September 28, 1960, after a bombing by the Presidential Palace, Castro announced the formation of vigilance organizations to report suspicious activity. This vigilance organization became the [[Committees for the Defense of the Revolution]].<ref name="CNN World">{{Cite web |url=http://articles.cnn.com/2010-09-28/world/cuba.castro_1_raul-castro-fidel-castro-marks?_s=PM:WORLD |title=CNN World |access-date=2012-03-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110409001629/http://articles.cnn.com/2010-09-28/world/cuba.castro_1_raul-castro-fidel-castro-marks?_s=PM:WORLD |archive-date=2011-04-09 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

By the end of 1960, all opposition newspapers had been closed down and all radio and television stations had come under state control.<ref name="Lewis" />{{Rp|[https://books.google.com/books?id%3DLAvw-YXm4TsC&pg%3DPA189 189]}} Teachers and professors found to have involvement with counter-revolution were purged.<ref name="Lewis" />{{Rp|[https://books.google.com/books?id%3DLAvw-YXm4TsC&pg%3DPA189 189]}} Fidel's brother [[Raúl Castro]] became the commander of the [[Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces|Revolutionary Armed Forces]].<ref name="Lewis" /> {{Rp|[https://books.google.com/books?id%3DLAvw-YXm4TsC&pg%3DPA189 189]}} In September 1960, a system of [[neighborhood watch]] networks, known as [[Committees for the Defense of the Revolution]] (CDR), was created.<ref name="Lewis" />{{Rp|[https://books.google.com/books?id%3DLAvw-YXm4TsC&pg%3DPA189 189]}}

The United States severed diplomatic relations with Cuba on 3 January 1961, and [[US embargo against Cuba|further restricted trade]] in February 1962.<ref>{{cite web |title=Case Studies in Economic Sanctions and Terrorism: US v. Gta 5 (1960– : Castro) |url=http://www.iie.com/publications/papers/sanctions-cuba-60-3.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.iie.com/publications/papers/sanctions-cuba-60-3.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live | publisher= Peterson Institute for International Economics |access-date=14 May 2019 |date=October 2011 |quote=7 February 1962[:] By presidential proclamation, US bans virtually all imports from Cuba.}}</ref> The [[Organization of American States]], under pressure from the United States, suspended Cuba's membership on 22 January 1962, and the U.S. government banned all U.S.–Cuban trade on 7 February. The [[Kennedy administration]] extended this ban on 8 February 1963, forbidding U.S. citizens to travel to Cuba or to conduct financial or commercial transactions with the country.<ref>Priestland, Jane (editor, 2003). ''British Archives on Cuba: Cuba under Castro 1959–1962''. Archival Publications International Limited: London. {{ISBN|1-903008-20-4}}.</ref> The United States later pressured other nations and American companies with foreign [[Subsidiary|subsidiaries]] to restrict trade with Cuba. The [[Helms–Burton Act]] of 1996 makes it very difficult for foreign companies doing business with Cuba to also do business in the United States.

Cuba began to pursue more close relations with the Soviet Union. As early as September 1959, Valdim Kotchergin, a [[KGB]] agent, was seen in Cuba.<ref>British Foreign Office. Chancery American Department, Foreign Office, London, 2 September 1959 (2181/59) to British Embassy Havana. Classified as restricted. Released 2000 among British Foreign Office papers. Foreign Office Files for Cuba, Part 1: Revolution in Cuba. "In our letter 1011/59 May 6 we mentioned that a Russian workers' delegation had been invited to participate in the May Day celebrations here, but had been delayed. The interpreter with the party, which arrived later and stayed in Cuba a few days, was called Vadim Kotchergin although he was at the time using what he subsequently claimed was his mother's name of Liston (?). He remained in the background, and did not attract any attention."</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=http://www.canf.org/2005/1es/noticias-de-Cuba/2005-nov-07-el-campo-de-entrenamiento.htm |publisher=Cuban American Foundation |title=El campo de entrenamiento "Punto Cero" donde el Partido Comunista de Cuba (PCC) adiestra a terroristas nacionales e internacionales |access-date=8 January 2008 |date=7 November 2005 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080828201858/http://www.canf.org/2005/1es/noticias-de-Cuba/2005-nov-07-el-campo-de-entrenamiento.htm |archive-date=28 August 2008}} (English title: The training camp "Point Zero" where the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) trained national and international terrorists)<br />  "… Los coroneles soviéticos de la KGB Vadim Kochergin y Victor Simonov (ascendido a general en 1970) fueron entrenadores en "Punto Cero" desde finales de los años 60 del siglo pasado. Uno de los" graduados" por Simonov en este campo de entrenamiento es Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, más conocido como "Carlos El Chacal". Otro "alumno" de esta instalación del terror es el mexicano Rafael Sebastián Guillén, alias "subcomandante Marcos", quien se "graduó" en "Punto Cero" a principio de los años 80."</ref> Jorge Luis Vasquez, a Cuban who was imprisoned in [[East Germany]], states that the East German [[Stasi]] trained the personnel of the Cuban Interior Ministry (MINIT).<ref>{{Cite book |url=http://www.elnuevoherald.com/209/story/112259.html |last=Levitin |first=Michael |title=La Stasi entrenó a la Seguridad cubana |publisher=Nuevo Herald|date=4 November 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080928223044/http://www.elnuevoherald.com/209/story/112259.html |archive-date=28 September 2008}}</ref> The relationship between the KGB and the Cuban [[Intelligence Directorate]] (DI) was complex and marked by both times of close cooperation and times of extreme competition. The Soviet Union saw the new revolutionary government in Cuba as an excellent proxy agent in areas of the world where Soviet involvement was not popular on a local level. [[Nikolai Leonov]], the KGB chief in [[Mexico City]], was one of the first Soviet officials to recognize Fidel Castro's potential as a revolutionary, and urged the Soviet Union to strengthen ties with the new Cuban leader. The USSR saw Cuba as having far more appeal with new revolutionary movements, western intellectuals, and members of the [[New Left]], given Cuba's perceived [[David and Goliath]] struggle against U.S. "imperialism". In 1963, shortly after the [[Cuban Missile Crisis]], 1,500 DI agents, including [[Che Guevara]], were invited to the USSR for intensive training in intelligence operations.

