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January 1, 1959 - General Batista and his closest cohorts board a plane at 2:30 a.m. and flee to the Dominican Republic. Most of Batista's government upper echelon are left behind and are not aware the tyrant has fled the country until it is too late for them to leave island. All will be "tried" and summarily executed on LIVE TV by Castro's firing squads once Fidel Castro reach Havana. While many of these men are guilty of unspeakable crimes against the Cuban people, the majority of them are not, but will, nevertheless face Castro's merciless firing squads as well. Castro they are a potential threat to his designs for Cuba's future.

January 2, 1959 - Castro installs Manuel Urrutia as President and Jose Miro Cardona as Prime Minister. The United States "recognizes" the new government, but will soon begin to plan its overthrow.

January 8, 1959 - Castro marches from the eastern provinces across Cuba into Havana and with this event begins the descent of Cuba and its people in to the darkest period of Cuban History. Please, take notice that it "took" Castro eight days to arrive in Havana. He was suspicious of the fact that Batista had "unexpectedly" left the country when his forces were nowhere near total defeat. Castro was unaware of the Eisenhower administration manipulative moves behind the scenes all along.

February 7, 1959 - Castro’s government passes the Fundamental Law of the Republic which modifies and reinstates the 1940 Constitution, suspended by General Batista after the coup of 1952.

February 13, 1959 - Prime Minister Miro Cardona is forced to resign and Fidel Castro assumes that office opening the door for Castro’s complete takeover of Cuba.

March 3, 1959 - The “communization” of the island begins when the Cuban government “nationalizes” the Cuban Telephone Company, an affiliate of ITT. This is the first one of many more “nationalizations” to come. The die has been cast, Cuba's fate has been sealed, the island nation will be ruled by a ruthless communist tyrant.

April 15, 1959 - Fidel Castro unofficially visits the United States and meets with Vice President Richard Nixon and U.N. officials. The meeting with Nixon does not go well and upon his return to Cuba Castro adopts the Agrarian Reform Law. It places a limit on all private land holdings, with the Government expropriating the remainder. The government offers compensation to the former owners based on the property's current tax assessment rate, a rate that has not been adjusted since 1928!

July 16, 1959 - President Urrutia is forced to give up his post and Osvaldo Dorticos Torrado is installed as the country's 19th president since Cuba received its independence in 1898.

January 1960 - Cuba expropriates 70,000 acres of property owned by U.S. sugar companies which includes 35,000 acres of pasture and forest land owned by United Fruit, (now United and Chiquita Brands). United Brands owns an additional 235,000 acres of land in Cuba and several hundred thousand acres in Guatemala; (Note: in 1954 the government of Guatemala threatened to expropriate all of United Fruit's land holdings in that country). The United States, fearing the loss of vast north American financial holdings in Guatemala, orchestrates a successful effort and overthrows Colonel Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán's government thus preventing a suspected communist regime from gaining a foothold in the American Continent.

January 29, 1960 - President Eisenhower seeks congressional authority to cut off Cuba's sugar quota. This is a serious miscalculation by the Eisenhower administration, and a convenient one that Castro has been seeking all along in order to forge ahead with his dictatorial goals.

June 6, 1960 - Castro requests that two U.S. oil refineries, Texaco and Esso, and one British refinery, Shell process a shipment of Russian crude oil. The companies refuse to do so and on June 28 Castro orders the refineries nationalized.

July 5, 1960 - Castro orders the nationalization of all U.S. business and commercial properties in Cuba.

July 6, 1960 - President Eisenhower, with the authorization of Congress, cancels Cuba's sugar quota.

August 6, 1960 – Eisehower’s miscalculation provides Castro with z much needed excuse to hoodwink the Cuban people into believing he has Cuba’s best interests at heart and uses it to rally the population against Yankee Imperialism. The “Cuba Si, Yankee No” is the slogan propagated throughout the island.
As expected, Castro’s response to Eisenhower’s action regarding the sugar quota cancellation is to nationalize all U.S. owned industrial and agrarian enterprises.

September 17, 1960 - Castro nationalizes all U.S. banks including First National City Bank of New York, First National Bank of Boston, and Chase Manhattan Bank.

September 18, 1960 - Fidel Castro flies to New York to address the United Nations General Assembly.

October 14, 1960 - Castro's imposes an Urban Reform Law, which goes into effect immediatelly. It nationalizes all commercially owned Real Estate and ends landlord ownership of housing for profit. Tenants will no longer be making payments to the rightful owner of the properties where they live, but to the Cuban government instead. The Castro regime becomes the de-facto Landlord of all of Cuba.

