"By 1961, over 100,000 political émigrés had gathered in the United States. And this number was only a fraction of those who had tried to get out but could not." - Theodore Draper, Castro's Revolution: Myths and Realities.
January 1. The national literacy campaign begins in Cuba.
January 2. At the UN Security Council, Cuba charges that the U.S. is preparing an invasion.
January 2. In a speech, Castro demands that U.S. embassy staff be reduced to 11, the same number as Cuba's embassy in Washington. He referrs to the U.S. embassy as a "nest of spies."
January 2. Weapons from the Soviet bloc are displayed in a parade in Havana. Included are rocket launchers, truck-pulled field artillery, heavy tanks, anti-aircraft and anti-tank guns.
January 3. The U.S. breaks off official diplomatic
relations with Cuba.
January 23. In U.S. News & World Report, Dr. Miró Cardona predicts a "general uprising" in Cuba. He says, "After the uprising, there will have to be a military decision on whether to help the people with a mass invasion or with a continuation of the infiltration by specially trained men. It is impossible at this point to decide whether a mass invasion will be necessary."
January 25. Eloy Gutierrez Menoyo and members of the Second Front of Escanbray during the revolution arrive in Key West, Florida, on a fleet of three fishing boats.
February 1. In the Communist newspaper L'Unita (from Italy), Castro is asked by journalist Arminio Savioli about his opinion of Cuba's Communist Party. Castro replies: "It is the only Cuban party that has always cleary proclaimed the necsssity for radical change of structure, of social relationships. It is also true that at first the Communists distrusted me and us rebels. It was a justified distrust, an absolutely correct position, ideologically and politically. The Communists were right to be distrustful becaue we of the Sierra, leaders of the guerrillas, were still full of petty-bourgeois prejudices and defects, despite Marxist reading. The ideas were not clear to us,though we wanted with al or strength to destroy tyranny and privileges. Then we came together, we understood each other, and began to collaborate. The Communists have given much blood, much heroism, to the Cuban cause. Now we continue to work together. Loyally and fraternally."
February 16. Lino Fernandez and 500 of his men (who oppose the revolution) are captured and taken to jail in Santa Clara.
March 1. At least ten violations of Cuban airspace by hostile airplanes are reported.
March 9. President of Ecuador, Josh Maria Velasco Ibarra, announces U.S. demands that his country break off diplomatic relations with Cuba as a condition to the approval of various loans.
March 11.
Major William A. Morgan (of Toledo, Ohio) and Major Jesus Carreras Zayas, both former military aides to Castro, are executed in Havana for treason.
March 18. A number of leaders opposing the revolution are arrested at a strategy meeting in Miramar, including Humberto Sori Marin, Manuel Puig, and Regelio Gonzalez Corso.
March 22. In New York, an agreement is reached between members of U.S.-based anti-Castro groups the Frente Revolucionario Democrático and the Movimiento Revolucionario del Pueblo. The agreement is signed by Antonio Varona, Manuel Ray and others.
March 29. Cuban soldiers arrest CIA agent Carlos Antonio Rodriquez Cabo, aka El Gallego. He is accused of various acts of terrorism.
April 8. Immigration and Naturalization agents in Miami arrest Rolando Masferrer Rojas. The arrest is requested by the U.S. State Department, which says that his presence in the U.S. (especially in Florida) is "prejudicial to the interests of the United States."
April 9. In Miami, Rolando Masferrer is indicted for an aborted invasion of Cuba (October 4, 1960). The alleged attack violates the Neutrality Act which forbids the launching of any military expedition from U.S. territory against a nation with which the U.S. is not at war. The Kennedy Administration opposes pro-Batista exiles while encouraging other anti-Castro groups.
April 9. In Havana, a terrorist bomb explodes in the store El Encanto. Another bomb explodes near the Pepsi Cola factory.
April 9. In exile, the newly formed Cuban Revolutionary Council, headed by Dr. José Miro Cardona, issues a statement that asserts, "We are not, nor could we be, counterrevolutionaries. We were revolutionists who fought against the previous regime, which had impoverished the whole country for the benefit of a minority lusting for gold and power. It is with the same convictions that we now oppose the present regime, which has betrayed our country and punged it into chaos." The statement is published in the New York Times.
April 11. Rolando Masferrer Rojas is formally charged with violating U.S. Neutrality Laws in an attempt to overthrow Cuba's Fidel Castro. [Section 960 of Title 18 of the United States Code reads: "Whoever, within the United States, knowingly begins or sets on foot or provides or prepares a means for or furnishes the money for, or takes part in, any military or naval expedition or enterprise to be carried on from thence against the territory or dominion of any foreign prince or state, or of any colony, district, or people with who the United States is at peace, shall be fined not more than $3,000 or imprisoned not more than three years, or both."
April 13. Another explosion at the store El Encanto destroys the 7-story building.
April 15. Cuban airfields are bombed by "mystery planes" in order to destroy the Revolution’s air force. A total of 8 B-26 bombers attack airfields at Ciudad Libertad (in Havana), San Antonio de los Baños and Santiago de Cuba. The attacks wipe out 27 percent of Cuba's fighter planes.
April 17. Cuban exiles, trained, armed and funded by the CIA, invade Cuba at
Bay of Pigs (known in Cuba as Playa Girón). After three days of fighting the invading force is defeated by the Cuban army.
April 19. Castro formally declares that the revolution is "socialist." In Havana, 10 counterrevolutionaries, including Humberto Sori Marin, Manuel Puig, and Regelio Gonzalez Corso are executed for treason.
April 20. Sorí Marin and Rogelio Gonzalez, CIA agents captured a few days before the Bay of Pigs invasion, are executed.
May. A record low rainfall creates one of the most severe droughts in the island's history.
May 1. In a
speech, Castro refers to Cuba as a "socialist country."
May 5. At a meeting in the U.S. of the National Security Council, it is formally agreed that "U.S. policy toward Cuba should aim at the downfall of Castro."
May 8. In a major speech, Castro disassociates himself from prevailing "Communist ideas."
May 10. A resolution asking for an end to "the present drift towards American military intervention" in Cuba is published in the New York Times. The resolution is endorsed by 70 professors and writers (41 are members of the faculty at Harvard University). Among the signers are faculty members from Harvard, Boston University, Massachussetts Institute of Technology and Brandeis University: James Luther Adams, Lillian Hellman, David Owen, David Riesman, Noam Chomsky, Timothy Leary and others. The resolution also asks to "detach the Castro regime from the Commuist bloc by working for a relaxation of diplomatic tensions and a resumption of trade relations," and that we concentrate "constructive efforts on eliminating in other parts of Latin America the social conditions on which totalitarian nationalism feeds."
August 22. Che Guevara and Dick Goodwin meet secretly in Montevideo, Uruguay. Goodwin goes on to write a memo to President Kennedy describing the content of their meeting on August 22. The memo remains classified until 1993, and can now be found at the National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 269:
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB269/index.htm.
September 23. Five Cubans and one American are executed by firing squad for "counterrevolutionary activities" during the Bay of Pigs invasion. [The unofficial count of executions by firing squad since January 1959 stands at 622.]
September 30. An article in the New York Times reports that the last of the casinos in Cuba have been officially closed.
November 3. At the White House, a program against the government of Fidel Castro is introduced by the name Operation Mongoose.
November 9. The U.S. Federal case against Rolando Masferrer Rojas is dismissed without explanation. He had been charged with violating U.S. neutrality laws by financing a 27-man invasion of Cuba.
November 16. In a speech at the University of Washington, President Kennedy states "We cannot as a free nation, compete with our adversaries in tactics of terror, assassination, false promises, counterfeit mobs and crises."
November 30. U.S. President John F. Kennedy authorizes Operation Mongoose, which aims to eliminate Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution. President Kennedy creates an inter-agency team to plan actions against Cuba. The new Special Group Augmented includes new CIA director John McCone, national security adviser McGeorge Bundy, from the Dept. of State U. Alexis Johnson, from the Defense Department Roswell Gilpatric and from the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Lyman Lemnitzer. Also included were General Maxwell Taylor and Robert Kennedy, with Secretary of State Dean Rusk and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara as occasional participants. General Lansdale is named Chief of Operations.
December 2. Castro declares himself a "Marxist-Leninist."
Louis A. Pérez, Jr., from his book Cuba, between Reform and Revolution, 2nd Edition Pg. 343"After 1961, one of the key elements of U.S. policy against Cuba was to isolate Cuba economically as a way to disrupt the Cuban economy, increase domestic distress, and encourage internal discontent-all designed to weaken the regime from within."