===Golden exile and Bay of Pigs===
[[File:Attack near Playa Giron. April 19, 1961. - panoramio.jpg|thumb|right|Cuban troops advancing on [[Brigade 2506]] invaders at the Bay of Pigs.]]
{{Main|Golden exile|Bay of Pigs Invasion}}
In the 1961 [[New Year's Day]] parade, the Cuban administration exhibited [[List of tanks of the Soviet Union|Soviet tanks]] and other weapons.<ref name="Staten-Cuba">{{Cite book|title=The history of Cuba|author=Clifford L. Staten}}</ref> Cuban officers began to receive extended military training in the Soviet Union, becoming proficient in the use of advanced Soviet weapons systems.<ref>{{cite web |title=Cuban Military Culture |url=https://gordoninstitute.fiu.edu/policy-innovation/military-culture-series/frank-mora-brian-fonseca-and-brian-latell-2016-cuban-military-culture.pdf |access-date=11 June 2020 |archive-date=11 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201111215051/https://gordoninstitute.fiu.edu/policy-innovation/military-culture-series/frank-mora-brian-fonseca-and-brian-latell-2016-cuban-military-culture.pdf |url-status=dead}}</ref>

Castro's policies in Cuba slowly led hundreds of thousands of upper- and middle-class Cubans to flee to the United States and other countries. By 1961, thousands of Cubans had fled for the United States. On 22 March of that year, an exile council was formed.<ref name="Bethell-Cuba"/> The council planned to defeat the Cuban regime and form a provisional government with [[José Miró Cardona]], a noted leader in the civil opposition against Batista, to serve as temporary president.

In April 1961, less than four months into the Kennedy administration, the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] (CIA) executed a plan that had been developed under the Eisenhower administration. This military campaign to topple Cuba's revolutionary government is now known as the Bay of Pigs Invasion (or ''La Batalla de Girón'' in Cuba).<ref name="Chomsky 2003"/><ref name="mtholyoke.edu">US Department of State, ''Foreign Relations of the United States 1961–1963'', Vol. X Cuba, 1961–1962, Washington, D.C. [http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/cuba/mongoose.htm] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131101172705/https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/cuba/mongoose.htm|date=1 November 2013}})</ref> The aim of the invasion was to empower existing opposition militant groups to "overthrow the Communist regime" and establish "a new government with which the United States can live in peace."<ref name="mtholyoke.edu"/> The invasion was carried out by a CIA-sponsored paramilitary group of over 1,400 Cuban exiles called [[Brigade 2506]]. Arriving in Cuba by boat from [[Guatemala]] on 15 April, the brigade initially overwhelmed Cuba's counter-offensive. But by 20 April, the brigade surrendered and was publicly interrogated before being sent back to the US. The invasion helped further build popular support for the new Cuban government.<ref>Angelo Trento. ''Castro and Cuba : From the revolution to the present''. Arris books. 2005.</ref> The Kennedy administration thereafter began [[Cuban Project|Operation Mongoose]], a covert CIA campaign of sabotage against Cuba, including the arming of militant groups, sabotage of Cuban infrastructure, and plots to assassinate Castro.<ref>Domínguez, Jorge I. "The @#$%& Missile Crisis (Or, What was 'Cuban' about US Decisions during the Cuban Missile Crisis". ''Diplomatic History: The Journal of the Society for Historians of Foreign Relations'', Vol. 24, No. 2, (Spring 2000): 305–315.)</ref><ref>Jack Anderson (18 January 1971). "6 Attempts to Kill Castro Laid to CIA". ''The Washington Post''</ref> All this reinforced Castro's distrust of the US.

===Escalante affair===
{{Main|Escalante affair}}
In July 1961, the [[Integrated Revolutionary Organizations]] (IRO) was formed, merging Fidel Castro's [[26th of July Movement]] with [[Blas Roca]]'s [[Popular Socialist Party (Cuba)|Popular Socialist Party]] and Faure Chomón's Revolutionary Directory 13 March. Later, on 26 March 1962, the IRO became the United Party of the Cuban Socialist Revolution (PURSC), which, in turn, became the [[Communist Party of Cuba|Communist Party]] on 3 October 1965, with Castro as [[First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba|First Secretary]].<ref>Nohlen, p. 197</ref> The constitution secured the Communist Party's central role in governing Cuba, but kept party affiliation out of the election process.<ref>[http://sshl.ucsd.edu/collections/las/cuba/1990.html "Cuba: Elections and Events 1991–2001"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070301123039/http://sshl.ucsd.edu/collections/las/cuba/1990.html |date=1 March 2007}}. UCSD Latin American Election Statistics Home. 2010. Retrieved 19 February 2014.</ref>

The creation of the ORI was entrusted to PSP executive secretary [[Anibal Escalante]], who used this opportunity to place PSP executives in positions of power and then purge the army of old guerrilla leaders, and speed up agrarian reforms which caused an economic decline. These actions were unpopular in the country causing Fidel Castro to condemn the ORI and order for its restructuring.<ref name="modern">{{cite book |last=Seblin |first=Eric |date=2018 |title=Modern Latin American Revolutions |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AvZKDwAAQBAJ&dq=escalante+affair&pg=PT73 |publisher=Taylor and Francis |isbn=9780429974595}}</ref> At the end of the affair, Castro dismissed Escalante and his compatriots from the IRO.<ref>{{cite book |last=Artaraz |first=K |title=Cuba and Western Intellectuals since 1959 |date=5 January 2009 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OafFAAAAQBAJ&dq=escalante+affair&pg=PA32 |publisher=St. Martin's Press |page=32 |isbn=9780230618299 }}</ref>

The affair alarmed the Soviet leadership who feared a loss of good relations with Cuba. Soviet leadership was also growing to fear a possible U.S. invasion of Cuba. In this crisis of international relations the Soviet Union sent more SA-2 anti-aircraft missiles in April as well as a regiment of regular soviet troops.<ref name="Kennedy"/>

===Cuban Missile Crisis===
{{Main|Cuban Missile Crisis}}
Tensions between the two governments peaked again during the October 1962 [[Cuban Missile Crisis]]. The United States had a much larger arsenal of [[Intermediate-range ballistic missile|long-range nuclear weapons]] than the Soviet Union, as well as [[medium-range ballistic missile]]s (MRBMs), whereas the Soviet Union had a large stockpile of [[Medium-range ballistic missile|medium-range nuclear weapons]]. Cuba agreed to let the Soviets secretly place SS-4 ''Sandal'' and SS-5 ''Skean'' MRBMs on their territory. After [[Lockheed U-2]] reconnaissance photos confirmed the missiles' presence in Cuba, the United States established a cordon in international waters to stop Soviet ships from bringing in more (designated a [[quarantine]] rather than a [[blockade]] to avoid issues with [[international law]]). At the same time, Castro was getting a little too extreme for Moscow, so at the last moment the Soviets called back their ships. In addition, they agreed to remove the missiles already there in exchange for an agreement that the United States would not invade Cuba.

