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Popular Cuban Revolution led by Castro overthrows Batista, a dictatorship
which had been supported by the US to the tune of $16 million US in military aid per year.
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US begins trade embargo on Cuba which has continued till today. The UN has condemned
these unilateral sanctions against Cuba every year for the past 10 years, sanctions which
have included both food and medicine.
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US fails in an attempt to invade Cuba using 1500 exiled Cubans in what becomes known
as the Bay of Pigs.
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Operation Northwood
declassified - detailing CIAs plans to commit terrorist attacks
in the US and blame them on Cuba, in order to create public support for a war against Cuba.
These plans included the sinking of boats of Cuban refugees on the high seas, hijacking
planes, blowing up a U.S. ship, and even orchestrating violent terrorism in US cities.
Thinking is summarised by the following quote:
'casualty lists in US newspapers would cause a helpful wave of national indignation'.
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Amazingly, despite the sanctions and terrorism inflicted by the US, Cuba has managed to
survive. The WHO's representative in Cuba in 1980 stated that 'there is
no question that Cuba has the best health statistics in Latin America', and in 1990
a UNICEF report on the 'State of the World's Children' stated (with regards to infant
mortality rates) that 'Cuba is the only (Latin American) country on a par with
developed nations'.
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Cuba ranks 52nd out of 175 countries on the 2003 Human Development Index (which ranks according to
life expectancy, educational attainment and adjusted real income). Of its closest neighbours, Haiti ranks 150th,
the Dominican Republic 94th, Grenada 93rd and Jamaica 78th.
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Cuba's great health care system is not limited to its own borders - in 1991, Cuba had more
doctors working abroad in oppressed countries than did the WHO.
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Guyana elects its first native-born Prime Minister, Cheddi Jagan, an admirer
of the works of Karl Marx.
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Four months later, Churchill sends in troops, suspends British Guyana's Constitution and orders
its Government dissolved (being too leftist for Churchill's tastes).
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Dr. Jagan and his wife are freed from jail after the British restore
constitutional government, and Jagan is re-elected in 1957 and 1961.
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Jagan travels to the White House, seeking financial aid and offering assurances
that Guyana would not become a Soviet base.
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Following Jagan's departure, Kennedy meets in secret with his top national
security officers. Still-classified documents depict in unusual detail a
direct order from the President to unseat Dr. Jagan, say Government officials
familiar with the secret papers. Though many Presidents have ordered the CIA
to undermine foreign leaders, they say, the Jagan papers are a rare smoking
gun: a clear written record, without veiled words or plausible denials, of
a President's command to depose a Prime Minister.
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Agitation from the CIA grows - riots, propaganda, union action, a fire in
the center of town, shipping and airline blockades.
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The British, at the suggestion of the Kennedy Administration, delay their
colony's scheduled independence and change its electoral system. The
electorate now have to vote for parties instead of people, and a still popular
but politically weakened Dr. Jagan falls from power. The British then grant
independence to the new republic of Guyana.
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Declassified documents show the correspondence between the US and Britain, in
order to avoid the re-election of Jagan.
In a August 1961 Telegram From the Department of State to the Embassy in the UK:
'... we do believe that Jagan and his American wife are very far to the left indeed and
that his accession to power in British Guiana would be a most troublesome setback in this
Hemisphere. Would you be willing to have this looked into urgently to see whether there is
anything which you or we can do to forestall such an eventuality?'
In reply: 'now the choice before us in situations like this is either to allow the
normal process of democracy and progress towards self-government to go ahead and do our
best to win the confidence of the elected leaders, and to wean them away from any dangerous
tendencies, or else to revert to what we call "Crown Colony rule." It is practical politics
to take the latter course only when it is quite clear that a territory is heading for disaster.
We have done this once already in British Guiana-in 1953. But since the restoration of the
democratic process in 1957, the elected government has behaved reasonably well and we have had
no grounds which would justify a second attempt to put the clock back.' (Jagan is re-elected
shortly thereafter).
By February 1962 however, the US Dept of State writes: 'I must tell you now that I have
reached the conclusion that it is not possible for us to put up with an independent British Guiana
under Jagan .... These considerations, I believe, make it mandatory that we concert on remedial
steps.'
Interestingly, in February 1962, the President's Special Assistant (Schlesinger) writes: '
Jagan is not a Communist ... Jagan is infinitely preferable to Burnham.', however other
officials differ on just how 'communist' he is.
The correspondence then proceeds to address the fundamental question - 'Can we topple Jagan
while maintaining at least a facade of democratic institutions.' and 'Can the PPP be
defeated in new elections without obvious interference?' with concerns that '
it is unproven that CIA knows how to manipulate an election in British Guiana without a
backfire'.
In 1963 the conclusion is reached: 'The President (Kennedy) said he agreed with the analysis
of all the difficulties, but that these still paled in comparison with the prospect of the
establishment of a Communist regime in Latin America. Mr. Sandys said he thought the best solution
was that of a Burnham-D'Aguiar government to which the UK would grant independence.'
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For the following 20 years the country is governed by Forbes Burnham
- "as the British described him, an opportunist, racist and demagogue
intent only on personal power," to quote from "A Thousand Days." He
holds power through force and fraud until his death in 1985, running
up a foreign debt of over $2 billion during this time (over 5x Guyana's
GDP).
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During Burnham's rule, elections are viewed in Guyana and abroad as fraudulent.
Human rights and civil liberties are suppressed, and two major political assassinations
occur: The Jesuit priest and journalist Bernard Darke in July 1979, and the
distinguished historian and Working People's Alliance (WPA) party leader Walter Rodney
in June 1980. Agents of President Burnham are widely believed to have been responsible
for both deaths.
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The first completely free parliamentary elections since independence (in 1966)
result in Cheddi Jagan becoming re-elected.
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Trujillo rules the country in a brutal dictatorship, featuring the massacre in 1937 of
19,000-20,000 Haitians living in areas of the Dominican Republic adjacent to Haiti, until
he is finally assassinated in 1961.
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Juan Bosch, a leftist reformer, is elected president in the first democratic elections
for nearly four decades, defeating Joaquin Balaguer (Trujillo's heir).
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While no radical, Bosch is true to his beliefs. He calls for land reform, nationalisation
of some businesses and an ambitious public works project. As a principled liberal, he is
also serious about civil liberties. Communists in the Dominican Republic are not to be
prosecuted unless they break the law.
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Bosch is deposed in a military coup and replaced by a three-man junta. The US does nothing to
stop the coup and if anything encourages it.
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Over 20,000 US troops invade the Dominican Republic to crush a popular revolt aimed
at returning Bosch to power. Thousands of Dominicans are killed (as the NY Times admits
at the time) 'fighting and dying for social justice and constitutionalism.'
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The troops only leave after supervising elections in which they ensure Trujillo's
vice-president Balaguer wins.
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Since then, the Dominican Republic has sailed on choppy seas of fraudulent
elections, corruption, and economic uncertainty.
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