Page 58 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Cuba

56  INTRODUCING CUBA

Eradicating Illiteracy,
Agricultural Reform
One of the first acts of the revolutionary
government was a campaign against
illite racy, initiated in 1961: thousands
of students travelled through out the
countryside, teaching the rural population
to read and write. Che Guevara, who during
the guerrilla war fare in the mountains had Marines arriving at the US naval base of Guantánamo during
encouraged his men to devote some time the missile crisis
to study, participated in the campaign.
In a short time illiteracy was eradicated. embargo against Cuba, which heralded
The next step was agrarian reform, which a boycott by most other countries in the
began with the abolition of ownership of Americas (except Mexico and Canada).
large landed estates, especially those in These countries also severed diplomatic
foreign (in particular American) hands. relations with the island, as the US had done.
US landholdings were drastically reduced. The result was the establishment of even
This marked the beginning of hostilities closer ties between Cuba and the communist
between the two countries. In October 1960 world. A year later, when the US discovered
the US declared an economic boycott that the presence of nuclear missile sites in Cuba,
blocked the export of petroleum to Cuba and President Kennedy ordered a naval blockade
the import of Cuban sugar. After around the island and
nearly two years of growing demanded that the missile
tension, Cuba secured closer installations be dismantled
economic and political ties with immediately. At the height
the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe of the crisis, with the world
and China. In the meantime, the poised on the brink of
struggle against counter- nuclear war, the Soviet
revolutionary guerrillas in the Participants in the campaign against president Nikita Khrushchev
Sierra del Escambray continued. illiteracy in 1961 ordered the missiles to be
taken back to the USSR.
The Embargo and Missile Crisis
On 17 April 1961 a group of Cuban exiles From the Zafra Campaign to the
and mercenaries trained by the CIA landed Emigration of the “Marielitos”
at Playa Girón, in the Bay of Pigs, to invade the During the early stages, the government
island. But the attack failed because, contrary had aimed to create as much diversity in
to the expectations of the US, Cuban civilians the economy as possible. However, in 1970,
did not rise up against Castro (see p171). Eight in order to inject life into the flagging
days later President Kennedy declared a trade economy, all efforts were concentrated on

1961 17 April: landing at Bay of Pigs; 1991 The Soviet Union withdraws
US embargo begins on 25 April troops and technicians
1962 Missile 1965 Only legal political party is 1975 First congress of the 1990 Beginning of the
crisis the Cuban Communist Party Cuban Communist Party Período Especial
1960 1970 1980 1990
1970 The zafra campaign
1961 3 January,
diplomatic 1967 Death of 1980 125,000 Cubans
relations with the Che Guevara emigrate from the
US are broken small harbour at Mariel Rations coupon
Armored tank booklet

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