1962January 22. Under U.S. encouragement, the Organization of American States (OAS) suspends Cuban membership.
February 4. Castro responds to Cuba's suspension from the OAS with the Second Declaration of Havana, calling upon the people of Latin America to rise up against imperialism and declaring, "The duty of a revolutionary is to make the revolution."
February 7. President Kennedy broadens the partial trade restrictions imposed by Eisenhower to a ban on all trade with Cuba, except for non-subsidized sale of foods and medicines.
February 15. An assortment of U.S. naval vessels (including aircraft carriers) gather about the Cuban coastine.
March. Food rationing begins.
March 21. From a U.S. National Intelligence Estimate on Cuba: 1) Forces available to the regime to suppress insurrection or repel invasion have been and are being greatly improved, with substantial Bloc assistance through provision of material and instruction; 2) Castro and the Revolution retain the positive support of at least a quarter of the population; 3) There is active resistance in Cuba, but it is limited, uncoordinated, unsupported, and desperate. The regime, with all the power of repression at its disposal, has shown that it can contain the present level of resistance activity; 4) The regime's apparatus for surveillance and repression should be able to cope with any popular tendency toward active resistance. Any impulse toward widespread revolt is inhibited by the fear which the apparatus inspires, and also by the lack of dynamic leadership and of any expectation of liberation within the foreseeable future.
March 23. President Kennedy expands the Cuban embargo to include imports of all goods made from or containing Cuban materials, even if made in other countries.
May 7. In Washington, Sheffield Edwards and Lawrence Houston meet with Attorney General Robert Kennedy and "brief him all the way" on efforts against Castro involving the "criminal underworld." According to the Inspector General's Report on Plots to Assassinate Fidel Castro (released to the public on 6/23/1998) Kennedy responds: "I trust that if you ever try to do business with organized crime again-with gansters-you will let the Attorney General know before you do it."
May 29. A high-level Soviet delegation that includes Marshal S. S. Biryuzov, commander of the Strategic Rocket Forces, and a high-level delegation, arrives secretly in Havana to suggest the deployment of nuclear weapons in Cuba.
July 2. Raul Castro, Minister of the Armed Forces, arrives in Moscow.
July 26. In Washington, a memo from Bob Hurwitch, Deputy Director of the Office of Caribbean and Mexican Affairs, asserts that: "State believes it needs a virtual civil war situation in Cuba before intervention in Cuba with US military force might be considered politically feasible." [
Doc. No. 361, page 885, Foreign Relations of the United States, Cuba, 1961-1963, Volume X.]
Between January and August, 5,780 counterrevolutionary actions are reportedly carried out in Cuba. 716 involve sabotage of important economic objectives.
August 26. The U.S. Coast Guard impounds two boats in Marathon, Florida, after members of the Florida-based "Student Revolutionary Directorate" used them to fire automatic weapons at Havana beachfront buildings the night before. The 23 members of the expedition are not arrested, and no charges are brought against them.
August 31. In Washington, a memo from General Lansdale (Chief of Operation Mongoose) outlines the objectives of Operation Mongoose, Phase II: a. Discredit and isolate the regime; b. Harass the economy; c. Intensify intelligence collection; d. plit regime leadership and relations with Bloc; e. Assist Cuban exile groups and Latin American governments to take actions; f. Be prepared to exploit a revolt. [Document number 399, page 974, Foreign Relations of the United States, Cuba, 1961-1963, Volume X.]
September 3. U.S. senators George Smathers, Strom Thurmond and Kenneth B. Keating propose direct aggression against Cuba. They suggest sponsoring a NATO-like military alliance that can deal with "the Cuban problem."
September 8. Soviet freighter Omsk arrives in Cuba with the first shipment of MRBMs.
September 15. Soviet freighter Poltava arrives in Cuba with the second shipment of MRBMs.
September 27. In Havana, five CIA agents are arrested and large quantities of weapons are confiscated.
October 2. U.S. government cables all Latin American governments and NATO countries new measures to tighten the economic embargo against Cuba.
October 4. In Washington, according to a memo from from Director of Central Intelligence John McCone; "General Lansdale was instructed to give consideration to new and more dynamic approaches, the specific items of sabotage should be brought forward immediately and new ones conceived, that a plan mining harvors should be developed and presented, and the possibility of capturing Castro forces for interrogation should be studied." (Doc No. 8 -
http://www.state.gov/www/about_state/history/frusXI/01_25.html)
October 12. In Washington, a memo from Edwin M. Martin (Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs) to U. Alexis Johnson (Deputy Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs) outlines a 2-track course of covert action against Cuba. "Track one would consist of a heightened effort to move along the present Mongoose lines. The minimum objective there would be harassment: the maximum objective would be the triggering of a situation where there might be conflict at the top of the Cuban regime leading, hopefully, to its change or overthrow by some group within Cuba commanding arms." "Track two would consist of an effort to engage Cubans more deeply, both within Cuba and abroad, in efforts of their own liberation." (Doc No. 14 -
http://www.state.gov/www/about_state/history/frusXI/01_25.html)
October 14. The
Cuban Missile Crisis begins when U.S. reconnaissance aircraft photograph Soviet construction of intermediate-range missile sites in Cuba. President Kennedy demands the withdrawal of Soviet missiles and imposes a naval blockade. Khrushchev agrees on condition that Cuba receives guarantee of non-aggression from the U.S. and Jupiter missiles aimed at the Soviet Union are removed from Turkey.
October 24. A naval quarantine of the island beings.
October 25. Soviet officials agree to remove the nuclear missiles from Cuba.
October 30. The Special Group (Augmented) orders General Lansdale to "cease all sabotage and paramilitary operations during the coming negotiations with Cuba." This is the official end of Operation Mongoose.
November 12. At a meeting in Washington, Desmond FitzGerald (CIA Director of Plans) points out that the CIA has three kinds of agent activities in Cuba: "1. Singleton, 2. Collection nets, and 3. Agents involved in "black net" operations. "While there is encouraging improvement in the geographical spread of these agents, there is still, understandably, a fairly heavy concentration of agents in the Havana area." (Doc No. 376 -
http://www.state.gov/www/about_state/history/frusXI/376_390.html)
November 20. The naval quarantine that surrounded Cuba since October 24 is lifted. At a press conference, President Kennedy states that as long as Cuba commits no aggressive acts against any nation in the western hemisphere, it was never the intention of the United States to invade Cuba.
December 24. The U.S. exchanges $53 million of medicines and baby food for 1,113 exiles captured in the "Bay of Pigs" invasion. A few prisioners remain until 1986.
December 29. In Miami, President Kennedy meets with survivors of the 2506 Brigade in a ceremony televised from the Orange Bowl. Pepe San Roman gives JFK the brigade's flag to hold for safekeeping, and Kennedy says "I can assure you that this flag will be returned to the brigade in a free Havana." The book American Spy by E. Howard Hunt, reveals that the "flag was a replica," and that the the presentation almost didn't take place because of the animosity by brigade members against JFK.
1963January 25. New York attorney James Donovan meets with Fidel Castro to negotiate the release of 22 Americans imprisoned in Cuba.
February 8. The Kennedy administration prohibits travel to Cuba and makes financial and commercial transactions with Cuba illegal for U.S. citizens.
March 4. James Donovan (who negotiated the release of Bay of Pigs prisoners) conducts secret talks with Fidel Castro on behalf of the Kennedy administration. The memo remains classified until 1997, and can now be found at the National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 269:
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB269/index.htm.
March 13. At the University of Havana, 3 men are discoveed by security police preparing to shoot Prime Minister Fidel Castro with a sniper's rifle.
March 18. Members of Alpha 66 attach a Soviet vessel anchored in Cuban waters. 12 Soviet soldiers are wounded.
March 19. In Washington, members of Alpha 66 hold a press conference to take credit for yesterday's attack on the Soviet ship Lvov. Alpha 66 leader Veciana says their purpose is "to wage psychological warfare against the government of Premier Fidel Castro and the Soviet troops supporting him."
March 26. Cuban exiles attack a Soviet ship (the Baku) docked in Cuban waters at Caibarien. A journalist from Life Magazine, Andrew St. George, is along for the ride.
March 30. In Washington, the State and Justice Departments jointly announce they will take "every step necessary" to ensure that exile violence against Cuba does not emerge from "U.S. territory."
