History
> Early 21st century, 20th century
20th century >
Cold War / холодная война
USA - Cuba relationship > Timeline in pictures
Fidel Castro's army chief of
staff,
Major Juan Almeida, left,
and Captain Antonio Nunez
Jimenez,
head of Cuba's National Agrarian
Reform Institute,
at the Hotel Theresa in Harlem,
when the Cubans met the leaders
of the black empowerment
movement
and other civil rights
activists.
April 1959 - check.
Photograph:
William N. Jacobellis
NYP
Holdings, Inc.,
via Getty Images
Chanting Crowds and Camo Chic
Sixty years ago Fidel Castro came to New York,
mesmerizing throngs
and leaving an enduring mark on fashion.
The New York Times
April 16, 2019
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/16/
fashion/fidel-castro-radical-chic.html
Cuban rebel Jorge Serguera (C)
acting as prosecuter at public trial.
Location: Havana, Cuba
Date taken: 1959
Photograph: Joseph Scherschel
Life Images
http://images.google.com/hosted/life/a4aebc1e050d7bb2.html
Dictator
Fulgencio Batista (R)
speaking into microphone,
promising happy days coming.
Location: Havana, Cuba
Date taken: March 1952
Photographer: George Skadding
Life Images
http://images.google.com/hosted/life/7591325ae91e18dd.html
Juana de la
Caridad Castro Ruz 1933-2023
Sister of Fidel
and Raúl Castro
who turned
against her brothers
and their
regime,
became a CIA
informer
and sought exile
in the US
Juanita Castro,
one of the
younger sisters
of the
revolutionary Cuban leaders
Fidel and Raúl
Castro,
was initially
active in her brothers’
struggle against
the US-backed
Batista regime.
However,
she turned
against them soon
after they came
to power in 1959.
According to her
2009 memoir,
Fidel and Raúl
Mis Hermanos:
La Historia
Secreta,
co-written with
María Antonieta Collins,
Juanita began to
collaborate
with the CIA
from 1961,
as it made
attempts to overthrow
the Castro
regime.
Coming from a
traditional
Catholic
background,
without the
educational opportunities
of her brothers,
Juanita,
(...)
had become
openly hostile
to the
ever-radicalising revolution.
Prior to the CIA
involvement
she opened a
boarding house
in the wealthy
Havana suburb of Miramar
to protect
people
who had fallen
foul of the regime,
as well as to
prepare them
for the flight
into exile.
Everyone knew
of her
counter-revolutionary activities,
but she was
protected
by the presence
in the house of her
– and her
brothers’ – mother, Lina.
After the Bay of
Pigs invasion
by Cuban exiles
in April 1961,
when Juanita was
using her influence
to secure the
release from prison
of several
acquaintances,
she was
approached
by her friend
Virginia Leitão da Cunha,
the wife of the
Brazilian ambassador in Havana,
who suggested
that she might find
this
humanitarian work easier
if she were to
be supported by the CIA.
Juanita flew to
Mexico City that June,
where she was
interviewed by Tony Sforza,
the organiser of
Operation Mongoose,
a CIA project
designed,
according to
President
John F Kennedy’s
directive,
“to help the
people of Cuba
overthrow the
communist regime
in Cuba from
within Cuba”.
Juanita was the
project’s first recruit.
With the
codename Donna,
she returned to
Havana,
where a
short-wave transmitter
was installed in
her house.
Playing
Marchetti’s Fascination Waltz indicated
that an
important message might be expected,
while Puccini’s
Madame Butterfly suggested
that there was
no news.
She continued
her work of
rescuing people from prison,
but she came to
the notice
of the Cuban
intelligence services.
When Lina died
in 1963,
Juanita’s
protection also disappeared.
Raúl visited her
with a large
folder
containing an
account of her misdemeanours,
and she felt
that this was a
warning she could not ignore.
She arrived in
Mexico in June 1964,
creating
headlines around the world
when she
attacked her brother’s government.
Juanita settled
into a typical
exile life in Miami,
feted by some
and attacked by others.
For five years,
she continued to
enjoy
the support of
the CIA.
But the
inauguration
of President
Richard Nixon in 1969
led to a change
of emphasis in US policy.