===Early economic planning===
{{Main|Four Year Plan (Cuba)|Great Debate (Cuba)}}
[[File:Che Guevara.jpg|thumb|[[Che Guevara]], posing in his office as Minister of Industries (1963).]]
Starting in 1961, Che Guevara spearheaded a [[Four Year Plan (Cuba)|Four Year Plan]] to rapidly industrialize the Cuban economy, by minimizing the sugar industry in favor of other agricultural sectors. The plan was designed to be carried out from 1962 to 1965, but was cancelled early in 1964 due to economic setbacks.<ref>{{cite book |last=Jefferies |first=Ian |date=1993 |title=Socialist Economies and the Transition to the Market A Guide
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pe6JAgAAQBAJ&dq=juceplan+four+year+plan&pg=PA208 |location= |publisher=Taylor and Francis |page=208 |isbn=9781134903603 |access-date=}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Thomas |first=Hugh |date=2013 |title=Cuba A History |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W81V_ySjDGAC&dq=juceplan+four+year+plan&pg=PT839 |location= |publisher=Penguin Books Limited |page= |isbn=9780718192921 |access-date=}}</ref><ref name=order>{{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=che+guevara+%22accelerated+industrialization%22&pg=PA383 |location= |publisher=Harvard University Press |pages=383–384 |isbn=9780674034280}}</ref> Agricultural diversification led to a steep drop in sugar production, which was a vital market in Cuba.<ref name=Luis>{{cite book |last= Fernando Ayerbe |first=Luis |date=2018 |title=The Cuban Revolution |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=od5dDwAAQBAJ&dq=guevara+four+year+plan&pg=PA1987 |location= |publisher=Editora Unesp |page= |isbn=9788595462656 |access-date=}}</ref>

Following the economic decline brought by the Four Year Plan, Fidel Castro invited leftist economists from all over the world were to print their opinions in economic journals in Cuba about how Cuba should develop into a communist society. The two main spokespeople in the debate were [[Che Guevara]] who argued for an independent Cuban model to communism, and [[Carlos Rafael Rodríguez]] of the [[Popular Socialist Party (Cuba)|Popular Socialist Party]] who advocated for more of a "soviet" model towards communism which meant a development of capitalism before socialism and later communism.<ref name=def>{{cite book |last=Kapcia |first=Antoni |date=2022 |title=Historical Dictionary of Cuba |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xbpmEAAAQBAJ&dq=the+great+debate+1962+cuba&pg=PA261 |publisher=Rowman and Littlefield Publishers |pages=261–262 |isbn=9781442264557}}</ref><ref name=today>{{cite book |last1= Alpert |first1= Michael |last2= Hahnel |first2= Robin |date=1981 |title=Socialism Today and Tomorrow |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n3LYQYht5cIC&dq=che+guevara+great+debate&pg=PA194 |publisher=South End Press |pages=194–196 |isbn=9780896080775}}</ref>

This [[Great Debate (Cuba)|"Great Debate"]] came to an end when Guevara left Cuba in 1965.<ref name=":0" />{{Rp|page=37}} Initially, his view lost support.<ref name=":0" />{{Rp|page=37}} In 1968, however, Fidel Castro announced the reforms of the Revolutionary Offensive which drew on Guevara's ideas.<ref name=":0" />{{Rp|page=37}}

===Militarization of labor===
{{Further|Freedom Flights|Revolutionary Offensive}}
{{See also|Military Units to Aid Production}}
[[File:Terapia de reorientación sexual en Cuba.jpg|thumb|200px|Sexual reorientation therapy at a Cuban [[Military Units to Aid Production|UMAP camp]]. (1967)]]
[[File:Freedom flight 1971.jpg|thumb|250px|Refugees on a [[Freedom Flights|Freedom Flight]] in 1971.]]
[[Military Units to Aid Production]] or UMAPs (''Unidades Militares para la Ayuda de Producción''){{snd}} in effect, [[forced labor]] [[concentration camp]]s{{snd}} were established in 1965 as a way to eliminate alleged "[[bourgeois]]" and "[[counter-revolutionary]]" values in the Cuban population.<ref name="castrogenocideplan">{{Cite web|url=http://www.amigospais-guaracabuya.org/oagaq003.php|title=UMAP: Castro's genocide plan|author1=Agustín Blázquez|author2=Jaums Sutton|access-date=27 July 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120721213453/http://www.amigospais-guaracabuya.org/oagaq003.php|archive-date=21 July 2012|url-status=live}}</ref> The creation of the UMAP camps themselves was initially proposed by [[Fidel Castro]] and implemented by his brother [[Raúl Castro]] after a state visit to the [[Soviet Union]] and [[Bulgaria]], where he learned that the Soviets ran camps for "anti-socials."<ref name="Almendros">Almendros, Néstor, dir. Improper Conduct. 1984. Film.</ref> According to an April 14, 1966 article in ''[[Granma (newspaper)|Granma]]'', the official state newspaper, UMAP camps were proposed at a November 1965 meeting between Fidel Castro and military leaders.<ref name="Ros_155">{{harvp|Ros|2004|p=155}}</ref> Both were concerned over how to handle "misplaced elements."<ref name="Ros_155"/>

On 6 November 1965, Cuba and the United States agreed to an airlift for Cubans who wanted to emigrate to the United States. The first of these so-called [[Freedom Flights]] left Cuba on 1 December 1965.<ref name=Permit2012>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-19972026|title=US welcomes Cuba decision to end foreign travel permits|publisher=BBC|date=16 October 2012|access-date=21 October 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121018190553/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-19972026|archive-date=18 October 2012|url-status=live}}</ref> Emigrants were often forced to serve in labor camps before departure, and all their property was confiscated before their exit from Cuba.<ref name="Freedom Flights">{{cite book|last1=Philipson|first1=Lorrin|title=Freedom Flights|url=https://archive.org/details/freedomflightscu00phil|url-access=registration|date=1980|publisher=Random House|location=New York|first2=Rafael |last2=Llerena |isbn=9780394511054 }}</ref>

