Editing History of Cuba (section)

===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>