October 19, 1960 - The Eisenhower Administration begins employing unilateral sanctions against Cuba by first imposing a partial embargo, which becomes a total embargo 16 months later under President John F. Kennedy.

October 24, 1960 - In response to the U.S. declaration on October 19 that it will impose an embargo, Castro announces that it will nationalize all remaining U.S. properties on the island.

January 20, 1961 - John Fitzgerald Kennedy is inaugurated as the 35th President of the United States.

April 9, 1961 - A federal Grand Jury in Miami indicts Rolando Masferrer for an abortive invasion of Cuba on October 4, 1960. This alleged attack on Cuba is in violation of the Neutrality Act that forbids the launching of any military expedition from U.S. territory against any nation with which the United States is at peace. The Kennedy Administration is on record of opposing pro-Batista exiles like Masferrer while encouraging other anti-Castro groups. The New York Times reports that this indictment raises the serious question of whether the Neutrality Act may be selectively enforced.

April 16, 1961 - Prime Minister Castro, for the first time, defines the 1959 Cuban Revolution as socialist by saying, "...we have made a revolution, a socialist revolution, right here under the very nose of the United States."

April 17, 1961 - The CIA backed Bay of Pigs invasion commences with over 1200 Cuban exiles landing on the southwest shore of the island. After 72 hours of fighting the Cuban forces defeat the exiles, which had been promised by the Kennedy administration a supportive "massive" air campaign. The air support is cancelled by Kennedy just hours before the invasion forces are to arrive in Cuba. Kennedy reasons behind this move is that world opinion will realize U.S. involvement in the invasion and turn against his administration. The small Cuban invading contingent, without the promised air support is quickly overwhelmed by Castro’s armed forces. This one-sided battle result in 80 exiles being killed and 1122 being captured. Several of the captured exiles are accused of crimes of brutality while working for the Batista government, and were soon executed. The remaining exiles are imprisoned until most are released in December 1962. According to Castro's propaganda machinery, many of the exiles engaged in the fighting had owned property in Cuba prior to the 1959 Revolution. Based on Castro's own press releases, their "holdings" included 914,859 acres of land, 9,666 houses, 70 factories, 5 mines, 2 banks, and 10 sugar mills. It is easy to realize the way Castro manipulated the truth in order to justify what was yet to come. If these "counterrevolutionaries" were as wealthy as Castro portrayed them to be, why didn't they "hire" an army of mercenaries to fight Castro instead of exposing themselves to this dangerous mission?

December 2, 1961 - Prime Minister Castro states that "I have always been a Marxist-Leninist and I shall remain a Marxist-Leninist 'till the end of my life."

February 7, 1962 - President Kennedy expands the Cuban embargo to a total embargo except for the non-subsidized sale of food and medicines.

March 23, 1962 - The U.S. extends the trade embargo to include all imports of all goods made from Cuban materials or containing any Cuban materials, even if made in other countries.

October 22, 1962 - President Kennedy announces to the world that the Soviet Union has deployed nuclear missiles in Cuba. This incident brings the world to the brink of nuclear war. Five days later the Cuban Missile Crisis is resolved with the Soviet Union agreeing to remove it missiles from Cuba and the U.S. agreeing not to invade Cuba and to remove U.S. missiles from Turkey. However the incident results in cementing the relationship between the Soviet Union and Cuba and lasts nearly 30 years injecting over $100 billion in Soviet aid to Cuba.

December 24, 1962 - The U.S. exchanges $53 million worth of medicines, infant food and supplies for 1113 exiles captured in the "Bay of Pigs" invasion. Several exiles remain imprisoned in Cuba until the last prisoner is released in 1986.

November 17, 1963 - Five days before he is assassinated President Kennedy has a meeting with French journalist Jean Daniel, who he asks to tell Fidel Castro that he is now ready to negotiate normal relations between the two nations and drop the embargo. According to former Press Secretary Pierre Salinger, in a press interview many years later he stated the following, "If Kennedy had lived I am confident that he would have negotiated that agreement and dropped the embargo because he was upset with the way the Soviet Union was playing a strong role in Cuba and Latin America. Cuba would be a different country now and Castro would not be in power any more."

November 22, 1963 - President John F. Kennedy is assassinated and Lyndon B. Johnson is sworn in as the 36th President of the United States.