In 1968, the "[[Revolutionary Offensive]]" was announced, as a campaign to nationalize all remaining private small businesses, which at the time totaled to be about 58,000 small enterprises.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.american.edu/centers/latin-american-latino-studies/upload/2015-au-ssrc-henken-vignoli-enterprising-cuba-final.pdf |title=Enterprising Cuba: Citizen Empowerment, State Abandonment, or US Business Opportunity?  |last1=Henken |first1=Ted |last2=Vignoli |first2=Gabriel |date=2015 |website=american.edu |publisher=Center for Latin American and Latino Studies |access-date= August 19, 2020}}</ref> The campaign would spur industrialization in Cuba and focus the economy on sugar production, specifically to a deadline for an annual sugar harvest of 10 million tons by 1970. The economic focus on sugar production involved international volunteers and the mobilization of workers from all sectors of the Cuban economy.<ref name=castro>{{cite journal |last1=Prevost |first1=Grey |date=2007 |title=Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution |url=https://digitalcommons.csbsju.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1040&context=headwaters |journal=Headwaters |volume=24 |issue=1 |pages=25–26 |access-date=August 19, 2020}}</ref> Economic mobilization also coincided with greater militarization of Cuban political structures and the Cuban workforce in general, which was put under military command.<ref name=decade>{{cite book  |date=2018 |title=Cuba's Forgotten Decade How the 1970s Shaped the Revolution |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ek1jDwAAQBAJ&dq=revolutionary+offensive+zafra&pg=PA72 |publisher=Lexington Books |pages=72–73 |isbn=9781498568746}}</ref> Some of the small merchants whose enterprises were nationalized in the offensive chose to leave Cuba in the [[Freedom Flights|"Freedom Flights" airlift]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Pedraza |first1=Silvia |date=1998 |title=Cuba's Revolution and Exodus |url=https://quod.lib.umich.edu/j/jii/4750978.0005.204/--cuba-s-revolution-and-exodus?rgn=main;view=fulltext |journal=The Journal of the International Institute |volume=5 |issue=2 |access-date=August 19, 2020}}</ref> By 1971, over 250,000 Cubans in general, had flown to the United States in the [[Freedom Flights]].<ref name=Permit2012/>

===Political institutionalization===
{{Main|Institutionalization process|Grey years}}
{{Further|Sovietization of Cuba}}
[[File:F0026167.jpg|thumb|265px|Fidel Castro at the first congress of the Communist Party of Cuba.]]
By the 1970s, the standard of living in Cuba was "extremely spartan" and discontent was rife.<ref name="Bethell-Latin America">{{Cite book|title=The Cambridge History of Latin America|author=Leslie Bethell}}</ref> Castro changed economic policies in the first half of the 1970s.<ref name="Bethell-Latin America"/> In the 1970s unemployment reappeared as problem. The solution was to criminalize unemployment with 1971 Anti-Loafing Law; the unemployed would be jailed.<ref name="Lewis"/>{{Rp|[https://books.google.com/books?id%3DLAvw-YXm4TsC&pg%3DPA194 194]}}

After 1971, Cuba entered its "grey years:, which are a loosely defined period in [[Cuba]]n history, generally agreed to have started with the [[Heberto Padilla#Imprisonment|Padilla affair]] in 1971.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal|last=Artaraz|first=Kepa|date=2017|title=Constructing Identities in a Contested Setting: Cuba's Intellectual Elite during and after the Revolution.|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26382600|journal=Oral History|volume=45|issue=2|pages=50–59|jstor=26382600}}</ref> The "grey years" are often associated with the tenure of [[Luis Pavón Tamayo]] ([[:de:Luis Pavón|de]]) as the head of Cuba's National Cultural Council ("''Consejo Nacional de Cuba''", or CNC) from 1971 to 1976.<ref name="Gray Years">{{Cite journal|last=Weppler-Grogan|first=Doreen|date=2010|title=Cultural Policy, the Visual Arts, and the Advance of the Cuban Revolution in the Aftermath of the Gray Years.|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24487232|journal=Cuban Studies|volume=41|pages=143–165|doi=10.1353/cub.2010.a413143 |jstor=24487232}}</ref> The grey years were generally defined by cultural censorship,<ref name=":7">{{Cite journal|last=Bustamante |first=Michael J.|date=2019|title=Cultural Politics and Political Cultures of the Cuban Revolution: New Directions in Scholarship|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26614333|journal=Cuban Studies|issue=47|pages=3–18|doi=|jstor=26614333|issn=0361-4441}}</ref> harassment of intellectuals and artists,<ref name="Gray Years" /> and the ostracization of members of the LGBT+ community.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book|last=Randall|first=Margaret|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.36019/9780813546452|title=To Change the World|date=2009|publisher=Rutgers University Press|isbn=978-0-8135-4645-2|page=174|doi=10.36019/9780813546452}}</ref> Greater monetary influence from the [[Soviet Union]] during this time period pressured Cuba into adopting a model of cultural repression that was reflected in Cuba's domestic policy throughout the 1970s.<ref name="Gray Years" />

A period of institutionalization was kickstarted by the first official congress of the [[Communist Party of Cuba]] in December 1975. The meeting approved the development of a "System of Direction for Economic Planning" (SDPE), which was modeled on soviet economic planning and prioritized profit making. The implementation of the SDPE took ten years.<ref>{{cite book |last=Louis Horowitz |first=Irving |author-link= |date=1995 |title=Cuban Communism/8th Editi |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Cuban_Communism_8th_Editi/yNemVdadVxcC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=institutionalization+of+the+revolution+cuba+1976+1985&pg=PA293&printsec=frontcover |location= |publisher=Transaction Publishers |page=293 |isbn=9781412820899}}</ref> In 1976, a new constitution was also approved. The constitution was modeled off the Soviet system, and introduced the [[National Assembly of People's Power]] as the institution of indirect representation in government.<ref>{{cite book |last=Kapcia |first=Antoni |author-link= |date=2008 |title=Cuba in Revolution A History Since the Fifties |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Cuba_in_Revolution/gebxAQAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=institutionalization+of+the+revolution+cuba+1976+1985&pg=PA1935&printsec=frontcover |location= |publisher=Reaktion Books |page=1935 |isbn=9781861894489}}</ref>

===Involvement in Third World conflicts===
{{Main|Cuban military internationalism|Foreign interventions by Cuba}}
{{further|Cuban intervention in Angola}}

[[File:Soldati cubani.jpg|thumb|Soldiers of [[Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces|FAR]]]]

[[File:Cuban PT-76 Angola.JPG|thumb|Cuban [[PT-76]] tank crew on routine security duties in Angola]]

