Fidel Castro And Cuba

7 Pages 1849 Words

Fidel Castro and Cuba
When Columbus came to Cuba in 1492, he and his predecessors would probably never have imagined of this island’s outcome within the centuries ahead. From conquering the country, to its independence, to the rise of the current totalitarian regime, all these major events have made the island what it is today. Before giving the whole story about the Communists, one must understand how the country was born so here’s a little bit of a background history: Spain had conquered Cuba in 1511 under Diego Velasquez. Frequent insurrections failed to end Spain’s harsh rule. From 1868 to 1878 occurred the Armed rebellion known as the Ten Year’s War, led by plantation owner Carlos Manuel de Cespedes, a co-author of Cuba’s declaration of independence. After the loss of more than 200,000 lives, the revolt ended in failure. In 1933, Fulgencio Batista led a “sergeants” revolt” that toppled the despotic rule of Gen. Grarado Machado and it was at that time that Batista became the most powerful man in Cuba. He was elected president in 1940 and made himself chief of state with dictatorial powers. Years of corrupt government, terrorism and embezzlement made by the United States led to a revolt in 1958 under the leadership of Fidel Castro. Batista fled to the Dominican Republic and the Fidelistas were in control of Havana. Castro then became Cuba's leader at the young age of 32. At first people applauded the downfall of Batista and hoped that Castro could bring the country the prosperity it had wished for. Unfortunately, before long, people came to realization that the new regime had embraced Communism. In Cuba, Castro’s regime has created the most repressive police state apparatus in the Western Hemisphere. Cuba is like the George Orwell nightmare predicted in the book “1984” except that this time the country is set in the tropics with Big Brother sporting a beard and cigar. Cuba never believed in Human Rights as Cas...