Castro Economic and Social Policies

● What was he trying to achieve and why?

● Economic
● USA, USSR and nationalisation
● USA
● Cut utility rates charged by US companies and provided compensation via state bonds
● June 1960 three big US companies demanded payments for imports
● Cancelled exclusive contracts and created the Cuban Petroleum institute
● Expropriated the oil companies, no one in the west would trade with them
● USA trade embargo october 14th 1960, sugar quota also cut by eisenhower
● USSR
● Castro had to turn to the soviets to trade for sugar
● February 1960 negotiated an agreement with soviets for 200 million over 4 years
● Less than Batista traded with the soviet unión before
● Nationalisation
● Believed that state should own all business
● Private businesses were illegal including street vendors and bakeries
● Social
● Based around equity, education, healthcare and others (urban reform)
● Equal distribution of benefits, favoured the most vulnerable
● In last 40 years decreased differences between highest and lowest paid persons
● Education
● Education was regarded a the key to the future
● Change through education
● New teacher training institutes
● Number of schools quintupled
● Teachers moved to the most remote corners to teach
● National literacy campaign of 1961 mobilised teachers, workers and secondary school
students to teach more than 700,000 citizens on how to read, illiteracy goes from 23 to 4
percent
● Published a huge numbers of books and reading was a new national pastime
● Highest per capita book production of latin américa and highest literacy rate in the
hemisphere
● Books were censored and oppressed, state had to approve
● Continuing education
● 1980 - 98.8 percent of children from 6-11 attending primary schools
● Secondary education went from 14% in 1960 to 90 percent in 1990
● Higher education from 7% in 1970 to 21 percent in 1990
● Highly educated workforce
● Significant percent of cuban workforce had degrees
● Healthcare
 ● Hospitals were built in remote cities, doctors travelled
● All medical services were free
● 1965 Cuba spent 10x as much as méxico and almost 30x as ecuador on healthcare per
capita
● National healthcare system and rural services introduced in 1959, at that time only 8
percent of rural population had access to healthcare
● This system targeted every single aspect of health such as abortions and helped farmers
and families across cuba
● Reason why castro was able to do this was because of existing problems of healthcare
system
● All concentrated in urban areas and half of doctors left after socialization of medicine
● Greatly diminished resources and created need to retrain medical personnel
● Allowed castro to build healthcare from ground up, ​his decision to do so.
● Urban reform
● Halfing of rents for cuban tenants
● Tenants had opportunities to own their housing
● Housing construction for those living in shanty towns
● Gambling and prostitution basically gone
● Negative
● US Embargo factories idle, store shelves empty and basic goods rationed ​after fall of the
USSR
● La cola - waiting line to purchase whatever was available
● Unable to keep enough food for the people
● Castro wanted to increase morale and consolidate power
● Pushed forward many very good social policies
● People receiving things that they never had before
● Before the cuban government relied on the US but now Cuba was taking a new direction
with the soviets, many new policies like nationalisation
● Castro domestic policies quite beneficial

Nature, extent and treatment of opposition

● 1959 to 1962
● Castro had to deal with external and internal threats
● Executions of ….check number
● Show trials
● Summary of internals - rebels supporting Batista, members of m-26-7 who opposed
communism and wealthy middle class
● Externals - USA, people that were fed up with Castro and left
● Internal threats
● Huber Matos​ - former revolutionary, brilliant commander in the sierra, october 1959
wrote a resignation letter concerned by communism. Criticised castro’s move to
communism
● He and his officers were denounced as traitors and arrested for rebellion, tried and
sentenced to 20 years
● The revolution was beginning to devour its own sons
● Rebels
● After Castro’s victory there were still some soldiers loyal to Batista
● Continued fight from escambray mountains, joined by those that were not in support with
communist leanings and some peasant farmers that didn't like land reforms
● Fought in guerrilla style
● These rebels had far less support
● Although given the same US aid, the US cut off support due to failure
● Castro counterintelligence units caught and arrested many CIA agents
● Jan 1965 after 5 years of rebellion, rebels defeated and arrested
● The Ochoa Affair 1989
● Nearly the time of special period
● Time when senior military leaders were arrested for drug smuggling and corruption
● Long prison sentences and 3 were executed including Ochoa
● Rumoured that a coup was being planned by Ochoa
● Cuban Refugees
● Cubans that didn't like the new policies
● Many wanted to flee
● Most went to miami and florida
● Castro at times allowed immigration
● Turned crisis of people revolting into opportunities
● Allowed enemies to leave and raised his popularity in Cuba
● Great for dictatorship
● Freedom flights in 1965-1973 twice daily flights from Cuba to miami and around 265,297
cubans left - moderate amount
● April to october 1980 on Mariel Boatlift, 125,000 working class shipped to USA because
they didn't like working there
● Shortage in labour but made it work
● Able to quickly cut off his opposition internally by arresting, crushing with military,
sending them to jail or taking them out of Cuba
● External
● Operation Mongoose
● USA against Cuba, 1960 eisenhower authorises 1.3 million for the CIA to remove Castro
● Plenty of plots and assasination attempts
● Assassins infiltrating cuba
● 3 main types of attempts - tracking castro, targeting Cuban economy by collapsing to
provoke an uprising and terrorist attacks by bombing civilians or military targets
● William Alexander Morgan 1928-1961
 ● US citizen that volunteered to fight against Batista
● Very good soldier
● Military training in USA
● Castro promoted him to comandante
● Only 3 foreigners held this rank
● After castro takes power there are rumours of him being involved with CIA, arrested and
accused of treason, executed in march 1961
● Castro was very careful as a leader
● Mainly US opposition, wide range of assassination attempts that failed because Castro
used tactics such as erratic movements
● Overall Castro had to deal with both internal and external threat
● Various tactics to deal with these
● Castro crushed opposition because of many ingenious ideas