From its inception, the Cuban Revolution defined itself as [[Internationalism (politics)|internationalist]], seeking to spread its revolutionary ideals abroad and gain foreign allies. Although still a developing country itself, Cuba supported African, Latin American and Asian countries in the fields of military development, health and education.<ref>{{cite book |title=Parameters: Journal of the US Army War College |date=1977 |publisher=U.S. Army War College |page=13 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kMdLAQAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA13}}</ref> These "[[Cuban military internationalism|overseas adventures]]" not only irritated the United States but were also quite often a source of dispute with Cuba's ostensible allies in the [[Kremlin]].<ref>Jim Lobe. [http://www.strategypage.com/militaryforums/50-9.aspx "Subject: Cuba followed US into Angola"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080108140241/http://www.strategypage.com/militaryforums/50-9.aspx |date=8 January 2008}}. StrategyPage.com. 2004. Retrieved 3 February 2013.</ref>

The [[Nicaraguan Revolution|Sandinista insurgency]] in [[Nicaragua]], which led to the demise of the [[Somoza]] dictatorship in 1979, was openly supported by Cuba. However, it was on the African continent where Cuba was most active, supporting a total of 17 liberation movements or leftist governments, in countries including [[Angola]], [[Equatorial Guinea]], [[Ethiopia]], [[Guinea-Bissau]], and [[Mozambique]]. Cuba offered to send troops to [[Vietnam]], but the initiative was turned down by the Vietnamese.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Origins of the Angolan Civil War: Foreign Intervention and Domestic Political Conflict, 1961–76 |date=2016 |publisher=Springer |page=141}}</ref>

Cuba had some 39,000–40,000 military personnel abroad by the late 1970s, with the bulk of the forces in [[Sub-Saharan Africa]] but with some 1,365 stationed among [[Algeria]], [[Iraq]], [[Libya]], and [[South Yemen]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Suchlicki |first1=Jaime |title=The Cuban Military Under Castro |date=1989 |publisher=Transaction Publishers |page=41}}</ref> By 1982, Cuba possessed the best equipped and largest per capita armed forces in Latin America.<ref name="cubamilitary">{{Cite web|url=http://www.disam.dsca.mil/pubs/Vol%205-2/Cuban.pdf|title=Cuban Armed Forces and the Soviet Military Presence |access-date=21 June 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090324232416/http://www.disam.dsca.mil/pubs/Vol%205-2/Cuban.pdf|archive-date=24 March 2009|url-status=dead}}</ref> Moscow used Cuban surrogate troops in Africa and the Middle East because they had a high level of training for combat in [[Third World]] environments, familiarity with Soviet weapons, physical toughness and a tradition of successful [[guerrilla warfare]] dating back to the uprisings against Spain in the 19th century.<ref>{{cite news |title=Role of Cuban Soldier in Angola |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1976/03/03/archives/role-of-cuban-soldier-in-angola-he-had-been-fitted-both-for-region.html |work=The New York Times |date=3 March 1976}}</ref> An estimated 7,000–11,000 Cubans died in conflicts in Africa.

As early as 1961, Cuba supported the [[National Liberation Front (Algeria)|National Liberation Front]] in [[Algeria]] against France.<ref name="ReferenceA">Gleijeses, Piero: Conflicting Missions: Havana, Washington, and Africa, (The University of North Carolina Press)</ref> In 1964, Cuba supported the [[Simba Rebellion]] of adherents of [[Patrice Lumumba]] in Congo-Leopoldville (present-day [[Democratic Republic of the Congo]]).<ref name="ReferenceA"/>  Some 40–50 Cubans [[Guinea-Bissau War of Independence|fought against Portugal]] in [[Guinea-Bissau]] each year from 1966 until independence in 1974. In late 1973, there were 4,000 Cuban tank troops in [[Syria]] as part of an armored brigade which took part in the [[Yom Kippur War]] until May 1974.<ref>{{cite web |title=Foreign Intervention by Cuba |url=https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP77M00144R000400100003-7.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170122223212/https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP77M00144R000400100003-7.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-date=22 January 2017}}</ref>

Its [[Cuban intervention in Angola|involvement]] in the [[Angolan Civil War]] was particularly intense and noteworthy with heavy assistance given to the Marxist–Leninist [[MPLA]].<ref name="ReferenceA"/><ref name="France 2006">Jihan El Tahri. ''Une Odyssée Africaine'' (France, 2006, 59mn).</ref> At the height of its operation, Cuba had as many as 50,000 soldiers stationed in Angola.<ref name="ReferenceA"/> Cuban soldiers were instrumental in the defeat of [[South Africa]]n and [[Zaire|Zairian]] troops and the establishment of [[Namibia]].<ref name=Holloway>{{cite book |last1=Holloway |first1=Thomas H. |title=A Companion to Latin American History |date=2011 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons}}</ref> Cuban soldiers also defeated the [[FNLA]] and [[UNITA]] armies and established MPLA control over most of Angola.<ref>{{cite book |title=Africa, Problems & Prospects: A Bibliographic Survey |date=1977 |publisher=U.S. Department of the Army |page=221}}</ref> [[South African Defence Force]] soldiers were again drawn into the Angolan Civil War in 1987–88, and several inconclusive battles were fought between Cuban and South African forces.{{sfn|Clodfelter|2017|p=566}} Cuban-piloted [[MiG-23]]s performed airstrikes against South African forces in [[South West Africa]] during the [[Battle of Cuito Cuanavale]].<ref>{{cite web |title=The Cuban Army Abroad – Meet Castro's Foreign Cold Warriors |url=https://militaryhistorynow.com/2016/01/29/the-cuban-army-abroad-fidel-castros-forgotten-foreign-wars/ |access-date=10 March 2020 |archive-date=17 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200817163643/https://militaryhistorynow.com/2016/01/29/the-cuban-army-abroad-fidel-castros-forgotten-foreign-wars/ |url-status=dead}}</ref>
Cuba's presence in Mozambique was more subdued, involving by the mid-1980s 700 Cuban military and 70 civilian personnel.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/cuban-intervention-africa|title=Cuban Intervention in Africa &#124; Encyclopedia.com|website=www.encyclopedia.com}}</ref> In 1978, [[Ogaden War|in Ethiopia]], 16,000 Cuban combatants, along with the Soviet-supported [[Ethiopian National Defense Force|Ethiopian Army]], defeated an invasion force of [[Somali Democratic Republic|Somalians]].<ref name=Holloway/> The executing of civilians and refugees, and [[Wartime sexual violence|rape]] of women by the Ethiopian and Cuban troops was prevalent throughout the war.<ref name=":00" /><ref name=Clapham>{{cite book |last1=Clapham |first1=Christopher |title=Transformation and Continuity in Revolutionary Ethiopia |date=1990 |publisher=CUP Archive |page=235}}</ref>{{efn|Cuba lost 400 killed in the conventional war,{{sfn|Clodfelter|2017|p=557}} but its heaviest casualties came in the irregular war that followed. From March 1978 to November 1979, irregular hostilities claimed, according to the [[WSLF]], 60,000 lives,{{sfn|Clodfelter|2017|p=557}} including 25,000 civilians and 6,000 Cuban soldiers supporting the Ethiopians.<ref>{{cite news |title=Ogaden War Producing Little but Refugees |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1979/11/18/archives/ogaden-war-producing-little-but-refugees-deaths-are-put-at-60000.html |work=The New York Times |date=18 November 1979}}</ref>}} Assisted by Soviet advisors, the Cubans launched a second offensive in December 1979 directed at the population's means of survival, including the poisoning and destruction of wells and the killing of cattle herds.<ref name=":00">{{Cite book|last=De Waal|first=Alexander|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/24504262|title=Evil days : thirty years of war and famine in Ethiopia.|date=1991|publisher=Human Rights Watch|others=Human Rights Watch|isbn=1-56432-038-3|location=New York|pages=78–86|oclc=24504262}}</ref>
Cuba was unable to pay on its own for the costs of its [[foreign interventions by Cuba|overseas military activities]]. After it lost its subsidies from the USSR, Cuba withdrew its troops from [[Ethiopian Civil War|Ethiopia]] (1989), Nicaragua (1990), Angola (1991), and elsewhere.