Anxious to
promote detente
with the Soviet
Union,
the Americans
agreed
to downplay
their anti-Cuban propaganda,
while the
Russians promised
to use their
best efforts to persuade Fidel
to abandon the
armed struggle
in Latin
America.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/07/
juanita-castro-obituary
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/07/
juanita-castro-obituary
March 2016
Obama's historic trip to Cuba
https://www.npr.org/series/395846943/
cubas-new-era-stories-from-havana
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/projects/cp/international/
obama-in-cuba
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/27/
arts/music/another-first-for-cuba-a-concert-by-the-rolling-stones.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/27/
world/americas/with-obama-visit-to-cuba-old-battle-lines-fade.html
http://www.theguardian.com/music/gallery/2016/mar/26/
rolling-stones-cuba-free-concert-pictures
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/24/world/americas/
obamaurges-raised-voices-incubas-husheddiscussions-ofrace.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/23/nyregion/
in-a-cuban-enclave-in-new-jersey-mixed-feelings-about-reconciliation.html
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/03/22/
471410913/watch-live-president-obama-delivers-speech-in-havana
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/22/world/americas/
obama-and-raul-castro-to-meet-in-pivotal-moment-for-us-cuba-thaw.html
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/03/21/
471265506/in-cuba-president-obama-lays-wreath-at-a-jos-mart-memorial
http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2016/03/21/
471233389/obamas-cuba-visit-raises-the-question-of-guantanamo-bays-future
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/03/21/
471265506/in-cuba-president-obama-lays-wreath-at-a-jos-mart-memorial
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/21/world/americas/cuba-
obama-visit-havana-dissidents.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/21/world/americas/
obama-arrives-in-cuba.html
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/03/20/
471190812/president-obama-touches-down-in-cuba-commencing-a-historic-visit
http://www.npr.org/2016/03/20/
471194927/president-obama-arrives-in-cuba-with-his-family
http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2016/03/20/
470831222/pressing-for-change-in-cuba-from-exile-in-spain
http://www.npr.org/2016/03/20/
471161653/a-hope-to-normalize-cuban-relations-ahead-of-obama-s-landmark-visit
http://www.nytimes.com/video/world/americas/
100000004282427/dissidents-detained-before-obama-visit.html - Mar. 20,
2016
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/03/20/
471190812/president-obama-touches-down-in-cuba-commencing-a-historic-visit
http://www.npr.org/2016/03/19/
471003163/after-reaching-out-his-hand-president-obama-will-step-foot-in-cuba
The U.S. And
Cuba:
A Brief History
Of A Complicated Relationship
http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2014/12/17/
371405620/the-u-s-and-cuba-a-brief-history-of-a-tortured-relationship
August 14, 2015
U.S. Flag Flies
Over Embassy In Cuba
For First Time
In 54 Years
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/08/14/
432221261/stars-and-strips-to-be-raised-over-u-s-embassy-in-cuba
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/08/13/432068588/
on-eve-of-embassy-reopening-fidel-castro-says-u-s-owes-cuba-millions
July 20, 2015
After 54 Years,
The U.S. And
Cuba
Formally Restore Ties
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/07/20/
424582303/after-54-years-the-u-s-and-cuba-formally-restore-ties
May 29, 2015
U.S. Drops Cuba
From List Of State
Sponsors Of Terrorism
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/05/29/
410543192/u-s-drops-cuba-from-state-sponsored-terrorism-list
2014-2015
Cuba Shifts
Toward Capitalism
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/11/world/americas/cuba-us-
obama-castro-terrorism.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/07/
opinion/cuban-expectations-in-a-new-era.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/25/world/americas/as-cuba-
shifts-toward-capitalism-inequality-grows-more-visible.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/22/world/cuba-
seizures-now-present-opportunities.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/19/us/
politics/obama-intends-to-lift-several-restrictions-against-cuba-on-his-own.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/18/us/in-miami-
astonishment-over-action-and-disagreement-over-cuba-news.html
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/12/17/world/americas/cuba-
sanctions.html
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/12/17/world/americas/cuba-
sanctions.html
December 2014
President Obama
orders the restoration
of full
diplomatic relations with Cuba
and the opening
of an embassy in Havana
for the first
time
in more than a half-century
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/18/world/americas/us-cuba-relations.html
President Obama Delivers a
Statement on Cuba Video 17 December 2014
On December 17, 2014,
President Obama delivered
remarks
on next steps he’s taking to
chart a new course
on U.S.-Cuba relations.
YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyw1iKif9Zs
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/18/world/americas/us-cuba-
relations.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/18/world/americas/us-
frees-last-of-the-cuban-five-part-of-a-1990s-spy-ring-.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/18/world/as-havana-
celebrates-historic-shift-economic-and-political-hopes-rise.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/18/world/americas/cuba-
off-the-blacklist-leaves-only-north-korea.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/18/world/americas/breakthrough-on-cuba-
highlights-popes-role-as-diplomatic-broker.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/18/world/americas/
alan-gross-cuba-and-the-united-states.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/18/us/politics/cuba-action-
is-obamas-latest-step-away-from-a-cautious-approach.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyw1iKif9Zs
Maria Hernández
Rodríguez del Rey 1921-2014
Ms. Hernández
(...)
became one of the first
four members
of
Mr. Castro’s general staff,
(...)
went on to
share many secrets
with the man she helped make
the Cuban revolution
— beginning with
its opening volley,
an attack on the
Moncada
army barracks
in southeastern
Cuba
on July 26, 1953.
