Change in Cuba

1
Change in Cuba

• A move to Democracy or just more of the same?

2
Fidel Castro

• The bane of ten U.S. Presidents
• Came to power in January 1959
• Currently suffering from intestinal cancer at age
  81

3
Raul Castro

• Age 77, four years younger than Fidel
• Appointed temporary president 26 July 06
• Elected president on 24 Feb 08 after Fidel
  announced he would not stand for election
• Only Defense Minister Cuba has ever had
• Puppet for Fidel?

4
Raul Castro

• 26th of July Movement
• Exile in Mexico
• Granma
• Sierra Maestra
• Cuban Revolution
• Rauls supervision of executions

5
Ernesto Che Guevara

• Iconic photo by Alberto Korda, one of the most
  widely published photos in history
• Charismatic Argentine doctor joined with Castro
  in Mexico through Rauls introduction
• After the revolution he ran Fidels prisons
• Executed an estimated 5000 political prisoners
  without trial in 59-60

6
Che Guevara

• Wrote numerous books on revolutionary theory
• Killed by CIA-supported Bolivian government
  forces while trying to lead a continent-wide
  Marxist revolution

7
90 Miles to Miami
8
Bay of Pigs

• CIA support and training in Guatemala
• JFK humiliation
• Failure to provide air support

9
Cuban Missile Crisis
10
Cuban Foreign Policy A Threat to the U.S.?

• Export of Revolution in Africa in the 70s and 80s
• Cuban troops in Angola and Ethiopia
• 1979 Sandinistas topple Somoza
• 1996 Brothers plane shot down by MiG 29
• A model for Latin America?

11
Boat People

• 500,000 anti-Castro Cubans fled in 58-60
• 1966 LBJ and the Cuban Adjustment Act
• Mariel 1980
• 180,000 Cubans flee to Florida/ Castro empties
  his prisons
• 1994 25,000 flee per month, US sends them to
  Guantanamo
• Wet foot/Dry foot policy

12
The Change

• 1985 Perestroika, Glasnost, New Thinking
• 1989 Attempted Coup of Gen. Ochoa
• 1991 The fall of the Soviet Union
• Late 90s Cuba replaces Thailand as the Sex
  Tourism destination of the World.
• 1999-2000 Elian Gonzalez

13
U.S. Policy for the Future?

• 1999-2000 Elian Gonzalez
• 2005 Luis Posada Carriles 76 bombing of Cuban
  airliner that killed 73
• 2007 Rangel Dorgan immigration bill
• 2008 Delahunt immigration bill