===Mariel boatlift===
{{Main|Mariel boatlift}}
[[File:Two boats during Mariel Boatlift (7164184055) (cropped).jpg|thumb|Mariel refugees on boat to Florida (1980).]]

Several attempts by Cubans to seek asylum at the embassies of South American countries set the stage for the events of the spring of 1980. On 21 March 1978, two young Cuban writers who had been punished for dissent and denied permission to emigrate, Reynaldo Colas Pineda and Esteban Luis Cárdenas Junquera, unsuccessfully sought asylum in the Argentine embassy in Havana and were sentenced to two years in prison.<ref>{{cite news|title=Dissent in Cuban |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1979/11/11/111748930.pdf |access-date=22 March 2016|work=New York Times|date=14 May 1979 |first=Carlos |last=Ripoll}}</ref> On May 13, 1979, 12 Cubans sought to take asylum in the Venezuelan embassy in Havana by crashing their bus through a fence to gain entry to the grounds and the building.<ref>{{cite news|title=Cubans Seek Asylum in Caracas|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1979/05/14/111024781.pdf |access-date=22 March 2016|work=New York Times|date=11 November 1979}}</ref> In January 1980, groups of asylum seekers took refuge in the Peruvian and Venezuelan embassies, and Venezuela called its ambassador home for consultations to protest that they had been fired on by the Cuban police.<ref>{{cite news|title=Venezuela Recalls Envoy to Protest Cuba Incident|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1980/01/21/111136184.pdf |access-date=22 March 2016|work=New York Times|date=21 January 1980}}</ref> In March, Peru recalled [[List of ambassadors of Peru to Cuba|its ambassador]], who had denied entry to a dozen Cubans who were seeking asylum in his embassy.<ref name=crowd/> The embassy invasions then became a confrontation between the Cuban government and the Havana embassies. A group of Cubans attempted to enter the Peruvian embassy in the last week of March, and on April 1, a group of six driving a city bus was successful in doing so, and a Cuban guard was killed by a ricocheting bullet.<ref name=removes>{{cite news|title=Havana Removes Guard from Peruvian Embassy|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1980/04/05/111147665.pdf |access-date=22 March 2016|work=New York Times|date=5 April 1980}}</ref> The Peruvians announced that they would not hand those who were seeking asylum over to Cuban police.<ref name=crowd>{{cite news|first=Jo |last=Thomas |title=2,000 Who Want to Leave Cuba Crowd Peru's Embassy in Havana |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1980/04/06/111226839.pdf |access-date=22 March 2016|work=New York Times |date=6 April 1980}}</ref> The embassy grounds contained two 2-story buildings and gardens covering an area the size of a US football field, or 6,400 square yards<ref name="plight">{{cite news|last1=Thomas|first1=Jo|title=Havana Says It Seeks to Ease Plight of 10,000 at the Peruvian Embassy|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1980/04/08/111148616.pdf|access-date=31 March 2016|work=New York Times|date=8 April 1980}}</ref>

Castro stated ultimately on 20 April that the port of Mariel would be opened to anyone wishing to leave Cuba if they had someone to pick them up.<ref name="Nemeti">{{cite news |first=Juan O. |last=Tamayo |url=http://www.miamiherald.com/news/special-reports/cuban-revolution/article1930512.html |date=20 November 2008 |title=Chronology of the Cuban Revolution |access-date=7 May 2016 |work=Miami Herald |archive-date=8 May 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160508144257/http://www.miamiherald.com/news/special-reports/cuban-revolution/article1930512.html |url-status=live}}</ref> Soon after Castro's decree, many Cuban Americans began making arrangements to pick up refugees in the harbor. On April 21, the first boat from the harbor docked in Key West and held 48 refugees. By April 25 as many as 300 boats were picking up refugees in Mariel Harbor. Cuban officials also packed refugees into Cuban fishing vessels.<ref name =memory>{{Cite web|url=https://www.floridamemory.com/blog/2017/10/05/the-mariel-boatlift-of-1980/|title=The Mariel Boatlift of 1980|website=www.floridamemory.com|access-date=2019-07-13|archive-date=10 July 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190710153704/https://www.floridamemory.com/blog/2017/10/05/the-mariel-boatlift-of-1980/|url-status=live}}</ref> Around 1,700 boats brought thousands of Cubans from Mariel to Florida between the months of April and October in that year.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Mariel Boatlift of 1980 |url=https://immigrationhistory.org/item/mariel-boatlift/ |access-date=2022-12-01 |website=Immigration History |language=en-US}}</ref>

===Rectification process===
{{Main|Rectification process}}
In February 1986, at the [[Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba]], Castro proclaimed: "Now, we are going to build socialism". Castro criticized material incentives for laborers. Over the next months continued to criticize the Cuban bureaucracy and  laziness. Economic reforms also included restructurings of party management. In 1986, the System of Direction for Economic Planning was made to obey the command of the Politboro of the Communist Party of Cuba.<ref name=Rev>{{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=Rectification+of+Errors+cuba&pg=PA172 |location= |publisher=University Press of Florida |pages=172–178 |isbn=9780813048765}}</ref>

