Cuba: The Revolution And The World

Spies, revolutionaries and diplomats reveal the secrets how a small island in the Caribbean challenged the world. Fidel Castro's guerrilla army swept into Havana in January 1959. The Cuban Revolution attracted the hostility of their giant neighbour, the USA, and the friendship of the Soviet Union. After the US tried unsuccessfully to overthrow Castro, the Soviet Union installed nuclear missiles on this island. The Cuban Missile Crisis was the closest the world came to Armageddon. When Khrushchev backed down and withdrew the missiles, Castro embarked on his independent course of supporting liberation struggles around the world. They sent troops to fight in Algeria in 1963. Fidel's close comrade Che Guevara led a guerrilla mission to Bolivia in 1966, which was unsuccessful and ended in Che's death at the hands of the CIA. In 1974, as the US pulled out of Vietnam, Secretary of State Kissinger tried to make contact with Fidel. Two journalists carried secret messages between Washington and Havana, leading to negotiations in a New York Hotel. But the talks foundered on the economic embargo the US had imposed on Cuba. Fidel embarked on his most audacious venture, sending Cuban troops to Angola to fight the army of apartheid South Africa. Cuba also supported guerrilla struggles in Central America, fighting US backed governments in El Salvador and Nicaragua. A big surge in Cuban forces in Angola brought victory in Southern Africa. But this triumph coincided with the end of the Cold War and the demise of the Soviet Union. The loss of their powerful ally raised the question of how Castro's Revolution could survive.

Episode 2 tells the story of how Cuba struggled in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union, their main economic and political supporter. The massive decline in living standards triggered refugee crises, which played havoc with Cuba's already difficult relations with the US and forced the two enemies to negotiate for the first time one-on-one and officially. Infuriated, the Cuban Miami exiles stepped up their operations against what they thought was a weakened regime. But Cuba's robust self-­­defence killed 4 Americans and gave no choice to President Clinton but to sign a Congress bill that tightened even further the US embargo on the island. Castro had to find new friends and trading partners. He struck gold in Venezuela. The new President there, Hugo Chavez, was a long-time admirer. Cuba agreed to exchange medical aid for much-­­needed oil in what became known as Operation Milagro. This Operation not only helped Cuba's economy, it also won Cuba new allies across all of Latin America and paradoxically led to rapprochement with the US under the Obama administration. But with Trump in the White House and Raúl stepping down last April, Cuba's future remains unclear.