September 28, 1965 - Castro announces that all Cubans who wish to leave the island for the United States can depart from the port of Camarioca. During the 8-year exodus over 200,000 Cubans leave the island for the United States.

May 5, 1966 - The U.S. expands the embargo as Congress passes the Food For Peace Act which outlaws food shipments to any country that sells or ships strategic or non-strategic goods to Cuba except for certain circumstances in which the President may allow shipments of medical supplies and non-strategic goods.

November 2, 1966 - President Johnson signs into law the Cuban Adjustment Act, which exempts Cubans from general U.S. immigration laws. The Act permits any Cuban who has reached U.S. territory since January 1, 1959 to be eligible for permanent residency after residing in the United States for two years. This enables 123,000 Cubans to immediately apply for permanent resident status.

November 12, 1966 - President Johnson signs the Food For Peace Act but says that there are provisions in the Act that cause him concern especially the preclusion of food aid to countries that trade with Cuba and North Vietnam. He states that he opposes trade with either country but believes that the President should have the "flexibility to use food aid to further the full range of our important national objectives".

From 1966 on the comedy of errors begun in the 1850s has followed its insane course. Castro keeps executing Cuban citizens who do not agree with his dictatorship, the embargo is still being enforced/ Although the U.S. is the only nation in the entire world not doing business with Cuba's government. The embargo was used by Castro to hoodwink the Cuban people into believing the lack of food, medications, essential infrastructure spare parts and construction materials are a direct result of said embargo; all the while the Castro brothers have amassed a vast amount of wealth at Cuba's expense.

February 2000 - Forbes determined Castro's wealth to be in excess of $14.6 billion USD, neatly stashed away in Swiss Bank accounts while the country's infrastructure continues to crumble and people to starve. When will all this end? Not as long as big business interests are conducting business with his regime in the usual manner.

The Cuban people have always come out of these "negotiations" holding the short end of the stick. It has made absolutely no difference in the past whether U.S. Government has been in the hands of Democrats or Republicans, the Cuban population has always been treated like "second class citizens" in their own country all along. First, by the corrupt Cuban "leaders", second by the U.S. Corporations that have supported and dealt with the corrupt ruling class, while at the same time "profiting" from their mutual "cooperation" at the expense of all Cubans. U.S. government administrations, past and present, have taught us a very bitter lesson.

I am neither a leftist bleeding heart liberal nor a rabid, reactionary right wing conservative; both parties are corrupted to their innermost core; so corrupt that they are well beyond any hope for redemption for either. Both U.S. political parties' influence have had nefarious and detrimental effects on Cuba and its noble people over the past 130 plus years. I am and have always been an independent thinker, as such I speak freely. I've been able to see fault where there was fault in the past, I can see fault in the present and I hope I will still be able to do so in the future. The politicians' dirty actions always manage to shine through the thickest of fogs the spinmasters may try to employ to confuse our minds.

Big Business interests in the island have exploited us and helped Cuba's rulers oppress its citizenry in the past, all with the help of Uncle Sam's "foreign policy" toward the island nation. Once again they are up to their same old tricks. Once again, Cuban History is repeating itself. North American Big Business is now "brown nosing" Castro and his thugs; they stand to reap the benefits of slave labor in Cuba; exactly the same thing they have been doing to Chinese citizens since Nixon's visit to that slave nation. America needs to be made aware of the shenanigans being perpetrated abroad by North American Big Businesses with the blessing of U.S. administrations. Big Business and its "policies" overseas are hurting more than benefiting the noble North American people. It is causing the exploited and oppressed people of the world to erroneously despise & hate Americans and everything that North America stands for.

We Cubans are being portrayed as "criminals" by both Castro & the "yellow" U.S. press. We should not be surprised by this fact since both Castro and Big Business stand to profit from the endless suffering of the Cuban people.
As long as Big Business is making money abroad they will stop at nothing, even if it means helping dictators stay in power while the American "press" will report what is told to. obth over the air waves and in print. They never had nor will they ever care about the suffering their greed is causing our people. The only thing they are concerned with is the almighty dollar, period.
All that we Cubans, as well as the rest of Latin Americans and Haitians desire is to be treated with decency, dignity and honesty, nothing more, nothing less. Is this too much to ask of any U.S. government? I would think not.

