According to Dr. Francisca López Civeira in Historical Sciences, the theory of the “low-hanging fruit” was an early definition of the United States policy towards Cuba, which began to manifest itself as a project towards the future in April 1823.
The then US Secretary of State, John Quincy Adams, stated in a revealing message to his ambassador in Madrid that Once Cuba separated from Spain, it would gravitate towards the American Union like a fruit that falls from the tree and cannot avoid falling to the ground.. This aspiration was reflected in the famous Monroe Doctrine, which “continues to threaten the destinies of our America”as stated andThis Wednesday, April 24, at the XXIII ALBA-TCP summit, Cuban President Miguel Díaz Canel Bermúdez.
Starting with the Republic, the aspirations for independence and absolute sovereignty were frustrated by the Platt Amendment and the submission of the rulers, which generated a radicalization in the thinking of the majority of Cubans. As a result, on March 10, 1952, Fulgencio Batista Zaldívar, with the support of the American embassy in Cuba, carried out a coup d’état with the objective of preventing the popular movement led by Eduardo René Chibás, of the Orthodox Party, from reaching the can.
Fidel Castro Ruz broke away from orthodoxy and organized the Centennial Youth Movement. After one year, four months and sixteen days, this movement carried out the attacks on the barracks of the Carlos Manuel de Céspedes dictatorship in Bayamo and Guillermón Moncada in Santiago de Cuba; The latter was the second military fortress in the country.
The path was very difficult for the movement as it failed to take the barracks: 52 young assailants were murdered and 32 were tried and imprisoned in the Model Prison of the Isle of Pines. Although only one man from Santiago de Cuba, Renato Guitar, was part of the assailants, the people of Santiago de Cuba welcomed them and provided them with protection, preventing a greater massacre.
Then came the trials, the convictions and the prison on the Isle of Pines. After 20 months, the amnesty was achieved thanks to popular pressure, rather than the will of the tyrant Batista. Faced with some unworthy maneuvers by the government, Fidel declared: We are not tired, we do not want amnesty at the price of dishonor, we prefer a thousand years in prison rather than sacrificing our decorum; we proclaim it serenely, without fear or hatred. The release took place on May 15, 1955.
The fight became very difficult in Cuba and Fidel and his companions had no other option than exile. Once in Mexico, they swore that In 1956 we will be free or we will be martyrs, referring to his return to the armed struggle from the mountains of Oriente. This is how the Granma landing took place on December 2, 1956. The fight was unequal in terms of men and weapons, favoring Batista’s forces during the two years and twenty-nine days that the war lasted, however, the revolutionaries led for Fidel they were superior in courage, dedication and sacrifice, and they had the collaboration of the majority of the population.
The triumph of the Cuban Revolution on January 1, 1959 frustrated the hopes of the United States that Batista or another puppet would remain in power, thus challenging the hegemonic dominance of the northern power in the Western Hemisphere. In his speech from the balcony of the Santiago de Cuba city hall, in front of Parque Céspedes, Fidel expressed: Santiagueros, compatriots from all over Cuba: we have finally arrived in Santiago; The road has been hard and long, but we have arrived.
Very early, on April 6, 1960, Lester D. Mallory, Undersecretary of State for Inter-American Affairs, convinced of the support of the majority of Cubans for Fidel Castro, suggested that to overthrow the revolutionary government “The only possible means is through disenchantment, economic dissatisfaction and hardship, denying financing and supplies, decreasing real and monetary wages, in order to sow hunger and despair.” The US aspirations to take over Cuba remain intact.
