Workers Socialist League Index | Encyclopedia of Trotskyism | Marxists’ Internet Archive
Written: 1983 / 84.
First Published: January 1985.
Source: Published by Left View Books for the Socialist Group.
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| 1868-1898 | Struggle for independence against Spain. |
| 1895 | Cuban patriot leader Jose Marti killed In Spanish ambush. |
| 1898 | US intervenes, defeats Spain, establishes provisional government over Cuba. No Cubans present at treaty signing in Paris. |
| May 20, 1902 | Republic of Cuba formed under President Tomas Estrada Palma. Restricted by the Platt Amendment: "That the government of Cuba consents that the US may exercise the right to intervene in the preservation of Cuban independence, the maintenance of a government adequate for the protection of life, property, and individual liberty." Guantanamo naval base conceded to USA – can only be returned by mutual agreement. |
| 1905 | Rigged election won by Estrada Palma. |
| 1906 | Insurrection by Liberal Party. US intervention brings Second Occupation of Cuba. |
| 1908 | Elections run by US military government. |
| 1912 | Black revolt in Oriente Province. 3,000 killed. |
| 1917 | Conservative Mario Garcia Menocal wins re-election amid intimidation and fraud. Liberals revolt. US navy sent to preserve sugar interests. |
| 1920 | New electoral fraud. Special elections called under US supervision the following year. |
| 1921 | Banking crash brings down Cuban banks. |
| 1922 | US General Crowder forces replacement of Cuban cabinet. US ownership of sugar production reaches 62.5%. |
| 1925 | Cuban Communist Party formed, and also Cuban National Confederation of Labour (CNOC). Both are repressed by Machado regime. First modern sugar refinery built in Cuba by Hershey Corp. |
| 1922-28 | International sugar market collapses. |
| 1930 | Communist Party union leaders head Havana general strike. |
| Summer 1933 | Wave of resistance to President Machado. He offers economic concessions to the CP / CNOC leaders in an effort to contain the movement. CP accepts – but strikes continue. Army turns against Machado, who flees country, to be replaced by President Grau San Martin. Workers seize sugar mills, establish soviets, hound out police torturers. Grau implements sweeping reforms. |
| September 1933 | Coup led by NCOs led by Sergeant-Stenographer Fulgencio Batista ousts army officer corps. New military leadership backs Grau, who is opposed by US. Instability as rapid switches of Presidency run alongside working class militancy. |
| March 1934 | CP calls for General Strike. Violently repressed. |
| June 1934 | Platt Amendment abolished. US "Good Neighbour" policy signals Roosevelt's shift of tactics towards Latin America. |
| March 1935 | General Strike crushed by military force. |
| 1935-36 | Successive governments dominated by army chief Batista. |
| 1938 | CP (led since 1934 by Blas Roca) and its daily paper Hoy legalised in exchange for support to Batista, in line with policies of Comintern's "Popular Front" (1935). |
| 1939 | Cuban Confederation of Workers (CTC) legally established under CP leadership as part of deal with Batista. |
| 1940 | CP helps Batista's election to the Presidency. Then assists drafting of new Constitution which shackles CTC unions to the Ministry of Labour. |
| 1942 | Two CP leaders – Carlos Rafael Rodriguez and Juan Marinello – become ministers in Batista's government. CP Congress votes to renounce strike action for the duration of the war. |
| 1943 | Stalin, in a bid to appease the Allied imperialist powers, and a continuity of the Popular Front strategy, announces the dissolution of the Communist International. |
| 1944 | Batista barred by Constitution from running again for Presidency. Grau's Autentico Party returns to office, runs into conflict with US over trade policies. CP offers Grau parliamentary support in exchange for retaining bureaucratic posts in CTC. Following dissolution of Comintern (1943) CP changes its name to Popular Socialist Party. |
| 1946 | Ortodoxo Party formed by Eduardo Chibas as a split from Autenticos. |
| 1947 | Grau – having won extra support in Parliament, breaks with the Stalinists. Labour Minister Prio ousts CTC General Secretary Lazaro Pena, replacing him with Eusebio Mujal, who moves in fellow Autenticos to key union positions. By 1959 Mujal has become a millionaire. |
| 1948 | Prio elected President. |
| 1951 | Chibas commits suicide during radio speech against corruption. Jacobo Arbenz Guzman elected President of Guatemala. |
| March 10, 1952 | 81 days before the elections, Batista stages pre-emptive, bloodless coup. Supported by Mujal / CTC apparatus. Opposition largely confined to students. Fidel Castro had been running for Congress as Ortodoxo candidate. |
| Jan. – Feb. 1953 | Thousands join in student demonstrations against police brutality. |
| March 1953 | Arbenz regime expropriates uncultivated United Fruit Company land in Guatemala. |
| June 1953 | Repressed Autenticos and Ortodoxos agree on a common insurrectionary strategy, meeting in Montreal, Canada. |
| July 26, 1953 | Fidel Castro leads an attack on the Moncada Barracks in Oriente province. The event is a failure, with scores arrested, tortured and murdered by secret police. Castro is jailed for 15 years – of which he serves 22 months. The raid is denounced by the PSP as "putschism" and "adventurism". |
| March 1954 | Autentico-led guerrilla movement, the Triple A, begins a bombing campaign in various towns. Student leaders arrested after demonstration. |
| May 1, 1954 | Student demonstrations. Havana student protestors shout anti-Communist slogans. |
| May – June 1954 | Students demonstrate against repression and in support of the Guatemalan revolution, organising volunteer brigades to offer services to Guatemala. |