April 3. In a meeting at the White House that includes Cyrus Vance, Richard Helms, McGeorge Bundy and additional staff from the State Department and the CIA, President Kennedy objects to exile groups holding press conferences after illegal aggressions against Cuba.
April 11. At a Cuba Coordinating Committee meeting in Washington, Desmond FitzGerald (Chief, Task Force W) presents three sabotage targets for the months of April and May: a railway bridge, a petroleum storage facility and a molasses storage vessel. It is concluded that "this will meet the President's desire for some noise level and for some action in the immediate future."
April 22. Liza Howard of ABC News conducts a 5-hour interview with Fidel Castro. She later reports to the CIA that "Castro is seeking rapprochement with the U.S." She adds that in her opinion Che Guevara, Raul Castro and Vilma Espin are opposed to any idea of rapprochement.
April 27. Castro begins a 5-week visit to the Soviet Union.
May 28. In a memo from Gordon Chase (National Security Council) to McGeorge Bundy (Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs) regarding "Cuban Exiles" in the Miami area, the following organizations are identified: "Left. The Second National Front of Escambray, Alpha-66, the Anti-Communist Liberation Front, and elements of the People's Revolutionary Movement and the 30th of November Movement have reached a working agreement. Although the working agreement is essentially action-oriented, the member organizations tend to the view that the original revolution promised by Castro should be reclaimed and redirected. The adherence of Manuel Ray's Revolutionary Junta (JURE) would increase the influence of this grouping, which probably has the most potential appeal to Castro's opponents within Cuba, but which is an object of concern to more conservative exiles."Center. Revolutionary Unity (UR), Revolutionary Recuperation Movement (MRP), Christian Democratic Movement (MDC), Revolutionary Student Directorate (DRE), and other less well-organized center groups, have held aloof from attempts at unity. "Right. The Alliance for Cuban Liberty (ALC), and the Association for Economic Recovery of Cuba (AREC) have had difficulty attracting adherents. They principally look to the return of their lost property, rather than action and politics. Recent discussions by these groups with U.S. nationals promising large-scale financial support appear to have had no results." Further down the document states that "So far the efforts toward unity have been tentative and competitive. Political divisions, both ideological and personal, are deep and there appears to be little disposition or ability to effect a real accommodation of views. The groups on the left distrust those on the right and vice versa; the center groups are wary of both. Any formula for unity would have to be so diluted as to be almost meaningless. Moreover, the ability of a united exile organization to reflect, to any meaningful degree, the attitudes and aspirations of those within Cuba would be minimal." (Doc. No. 345,
http://www.state.gov/www/about_state/history/frusXI/326_350.html)
June 19. President Kennedy approves a CIA program titled: "Proposed Covert Policy and Integrated Program of Action toward Cuba," presented to the Standing Group on June 8. The plan renews support for exile attacks on selected Cuban targets which include transportation facilities, power plants, fuel production and storage operations.
July 9. All Cuban-owned assets in the United States are frozen.
September 7. In a 3-hour interview with Associated Press reporter Daniel Harker, Castro indicates that he's aware of CIA plots to kill him, and adds that U.S. leaders also "may not be safe."
October. In Prologue to the Cuban Revolution, Robin Blackburn writes: "The Cuban Revolution is now widely recognized as an event of world-hsitorical importance. For the first time there has been a socialist revolution in the Americas… The universal significance of the Cuban Revolution makes it one of the decisive phenomena of our time."
November 14. Four Cubans are executed in Havana's Cabaña Fortress. Argimiro Fonseca Fernández, Wilfredo Alfonso Ibáñez, Israel Rodríguez Lima and Erasmo Machín Garia had been charged with infiltrating Cuba to find "spots along the island's beaches where arms could be landed."
November 17. President Kennedy asks French journalist Jean Daniel to tell Castro that he is now ready to negotiate normal relations and drop the embargo. According to former Press Secretary Pierre Salinger, "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…"
November 22. U.S. President John F. Kennedy is assassinated.
November 29. Composer Ernesto Lecuona dies in Santa Cruz de Nenerife, Spain.
December 2. Cuba announces the formation of the United Party of Socialist Revolution, which unites representatives from various groups, including the Popular Socialist Party (the former communist party).
Using Soviet-supplied equipment, Cuba becomes the first nation in the Western Hemisphere to jam radio broadcasts. The first apparent target being the anti-Castro stations in the U.S.
1964January 7. Castro tells American journalist Herbert L. Matthews that Cubans had put forward the idea of Soviet missiles on the island.
February 12. Castro sends
a verbal message to President Lyndon B. Johnson through Lisa Howard of ABC News.
June. Castro's sister, Juanita Castro, defects, and becomes a prominent radio commentator in Miami. (In 2001 she is appointed director of Radio-TV Martí by President G.W. Bush.)
July 6. In a New York Times interview with reporter Richard Eder, Castro makes a peaceful offer to the US. that includes ending material aid to Latin American revolutionaries and the release of political prisoners in Cuba. The Department of State immediately issues a sharp rejection; Cuba must first end its dependency on the Soviets, and cease to support revolutionary groups in Latin America.
In The Closest of Enemies, author Wayne Smith writes, "I was bothered by the hardness of our demands. How could Castro break ties with the Soviet Union before reaching an accommodation with us? How could he renounce Soviet military assistance when he still faced a hostile United States? How could he renounce Moscow's economic aid without being certain of finding another benefactor? Obviously, he couldn't. Clearly, we did not wish to talk to Castro. Our hard reply was simply a way of saying no without appearing to do so." Pg. 88.
June 16. Look magazine runs a prelude to the book The Invisible Government by David Wise and Thomas B. Ross, which reveals that Miami's Zenith Technical Enterprises, Inc., is a cover for a CIA operation. At the time, this was the largest CIA station in the world after Langley.
July 26. The Organization of American States (OAS) adopts mandatory sanctions against Cuba, requiring all members to sever diplomatic and trade relations. Only Mexico refuses to comply.
July 26. In a speech given in Santiago de Cuba, Castro reiterates the peaceful overtures made to the US in the July 6 interview in the New York Times.
November 3. Roberto S. Sanchez Vilella is elected governor of Puerto Rico.
October 14. Khrushchev is ousted as First Secretary and Premier of the Soviet Union.
December 12. Cuban exiles fire a bazooka at UN headquarters in New York during a speech by Che Guevara to the General Assembly.
1965February 18. Cuba and the Soviet Union sign a 5-year agreement that reschedules payment of Cuban debt (about $500 million).
February 26. In Algiers, Che Guevara
speaks about the mistakes of the revolution.
April 1. Che Guevara resigns his Cuban citizenship and leaves to wage armed struggle in Latin America.
May 1. Che writes a
farewell letter to Fidel Castro.
October 3. The new Communsit Party of Cuba is inaugurated.
October 10. Hundreds of Cubans begin to leave the island from Camarioca (a small fishing port). The port is opened to foreign boats, and within two months about 7,500 refugees have arrived in the U.S.
December 1. The Cuban airlift begins. In its first year, the airlift brings more than 45,000 refugees – only about 5% require federal assistance, and only for a short time.
December. The United Nations General Assembly adopts a "Declaration of the Inadmissibility of Intervention in the Domestic Affairs of States and the Protection of their Independence and Sovereignty." It says that "no state shall organize, assist, foment, finance, incite or tolerate subversive, terrorist or armed activities directed toward the violent overthrow of another state, or interfere in civil strife in another state."
1966January 3-15. Cuba hosts the first Tricontinental Conference, from which are founded the Organization for Solidarity with the Peoples of Africa, Asia and Latin America (OSPAAL) and the Organization for Latin American Solidarity (LASO).
February 13. Cuba announces a new trade agreement with the Soviet Union that includes credits for $91 million.
November 2. U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs into law the Cuban Adjustment Act, which exempts Cuban immigrants from general U.S. migration laws. Any Cuban who has reached U.S. territory since January 1, 1959 is eligible for permanent residency after two years. 123,000 Cubans immediately apply for permanent status.
December 29. U.S. Air Force pilot Everett Jackson is shot down over Cuba and captured after dropping arms and equipment intended for counterrevolutionaries in Las Villas province.
1967January 2. Rolando Masferrer Rojas and 67 others are arrested in Marathon, Florida, for an alleged plot to invade Haiti and then Cuba. Among the weapons seized by U.S. federal agents are machine guns, handguns and knives.
January 2. In the article "Cuba: Eight Years of Revolution," Herbert Matthews writes in the New York Times:"There have been improvements in child care, public health, housing, roads and the typical leveling down of the whole social and economic structure that accompanies revolutionary "equality." This also means, however, that the poorest and most backward elements, especially in the rural areas, have been "leveled up." Cuban Negroes, for the first time, have equal status with whites, economically and socially."
