Cuba Libre: A 500-Year Quest for Independence

by Philip Brenner

  May 5, 1895: José Martí, Maximo Gómez, and Antonio Maceo meet at Mejorana in eastern Cuba to plan war strategy. Martí is elected as supreme leader of the revolution on nonmilitary matters.

  May 19, 1895: Martí is killed at Dos Ríos in eastern Cuba.

  September 13–16, 1895: Delegates from Oriente, Camagüey, and Las Villas meet to organize the Republic of Cuba’s government. They elect Salvador Cisneros Betancourt as president; Maximo Gómez as general in chief of the army; and Antonio Maceo as lieutenant general.

  December 7, 1896: Maceo is killed at Punta Brava, near Havana.

  January 25, 1898: The US battleship Maine arrives in Havana harbor, where it explodes on February 15.

  April 20, 1898: The US Congress adds the Teller Amendment to a war resolution against Spain.

  July 16, 1898: Spain concedes defeat and the US occupation of Cuba begins.

  December 10, 1898: Spain and the United States sign the Treaty of Paris.

  1899–1933

  1899–1902: General Leonard Wood serves as governor-general of Cuba, improving some of Cuba’s infrastructure, promulgating laws to facilitate the domination of Cuba’s economy by US companies, and restricting Afro-Cubans from participation in politics.

  April 25, 1900: The Cuba Company is incorporated in New Jersey for the purpose of constructing a central railroad line traversing the island.

  February 7, 1902: General Wood issues Order Number 34, which makes the permits granted to the Cuba Company irrevocable.

  May 20, 1902: By a vote of 15 to 14, the Cuban Constitutional Convention accepts the Platt Amendment as part of the new constitution, giving the United States the right to intervene in Cuban affairs, limiting Cuba’s sovereign right to conduct foreign policy, and requiring that Cuba lease three naval coaling stations to the United States.

  July 1902: The North American Trust Company of New York, which acted as the occupying government’s fiscal agent, begins to operate under the name of Banco Nacional de Cuba.

  May 22, 1903: Cuba and the United States sign a commercial treaty of reciprocity that gives Cuban sugar exported to the United States a 20 percent tariff preference and similar preferential tariffs for several US products sent to Cuba.

  May 20, 1906: Tomás Estrada Palma is inaugurated as president for a second term.

  August 16, 1906: Rebellion against the government’s corruption breaks out, spreading to every province by the end of the month.

  September 1906: Estrada Palma asks for US intervention to repress the rebels. US president Theodore Roosevelt sends Secretary of War William H. Taft and Assistant Secretary of State Bacon to Cuba as special representatives. Estrada Palma and his cabinet resign, and Roosevelt names Taft provisional governor of Cuba.

  October 12, 1906: Charles E. Magoon replaces Taft as provisional governor. Backed by US occupation forces, he remains in power until January 26, 1909.

  May–June 1912: US troops return to help suppress demonstrations led by members of the Partido Independiente de Color demanding an end to racist laws.

  1913: Mario García Menocal, an engineer and wealthy businessman, becomes Cuba’s third president. He serves two terms until 1921.

  February–March 1917: Demonstrations erupt throughout the country against the Menocal administration. The US government sells Cuba ten thousand rifles and two million cartridges and declares its support for Menocal.

  March 5, 1917: Menocal requests a suspension of constitutional guarantees. Three days later, five hundred US marines enter Santiago de Cuba to help repress the brewing rebellion.

  May 1917: Following Cuba’s entry into World War I, the United States sends more than twenty thousand troops to the island. After the war, Menocal requests that the troops stay in Cuba, and they remain there until 1923.

  November 1, 1920: In an election plagued by numerous charges of fraud, Menocal’s candidate, Alfredo Zayas, wins the presidency.

  1922: Inspired by the 1918 revolt of Argentine university students, Cuban students led by Julio Antonio Mella, secretary of the Federation of University Students, begin demonstrations, demanding autonomy for the university from political pressure and the firing of corrupt teachers.

  1924: Gerardo Machado is elected president.