On October 8, 1987, at the anniversary of Che Guevara's death, Castro gave a speech inferring Guevara would be horrified at the bureaucracy in Cuba, and the lack of patriotic enthusiasm of common workers.<ref>{{cite book |last=Yaffe |first=Helen |author-link= |date= 6 April 2020|title= We Are Cuba! How a Revolutionary People Have Survived in a Post-Soviet World |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UrHNDwAAQBAJ&dq=Rectification+of+Errors+cuba&pg=PA28 |location= |publisher=Yale University Press |page=28 |isbn=9780300245516}}</ref>

Throughout the rectification process, private businesses became more heavily regulated, farmers markets were banned, material incentives were ended, and the minimum wage was increased.<ref>{{cite book |last=Spencer |first=Neville |author-link= |date=2000 |title=Cuba as Alternative An Introduction to Cuba's Socialist Revolution
 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BCAA2jF2j7gC&dq=Rectification+of+Errors+cuba&pg=PA25 |location= |publisher=Resistance Books |page=25 |isbn=9781876646066}}</ref>

===Special Period===
{{Main|Special Period}}
{{Further|Dollarization of Cuba|1994 Cuban rafter crisis}}
[[File:Cuban transport.jpg|thumb|Public transportation in Cuba during the "Special Period"]]
Starting from the mid-1980s,<ref>{{Cite book|title=Cuba's second economy|author=Jorge F. Pérez-López}}</ref> Cuba experienced a crisis referred to as the "[[Special Period]]". When the Soviet Union was [[Dissolution of the Soviet Union|dissolved]] in late 1991, a major supporter of Cuba's economy was lost, leaving it essentially paralyzed because of the economy's narrow basis, focused on just a few products with just a few buyers. National oil supplies, which were mostly imported, were severely reduced. Over 80% of Cuba's trade was lost and living conditions declined. A [[Special Period|"Special Period in Peacetime"]] was declared, which included cutbacks on transport and electricity and even food rationing. In response, the United States tightened its trade embargo, hoping it would lead to Castro's downfall. But the government tapped into a pre-revolutionary source of income and opened the country to tourism, entering into several joint ventures with foreign companies for hotel, agricultural and industrial projects. As a result, the use of U.S. dollars was legalized in 1994, with special stores being opened which only sold in dollars. There were two separate economies, dollar-economy and the peso-economy, creating a social split in the island because those in the dollar-economy made much more money. However, in October 2004, the Cuban government announced an end to this policy: from November U.S. dollars would no longer be legal tender, but would instead be exchanged for [[Cuban convertible peso|convertible pesos]] with a 10% tax payable to the state on the exchange of U.S. dollars.

A ''[[Canadian Medical Association Journal]]'' paper states that "The famine in Cuba during the Special Period was caused by political and economic factors similar to the ones that caused a [[famine in North Korea]] in the mid-1990s. Both countries were run by authoritarian regimes that denied ordinary people the food to which they were entitled when the public food distribution collapsed; priority was given to the elite classes and the military."<ref name="cmaj"/> The government did not accept American donations of food, medicines and money until 1993,<ref name="cmaj">{{cite journal|title=Health consequences of Cuba's Special Period|publisher=Canadian Medical Association Journal|pmc=2474886|year=2008|volume=179|issue=3|pmid=18663207|pages=257|doi=10.1503/cmaj.1080068|journal=CMAJ: Canadian Medical Association Journal}}</ref> forcing many Cubans to eat anything they could find. Even domestic cats were reportedly eaten.<ref name="parrotdiplomacy">{{Cite news|url=http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11792274|title=Venezuela and Cuba: Parrot diplomacy|newspaper=The Economist|date=24 July 2008|access-date=27 February 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090801015821/http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11792274|archive-date=1 August 2009|url-status=live}}</ref>

Extreme food shortages and electrical blackouts led to a brief period of unrest, including numerous anti-government protests and widespread increases in urban crime. In response, the Cuban Communist Party formed hundreds of "rapid-action brigades" to confront protesters. The Communist Party's publication ''[[Granma (newspaper)|Granma]]'' stated that "delinquents and anti-social elements who try to create disorder ... will receive a crushing reply from the people". In July 1994, 41 Cubans drowned attempting to flee the country aboard a [[tugboat]]; the Cuban government was later [[Tugboat massacre|accused of sinking the vessel deliberately]].<ref name="werlau-tugboatmassacre">{{Cite web|url=http://www.cubaarchive.org/13_DE_MARZO_TUGBOAT_MASSACRE.pdf|title=Cuba: The Tugboat Massacre of July 13, 1994|author=Maria C. Werlau|access-date=21 June 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071007152129/http://www.cubaarchive.org/13_DE_MARZO_TUGBOAT_MASSACRE.pdf|archive-date=7 October 2007|url-status=live}}</ref>
[[File:2000 Cuban refugees on the USS Whibdey Island.jpg|thumb|Cuban refugees picked up at sea by the USS USS Whibdey Island]]
Thousands of Cubans protested in Havana during the [[Maleconazo uprising]] on 5 August 1994. However, the regime's security forces swiftly dispersed them.<ref name="cancubachange">{{Cite journal|url=http://www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/gratis/Gutierrez-20-1.pdf|title=Can Cuba Change?|author1=Carl Gershman|author2=Orlando Gutierrez|journal=Journal of Democracy|date=January 2009|volume=20|issue=1|access-date=26 August 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090918225042/http://www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/gratis/Gutierrez-20-1.pdf|archive-date=18 September 2009|url-status=dead}}</ref> After the [[Maleconazo]] riots, [[Fidel Castro]] announced that any Cubans who wished to leave the island could. Around 5,000 rafters had left earlier in the year but after the announcement around 33,000 rafters left the island. U.S. President [[Bill Clinton]] would announce that any rafters intercepted at sea would be detained at [[Guantanamo Bay Naval Base]]. Around 200,000 rafters would be detained at the base.<ref name=Cuba>{{cite book|title=Cuba |publisher=ABC-CLIO |year=2013 |isbn=978-1-61069-012-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Pe_XAQAAQBAJ }}</ref>

