The Cuban Revolution of 1959

Before the Cuban Revolution there was a president named Fulgencio Batista. Batista was the president in 1940-1944 and again in 1952 until the Revolution. During Batista’s first presidency he was fair and was trying to create a democratic constitution for Cuba. Before he finished his first term as president he made a deal with the American Mafia to let them do want they want in Cuba and he gets money from their gambling business. While we were in Havana we stayed in a neighborhood with a lot of mansions where the mafia had lived and had their businesses. Nowadays, most of the mansions are run down. Batista didn’t get reelected but used the military to get back into power in 1952 and become president again.

Fidel Castro was also running for president in 1952 but then Batista came in and took over and canceled the elections. That made Castro very mad. Then Castro decided to start a revolution to kick Batista out of the presidency. Castro’s forces attacked the Moncada barracks and got defeated and Castro got captured. After Castro got captured, he had a trial and because he was a lawyer, so he represented himself. During his trial he gave a speech that became famous, “History Will Absolve Me.” After his trial Batista decide to exile Castro to Mexico.

Two years after Castro got exiled to Mexico, he came back to Cuba in 1956 andwith an army. When his boat landed Batista’s army was waiting and killed them all accept for 15. Fidel Castro, Raul Castro, Che Guevara, and Camilio Cienfuegos were 4 of the 15 survivors and played a big part in the revolution and the history of Cuba. Later on, Camilio Cienfuegos and Che Guevara were army leaders who won very important battles. During 1957 people were starting to protest the government and 35 university students tried to assassinate Batista but almost all of them got killed trying to flee. Also in 1957 Castro invited a New York Times writer to interview him in the mountains and the interview made Castro internationally famous. In 1958 Batista knew that Castro was still in the mountains of Cuba, so he started to destroy towns looking for him. But then Castro found out that Batista’s army was looking for him so Castro started to use guerrilla warfare. Batista ended up fleeing Cuba for Spain and the revolution ended. After Batista left Castro took charge on January 1, 1959.

After the revolution, Fidel was the head of Cuba until 2008 when his brother Raul became president of Cuba after Fidel became sick. Fidel died in 2016. Che Guevara went to Bolivia to help fight in a revolution and got killed by the CIA. Camilio Cienfuegos’s plane disappeared off the coast of Cuba. While we have been traveling through we have been seeing lots of signs of Che and Fidel Castro.