Political, Cultural, Women and Minorities

● Political
● Slowly concentrated power into his hands was his purpose
● Assuming responsibility for many areas of government
● Some in reaction to USA response
● Castro travelled around Cuba in his jeep and visited many places
● Lack of delegation and micromanaging his country
● Sticked his reputation in Cuba producing 10 million tons of sugar ​add date
● By the end of the year only 8.5 million was produced
● Failure with resources destroyed and many collapses
● Criticism was not permitted and quite repressive
● No newspapers or books except those accepted by the regime
● Minorities rounded up and sent to labour camps (such as homosexuals)
● Jails filled with prisoners that spoke out/committed acts of violence against the regime
such as US spies and Batista men, as well as political prisoners
● 20,000 said by Castro to be political prisoners
● 50-60 thousand speculated by historians
● Lack of elections and the banning of political parties
● Promised elections were never held for reasons of ‘national security’
● Kept strict control over the media
● Silence of anti-rev media when he got into power, claimed it was only a temporary
measure, used excuse of interest of public security to keep censoring
● Uni professors and journalists who voiced opposition were threatened with dismissal and
arrest
● Newspapers, magazines and radio stations that spoke out against Castro were
threatened with closure unless they changed political stance
● Political policies show his repression
● Took responsibility for many areas of society
● Took all responsibility for financing healthcare, education, etc
● Very interested in housing
● New laws gave everyone housing
● Agrarian Reform Law confiscates estates and created cooperatives under the
management of the INRA
● Increases morale and covers up his repression
● Helms-Burton Act 1996
● USA causes Castro to create repressive policies
● US was remaining a threat to Castro
● US act which called for harsh and unfair sanctions against all countries, institutions and
businesses which traded with Cuba
● Castro says the act harms the sovereignty of the rest of the world
● Realises that the act helped the growing global disgust of the USA
● Could be a reason for repression
● Cultural
● Main purpose to increase devotion to Cuba
● Allow Cuban people to fully immerse themselves in the arts
● Mainly Castro encouraging art throughout Cuba, all people to participate
● Nuevo Cancio movement
● Brought revolutionary theme to 1960s music
● Combines rock and latin sounds
● Cultural institutions founded and vital to cultural development
● National Ballet Organisation
● National Symphonic Orchestra
● National Folkloric Group
● Film
● Big achievement
● March 1959 Cuban Film Institute created
● Produced documentaries, feature films, newsreels
● Films won international awards and featured in film festivals
● Continuing machismo in Cuban society
● Biased interpretation of the country’s past
● Rarely criticism of revolution, censored
● Raised morale and devotion
● Women
● Targeted during and after the revolution
● Federation of Cuban Women 3 months after revolution
● Mobilise women to support the revolution through work, participation in literacy
campaigns
● Gov provided daycare centres
● Female education soared
 ● Women entered professions in record numbers
● 18 weeks paid maternity leave guaranteed, very high at the time
● Minorities
● Minimised differences between races
● Artists, hippies, homosexuals, Jehovah Witnesses were labelled antisocial and sent to
labour camps
● Demoralisation
● Most of policies were positive

Great notes, Ariana! Textbook pages are …

What are your conclusions? Ruled mostly through fear or popular support? Success in
achieving his aims?