===Recovery and new diplomacy===
{{Main|Battle of Ideas}}
{{Further|Varela Project|Black Spring (Cuba)}}
Although contacts between Cubans and foreign visitors were made legal in 1997,<ref name="rennie">Rennie, David. [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/06/08/wcuba08.xml "Cuba 'apartheid' as Castro pulls in the tourists"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030903162751/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2002%2F06%2F08%2Fwcuba08.xml |date=3 September 2003}}. ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]''. 8 June 2002. Retrieved 28 June 2013.</ref><ref name=corbett>{{Cite book|title=This Is Cuba: An Outlaw Culture Survives|first=Ben|last=Corbett|year=2004|publisher=Westview Press|isbn=0-8133-3826-3|page=[https://archive.org/details/thisiscubaoutlaw00benc/page/33 33]|url=https://archive.org/details/thisiscubaoutlaw00benc/page/33}}</ref> [[Censorship in Cuba|extensive censorship]] had isolated it from the rest of the world. In 1997, a group led by [[Vladimiro Roca]], son of the founder of the [[Cuban Communist Party]], sent a petition, entitled ''La Patria es de Todos'' ("the homeland belongs to all") to the Cuban general assembly, requesting democratic and human rights reforms. Roca and his associates were imprisoned but were eventually released.<ref>[http://sites.nationalacademies.org/PGA/humanrights/PGA_051863 "Cuban Economist Vladimiro Roca Released from Prison"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141220052528/http://sites.nationalacademies.org/PGA/humanrights/PGA_051863 |date=20 December 2014}}. The National Academies: Committee on Human Rights. Retrieved 2 August 2012.</ref> I

Though it was largely diplomatically isolated from the West at this time, Cuba nonetheless cultivated regional allies. After the [[Presidency of Hugo Chávez|rise to power]] of [[Hugo Chávez]] in [[Venezuela]] in 1999, Cuba and Venezuela formed [[Cuba–Venezuela relations|an increasingly close relationship]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4179050.stm|title=Venezuela ends upbeat Cuba visit|date=24 August 2005|access-date=9 February 2015|work=BBC News|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150209132955/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4179050.stm|archive-date=9 February 2015|url-status=live}}</ref>

In December 1999, during a Federation of University Students meeting, a student announced a spontaneous march to the Office of American Interests in Havana to demand the return of [[Elián González]]. A few days after the march the "Group of the Battle of Ideas" was formed by the [[Young Communist League (Cuba)|Young Communist League]] and the Federation of University Students. The group began organizing demonstrations across Cuba for the return of [[Elián González]]. After González's return, the group began regularly meeting with Fidel Castro to oversee various construction projects and government meetings in Cuba. Fidel Castro ensured that the group had special authorities, and could bypass the approval of various ministries.<ref>{{cite book |last=Gold |first=Marina |author-link= |date=2016 |title=People and State in Socialist Cuba Ideas and Practices of Revolution
 |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/People_and_State_in_Socialist_Cuba/acQYDAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=cuba+1999+%22battle+of+ideas%22&pg=PA106&printsec=frontcover |location= |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |page=106 |isbn=9781137539830}}</ref> What followed was a political campaign titled the "Battle of Ideas", which focused on human development, and youth mobilization. Various improvement projects were conducted in regards to education and healthcare.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Veltmeyer |first1=Henry |last2=Rushton |first2=Mark |author-link= |date=2012 |title=The Cuban Revolution as Socialist Human Development|url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Cuban_Revolution_as_Socialist_Human/KYuGeUyQeD0C?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=cuba+elian+%22battle+of+ideas%22&pg=PA318&printsec=frontcover |location= |publisher=Brill |page=318 |isbn=9789004210431}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Kapcia |first=Antoni |author-link= |date=2014 |title=Leadership in the Cuban Revolution The Unseen Story |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Leadership_in_the_Cuban_Revolution/icFPEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=cuba+2000+%22battle+of+ideas%22&pg=PA161&printsec=frontcover |location= |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |pages=161–162 |isbn=9781780325262}}</ref> Cuba also began forging closer diplomatic ties with [[Pink tide]] governments, often providing them medical services.<ref>{{cite book |last=Clayfield |first=Anna |author-link= |date=2019 |title=The Guerrilla Legacy of the Cuban Revolution
|url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Guerrilla_Legacy_of_the_Cuban_Revolu/zYPSEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=cuba+2000+%22battle+of+ideas%22&pg=PA147&printsec=frontcover |location= |publisher=University of Florida Press |page=147 |isbn=9781683401087}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Kapcia |first=Antoni |author-link= |date=2022 |title= Historical Dictionary of Cuba
|url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Historical_Dictionary_of_Cuba/xbpmEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=cuba+2000+2005+%22battle+of+ideas%22&pg=PA589&printsec=frontcover |location= |publisher=Rowman and Littlefield Publishers |page=589 |isbn=9781442264557}}</ref> Over 30,000 health workers would be deployed overseas by 2007.<ref>Robert Huish and John M. Kirk (2007), "Cuban Medical Internationalism and the Development of the Latin American School of Medicine", Latin American Perspectives, 34; 77</ref>

n 2001, a group of Cuban activists collected thousands of signatures for the [[Varela Project]], a petition requesting a referendum on the island's political process, which was openly supported by former U.S. President [[Jimmy Carter]]. The petition gathered sufficient signatures to be considered by the Cuban government, but was rejected on an alleged technicality. Instead, a [[plebiscite]] was held in which it was formally proclaimed that Castro's brand of socialism would be perpetual.

In 2003, Castro cracked down on independent journalists and other dissidents in an episode which became known as the "[[Black Spring (Cuba)|Black Spring]]".<ref name="longblackspring">{{Cite web|url=http://cpj.org/reports/2008/03/cuba-press-crackdown.php|title=Cuba's Long Black Spring|author1=Carlos Lauria|author2=Monica Campbell|author3=María Salazar|publisher=The Committee To Protect Journalists|date=18 March 2008|access-date=4 September 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110830062924/https://www.cpj.org/reports/2008/03/cuba-press-crackdown.php|archive-date=30 August 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://cpj.org/blog/2009/03/the-black-spring-of-2003-a-former-cuban-prisoner-s.php|title=Black Spring of 2003: A former Cuban prisoner speaks|publisher=The Committee to Protect Journalists|date=20 March 2009|access-date=4 September 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110830042224/http://www.cpj.org/blog/2009/03/the-black-spring-of-2003-a-former-cuban-prisoner-s.php|archive-date=30 August 2011|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=16771 |title=Three years after "black spring" the independent press refuses to remain in the dark |publisher=Reporters Without Borders |year=2006 |access-date=25 April 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090321182911/http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=16771 |archive-date=21 March 2009}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.rsf.org/IMG/pdf/Cuba_report.pdf |title=Cuba – No surrender by independent journalists, five years on from "black spring" |publisher=The Reporters Without Borders |date=March 2008 |access-date=21 June 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090702082005/http://www.rsf.org/IMG/pdf/Cuba_report.pdf |archive-date=2 July 2009}}</ref> The government imprisoned 75 dissident thinkers, including journalists,<ref name="longblackspring"/> librarians, [[human rights]] activists, and democracy activists, on the basis that they were acting as agents of the United States by accepting aid from the U.S. government.