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Castro's success & reasons - Coggle Diagram
Castro's success & reasons
Support from key individuals
Raul Castro
: Fidel's younger brother. Fought in the Moncada assault. Righthand man, helped with Grandma expedition organisation. Head of the Cuban Communist Party, Minister of Defence and Vice-President of the Council of State. Appointed president in 2008 after Fidel resigned.
Vilma Espín
: Wife of Raul Castro, took part in urban uprisings in support of the Granma expedition. After the revolution, she founded the Federation de Mujeres Cubanas (Cuban Women's Federation).
Ernesto 'Che' Guevara
: Medical doctor born in Argentina. Revolutionary and demanded reform and solution to corruption and poverty across all of Latin America. Partook in Grandma Expedition. Lead the Sierra Maestra fighting and was an icon for the revolution. After the revolution, responsible for the purges of Batsianos and other opponents. Acted as head of the Bank of Cuba and Minister of Industry. Travelled to Congo in 1965 in support of a revolution. Assassinated in 1957 in Bolivia.
Hardée Santamaría
: Member of the 26th July Movement. Participated in the Moncada assault, one of the few women who did. Responsible for distributing copies of Castro's 'History will absolve me' speech. Significant role in the development of Cuban culture after revolution. Found the Case de las Americas (1959) which was a key literary institution. Committed suicide on 26th July 1980.
Celia Sánchez
: Close friend of Fidel and early member of 26th of July Movement. She was responsible for providing land support for the Grandma Expedition. In Sierra Maestra, she contributed to the founding of the female 'Mariana Grajales' army. Occupied many government roles until death in 1980.
Leadership style & Rebels
Castro's rebel army fought in a different style compared to Batista. The peasants did not get get their food or goods stolen and always received payment for food by Castro's rebels
The Rebels and Leadership were inclusive of women and respected them.
Treated peasants like family and comrades: taught them to read and write, helped with house chores, put medical doctors at their service
Any soldier
breaking these codes was
sentenced to
death
The leaders explained clearly to the population of Cuba what they were fighting for. There was a clear vision of social reform.
Agrarian Reform
promised to end ownership of large estates by small sector companies, committed to a fairer distribution of land
Castro's personality / charisma
Castro, on Radio Rebelde, directly addressed the revolution in a way everyone understood. He also made sure the people found out the censorship the government was doing about the fight. He was transparent.
Tactics and Media
Radio Rebelde (Rebel Radio): began to broadcast from 'the territory of Free Cuba in the Sierra' in 1958. People tuned in because they relied on the Radio Rebelled more than the government.
The news from the radio about the progress in Sierra Maestra encouraged urban support for the revolution. Workers in towns and cities joined underground rebellions. Printed leaflets in support of rebels.
Used improvised explosives and weaponry to fight back. Performed assassinations. Unconventional warfare.
Batista's actions
Hosted a trial after the Moncada Assault of 1953 to show how powerful his regime was. It backfired and instead Castro was presented as the character of strength.
1954 - Batista held elections and ran as a presidential candidate to legitimise his rule. Castro was in prison at this time and there was no effective opposition - essentially created a fake democracy. Used the elections to claim that he had been rightfully chosen by the people.
1955 - Batista did more actions to appear more democratic: allowed political parties to regroup and released many political prisoners.
Brutality and fierce rule of the government ended up causing more people to side with the rebels rather than being fearful of the government. Peasants who had their fields and plantations burnt down and families of executed opponents or even innocents grew hatred towards Batista.
Batista
refused to negotiate
with the USA over the arms deal embargo and the
rejected
proposal for him to capitulate to a caretaker government which would have allowed the USA to give military and diplomatic support to prevent Castro from rising.
Disillusionment with government-economic, social policy