(...)
That idealism turned deadly
at the Moncada barracks
in Santiago de
Cuba,
on the southeast coast.
More than 130 outnumbered,
outgunned rebels
— accounts
differ
on precisely how many —
failed to
capture military arms,
their objective.
As many as 60 were killed
in the fighting or as prisoners.
About 18 police
officers
and soldiers were killed.
What was a
disaster in human terms
helped put the little-known Mr. Castro
at the center of the opposition
to the dictator Fulgencio Batista.
Six years later,
Batista
was overthrown
by Mr. Castro’s so-called
26th
of July Movement.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/16/world/americas/
melba-hernandez-a-confidante-of-castro-from-first-volley-is-dead-at-92.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/16/world/americas/
melba-hernandez-a-confidante-of-castro-from-first-volley-is-dead-at-92.html
Huber Matos
Benítez 1918-2014
top commander in
Fidel Castro’s army
who broke from
the Cuban revolution in 1959
over its tilt toward Communism,
endured a harsh imprisonment for 20 years
and became a
leader of anti-Castro exiles
in Florida
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/01/
world/americas/huber-matos-comrade-of-castro-then-adversary-
dies-at-95.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/01/
world/americas/huber-matos-comrade-of-castro-then-adversary-
dies-at-95.html
Oscar Espinosa
Chepe 1940-2013
high-ranking
Cuban
economist and diplomat
who became a
vocal critic
of Fidel Castro in the 1990s
but chose to
remain in Cuba,
despite enduring
harassment
and imprisonment
(...)
Mr. Espinosa
Chepe,
who joined
Castro’s
revolutionary government
in the early 1960s
and was once
head of the powerful
Office of Agrarian Reform,
had frequently
clashed
with fellow economic planners
over policies he
considere
overly dogmatic.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/26/world/americas/
oscar-espinosa-chepe-cuban-economist-and-critic-of-castro-dies-at-72.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/26/world/americas/
oscar-espinosa-chepe-cuban-economist-and-critic-of-castro-dies-at-72.html
Alfredo Guevara
Valdés 1925-2013
Marxist
intellectual
and ally of Fidel Castro
who presided
over Cuba’s
powerful state-financed
film industry
and its many
acclaimed movies
for much of the Castro era
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/23/
movies/alfredo-guevara-valdes-steward-of-cuban-cinema-and-castro-ally-dies-at-87.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/23/
movies/alfredo-guevara-valdes-steward-of-cuban-cinema-and-castro-ally-dies-at-87.html
22 April 2000
USA
Federal agents seize Elian Gonzalez
from the home of his relatives in Miami
Border Patrol agents
searching the Miami home of Lazaro
Gonzalez
found Elian Gonzalez, 6, being held by Donato Dalrymple,
in
April 2000.
The boy was returned to his father in Cuba
after a custody battle with Florida relatives.
Photograph: Alan Diaz
Associated Press
U.S. to Restore Full Relations With Cuba,
Erasing a Last Trace
of Cold War Hostility
NYT
DEC. 17, 2014
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/18/
world/americas/us-cuba-relations.html
https://www.theguardian.com/world/elian-gonzalez
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2000/apr/24/1
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2010/04/
elian_gonzalez_10_years_cuba.html - April 22, 2010
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/06/elian-gonzalez-cuba-picture
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/21/elian-gonzalez-cuba-tug-war
https://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2010/feb/19/elian-gonzalez-fidel-castro
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2000/apr/22/news.fromthearchive
https://www.theguardian.com/elian/0,2759,213941,00.html
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz
1926 or 1927 - 2016
Fulgencio Batista Zaldívar 1901-1973
https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2013/mar/11/cuba-
batista-fifth-revolution-1952
https://www.theguardian.com/media/from-the-archive-blog/2011/may/29/castro-cuba-
revolution-1959
Che Guevara
1928-1967
early 1960s
Operation Mongoose
It was the late summer of 1962.
The previous year,
the U.S. invasion of the Bay of Pigs,
meant to topple
the communist regime of Fidel Castro,
had been an embarrassing failure.
The administration
of President John F. Kennedy
had turned instead to a Plan B
to destabilize Cuba
and hopefully take down Castro:
Operation Mongoose.