August 1. The first meeting of the Latin American Solidarity Organization (LASO) opens in Havana.
October 9. Che Guevara is killed in Bolivia by U.S.-trained rangers in the village of Vallegrande.
On
economic performance.
1968
January 2. The Cuban government announces petroleum rationing due to a cutback in deliveries from the Soviet Union.
January 11. Two British journalists are arrested and then expelled after photographing military sites in Havana. They are identified as Peter Davis and Joy Searl.
January 13. Castro offers to trade 100 political prisoners for the remains of Che Guevara (currently in Bolivia).
January 18. In Havana, an American pilot is captured when his small plane is shot down after dropping a cargo of weapons for counterrevolutionaries. The pilot is identified as Everett Jackson, age 27.
January 21. A bomb explodes on a B-25 plane at Miami International Airport. The departure is delayed, as the explosion damages only a wing. The plane was to carry medicines to Cuba.
January 22. Dr. Eliodoro Martinez Jonco replaces Dr. José Ramon Machado Ventura as Cuba's Health Minister.
January 23. Raul Castro (Minister of the Armed Forces and Second Secretary to the Cuban Communist Party, convenes a meeting of the party's Central Committee to hold a trial of 37 members (including Anibal Escalante) for "microfactionalist activities" which include "encouraging the Soviet Union to apply economic sanctions against Cuba." The charges amount to treason. It is asseted that had the microfaction succeeded, "it would have subordinated Cuban sovereignty" to the Soviets.
January 25. In Miami, 2 businesses who regularly ship packages to Cuba are bombed before dawn. The anti-Castro group "El Poder Cubano" (Cuban Power), takes credit for the bombings, and claims that "Servicios Especializados" and "All Cargo Transport, Inc." were "doing business with Cuba."
January 28. Anibal Escalante and eight others are expelled from the Communsit Party as a result of their "microfactionalist activities."
February 3. Eastern Airlines Flight 7 from Newark to Miami (with 193 passengers) is hijacked to Havana. The plane carries 193 passengers, and marks the 5th hijacking for Eastern Airlines this year.
March 13. Castro launches the "revolutionary offensive" which nationalizes 55,000 small businesses and leads to state control of nearly all trades and services.
March 23. A new economic agreement with the Soviet Union reveals a 13% decrease from the previous year.
June 5. U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy is shot in Los Angeles, California. He dies the next day.
August 23. Castro endorses the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia (on August 20).
September 16. Orlando Bosch and others fire a bazooka at a Polish freighter docked in the port of Miami. Bosch goes to jail for the act, and is paroled in 1972.
Women comprise 15.6% of the Cuban work force.
1969January 2. The Cuban government announces sugar rationing.
February 16. Eastern Airlines Flight 1 from Newark to Miami is hijacked to Cuba. The plane lands in Havana.
July 26. Castro announces the start of a campaign to produce ten million tons of sugar in the next harvest.
August 8. According to a survey in Granma, Cuba's official newspaper, more than 75% of Cuban women have chosen not to enter the workforce.
August 25. TWA Flight 134 from Las Vegas to Philadelphia is hijacked to Cuba. The Boeing 727, with 80 passengers and a 6-person crew, lands in Havana's José Martí Airport at 10:21 p.m.
December. The first contingent of the Venceremos Brigade, a group of voluteer workers from the U.S., arrives in Cuba to work on the sugar harvest.
Women comprise 17.7% of the Cuban work force.
A report of the Cuban Academy of Sciences asserts that the Cuban family is in a state of crisis.
1970May 19. Castro announces that Cuba missed it's goal to produce 10 million tons of sugar by 15% (managing 8.5 million tons, the largest harvest in Cuban history).
August. The "Brigades of Militant Mothers for Education" is founded. It's goal is, in part, to encourage women to enter the labor force.
September 25. The U.S. warns the Soviet Union to discontinue construction of a nuclear submarine base in Cienfuegos.
By this time, more than 85 percent of Cuban trade is with the USSR or Eastern Block countries.
1971
March 20. Poet Herberto Padilla is arrested and detained for 39 days.
April 17. In Miami, a few hundred Cuban exiles gather to dedicate a monument to the 10-year anniversary of the Bay of Pigs invasion.
September 12. In Puerto Rico, on the 80th anniversary of Albizu Campos' birth, 80,000 people march through San Juan demanding independence. This is the largest demonstration in the island's history.
November 10. Castro arrives in Chile for a three-week visit, his first to a Latin American country since 1959.
November 18. In a question and answer period with students at the University of Concepción, Chile, Castro tells how he became a
communist.
November 28. In Chile,
Castro talks about Che Guevara.
October 2. Bola de Nieve dies in Mexico.
1972
The Center for Cuban Studies is established in New York to promote cultural and academic exchange.
May 3. Castro begins a 63-day tour of Africa, Eastern Europe, and the Soviet Union.
July 11. Cuba joins the Council of Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA), an economic organization of the Soviet Union, East European socialist countries, and Mongolia.
August 28. At the United Nations, Cuba requests that in light of adopted resolution 1541 (12/14/60) that the UN declare that Puerto Rico has a right to self-determination.
November 19. Cuba accepts a U.S. proposal to begin formal negotiations over the problem of airline hijackings.
1973
February 15. Cuba and the U.S. sign an antihijacking agreement.
April 6. Eastern Airlines flight 8894 lands at Miami International Airport at 11:55 A.M. with the last 84 passengers of the Cuban airlift. Since 1965, 3,049 flights had brought 260,561 Cubans to the U.S., making this the largest airborne refugee operation in American history.
November 15. The 13th Congress of the Cuban Labor Confederation ties wages to productivity in an effort to improve efficiency.
The Committees for the defense of the Revolution (CDR) celebrates its 13th year. According to Cuba's official newspaper Granma, the total membership is now about 4,750,000.
1974
January 28. Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev arrives in Cuba for a week-long visit.
September 11. OMEGA 7, an anti-Castro paramilitary group is founded in the U.S.
September 28. U.S. Senators Claiborne Pell (D-Rhode Island) and Jacob Javits (R-New York) visit Cuba. They are the first U.S. elected officials to visit the island since the break of diplomatic relations.
November. Assistant Secretary of State William Rogers and Assistant to the Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger conduct secret normalization talks with Cuban officials in Washington and New York. The talks end over Cuban involvement in Angola.
December. In a speech, Castro admits that "after more than 15 years of Revolution,women's rights rights are an area in which we are still politically and culturally behind."
Women comprise 12.7% of membership in the Communist Party.
1975
February 9. In a TV interview from Mexico City, U.S. Senator Edward M. Kennedy urges the U.S. government to lift the embargo and normalize relations with Cuba. "I believe the idea of isolating Cuba was a mistake," says Kennedy. "It has been ineffective. Whatever the reasons and justifications may have been at the time, now they are invalid."
February 21. Cuban exile leader Luciano Nieves is assassinated after coming out in support for dialogue with Cuba.
March 1. Maurice A. Ferré, Mayor of Miami, asks Attorney General Edward H. Levi for federal help to combat "violence in the Cuban exile community that the police regard as politically motivated. Mayor Ferré sites the assassination of Luciano Nieves, and the bombings of TV station WKID in Dania, among other incidents. Mayor Ferré estimates that the actual terrorists number less than 2-dozen.
April. A government survey seeks to discover why so few women ran in the 1974 People's Power elections and why so few were elected.
July 28. The Organization of American States (OAS) votes to end political and economic sanctions against Cuba. This opens the way for each member nation to decide whether to have diplomatic and trade relations with Cuba, which many had already established.
August 21. The U.S. announces that it will allow foreign subsidiaries of U.S. companies to sell products in Cuba, and that it will no longer penalize other nations for trade with Cuba.
October 31. In Miami, Rolando Masferrer Rojas is killed by a bomb planted in his car.
November 5. At the request of the newly inaugurated Angolan government, Cuba sends a large contingent of troops to help the Angolans repel an invasion by South African forces launched on October 23.
November 20. The U.S. Senate Select Intelligence Committee releases its 347 page interim report on CIA assassination plots against foreign leaders. The report identifies over eight attempted plots to kill Castro between 1960 and 1965, as well as additional plans against other Cuban leaders.
