🇨🇺 The Cuban Revolution, explained

Sixty-six years ago, on Jan. 1, 1959, Argentine revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara, his comrade Fidel Castro and hundreds of armed rebels entered Cuba from the south. They were taking over the country’s second-largest city, Santiago de Cuba, seen as the birthplace of their uprising when Castro attacked its Moncada Barracks six years earlier.

Their arrival triggered the escape of Fulgencio Batista, a US-backed tyrant who had dominated Cuban politics for decades. It marked the start of the longest-lasting Socialist revolution in the continent, one that would inform the political imagination of generations and trigger some of the nerviest moments in Cold War history.

Columns led by Guevara and Fidel’s second-in-command, Camilo Cienfuegos, marched towards Havana to spread the news. Soon, their new government would tear down not just the Batista regime, known for persecuting opponents and censoring the press, but much of the nation’s socio-economic fabric.

The revolutionaries initially framed themselves as nationalists instead of communists, aspiring to end a model that was subservient to US interests since Cuba’s independence in 1902, but their initial reforms escalated quickly: first with land redistribution and the nationalization of foreign firms, and ultimately with the confiscation of most businesses and private property…

Don’t miss out! Upgrade to unlock full access. The process takes only seconds with Apple Pay or Stripe. Become a member.

We’re here for readers who want to truly understand Brazil and Latin America — a region too often ignored or misrepresented by the international media.

Since 2017, our reporting has been powered by paid subscribers. They’re the reason we can keep a full-time team of journalists across Brazil and Argentina, delivering sharp, independent coverage every day.

If you value our work, subscribing is the best way to keep it going — and growing.