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/10/27/
560352638/jfk-documents-highlight-talks-on-clandestine-anti-cuba-ops
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/
rfk-operation-mongoose/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Operation_Mongoose
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/07/
juanita-castro-obituary
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/15/
us/jfk-assassination-national-archives-conspiracy.html
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/10/27/
560352638/jfk-documents-highlight-talks-on-clandestine-anti-cuba-ops
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/27/
us/politics/jfk-files-cuba-castro-cold-war.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/18/
upshot/when-jfk-secretl
https://www.npr.org/2006/08/04/
5615898/10-presidents-one-dictator-u-s-cuba-policy
https://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/23/
world/bay-of-pigs-enemies-finally-sit-down-together.html
https://www.nytimes.com/1997/11/23/
weekinreview/stupid-dirty-tricks-the-trouble-with-assassinations.html
https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/00/07/16/
specials/buckley-mongoose.html
https://www.nytimes.com/1989/02/05/
opinion/gaps-in-the-cuban-missile-crisis-story.html
https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/00/11/26/
specials/schlesinger-robert.html November 12, 1978
diplomatic relations
between the United States and Cuba
in the early 1960s
https://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/19/
us/erwin-harris-ad-executive-who-seized-cuban-assets-dies-at-91.html
1961-1962
Bay of Pigs Invasion
Missile crisis
April 19, 1961
Castro directs troops
in defeat of invasion
attempt
by U.S.-backed Cuban exiles
at Bay of Pigs
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN1922589220080219
https://www.nytimes.com/topic/subject/cuban-missile-crisis-1962
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4925262.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/17/
newsid_3394000/3394067.stm
https://www.archives.gov/research/alic/reference/military/
cuban-missile-crisis.html
https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/1962-cuba-un1.asp
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/oct/23/
cuban-missile-crisis-prism-selfserving-myths
https://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2012/oct/14/
cuban-missile-crisis-50-years-in-pictures
President John F. Kennedy
signs a quarantine order
in October 1962
after American satellites
discovered
that the
Soviet Union
had positioned
nuclear missiles on Cuba,
a mere 90 miles from Florida.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/18/world/americas/us-cuba-
relations.html#slideshow/100000003333137/100000003333147
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/18/world/americas/
us-cuba-relations.html#slideshow/100000003333137/100000003333147
October 1962
United States / Cuba >
Missile Crisis
George Whelan
Anderson, Jr. 1906-1992
https://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/16/
opinion/the-eyeball-to-eyeball-myth-and-the-cuban-missile-crisiss-legacy.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/oct/15/
cuban-missile-crisis-russian-roulette
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2012/oct/14/
cuban-missile-crisis-exhibition-kennedy-recordings-video
http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/from-the-archive-blog/2012/oct/14/
cuban-missile-crisis-50-archive-1962
https://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN19225892
20080219/
https://www.archives.gov/research/alic/reference/military/
cuban-missile-crisis.html
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2002/oct/14/
netnotes.cuba
https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/nsa/cuba_mis_cri/
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/spiesfly/brugioni.html
https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/97/10/19/
home/missile.html
http://www.nytimes.com/1992/03/22/us/
adm-george-w-anderson-85-was-in-charge-of-cuba-blockade.html
https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/97/10/19/
home/crisis-review.html - November 3, 1962
February 7, 1962
U.S. imposes
full economic embargo on Cuba
https://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN19225892
20080219/
Cuba, 1961-65
Photograph: Paolo Gasparini
Revolution! Latin American photography – in pictures
From the photos by Alberto Korda
that helped canonise Che Guevara
to snatched street images of resistance,
new show Urban Impulses embraces
a turbulent half-century of revolvers and rebellion
G
Thu 13 Jun 2019 07.00 BST
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2019/jun/13/
revolution-latin-american-photography-in-pictures
1 January 1959
Rebel army
drives out Cuban dictator
The President of
Cuba,
Fulgencio Batista,
has fled the
country,
his government in ruins,
in the face of a
relentless
advance by the rebel army
led by a
32-year-old lawyer,
Fidel Castro.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/1/newsid_3413000/3413749.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/1/
newsid_3413000/3413749.stm
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/
castro-fulgencio-batista-1901-1973/
Related > Anglonautes > History
> 20th century
USA > early 21st - 20th century > Cuba
Fidel Castro (1926 or 1927 - 2016)
Argentina, Bolivia, Cuba
Che Guevara 1928-1967
Latin America
> Operation Condor 1970s-1980s
USA > Vietnam War 1962-1975
Cold War
/ холодная война
|