In Cuba sometime before dawn the invading forces’ B-26 bombers give air cover to men landing on the beach. As the sun rises there is a surprise attack from Castro’s air force. The B-26s are shot down. Without air cover, the anti-Castro forces’ ships are attacked. And the men are cut off from their supplies. The situation looks dire. The Good Shepherd 2006 starring Matt Damon & Angelina Jolie & Robert de Niro & Alec Baldwin & William Hurt & Joe Pesci & John Turturro & Billy Crudup & Michael Gambon & John Sessions & Tammy Blanchard & Timothy Hutton et al, director Robert de Niro, news commentary
The first part of the twentieth century Cuba was fast becoming just another appendage of the United States. With corporate interests firmly secured in the country, western-back dictator Fulgensio Batista carried out a military coup in 1952. Abby Martin, Breaking the Set: Cuba I, RT 25-27.02.15
1959-1997: The US carried out 5,780 covert actions in Cuba including several bombings. ibid. author’s estimate
Cuba being on the US’s State Sponsors of Terrorism List. ibid.
Cuba call the embargo a blockade. ibid.
Guantanamo Bay: The territory Cuba cheaply leased the US back in 1903 under the auspices it was going to be used for mining and coal operations, not torture and indefinite detention. ibid.
70 American fugitives are currently living on the island. ibid.
‘For over 12 years the Grass Roots organisation of peace activists known as Code Pink have shaken up the Washington establishment with countless anti-war demonstrations in front of DC’s top politicians and policy makers.’ ibid. Cody Snell
‘150 members of the group … their reasons for coming here [Cuba] are as diverse as the activists themselves.’ ibid.
Universal health care for its 11 million citizens. Abby Martin, Breaking the Set: Cuba II, RT 25-27.02.15
One doctor for every 170 patients … paid up to $70 a month. ibid.
Cuba’s extraordinary global medical record shames the US blockade: In the aftermath of the Kashmir earthquake of 2005, Cuba sent 2,400 medical workers to Pakistan and treated more than 70% affected; they also left behind 32 field hospitals and donated a thousand medical scholarships … Haiti: Cuba sent the largest contingent of doctors … 3 million eye surgeries across the world … ibid.
Cuba has pleaded for Washington to stop encouraging doctors to defect through this program. ibid.
The country has begun to institute significant reforms, handing more and more control of businesses to private entrepreneurs. Abby Martin, Breaking the Set: Cuba III, RT 25-27.02.15
Cuba can adapt to new models while maintaining its self-reliance. ibid.
Let workers take control of their own companies, share the profits and make their own decisions without overbearing government regulations … converted to co-ops … that produces organic produce … 70% of the country’s farmed land. ibid.
The lack of homelessness and abject poverty. ibid.
Cuba has always been fighting for its freedom. The Cuba Libre Story s1e1: Breaking Chains, dude, Netflix 2016
100,000 died, and even though we lost the war, the country had changed. ibid. historian
Meyer Lansky had thoroughly corrupted Batista. ibid. dude
Today’s Cuba is a curious mix of tropical paradise and quaint nostalgia. ibid. commentary
How did Cuba become a hub of the slave trade? … Cuba bears the scars of 500 years of foreign occupation. ibid.
Cuba is the biggest island in the Caribbean. It spans 760 miles from east to west … Cuba’s climate is hot and tropical. ibid.
Once hostilities began they did not stand a chance against the conquistadors. ibid.
Jose Marti, born in Havana Cuba in 1853, Cuba’s national hero, convinced that the Spaniards had no more business in Cuba. ibid.
The United States needed an excuse to intervene in Cuba and this excuse was The Maine. ibid. Cuban historian
The United States had gone from being Cuba’s liberators to its occupiers. ibid.
The US military occupation was a key historical moment for Cuba. The Cuba Libre Story s1e2: War and Sugar, Cuban historian
American business felt completely at ease in Cuba after its so-called liberation from Spanish rule. ibid. Nikolai Leonov, former KGB officer
Cuba became a Mecca for migrants. ibid.
United Fruit amassed substantial political power in Central America and the Caribbean. ibid.
The Platt Amendment authorising an invasion at any time hung like the Sword of Damocles over the Cubans’ heads. ibid.
Many unemployed Cubans joined the island’s army. ibid.
The sugar crisis in Cuba began in 1918 with the end of the First World War. It would last many years. ibid.
Batista’s army upheld order in Cuba. ibid.
Cuban rum was a worldwide success. The Cuba Libre Story s1e3: Gangster’s Paradise
Cuba became an El Dorado for the Mafia in the 1940s. ibid.
The new president did little to stop organised crime … Cuba was their safe refuge. ibid.
For the rest of the people prospects were grim. ibid.
Castro’s will to fight was unbroken despite these revolutionary setbacks. ibid.
Thus began the Batista dictatorship … Cuba was a police state. ibid.
Cuba has always been an island of extremes. The Cuba Libre Story s1e4: A Ragtag Revolution
For more than 500 years Cuba has been scarred by poverty and oppression. ibid.
Batista’s police continued to crush any signs of revolt or rebellion. ibid.
The Castros gave the rebellious group a new name – the 26th July movement. ibid.
In both Santiago and Havana armed police offered no resistance to the victorious rebels. ibid.
Batista fled Cuba as a new revolution swept over the island led by Fidel Castro. The Cuba Libre Story s1e5: Making Heroes
There was no lack of unresolved conflicts. ibid.
Fidel Castro named himself Cuba’s prime minister. ibid.
Cuba attempted to procure weapons on the world market. ibid.
Fidel Castro was warmly welcomed in Harlem. ibid.
Fidel Castro presented victory in the Bay of Pigs as an unmitigated triumph. ibid.
So why did he authorise the presence of 43,000 Soviet soldiers on the island? The Cuba Libre Story s1e6: Of Soviets & Saviors
Castro’s government had to look for new trade partners. ibid.
The Soviet Union provided Cuba with a loan and other economic support. ibid.
In September 1962 the deployment was completed; most of the missiles were ready for launch. ibid.
What caused hundreds of thousands of Cubans to flee their country? The Cuba Libre Story s1e7: Secrets & Sacrifices
The Cuban missile crisis lasted 13 days. ibid.
‘This was where his literacy campaign came in. Until then, no-one had been interested in poor rural people.’ ibid. Bert Hoffmann, historian
Schools and hospitals were built across the island. ibid.
The most basic necessities were rationed. ibid.
The history of Cuba is 500 years of poverty and insurrection. And a dream of freedom the Cubans have never given up on. The Cuba Libre Story s1e8: Moments of Transition
Tens of thousands took to the sea in handmade floats and boats. ibid.
The prison [Guantanamo] was not shut down under US President Obama. ibid.
Raul took over his brother’s duty, first temporarily, then permanently. ibid.
Throughout the 1960s, the Caribbean island was subjected to countless sea and air commando raids by exiles, at times accompanied by their CIA supervisors, inflicting damage upon oil refineries, chemical plants and railroad bridges, cane fields, sugar mills and sugar warehouses; infiltrating spies, saboteurs and assassins … anything to damage the Cuban economy, promote disaffection, or make the revolution look bad … taking the lives of Cuban militia members and others in the process … pirate attacks on Cuban fishing boats and merchant ships, bombardments of Soviet vessels docked in Cuba, an assault upon a Soviet army camp with 12 Russian soldiers reported wounded … a hotel and a theatre shelled from offshore because Russians and East Europeans were supposed to be present there. William Blum, Killing Hope: US Military & CIA Interventions Since World War I ch 30: Cuba 1959 to 1980s: The Unforgivable Revolution