FIDEL CASTRO: THE UNTOLD STORY 5 OF 5
Corruption, prostitution, and racism flourished. Large American corporations grew rich off Cuba's resources, as did Batista himself, while the majority of Cubans remained in abject poverty.
The Castro-led attack on the Moncada Garrison in Santiago de Cuba on July 26, 1953 was the beginning of a six-year armed struggle against Batista. By the time Fidel and his troops marched victorious into a wildly cheering Havana in January of 1959, Batista and his cohorts had already fled the coop.
The first priority of the revolution became the redistribution of land under the Agrarian Reform Act. Not far behind were universal health care, education, housing, and road building, all of which were against the interests of big U.S. companies. The final straw, as far as the United States was concerned, occurred when Cuba ordered foreign refineries to refine Soviet crude oil.
When the United States refused to do so, the Cuban government nationalized the refineries. When the United States retaliated by cutting off the Cuban sugar quota, Cuba retaliated by nationalizing all U.S. properties in Cuba. In October 1960, the United States imposed the now 41-year-old embargo. Tit for tat would seem to be an understatement.
The beauty of Estela Bravo's film is the simplicity in which the history and politics of Cuba are laid out, despite Bravo's insistence that Fidel is the story of the man, not of his political beliefs. But it is impossible to talk about Castro without engaging in a discussion of politics. He has devoted his life to politics. That is his story.
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