Cuba Libre: A 500-Year Quest for Independence

by Philip Brenner

  2011

  January: US president Barack Obama relaxes restrictions on travel to Cuba for academic, religious, cultural, and educational purposes.

  April: The Communist Party of Cuba holds its Sixth Congress, the first in fourteen years, and approves the “Guidelines for the Economic and Social Policies of the Party and the Revolution.” The party also endorses term limits for all party and government leadership positions.

  August: The National Assembly approves several economic reforms aimed at decreasing the state’s role in the retail and service sectors, and promoting private small businesses and cooperatives.

  September–November: The Cuba government allows individuals to buy and sell houses and automobiles directly to one another for the first time in fifty years.

  December: Ahead of a visit by Pope Benedict XVI, authorities release 2,500 prisoners, including some convicted of political crimes.

  2012

  January: The Communist Party of Cuba holds its first National Conference, a meeting intended to complete work left unfinished at the end of the Sixth Congress.

  March 26: Pope Benedict XVI visits Cuba, where he calls for greater religious and political freedoms and meets with both Fidel and Raúl Castro. The pope condemns the US embargo against Cuba.

  April: The sixth Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, Colombia, ends without a final communiqué. Speaking on behalf of the Latin American heads of state, Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos declares that there will not be a seventh summit unless Cuba is invited.

  November: The Scarabeo 9 deepwater oil-drilling rig is removed from Cuban waters. Intended to probe for oil deposits as far down as seven miles, the rig’s departure places on hold Cuba’s hopes of tapping an estimated 20 billion barrels of crude oil reserves.

  November 19: The Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) begin negotiations in Havana to end a fifty-year civil war.

  2013

  January: Raúl Castro assumes the presidency of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC).

  January: The Cuban government eliminates the “tarjeta blanca,” an exit permit required any time a Cuban wished to travel outside the island.

  February: Cuba’s National Assembly reelects Raúl Castro as president of the Council of State. He declares that the five-year term as president will be his last, and he endorses the election of fifty-one-year-old Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez as first vice president.

  February: Leonardo Padura receives the National Prize for Literature. A popular Cuban novelist, his works go to the edge of acceptable criticism in highlighting corruption.

  March: President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela dies after a long battle with cancer. His successor Nicolás Maduro pledges to maintain Venezuelan ties to Cuba.

  June: The Cuban government opens 118 Internet cafes across the island, promising more in the future.

  July: The United States agrees to resume immigration talks with Cuba, frozen for two years because of the imprisonment of Alan Gross.

  July: Panama detains a North Korean freighter illegally carrying hidden Cuban military equipment through the Panama Canal.

  2014

  January 28–29: The Second Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States takes place in Havana.

  March 29: Cuba’s National Assembly approves a new Foreign Investment Law as part as the economic reforms to attract hard currency to the country.

  May: The Council of Ministers of Cuba approves the general bases for the drawing up of a Social and Economic Development Program for the period of 2016–2030.

  October: Cuba sends a medical brigade of 165 people—the largest foreign medical team from a single country—to Sierra Leone to fight the Ebola epidemic.

  December 17: Raúl Castro and Barack Obama announce that their two countries will reestablish diplomatic relations. Cuba releases Alan Gross on humanitarian grounds and releases a jailed US spy in exchange for the three remaining members of the Cuban Five still in prison.

  2015

  January: The Cuban government commutes the sentences of fifty-three people whom the United States had identified as political prisoners.

  April 9–11: Cuba participates for the first time in the Summit of the Americas, held in Panama. Castro and Obama have a private bilateral meeting for the first time.

  May: The US State Department removes Cuba from its list of state sponsors of terrorism.

  July 20: The Cuban Embassy officially reopens in Washington, DC, with Cuba’s Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez in attendance. The US Embassy officially reopens in Havana with the presence of Secretary of State John Kerry on August 14.

  July: The Cuban government begins to expand broadband Wi-Fi access throughout the country by creating “hotspots” at which users can connect for a charge of $2 per hour.

  September 11: The United States and Cuba hold the inaugural session of the bilateral commission created to organize and provide continuity to the process of normalizing relations.

  September 20–22: Pope Francis visits Cuba, during which time he officiates at three public masses.

  2016

  March 20–22: President Obama visits Cuba with a bipartisan congressional delegation. Raúl Castro and Obama hold official meetings, give a joint press conference, and attend a baseball game between the Tampa Bay Rays and the Cuban national team.

  March 25: The Rolling Stones perform at a free outdoor concert in Havana.

  April 16–19: At the Cuban Communist Party’s Seventh Congress, delegates approve resolutions affirming Cuba’s socialist economic model and the proposed vision for the 2030 National Economic Development Plan, and elect Raúl Castro as first secretary for a five-year term.

  July 4–8: Raúl reports to the National Assembly that Cuba’s gross domestic product grew by only 1 percent in the previous year, half of what was planned.

  August 24: The Colombian government and FARC sign a peace agreement in Cuba. After Colombian voters reject the accord in a referendum on October 2, the parties renegotiate its terms in Havana. The Colombian Congress approves the final agreement on November 30.

  October 14: Obama issues PPD-43—which consolidates changed regulations with regard to Cuba—and executive orders that authorize, among other things, transactions related to Cuban-origin products, the sale of Cuban pharmaceuticals, joint medical research, and civil aviation safety-related services.

  October 26: For the first time, the United States and Israel abstain in voting on a UN resolution that calls for the lifting of the US embargo. The final vote is 191-0-2, in favor of the resolution.

  November 25: Fidel Castro dies at the age of ninety in Havana. Cuba declares nine days of mourning, a period that culminates in his burial on December 4 at Santa Ifigenia Cemetery in Santiago de Cuba.

  December 12: Cuba and the European Union (EU) sign a Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement, which provides a framework for a relationship based on equality, reciprocity, and mutual respect. The signing comes in the wake of the EU’s revocation of its 1996 Common Position restricting trade.

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