December 14. An article runs in the New York Times titled "Sentiment Against Cubans Is Found Growing in Miami Over the Terrorism Linked to Anti-Castro Exiles." In the article, author George Volsky writes, "A strong and growing anti-Cuban sentiment has become evident here in recent weeks, principally a result of a wave of terrorism attributed by law enforcement agencies to anti-Castro exiles." The article adds that in the last 10 days 9 powerful bombs have exploded, and that 100 bombs have exploded in the past 18 months, but there have been no arrests.
December 17-22. The First Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba is held in Havana. It adopts party statues, a programmatic platform, and approves the draft of the constitution.
December 20. President Ford announces that Cuban involvement in Angola prevents the possibility of restoring full diplomatic relations in the near future.
Women comprise 25% of the Cuban work force.
Of the Communist Party's Central Committee's 100 members, 6 are women.
1976
Cuba gets new constitution; becomes socialist state. Among the changes is the establishment of new administrative division of the island. Instead of the 6 provinces left over from Spanish rule (Pinar del Río, La Habana, Matanzas, Las Villas, Camagüey, Oriente) the island is divided into 14 provinces: Pinar del Rio, La Habana, City of La Habana, Matanzas, Cienfuegos, Villa Clara, Santi Spiritus, Ciego de Avila, Camagüey, Las Tunas, Granma, Holguín, Santiago de Cuba, and Guantánamo.
February 24. The Family Code is adopted. It seeks to preserve and strengthen families, promote social changes and increase the participation of women in Cuban society.
April 5. U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger states that there is no possibility of U.S. relations with Cuba while Cuba has troops in Africa.
October 6. Cuban airliner crashes after an explosion nine minutes out of Barbados, killing 73 people, most of them teenagers. Luis Posada Carrilles, an anti-Castro activist trained by the CIA, is charged with the bombing. In 1998, Carrilles admits to (and later denies) over a decade of anti-Castro terrorist activities funded by the Cuban-American National Foundation (CANF), a Miami-based non-profit organization and the most powerful lobby in Washington.
October 15. At a mass funeral for the victims of the October 6 bombing, Castro blames the sabotage on the CIA.
October. Orlando Bosch is arrested in Venezuela in connection with downing of the Cuban airliner that killed 73 people.
December 3. Fidel Castro is elected president of the State Council, which, under the new constitution, consolidates the previous positions of president and prime minister. The new president serves as head of state, head of government, and commander in chief of the Armed Forces.
600,000 women work outside the home. Government operates 654 nurseries throughout the island serving about 48,000 families.
1977
March 19. U.S. President Carter drops the ban on travel to Cuba and on U.S. citizens spending dollars in Cuba.
April 27. The U.S. and Cuba sign a maritime boundary and fishing rights accord.
May 25. The U.S. State Department warns that Cuba's recent deployment of military advisors in Ethiopia could "impede the improvement of U.S.-Cuban relations."
September. The U.S. and Cuba open interests sections in each other’s capitals.
November 5. Somalia expels all Soviet advisors and breaks diplomatic relations with Cuba, citing the presence of Cuban and Soviet advisors in Ethiopia.
Mid-December. Cuban combat troops begin to arrive in Ethiopia (eventually totaling nearly 20,000).
1978
January. At the request of the Ethiopian government, thousands of Cuban troops, supported and led by Soviet, East German and Cuban officers, help repel a Somali invasion of Ethiopia.
February 27. U.S. Secretary of State, Cyrus Vance, states that he does not foresee the normalization of relations with Cuba due to the presence of Cuban troops in Africa.
July 31. Castro calls for the removal of U.S. military bases from Guantanamo Bay. Bombings of the Cuban United Nations Mission, the Cuban Interests Section, and the Soviet Mission by anti-Castro exile groups follow throughout the fall.
September 9. In New York, Cuban exiles bomb the Cuban Mission to the United Nations.
December. U.S. government announces that the full force of the law will be used against those responsible for the July terorist actions. (As far as I'm aware, no serious inquiry or arrest takes place other than the standard investigation by local police.)
1979
January 1. Cuban-Americans are permitted to visit their families in Cuba. More than 100,000 visit in the coming year.
June 19. In the U.S., Rep. Ted Weiss (D-NY) introduces unsuccessful legislation to end the U.S. trade blockade against Cuba and re-establish diplomatic relations.
July. Cuba develops close relations with the Sandinista government in Nicaragua. (Since 1977, Cuba supported the Sandanista insurgency against Anastasio Somoza's rule.)
September 3-9. At a meeting of the sixth sumit of the Nonaligned Movement in Havana, Castro is elected chair of the movement and serves until 1982.
November 1. A new penal code takes effect, replacing the criminal code passed in 1936.
November 6. The first contingent of volunteer Cuban teachers leave for Nicaragua.
In competitive sports, Cuban women comprise 17 percent of participants. Women make up almost half of all university students and half of the medical students.
1980March 12. In Grenada, Cubans begin to work on a new international airport.
March. Farmers are allowed to sell the surplus to their state quotas in "farmer's markets" where prices are unregulated and transactions are between private individuals.
April 1. 12 people crash a minibus through the gates of the Peruvian Embassy in Havana and seek asylum. Within the week, embassy guards are removed and Peru opens the embassy grounds to those who wish to enter. Over 7,000 storm the Peruvian embassy.
April 21. Cuba announces that anyone who wishes to leave the country could be picked up at the port of Mariel. The
Mariel Boatlift continues until September and brings 125,000 new refugees to the U.S.
September 11. Félix García Rodríguez, an attache of the Cuban Mission to the United Nations is asassinated. Secretary of State Muskie calls the murder "reprehensible."
Women account for 27.3 percent of the Cuban labor force.
1981
January. Ronald Reagan is innaugurated as U.S. president, and institutes the most hostile policy against Cuba since the invasion at Bay of Pigs. Despite conciliatory signals from Cuba, the new U.S. administration announces a tightening of the embargo.
In the U.S., Jorge Mas Canosa founds the Cuban-American National Foundation (CANF), which quickly becomes the most influential proponent of a hard-line policy against Cuba.
October 30. The U.S. Navy begins four weeks of exercises in the Caribbean. (On November 6, Pentagon officials state that the maneuvers are expected to send a message to Cuba.)
October 31. Cuba mobilizes its reserves and goes on full alert in preparation for an anticipated U.S. invasion.
November 23. In Mexico, Cuban Vice-President Carlos Rafael Rodríguez and U.S. Secretary of State Alexander Haig meet secretly but reach no agreements.
1982
April 19. The Reagan Administration reestablishes the travel ban, prohibits U.S. citizens from spending money in Cuba, and allows the 1977 fishing accord to lapse.
June 16. At the U.N., Cuban Vice-President Rodríguez states that Cuba has almost doubled its military strength since 1981 in response to the aggressiveness of the Reagan Administration.
1983
An agreement to refinance Cuba's foreign debt is signed in Paris.
October 25. The U.S. invades Grenada with 8,000 troops, occupies the island and establishes a provisional government. Of the 784 Cubans on the island, 636 were construction workers and 43 were military personnel. Invading troops capture 642 Cubans, kill 24, and wound 57.
1984
March 19. Cuba and Angola outline conditions for the withdrawal of Cuban troops from Namibia and implementation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 435.
May 14. The U.S. Department of Defense reports that it will spend $43 million to refurbish Guantanamo Naval Base.
June 29. U.S. Presidential candidate Jesse Jackson leaves Cuba after a series of meetings that result in the release of 26 prisoners, further openings for the church in Cuba, and the agreement to open talks on immigration issues with the U.S.
December 14. Cuba and the U.S. reach an agreement on an immigration program under which 2,746 refugees (Marielitos) are returned to Cuba, and the U.S. agrees to permit the immigration of 20,000 Cubans annually. (In fact, only about 2,000 applicants per year are allowed.)
1985January 1. A new housing law takes effect under which occupants of rental property (house or apartment rented from the state) are permitted to purchase and ultimately sell their dwellings.
January 24. Five U.S. Catholic Church leaders meet with Castro and high Cuban officials. This follows the opening earlier in the month of the Office of Religious Affairs, which signals improved relations between churches and the Cuban government.
May 20. RADIO MARTÍ, backed by Reagan Republicans and Cuban hard-liners, begins to broadcast news and information from the U.S. to Cuba. [In protest of these broadcasts, Cuba cancels the existing immigration agreement with the U.S.]
October 4. U.S. President Ronald Reagan bans travel to the U.S. by Cuban government officials or their representatives, which includes most students, scholars, and artists.