In closing I must clear the air about a fallacy some in North America believe to be a true fact. Many of you have asked why is it that we Cubans "fly" Castro's Flag since we hate him and his regime so much. In answer to that I emphatically state that first and foremost this is the Flag of Cuba, it was created back in 1849, long before Castro's parents were born. It is not Castro's flag, it never was and it will never be "his" Flag. We fly it with immense pride and reverence in honor of the brave Cuban patriots who fought against the Spaniards, those brave men who have been ignored for so long. It was the Mambi Fighter, who by a war of attrition were on the brink of forcing the Spaniards to leave Cuba; the Maine "shenanigan" was an excuse the U.S. used to snatch Cuba's true freedom from our hands. They took Cuba as a prized possession. To exploit its vast resources as well as to exploit its noble people. Cuba has always been "handled" as if it had been a cotton plantation, first by the Spanish, second by the United States of America and now by the ultimate plantation master, Fidel Castro.

Again, when we Fly the Cuban flag, we do so to honor all who have made the ultimate sacrifice in the struggle for the Freedom of Cuba. Castro and his thugs have never had any respect for the Cuban flag, what it means to the noble Cuban people or what it stands for; Castro and his thugs hate Cuba, its Coat of Arms, our flag and the Cuban people.

It is interesting to note how some other people in positions of knowledge perceive the reasons for Cuba's plight. The paragraphs below contain a few of these views.

Jorge Dominguez offers an insight into the possible causes of Castro's behavior in the early period in U.S.-Cuban relations: - When the revolution triumphed, Castro found power dispersed in Cuba and politics pluralistic. This political condition offered many opportunities for both the United States and established Cuban interests to impede his revolution. Dominguez believes that Castro concluded "it was impossible to conduct a revolution in Cuba without a major confrontation with the United States." Soviet influence offered to reinforce Castro's preference for centralized power, whereas the U.S. system encouraged pluralism-that is, divided power-at home and abroad. Therefore, according to this thesis, Castro deliberately took steps that had the predicted effect of provoking the United States and justifying his rapprochement with the -Soviet Union."

An alternative interpretation is offered by former U.S. Ambassador to Cuba Phillip Bonsal who concludes his analysis of the cause and the consequence of the confrontation as follows: - "We did not force Castro into the arms of the Communists, but we were, in my judgment, unwisely cooperative in removing the obstacles to his chosen path." With a similar reluctance to apportion blame and an interest in understanding the process of interaction, Cole Blasier notes that "almost from the beginning, Castro and the United States expected the worst from each other, and neither was disappointed."

Had the U.S. sought to understand the social revolution occurring in Cuba, had they sought to sympathize with the aspirations of the Cuban people, which Fidel Castro articulated so fiercely, with the Cuban people's demands for economic, political, and social changes, changes that challenged our long dominance in Cuban affairs, we might have succeeded in cementing cordial relations with the new Cuban government. By offering Castro the excuse he needed to move into the Soviet block's arms, the Eisenhower administration miscalculated grossly what consequences their actions would have in the future of Cuba and its people. The Kennedy administration added to the mess by miscalculating once again when it refused to provide the promised air cover to the invading force at Bay of Pigs.

Here we are 45 years later (2004) and a dozen U.S. miscalculations later, Castro is still in power, Cuba's infrastructre is almost non existent and most of the people are starving to death. Outside Havana's proper and tourist resorts Cubans are surviving with minimal medical assistance and foods stuffs. Houses and all sort of buildings are crumbling because of the Castro's tyranny reluctance to spend money assisting the population to survive under minimal acceptable conditions. They would rather spend that money in overseas propaganda campaigns and or fattening their Swiss bank accounts.

Castro still dines on Lobster Thermidor washed down with fine French wine in a formal dinning room. The table is dressed with fine lace tablecloths, genuine 'silverware' and tended to by servants. So much for the leader of the proletariat's life style in Cuba. While Cubans starve to death he dines like royalty, sleeps on comfy beds and his every whim is swiftly satisfied.

In the end Castro and his regime will pass and Cuba will ultimately achieve the dreams of José Martí, Antonio Maceo, Calixto Garcia, Máximo Gómez, Carlos Manuel de Cespedes and countless others who followed in their footsteps to Martyrdom: "A Free Cuba for the Cubans". FREE from "foreign" interventionists whose only interests are to exploit Cuba's citizens and its resources.

We will have a Cuba for the Cubans, not the repressive tyrants that will betray their fellow Cubans in order to further their perverse goals and that of their native as well as foreign accomplices. I do thank you for your time. -