  August 1925: Groups of socialists, anarchists, and communists come together to found the Cuban Communist Party. Mella is instrumental in linking the party to the Comintern.

  April 1928: Machado relies on a “packed” constitutional convention to abolish the vice presidency and give himself a new six-year term without reelection.

  June 21, 1930: Congress suspends constitutional guarantees.

  March 1933: A revolutionary junta to oppose Machado organizes in Miami.

  August 1933: Machado resigns in the midst of a general strike. Carlos M. Céspedes becomes provisional president.

  September 5, 1933: Following the “revolt of the sergeants,” Fulgencio Batista takes control of the island.

  September 10, 1933: Revolutionaries form a new government with Ramón Grau San Martín as president and Antonio Guiteras as vice president. Never recognized by the US government, it becomes known as the One Hundred Days Government.

  1934–1958

  January 15, 1934: Backed by US ambassador Jefferson Caffery, Batista pressures Grau San Martín to resign and names Carlos Mendieta as president.

  January 20, 1934: The United States recognizes the Mendieta government.

  May 29, 1934: Cuba and the United States sign a “Treaty on Relations,” which replaces the 1903 treaty, abrogates the Platt Amendment, and gives the United States a lease in perpetuity for the Guantánamo Naval Base.

  February 1940: The Cuban constituent assembly begins writing a new constitution, which is approved on July 1. It guarantees free universal education and health care and establishes an elected president who names a prime minister.

  October 10, 1940: Fulgencio Batista becomes president under Cuba’s new constitution.

  1944: The Cuban Communist Party changes its name to the Popular Socialist Party (PSP).

  1944: Voters elect Grau San Martín as president.

  December 22, 1946: Heads of several US organized crime syndicates convene in Havana and divide up their opportunities in Cuba for gambling, money laundering, and related businesses.

  1948: Voters elect Carlos Prío Socarrás as president.

  March 10, 1952: Fulgencio Batista overthrows the government of Carlos Prio Socarrás.

  July 26, 1953: Led by Fidel Castro, 134 rebels (including Raúl Castro) attack the Moncada Barracks in Santiago, marking the start of the insurrection against Batista. Most were killed or captured.

  October 16, 1953: At his trial, Fidel asserts, “Condemn me, it does not matter. History will absolve me.” He and his brother Raúl are imprisoned on the Isle of Pines.

  May 6, 1955: Batista issues a general amnesty. Fidel and Raúl travel to Mexico after their release, where they meet Ernesto “Che” Guevara, an Argentine doctor, and plan for a guerrilla campaign in Cuba to overthrow the Batista dictatorship.

  December 2, 1956: Eighty-two rebels return to Cuba aboard the Granma, a small cabin cruiser, landing in the eastern province of Oriente.

  July 20, 1958: Representatives of all the anti-Batista groups sign an agreement—the Pact of Caracas—endorsing a common program and naming Fidel Castro as the commander in chief of the new united rebel army.

  1959

  January 1–2: Batista flees and the Rebel Army troops enter Havana led by Che Guevara.

  January 8: Following a cross-country march called the “caravan of liberty,” Fidel Castro arrives in Havana.

  February 16: President Manuel Urrutia names Fidel to replace José Miró Cardona as prime minister.

  April 15–26: Castro travels to the United States at the invitation of the Association of Newspaper Editors and meets
with Vice President Richard Nixon.

  April 21: The Cuban government abolishes racially discriminatory laws.

  May 17: The government promulgates the first Agrarian Reform Law, nationalizing about one-third of the arable land in Cuba.

  1960

  February 4–13: Soviet deputy premier Anastas Mikoyan visits Cuba and signs trade and aid agreements.

  March 17: President Dwight D. Eisenhower authorizes a plan for the Bay of Pigs invasion.

  May 8: Cuba and the Soviet Union establish diplomatic relations.

  June 7: At the urging of the US State Department, US oil companies refuse to refine Soviet crude oil at their Cuban facilities. Cuba nationalizes the refineries.