1986February 17. The Cuban Catholic Church hosts an international conference about the Church in Cuba. Attending are bishops from most Latin American countries and the U.S., and includes a representative from the Vatican.
April 11. The Soviet Union agrees to a 5-year, $3 billion program of economic credit and aid to Cuba.
May 18. Farmer's markets (legal since 1980) are banned.
1987
Infant mortality is down to 13.6:1000 (lowest in South America and lower than the U.S.).
March 11. The United Nations Human Rights Commission votes down a U.S. resolution that harshly criticizes Cuba for alleged human rights violations.
May 28. An Official in the Cuban Air Force defects to the U.S. Throughout the summer, General Rafael del Pino speaks on Radio Martí charging the Cuban leadership with a lack of morale.
July 6. Cuban television begins airing a 7-part documentary about the espionage activities carried out by U.S. officials stationed in the U.S. Interests Section in Havana.
August 13. After a two-day meeting with Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, Fidel Castro asserts that Cuba would be willing to abide by agreements that call for the removal of all foreign military advisers from Central America.
November 20. The U.S. and Cuba restore the immigration agreement cancelled in 1985.
1988
The Cuban Revolution turns 30 years old.
February-March. A delegation of U.S. human rights leaders inspect Cuban prisons as part of an exchange agreement under which a Cuban delegation would later inspect U.S. prison facilities. The U.S. group reports that conditions in the prisons are generally no worse than those in U.S. prisons, that there is no evidence of systematic abuses, and that some practices such as conjugal visits are more humane than those in the U.S.
April 21. John Cardinal O'Connor, Archbishop of New York, meets with Fidel Castro in Havana. It is the first visit by a Roman Catholic cardinal to Cuba since 1959.
November 8. Rafael Hernández Colón is reelected governor of Puerto Rico.
1989
The Berlin wall falls.
May. The U.S. State Dept. denies Orlando Bosch asylum due to his "career in terrorism."
August 17. According to an article in the New York Times, Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen meets with President Bush to negotiate a release for Orlando Bosch.
1990March 23. TV Martí, an anti-Castro, U.S.-taxpayer-funded station is launched. The signal is jammed by the Cuban government.
June. The Cuban Museum of Arts and Culture in Miami is bombed for exhibiting work by artists living in Cuba.
July 17. The U.S. Justice Department reverses itself and frees convicted terrorist Orlando Bosch.
July 18. Orlando Bosch receives a presidential pardon from President Bush.
October. The U.S. Congress passes the Mack Amendment, which prohibits all trade with Cuba by subsidiaries of U.S. companies located outside the U.S., and proposes sanctions or cessation of aid to any country that buys sugar or other products from Cuba.
Read a brief excerpt from Jacobo Timerman's "
Cuba: A Journey." Read a brief excerpt from the introduction to C. Peter Ripley's "
Conversations With Cuba."
Women comprise 38 percent of the Cuban labor force. The government operates about 1,100 day-care centers throughout the country.
1991
Soviet troops leave Cuba. Women comprise 21.5% of the Communist Party.
April. Under the direction of Carlos Aldana, the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party approves the establishment of an email connection between Cuba and Canada.
October. After Cuba's 4th Party Congress, only 5 of the Political Bureau's members from 1975 are still at their posts.
Of 225 party members elected, 37 (16%) are women.
December 8. The
Soviet Union disbands, ending economic subsidies worth approximately $6 billion annually.
1992
January. Email link between Cuba and Canada is finally established.
February 5. U.S. Congressman Robert Torricelli introduces the Cuban Democracy Act, and says the bill is designed to "wreak havoc on the island."
June 15. From an editorial in the NY Times: "…This misnamed act (the Cuban Democracy Act) is dubious in theory, cruel in its potential practice and ignoble in its election-year expediency… An influential faction of the Cuban American community clamors for sticking it to a wounded regime… There is, finally, something indecent about vociferous exiles living safely in Miami prescribing more pain for their poorer cousins."
October 7. From an offshore speedboat, a group of "Comandos L" fires shots at the Hotel Melia on Varadero Beach. When Cuba formally protests to the State Department, the protest is referred to the Justice Department, which in turn asks the FBI to investigate. Comandos L carry out at least eight raids against Cuba this year.
October 15. U.S. Congress passes the Cuban Democracy Act, which prohibits foreign-based subsidiaries of U.S. companies from trading with Cuba, travel to Cuba by U.S. citizens, and family remittances to Cuba. The law allows private groups to deliver food and medicine to Cuba. (At this time, 70% of Cuba’s trade with U.S. subsidiary companies was in food and medicine. Many claim the Cuban Democracy Act is in violation of international law and United Nations resolutions that food and medicine cannot be used as weapons in international conflicts.)
October 23. President Bush signs the Cuban Democracy Act into law. Congressman Torricelli says that it will bring down Castro "within weeks."
November 3. Pedro Rosselló is elected governor of Puerto Rico.
November 24. The United Nations General Assembly votes heavily in favor of a measure introduced by Cuba asking for an end to the U.S. Embargo. The vote is 59 in favor, 3 against (the U.S., Israel and Romania), and 79 abstentions. State Department spokesman Joe Snyder in the LA Times; "The Cuban government, in violation of international law, expropriated billions of dollars worth of private property belonging to U.S. individuals and has refused to make reasonable restitution. The U.S. embargo - and I point out it's not a blockade - is therefore a legitimate response to the unreasonable and illegal behavior of the Cuban government."
1993
January 7. At a news conference, Tony Bryant, leader of "Comandos L", announces plans for more raids atainst targets in Cuba, especially hotels. He warns tourists to stay off the island, adding that, "From this point on, we're at war. The Neutrality Act doesn't exist."
December 20. The United Nations General Assembly reprimands Iran, Iraq, Sudan and Cuba for abusing the human rights of their citizens. The vote on Cuba is 74-20, with 61 abstentions.
1994June 13. Mexican telecommunications company Grupo Domos signs an agreement with the Cuban Ministry of Communications to modernize the telephone network through a joint venture with the Cuban state.
July 13. At least 35 men, women and children die at sea when their tugboat (called the "13 de Marzo") sinks seven miles out of Havana. 31 survivors are picked up by the coast guard. Some claim that their boat was deliberately rammed by two other vessels that made no attempt to stop or rescue them.
August. Following Castro's declaration of an open migration policy, a new boat lift begins as economic conditions in Cuba continue to deteriorate. 32,000 Cubans are picked up by the US Coast Guard and taken to the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay. A "picketline" prevents additional seaborne migrations.
September 9. A migration agreement is reached between U.S. and Cuba, allowing for a minimum of 20,000 immigrants per year.
November 1. A report issued by
Americas Watch and the Fund for Free Expression called "Dangerous Dialogue: Attacks on Freedom of Expression in Miami's Cuban Exile Community" details attacks on academic freedoms and other serious restrictions on freedoms of expression for those who dissent from a rigid anti-Castro stand.
November 14. In Puerto Rico, a vote is held (not sponsored by the US government), asking Puerto Ricans to choose their political status in relation to the US. The results are as follows: 826,326 votes for commonwealth (48.6%), 788,296 for statehood (46.3%), and 75,620 for independence (4.4%). Blank ballots receive 1% of the vote.
October 26. For the 3rd year in a row, the United Nations General Assembly votes overwhelmingly for a measure to end the U.S. Embargo of Cuba. The vote is 101-2, with 48 abstentions, and only Israel votes with the U.S.
December 5. US President Bill Clinton approves the establishment of an Inter-Agency Working Group to "construct positions on issues related to Puerto Rico."
1995
January 12. InterNIC grants CENIAI (The National Center for Automated Exchange of Information) a Class B internet address (allowing Cuba to join the internet).
May 2. An Immigration agreement is reaffirmed by Cuba and the U.S., providing for the direct return of rafters to the island.
July 13. In a small private plane belonging to Brothers to the Rescue, Jose Basulto takes his first illegal flight over Havana, dropping religious and anti-Castro flyers and bumper stickers. A cameraman from the Miami NBC affiliate is on board and the film airs on Miami television that evening.
October. Concilio Cubano is formed, bringing together over 100 political, humanitarian, union and professional groups that agree on five points: a nonviolent stance, an amnesty for all political prisoners, an orderly transition to democracy, a juridical system that assures human rights, and the right of all Cubans worldwide to participate in the transition.
November 2. The UN General Assembly recommends an end to the embargo (for the fourth consecutive year) by a vote of 117 to 3 (38 abstentions). Only Israel and Uzbekistan join the U.S. in saying no. Since then, each time the vote comes up at the UN, the number of nations voting against the embargo increases.
