The Cuban revolution (1953-1959)

The Cuban revolution is a left-wing nationalist movement led by Cubv Fidel Castro. For those who don't know what fidelism (or fidelismo) is or who Fidel Castro is, you can take a look at my article on fidelismo here.

There were two revolutions in Cuban history: the Revolution of 1933 also called the Sergeant’s Revolt, and the Revolution of 1953. The second is probably the most important and the most famous because it led to the establishment of the Castroist regime, which lasted until Fidel's death in 2016. 

The Cuban revolution started on July 26, 1953 with the attack of the Moncada barracks, and ended in January 1959 with the collapse of Fulgencio Batista's dictatorship.

However, the revolution does not only refer to the armed conflict. It can also refer to the regime of Castro and his ideology. Therefore, the Cuban revolution can also be considered to have ended with Fidel's death in 2016.

Historical context: the Cold War

Since 1947, the Cold War had disrupted international relations. As a reminder, the Cold War was not a direct armed conflict between powers, but rather an ideological war between the Western bloc, mainly represented by the United States, and the Eastern bloc, led by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). However, the two great victors of the Second World War did confront each other indirectly in different countries.

Both powers tried to extend their influence across all continents, in an attempt to crush each other's ideology.

In Latin America, the United States has emerged as a major investor and has supported several right-wing coups and dictatorships to “contain” (the Containment strategy of George  F. Kennan, 1946) the spread of communism in the region.

Relationship with the United States before the revolution

Cuba obtained its independence from the Spanish Crown with the help of the United States in 1898. However, it cannot really be said that the island has been independent since then, given the influence the United States has exerted on the Cuban economy and politics. 

In addition, the U.S. militarily occupied the island from 1898 to 1902 and more or less forced the island’s leader to include the Platt Amendment to the Cuban Constitution, in exchange, the United States would withdraw from the island. This agreement authorized the United States to intervene militarily on the island in order to guarantee its independence and to establish naval bases or coal production sites there. In other words, the United States placed Cuba under trusteeship.

In May 1934, the two countries signed the US-Cuban Treaty of Relations which finally repealed the Platt Amendment. Cuba had to cede Guantanamo Bay to the U.S. for naval bases. Since then, the United States has jurisdiction and control over this area, but all Cuban commercial and military vessels can freely navigate in the waters surrounding the bay.

This new agreement was signed within the framework of the good neighbor policy of American President Franklin Roosevelt.

In 1948, Cuba and the United States signed the Sugar Act. Under this agreement, the United States had to purchase three tons of sugar from Cuba each year.

Until Fidel Castro came to power, Cuban presidents mostly served the interests of Washington, especially Fulgencio Batista (1940-1944 and 1952-1959) who was probably the most loyal president to the U.S. Washington also supported Batista's coup in 1952. Under his dictatorship, the presence of American companies and subsidiaries in Cuba increased and the United States indirectly took control of the Cuban economy.

July 26, 1953: Start of the revolution

Faced with the coup led by Fulgencio Batista in 1952, Fidel Castro decided to form a group of revolutionaries with his brother Raúl with the aim of overthrowing the Batista regime. The first operation carried out by the Castro brothers was the attack on the Moncada barracks, on July 26, 1953, located in the province of Oriente. The choice of this province was strategic as the inhabitants of Oriente were mainly opposed to the regime. Fidel's goal was to provoke a popular uprising and call for a general strike.

Castro and his brothers in arms hoped to take advantage of the geography to gain the upper hand over Batista's troops as the barracks were located in the mountains, near the sea. However, Fidel and Raúl were arrested and spent nearly two years in prison (they were originally sentenced to 15 years in prison but were granted an amnesty). The Castro Revolution is considered to have begun on this day.

The armed struggle for justice

© Getty Images

In 1955, the brothers were released and decided to travel to the United States, then to Mexico to reorganize the movement. They met the Argentine revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara. Fidel and Guevara quickly became very close.

With the help of other brothers-in-arms from the assault of July 53 and Che Guevara, the Castro brothers organized a new attack to overthrow Batista. However, when they landed in Cuba, Batista's troops were already waiting for them. The Castro brothers and Che Guevara managed to escape and hide in the Sierra Maestra. For his part, Fulgencio Batista claimed to have killed the Castro brothers, and a few years later, the world had forgotten about the Castro brothers.

Sierra Maestra, © Manfred Lentz

However, in 1957, Fidel Castro accepted an interview with a journalist from the New York Times so that everyone knew he was still alive. This interview renewed the revolutionary cause: Castro attracted and recruited many young people from urban areas. He created the July 26 Movement, the M-26-7, a revolutionary political organization that aimed to overthrow the Batista government. The revolution continued.

In January 1959, Fidel and his troops finally managed to overthrow Fulgencio Batista and he became Prime Minister of the Republic of Cuba until 1976, before officially becoming President of the Republic. He governed the island until 2008 and died eight years later, in 2016.

This time, the Revolution unites the entire people, all revolutionaries, and the honorable army. Its strength is so great and so unbreakable that, this time, triumph is assured! We can joyfully declare that after four centuries of existence, for the first time, we will be fully united.