  July 6: The United States suspends the Cuban sugar quota, effectively cutting off 80 percent of Cuba’s exports to the United States.

  July 10: The Soviet Union agrees to buy Cuban sugar.

  August 6: In retaliation for the US suspension of the sugar quota, Cuba nationalizes US private investments on the island worth approximately $1 billion.

  August 29: Fidel announces the plan for the National Literacy Campaign. The effort formally begins on June 1, 1961.

  October 14: The government approves the Urban Reform Law, which includes a limitation on rental payments to 10 percent of family’s earnings.

  1961

  January 3: The United States breaks diplomatic relations with Cuba.

  April 16: At the funeral for victims of US bombing attacks on April 15, Castro declares that the character of the Cuban Revolution is socialist.

  April 17–19: A CIA-sponsored invasion force of 1,200 exiles lands at the Bay of Pigs (Playa Girón and Playa Larga). Cuban armed forces and militia defeat the invaders in 72 hours.

  September 2: Cuba is the only Latin American state represented at the founding conference of the Movement of Non-Aligned Nations.

  November 30: President John F. Kennedy authorizes Operation Mongoose, a covert plan to overthrow the Cuban government with terrorist raids, economic sanctions, political isolation, and military intimidation.

  December 22: At the conclusion of the Literacy Campaign, the country’s illiteracy rate drops from 24 to 4 percent.

  1962

  January 22–31: The Organization of American States (OAS) suspends Cuba’s membership.

  February 4: Castro responds to the OAS suspension with the Second Declaration of Havana.

  February 3: Kennedy signs Executive Order 3447, beginning the formal embargo against Cuba.

  March: Fidel removes his opponents in the Integrated Revolutionary Organizations who had been senior officials in the PSP (former Communist Party).

  April: Cuba accepts a Soviet offer to place ballistic missiles on Cuban territory. Delivery of the missiles, related equipment, and 42,000 Soviet military personnel begins in July.

  October 14–November 20: The October (Cuban Missile) Crisis brings the world to the brink of nuclear destruction as the United States challenges the Soviet Union to remove the ballistic missiles from Cuba and take back IL-28 bombers and Komar patrol boats it had delivered.

  1963

  April 27–June 3: Castro visits the Soviet Union and returns with a new trade agreement and the promise of aid.

  June: Kennedy authorizes support for “autonomous” groups that seek to continue terrorist raids against Cuba.

  1964

  July 26: The OAS adopts resolutions requiring all members to sever diplomatic and trade relations with Cuba. Only Mexico refuses to comply.

  1965

  April 1: Che Guevara leaves Cuba to wage armed struggle in Africa and Latin America.

  October 3: The Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) is inaugurated.

  October 10: The Camarioca boatlift and airlift begin as boats from the United States are permitted to pick up Cubans wanting to leave the country at the port of Camarioca, east of Havana near the city of Matanzas.

  1966

  January 3–15: The first Tricontinental Congress of the world’s radical organizations meets in Havana and forms the Organization of Solidarity with the Peoples of Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the Organization of Latin American Solidarity (OLAS).

  November 2: US Congress passes the Cuban Adjustment Act (Public Law 89-732), which provides Cubans who have been on US territory for at least one year and a day with resident alien status, regardless of whether they entered the country legally or illegally. The United States gives this privilege to no other migrant group.

  1967

  June 26: Soviet premier Alexei Kosygin begins a visit to Cuba, during which he has tense meetings with Cuba’s leaders over the issue of supporting third world armed struggle.

  July 31–August 10: OLAS holds its first conference in Havana, pointedly without inviting representatives of communist parties.

  October 9: US-supported Bolivian rangers execute Che Guevara in Bolivia.

  1968

  January 2: The Cuban government introduces gasoline rationing due to a cutback in deliveries from the Soviet Union.

  January 28–31: The PCC holds the first meeting of the full Central Committee, expelling Aníbal Escalante and eight other leaders of the former PSP, whom Fidel calls a “micro-faction” and charges that they were seeking to take over the PCC.