1996
January. Cubaweb, the official Cuban web site, appears on the World Wide Web.
January 9 and 13. Planes belonging to "Brothers To The Rescue" fly over downtown Havana at low altitude, dropping leafletts calling on the Cuban people to opose their government.
January 15. "Brothers To The Rescue" pilot Jose Basulto is interviewed on Radio Martí (a station owned and operated by the U.S. government) and acknowledges that he had flown that mission over Havana and would do it again.
January 15. The Cuban government decides to crack down on exile groups such as "Consilio Cubano" and "Brothers To The Rescue," and tries to persuade the U.S. government to curb their actions. They issue loud warnings, including an official diplomatic note to the U.S. government, that exile planes violating Cuban air space will be shot down.
January 16. Jose Casin, a commentator on Radio Martí, dares the Cuban military to shoot down the planes, adding that they will not be able to respond in time to stop the fly-overs.
February 24. Cuban MiGs shoot down two airplanes (over international waters) belonging to the anti-Castro organization "Brothers To The Rescue," resulting in the death of four exiles. Basulto, in the third plane, is able to escape.
March 12. President Clinton signs the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity (Libertad) Act (also known as the Helms-Burton Act) which imposes penalties on foreign companies doing business in Cuba, permits U.S. citizens to sue foreign investors who make use of American-owned property seized by the Cuban government, and denies entry into the U.S. to such foreign investors. (He sites the planes shot down as a deciding factor in his approval of this measure.)
April. In Havana, a new Computer Technology Video Library opens, containing over two-thousand videos, many of which offer instructions on using the Internet.
November 12. By a vote of 137 to 3, the United Nations General Assembly recommends, for the fifth consecutive year, that the U.S. end the embargo against Cuba.
November 19. Pope John Paul II receives Castro at the Vatican. The Pope accepts an invitation to visit Cuba.
1997April. A terrorist explosion in the discotheque of Havana’s most fashionable hotel, the Melia Cohiba, begins a series of similar attacks on hotels, restaurants and night spots of Havana and Varadero.
June 29. According to a poll taken by the Miami Herald, a majority of Cuban Americans under the age of 45 support "establishing a national dialogue with Cuba, while their elders opposed it.
August 13. A paid advertisement in the Miami newspaper El Nuevo Herald by the CANF supports the bombings, and states that "Cuban people, like all peoples fighting for their freedom, have the right to choose whatever instruments are within reach to obtain freedom." CANF president Francisco Hernandez explains that "we don't consider these actions terrorism because people fighting for liberty cannot be limited by a system that is itself terrrorist."
September. Cuban authorities arrest a 25-year-old Salvadoran, Raúl Ernesto Cruz León, for carrying out a half-dozen of the hotel attacks.
October 27. U.S. Coast Guard gets a call for help from the 46-foot yacht La Esperana (owned by Jose Antonio Llama, a member of the CANF board of directors) which is in international waters off Puerto Rico. A search of the boat uncovers two .50-caliber sniper rifles (one of which is registered to CANF president Francisco J. Hernández) 70 rounds of ammunition and an array of military-type equipment. One of the men, Angel Manuel Alfonso, 58, says that he alone smuggled the weapons because he "planned to kill Castro." The FBI begins an investigation. [Seven exiles are indicted on August 24 1998, and after the trial is moved to Miami, all are found Not Guilty.]
November 5. For the sixth straight year, the U.N. General Assembly passes a resolution to end the Cuban embargo. The vote is 143 to 3.
November 6. In Havana, Walter Van der Veer, an American member of exile group "Comandos L," goes on trial for "trying to overthrow the Cuban government." He is given a sentence of 15 years in prison.
November 18. A U.S. defense intelligence report concludes that "Cuba does not pose a significant military threat to the U.S. or to other countries in the region."
November. Jorge Mas Canosa, the most influential anti-Castro activist and founder of the CANF, dies in Miami.
1998February.
Pope John Paul II visits Cuba.
March. The Pentagon concludes that Cuba poses no significant threat to U.S. national security, and senior defense officials urge increased contact with their counterparts on the island.
May – June. European countries call for an end to the embargo. Some warn that Title III of the Helms-Burton Act contradicts international law and may cause problems if not revoked.
July 12. The New York Times runs an article in which Luis Posada Carriles admits to over a decade of terrorist activities and assassination attempts on Castro wilfully funded by leaders of the Cuban-American National Foundation (CANF). Posada admits that Raúl Ernesto Cruz León, arrested in September of ’97, was one of his operatives. He boasts that there are additional anti-Castro operatives still on the island, and warns of a major surprise soon.
July 29 – Aug. 3. Castro visits the Caribbean: Jamaica, Barbados and Grenada.
August 24. Seven Cuban exiles are indicted in Puerto Rico on charges of plotting to assassinate Fidel Castro. Among the defendants is Jose Antoio Llama, 67, who serves as director at the Cuban American National Foundation.
October 13. In the U.S., senator John W. Warner and 23 other senators recommend establishing a National Bipartisan Commision to review U.S.-Cuba policy.
October 16. The UN General Assembly adopts a resolution against the U.S. embargo on Cuba. The vote is 157 to end the embargo and 2 (U.S. & Israel) to keep it.
1999
January 1. The Revolution celebrates 40 years.
January 5. U.S. President Bill Clinton declines the recommendation of 10/13/98 to establish a National Bipartisan Commission to review U.S.-Cuba policy. [Minnesota Repblican Senator Rod Grams: "By rejecting this Commission, the President has rejected common sense; after years of an ineffective embargo, it is time to independently revise our relation with Cuba." Senator Warner (Virginia Republican): "The current policy treats Cuba more cruelly than Iraq and North Korea, where US embargoes are less restrictive." Senator Dodd: "I am disappointed that nothing was done to deal with the critical impediments to the sales of medicines to Cuba."]
February 18. Six members of the U.S. Congressional Black Caucus visit Cuba to evaluate the U.S.-imposed embargo. Among the visitors: Maxine Waters and Barbara Lee of California, Sheila Jackson-Lee of Texas, Julia Carson of Indiana and others.
February 22. Cuba's State Prosecutor asks for the death penalty for Raúl Ernesto Cruz León, the Salvadoran terrorist charged with bomb attacks on the island in 1997.
February 22. The First Annual "Festival del Habano," (a showcase for cigar enthusiasts world wide) begins. The festival ends on February 26.
February 23. The coalition of Americans for Humanitarian Trade With Cuba join the United States Association of Former Members of Congress to call on the Clinton administration to end the embargo on food and medicines to Cuba. "The U.S. embargo on Cuba is the single most restrictive policy of its kind. Even Iraq is able to buy food and medicine from U.S. sources," says George Fernandez, Executive Director at AHTC. "As a Cuban American, I speak for the vast majority of us who do not think the U.S. should be in the business of denying basic sustenance to families and children in Cuba."
October. Illinois governor George Ryan heads a delegation to Cuba that includes many businessmen-the first by a U.S. governor since before the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961.
November 9. A resolution is passed in the UN General Assembly on the need to end the U.S. embargo against Cuba. The vote is 155 in favor and 2 against (U.S. and Israel). This is the 8th time in as many years that the resolution is passed.
November 25. Elián Gonzalez is rescued at sea two or three days after boat capsizes, killing his mother and 10 others.
The 21st Century
2000
February 28. The Second Annual "Festival del Habano," (a showcase for cigar enthusiasts world wide) continues until March 3.
May 7. In a more symbolic than legal decision, Cuban courts order the US to pay $121 billion in damages for the 4-decade-long embargo. A similar lawsuit in November 1999 found the US government liable for deaths and damage from "aggressive policies towards Cuba," in the amount of $181 billion. Observers claim that both lawsuits came about in response to a ruling by a US federal judge in Miami ordering Cuba to pay $187 million to families of pilots shot down by Cuban fighter planes in 1996.
June 28. Elián Gonzalez returns to Cuba.
July 27. In Santiago de Cuba, Jerry Brown, Mayor of Oakland, California, signs a proclamation declaring the respective cities as "Sister Cities." Also signing the proclamation is the Mayor of Santiago de Cuba, Nicolas Crbonell Igarza.
September 6. Fidel Castro speaks on the opening day of the Millenium Summit in New York.
September 7. The Cuban government announces that two U.S. newspapers will open bureaus in Havana: Dallas Morning News and Chicago Tribune. (CNN and The Associated Press already have bureaus in Cuba.)