Fidel Castro, Speech delivered at the Céspedes Park in Santiago de Cuba, January 1, 1959 (end of the revolution).

After 1959: the Castro regime

Fidel Castro directly announced the appointment of Manuel Urrutia as provisional president, through popular elections, which in reality never took place (Faure, 2010). Urrutia was opposed to Batista, but was also anti-communist.

Fidel Castro proclaimed himself the commander in chief/minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces. The government was composed of ministers who were mostly M-26 revolutionaries, members of the Popular Socialist Party (the Cuban Communist Party), and few pro-democratic liberal ministers.

Although he was not president, Fidel had in reality total control over the government. Until 1976, the revolutionary government did not have a legislative assembly; everything was implemented by decree. Fidel Castro represented power alone; he was the personification of the revolution.

A new constitution was drafted and approved in 1976. It finally provided the Castro regime with institutions, even if these did not really have any power in decision-making, since all power was concentrated in Fidel.

The new regime policies

The priorities of the new government (or, more precisely, of Fidel) were: 

1. Launching a campaign of literacy

2. Implementing land reform

3. Eliminating Batista supporters.

In 1959, Fidel Castro undertook the nationalization of lands followed by policies of agricultural collectivization. In 1962, he also nationalized all transportation companies and the health sector. He ordered the construction of new infrastructure: schools, roads, etc. Fidel also nationalized all major foreign (mainly American) and Cuban companies.

Fidel attempted to diversify the island's economy, particularly to reduce its dependence on income from sugar production. He also attempted to promote industrialization, but both strategies failed.

The communist drift

Tensions rose rapidly between the followers of Castro and the liberal democrats. President Urrutia was concerned about the growing influence of the communists within the government as during the revolution Fidel had declared not to be a communist.

Che Guevara became the new president of the Cuban Central Bank. Urrutia resigned on July 18, 1959, and five days later, Fidel Castro appointed Osvaldo Dorticós, a communist, as the new president of Cuba. After Manuel Urrutia's resignation, several democratic ministers also left the government, which gradually filled with revolutionaries and communists.

In 1961, Castro announced the merger of the Popular Socialist Party, the M-26, and the Student Revolutionary Directorate (an activist organization) into a single party, the Cuban Communist Party. In 1976, the approval of the new Constitution marked a complete political shift. Fidel officially declared the socialist character of his revolution and his regime, placing Cuba in the Eastern Bloc during the Cold War. From then on, Cuba has been officially socialist and a one party-state.

A violent regime

Right after the victory of the revolutionary troops, Fidel ordered the imprisonment of several anti-communists, including former revolutionaries who had fought alongside him but did not share his political ideology. In addition, several officers of the Batista regime were executed for "war crimes."

From 1961 onwards, several homosexuals were deported to "re-education" camps. The regime imprisoned anyone who did not fit the concept of  the new Cuban man of Ernesto Che Guevara: Catholics, trade unionists, followers of Afro-Cuban religions... 

The new Cuban man must sacrifice himself for the community; his motivations are not material, but moral. Anyone who does not fit this model is considered a social deviant.

This purge was aimed at discouraging opposition. The United Nations has repeatedly accused the Castro regime of human rights violations.

Finally, with the new regime, freedom of expression gradually disappeared: the media could no longer criticize the Castro regime. Several intellectuals were arrested and many others were forced into exile. Many people decided to flee the antidemocratic regime to go to the United States.

Anti-imperialism

© Getty Images

Imperialism is a concept generally associated with globalization and the expansion of the capitalist model of the great powers (Amin, 2025). It can be defined as the use of military force and the economic or political influence exerted by one country over another to generate profit. Throughout history, the countries of the periphery repeatedly denounced the imperialist foreign policies of the United States and European countries. In Cuba, Fidel Castro always denounced American imperialism.

US President Eisenhower (1953-1961) directly opposed the Castro regime and its economic policies. The relationship between the United States and Cuba began to deteriorate.

At the beginning in the 1960s, the United States started to impose economic sanctions on Cuba and implemented a program aimed at overthrowing Fidel Castro. Cuba gradually started to find new trading partners, replacing the United States with the USSR (the U.S.A. was Cuba's main trading partner before the revolution). In response, the United States decided to break off diplomatic relations with Cuba in 1961.

Tensions reached their peak in the 1960s, with the Bay of Pigs landings in 1961, but especially with the 1962 missile crisis.

Fidel Castro violently criticized US foreign policy toward Cuba and Latin America. Moreover, he accused them of not respecting the Sugar Act of 1948. The confrontation with the United States is a major characteristic of the regime. Anti-American propaganda fueled the anti-imperialist narrative of Fidel. Neither his brother nor current President Miguel Diaz-Canel felt such "hatred" towards the United States.

Conclusion 

La revolución y el régimen castrista, por su larga duración y por todas las transformaciones socioeconómicas y políticas que generaron, hoy en día siguen teniendo efectos en la vida de los cubanos. Conocer las características y la historia del régimen castrista nos permite entender un poco mejor la situación actual de la isla. 

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