  March 13: Castro launches the “revolutionary offensive,” nationalizing 55,000 small businesses and essentially ending private enterprise on the island.

  August 23: Castro asserts that the August 21 Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia was an illegal action but a “bitter necessity” because it “saved” socialism in Czechoslovakia.

  1969

  July 26: The effort to produce ten million tons of sugar for the 1970 harvest begins.

  1970

  May 19: Castro announces the harvest failed to reach the 10-million-ton goal, though the 8.5 million tons harvested was the largest in Cuban history.

  September 25: The Soviet Union halts construction of a nuclear submarine base in Cienfuegos, complying with a US demand.

  November 12: Cuba and Chile restore diplomatic relations eight days after Salvador Allende is inaugurated as Chile’s president.

  1971

  November 10: Castro arrives in Chile for a three-week visit, his first to a Latin American country since 1959.

  1972

  July 11: Cuba joins the Council of Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA), the trading bloc then composed of the Soviet Union, East European socialist countries, and Mongolia.

  1973

  February 15: The United States and Cuba sign an anti-hijacking agreement.

  1974

  June 30: Matanzas Province holds elections for the newly established “Organs of People’s Power.” This was followed by the nationwide establishment of local and provincial elected legislatures.

  September: US senators Claiborne Pell (D-RI) and Jacob Javits (R-NY) are the first US elected officials to visit Cuba since the 1961 break in diplomatic relations.

  November: US and Cuban officials secretly meet in New York to discuss possible areas for negotiations between the two countries.

  1975

  February 14: The Council of Ministers enacts the Family Code, a set of laws that provide significant protection for women and children.

  July 29: A majority of OAS members, including the United States, vote to lift mandatory diplomatic and economic sanctions against Cuba.

  August 15: Cuba introduces a resolution to the UN Special Committee on Decolonization calling for the United Nations to recognize the Puerto Rican Independence Party and affiliated organizations as “representing the legitimate aspirations of the Puerto Rican people.”

  August 21: The US Treasury Department announces it will permit third country subsidiaries of US companies to trade with Cuba.

  November 5: Cuba begins transpo
rting troops to help the Angolan government repel an invasion by South African forces launched in October. By the end of 1976, there are 35,000 Cuban troops in Angola.

  December 17–22: Ten years after the PCC was created, it holds its First Congress.

  1976

  February 15: Cubans vote to approve a new constitution, which institutionalizes the PCC as “the superior force in society.”

  October 6: A bomb aboard a Cubana Airlines plane explodes, killing all seventy-three people aboard, including the two dozen members of Cuba’s Olympic fencing team. Venezuelan police arrest Luis Posada Carriles, a Cuban exile and former CIA employee, for masterminding the terrorist act.

  1977

  March: President Jimmy Carter lifts the ban on travel to Cuba by US citizens.

  March: Fidel Castro unsuccessfully attempts to mediate the conflict between Ethiopia and Somalia over disputed territory in the Ogaden Desert.

  April 27: The United States and Cuba sign an accord on fishing rights.

  September 1: The United States and Cuba begin to use their own diplomats to staff the sections of the Swiss embassy in Havana and Czech embassy in Washington that represent their respective interests. The diplomats reopen and work from the former embassy buildings.

  December: Nearly 20,000 Cuban combat troops begin to arrive in Ethiopia to support the government in its conflict with Somalia.

  1978

  May 25: President Carter mistakenly charges that Cuban troops in Angola were involved in training Katangese rebels who have invaded Zaire’s Shaba Province.

  October 21: Cuba releases forty-six prisoners in response to negotiations by the Committee of 75, a group of Cuban-Americans seeking to improve relations between Cuba and the United States.

  1979

  January 1: Cuba permits Cuban-Americans to visit their families. More than 100,000 go to Cuba in the following twelve months.

  April 14: The new government of Grenada establishes diplomatic relations with Cuba and begins to develop economic and political ties.

  July 26: Daniel Ortega, the Sandinista leader, attends the annual celebration commemorating the 1953 Moncada attack, which is dedicated to the July 19 triumph of the Nicaragua Revolution.