October 11. The remains of two Cuban pilots are buried in Miami. Crispin Garcia and Juan de Mata Gonzalez died when their bomber crashed in the mountains of Nicaragua as they tried to land in a secret airfiend on April 18, 1961, during the invasion at Bay of Pigs.
November 17. In Panama, Posada Carriles and three other Cubans are arrested for a plot to assassinate Cuban leader Fidel Castro at the 10th Ibero American Summit. (They aree convicted in April 2004 and pardoned by outgoing President Mireya Mascoso on August 26 2004.)
November 29. A 23-member task force in the U.S., which includes liberals and conservatives, calls for an end to the embargo to "help the island's transition to a post-Castro era and reduce the chances of U.S. military intervention.
December 13. Russian President Vladimir Putin visits Cuba. He is the first Russian leader to visit the island since Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev in 1989.
According to a World Health Organization report issued this year, Cuba's public health system ranks #39 out of 191 nations.
2001
February 15-17. In Havana, the Cuban Pubwash Group host over 30 participants from 7 countries in a workshop titles "Medical Research in Cuba: Strengthening International Cooperation."
February 19. In Havana, the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), led by David Rockefeller, meets with President Fidel Castro. Also included are 19 U.S. bankers.
February 19. The Third Annual "Festival del Habano," continues until February 23.
March 16. Cuban President Fidel Castro is nominated for the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize by Norwegian Hallgeir Langeland, who sites Castro's efforts to help other developing nations as the reason. Included in the 103 nominees are UN Secretar-General Kofi Annan, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, U.S. peace broker Richard Holbrookee and Japanese historian Saburo Ienaga. The winner is to be announced on October 12.
March 22. A 3-day conference on the 40th Anniversary of the Bay of Pigs Invasion opens in Havana, attended by two former Kennedy White House officials (Arthur Schlesinger Jr. and Richard Goodwin), Robert Reynolds (CIA chief of Miami base, the largest CIA station in the world), and 5 members of Brigade 2506 (including Alfredo Duran and Luis Tornes).
March 28. In Washington, a new lobby group calling itself the Cuba Policy Foundation (CPF) and seeking the end of the embargo, announces it's creation as a "centrist organization" to challenge the lobby of the Cuban American Naitonal Foundation (CANF). CPF is founced by several former State Department officials, academics and business leaders.
April 1. According to a report by the Cuban Foundation for Human Rights, as of Jan. 1 of this year, 10% of Cuba's 300 political prisoners were jailed for having tried to exrecixe their right to freedom of opinion.
April 5. Eight African-American students from underprivileged backgrounds begin studying medicine (on scholarship) in Havana's Latin American School of Medical Sciences. They join about 4,000 Latin American students that have also received scholarships.
April 18. In Washington, the Cuba Policy Foundation releases a poll in which a majority of Americans are said to support the idea of doing business with Cuba and allowing travel to the island. Most agree with the decision to reunite Elián González with his father in Cuba.
September 12. After a two-day tour of Cuba's medical facilities, former U.S. Surgeon general Jocelyn Elders says that "Cuba's health care system is better at keeping people healthy than the U.S. system." She adds that the U.S. is still has better health care for patients who are sick.
September 16. Cuban Cardinal Jamie Ortega holds a memorial Mass at Havana Cathedral in support of the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the U.S.
September 28. A group of policy organization and politicians with an interest in establishing more peaceful relations with Cuba ask that Presdient Bush remove Cuba from the list of terrorist nations. Signators to the agreement include Albert Fox, president of the Alliance for Responsible Cuba Policy; Wayne Smith, former head of the US Interests Seciton in Havana and a fellow at the Center for International Policy; Meda Benjamin of Global Exchange; Alejandro Portes, president of Cuban Committee for democracy; and Lisa Valanti, president of US-Cuba Sister Cities Association.
November 4. Hurricane Michelle, the worst in 50 years, hits Havana.
November 22. In its weekly export report, USDA announces that Cuba purchased 50,000 tons of U.S. wheat, 43,000 tons of corn, 12,000 tons of soybeans, 20,000 tons of soymeal, 5,000 tons of soyoil and 12,500 tons of rice. U.S. grain industry giants Cargill Inc. and Archer-Daniels-Midland are among those involved in the sale.
November 28. For the 10th consecutive time the United Nations votes to condemn the four-decade-old trade embargo by a vote of 167 to 3, with three nations abastaining (U.S., Israel and the Marshall Islands).
November 30. The U.S. government turns down a Cuban offer to compensate Americans for properties confiscated by the Revolution 40 years ago.
December 14. A study by the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco), reports that test scores and literacy levels for Cuban primary students are "near the top of a list of peers from across Latin America" in mathematics and language achievement.
December 16. The first shipment of American goods purchased by the Cuban government since the imposition of the trade embargo arrives in Havana harbor.
2002
January 3. A group of about 2,000 Americans travels to Cuba, including representatives of the Young Presidents Organization and their families, with licenses from the U.S. Treasury Department.
January 8. Six members of the U.S. Congress meet with Cuban President Fidel Castro. Later in the day they meet with a dozen members of two dissident groups in Havana.
January 24. Illinois Governor George Ryan begins a second visit to Cuba. Ryan is the only U.S. Governor to visit Cuba since 1959.
February 22. Four Cubans are arrested for organzing a memorial ceremony to exiles shot down over international waters on February 24 1996. (The two aircraft, belonging to exile group Brothers to the Rescue, had just flown illegally over Havana.)
February 26. The Fourth Annual "Festival del Habano," takes place until March 2.
March 28. Researchers from the University of Havana win an award by the Whitley Laing Foundation (a prestigious British non-governmental organization) for accomplishments in the field of environmental conservation. Assistant Professor Lourdes Mugica heads the research.
April 7. A newly created group of 34 US senators announce four goals: lift the ban on travel to Cuba; advance democracy on the Caribbean island; permit private financing of food and agricultural sales; and promote cooperation on drug interdiction. The group, known as the Congressional Cuban Working Group, consists of 17 Republicans and 17 Democrats.
April 21. U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer and a 24-member California delegation, on a visit to Havana, eat a dinner with Castro that includes California-grown beans.
May 6. In a lecture to the Heritage Foundation in Washington D.C., Undersecretary of State John R. Bolton acuses Cuba of potential biological terrorism.
May 10. The Varela Project is delivered to the Cuban National Assembly with more than 11,000 signatures calling for free speech, electoral reforms, and amnesty for 250 political prisoners.
May 12. Ex U.S. President Jimmy Carter arrives in Havana.
May 13. While visiting the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology in Havana, Jimmy Carter denounces allegations of bioterrorism.
May 14. Jimmy Carter speaks to the Cuban people (in Spanish) on national television.
May 15. Granma, the official Cuban newspaper, runs the entire speech by Carter.
June 3. In Miami's Little Havana, firebombs are thrown at the buildings of the Cuban American National Foundation and Alpha 66 (both are anti-Castro organizations). There's little damage and nobody is hurt.
July 8. Ralph Nader, on a 3-day visit to Cuba, attends a dinner with Fidel Castro in Havana.
July 8. Cuban poet/writer Cintio Vitier is named winner of Mexico's Juan Rulfo Prize for literature.
July 22. Governor John Hoeven of North Dakota arrives in Havana for a 4-day visit.
July 23. The U.S. House of Representatives votes to allow the sale of goods to Cuba and to end the travel ban.
July 27. A U.S. delegation that includes two members of Congress and a former Secretary of Agriculture arrive in Havana for a 5-day stay on the island.
July 28. Tampa Mayor Dick Greco and 15 local business leaders go on a three-day secret visit to Cuba.
August 9. U.S. House Majority Leader Dick Armey, a Republican from Texas, says he believes the U.S. should open trade with Cuba.
September 18. 22 Cuban musicians who were nominated for Latin Grammy awards are unable to attend the ceremony in Los Angeles because they do not receive U.S. visas.
September 26. A five-day food and agricultural trade show opens in Cuba. This is the biggest U.S.-Cuban economic event since the 1950s. 285 companies from 33 states attend, including Archer Daniels Midland, Cargill, ConAgra Foods, Hormel Foods, Perdue Farms and Tyson Foods. Florida sends 31 companies, more than any other state.
September 27. From the agricultural trade show in Havana, Minnesota governer Jesse Ventura urges an end to the embargo. He says: "How can we switch them to capitalism if we don't work with them?"
According to an article in the Christian Science Monitor (10/23/03) about 180,000 U.S. citizens visited Cuba in 2002.
