Castros, communism and cigars
Ties between communist Cuba and the US, roughly 150km apart, have been fraught due to US occupations and Cold War enmity that took the neighbours to the brink of nuclear war
> 1492: Cuba became a Spanish colony after explorer Christopher Columbus landed there, and it used African slaves for labour until 1886
> 1895-1898: During its war of independence, the last of three, the United States backed the Cuban rebellion against Spain and sent troops to the island to shore up the struggle. After Spain’s defeat, Cuba was essentially ceded to the United States, which installed a provisional military government
> 1902: Cuba became independent, but Washington retained control by grafting the Platt Amendment onto its constitution, giving it the right to intervene in Cuban affairs. Most of the law was repealed three decades later
> january 1, 1959: Dictator Fulgencio Batista, in power since a 1952 coup, was overthrown in a revolution led by Fidel Castro who established a socialist republic
> 1961: Anti-communist Washington severed diplomatic relations. Months later, Castro’s forces defeated 1,400 rebels in the US-backed Bay of Pigs invasion
> 1962: The US discovery of Soviet missiles in Cuba set off the most serious crisis in the Cold War, threatening nuclear conflict
> 1962: The year United States imposed a trade embargo which still holds good
> 1991: Cuba was plunged into economic turmoil when the Soviet Union collapsed, surviving after legalising use of the US dollar and opening up to tourism
> 2006: Fidel Castro, who was ill, temporarily transferred power to his brother Raul, the defense chief
> 2008: Raul was named president and three years later, Fidel also handed him leadership of the all-powerful Communist Party
> 2011: Eighty per cent of the Cuban economy is controlled by the state, but Raul Castro unveiled reforms to boost the private sector’s role. A leading source of hard-currency income comes from thousands of doctors hired out to countries in Africa and Latin America under government-to-government contracts
> 2014: Began the historic thaw when Barack Obama and Raul Castro announced plans to normalise ties
> 2015: The US and Cuba reopened their embassies
> march 2016: Obama travelled to Havana for talks with Castro, ending a five-decade standoff
> november 2016: Fidel died, aged 90 > 2017: In October, Trump held Cuba responsible for mysterious ‘acoustic attacks’ against US diplomats
> 2017: Sale of Havanas, the reputed Cuban cigar, leaped 12 per cent after the Chinese developed a taste for them
> 2017: Cuba welcomed 4.7 million visitors. Besides tourism, the island also earns revenue from exports of nickel, tobacco and citrus products. Cuba was a leading sugar exporter until the collapse of the Soviet Union, its major buyer, but it is trying to revive the industry
> 2017: China became Cuba’s top commercial partner, replacing Venezuela, which is mired in a major economic crisis. —