| June 28, 1954 | Arbenz regime toppled by CIA operation in Guatemala. |
| Nov. – Dec. 1954 | Costa Rica invaded by Nicaraguan-based mercenaries. Student militants lead a contingent from Cuba to fight against the invaders. |
| 1955 | Student demonstrations amid mounting police repression. Triple A bombings continue. Batista orders all workers to pay compulsory dues to the CTC. |
| May 1955 | Fidel Castro released from Isle of Pines prison under an amnesty. July 26 Movement formed, but has no public existence until March 1957, when Castro writes breaking his links with the Ortodoxos. His attempts at legal anti-Batista agitation are frustrated by censorship. |
| July 1955 | Castro leaves for Mexico to regroup forces. |
| August 1955 | "Revolutionary Directorate" formed by student militants led by Jose Antonio Echeverria as insurrectionary organisation. |
| November 27, 1955 | Nationwide Students' general strike brings suspension of all private and public classes. |
| December 1955 | Armed clashes between students and police. In canefields, 500,000 sugar workers go on strike, and clash with police in riots and battles. Cane fields burned, barricades set up and some towns taken over by workers. After 3 weeks, Batista intervenes to increase pay offer. |
| December 1955 | Frank Pais' underground ANR joins the July 26 Movement, giving it a provincial base on Oriente. |
| 1956 | Escalation of bombings by Triple A. Students fight on. |
| April 1956 | Anti-Batista conspiracy by 220 officers and men. |
| August 1956 | Manifesto of July 26 Movement, seeking "constructive friendship" as a "loyal ally" of the USA. |
| November 25, 1956 | Granma sails from Mexico carrying 82 guerrillas led by Fidel Castro. Uprising to coincide with landing on November 30 is suppressed by Batista's forces. |
| December 2, 1956 | Granma landing is chaotic: equipment, arms and food is lost. Forces dispersed, only 7 guns left. First battle waged with only 19 armed men (January 1957). |
| 1957 | Dr. Cheddi Jagan returns to colonial government of British Guiana. |
| March 1957 | Revolutionary Directorate attacks Presidential Palace – a disaster. Reinforcements sent by Frank Pais to the Sierra Maestra guerrillas under Castro. Five students found tortured to death in Havana. Bomb attacks on police are stepped up. |
| April 1957 | PSP spy hands over student guerrillas to police. Electrical workers walk out on strike against the removal of their leader Angel Cofino from Executive of CTC. Many towns are cut off from electricity and gas: phone workers come out in sympathy. |
| May 1, 1957 | Revolutionary Directorate explodes bombs at trade union rallies called by the CTC. Bombs set off at schools to keep children from exams lead to spontaneous strike action. |
| June 1957 | Bombings and shootings in all provinces of Cuba. |
| July 1957 | Frank Pais shot dead in Santiago. |
| August 1, 1957 | General strike in protest at killing of Pais spreads through towns of Oriente province, and includes Nicaro nickel plant. |
| September 1957 | Cienfuegos naval mutiny. |
| February 1958 | Castro's programme now restricted to land reform (with compensation) and a promise of economic growth. He declares that he "no longer" has "plans for the expropriation or nationalisation of foreign investment", which will "always be welcome and secure in Cuba". Several dozen bombs explode in Havana. |
| March 1958 | US suspends arms shipments to Batista, pointing out that they are not being used for external defence. |
| April 1958 | General Strike called by July 26 Movement collapses within a few hours in Havana, frustrated by opposition of PSP / CTC leaders. Scores of militants killed. J26M almost wiped out in Havana. Only in Santiago is the strike effective, despite threats of arrest to strikers and offers of immunity to anyone killing a strike leader. One factor in Oriente is a sharp fall in wages. |
| May 1958 | Castro declares: "Never has the July 26 Movement talked of socialism or nationalising industry". |
| May 24, 1958 | Batista launches determined offensive against guerrillas. By August it has failed. |
| June 1958 | Raul Castro kidnaps 48 US and Canadian citizens, demanding a halt to supplies of weapons purchased before the ban. Successful. Militants are captured and executed by police death squads. |
| July 1958 | After earlier contacts, PSP leader Carlos Rafael Rodriguez joins Castro in the Sierra Maestra. |
| July – Nov. 1958 | Massive escalation of urban and rural armed confrontations in all provinces. In Havana over 100 bombs on a single night. |
| November 3, 1958 | Batista stages Presidential election. |
| November 1958 | US Ambassador Smith concludes that Batista is collapsing. CIA urges he be persuaded to resign to forestall a Castro victory. |
| December 1958 | Amid continuing terrorism, the USA attempts to lever out Batista. |
| December 31, 1958 | Batista flees the country, leaving no chance of establishing a regime acceptable to the USA. |
| January 1, 1959 | Clashes with former Batista soldiers as RD, J26M forces move in to take over police precincts and the prison. |
| January 2, 1959 | Castro calls for general strike to oust remnants of the Batista regime. Total strike lasts five days. Lleo Manuel Urrutia is installed as President, Jose Miro Cardona as Prime Minister. Six J26M representatives in new government. By July 1960 only Armando Hart still holds office. |
| January 8, 1959 | Castro enters Havana. His first speech to mass rally does not even promise land reform. |
| January 1959 | Strikes continue by workers at Cuba Electric Company, rail workers, and sugar workers demanding wage increases and other concessions. Restaurant workers threaten to strike unless casinos reopened. Castro argues for return to work, opposes closure of casinos. Lifts boycott of British goods. |
| January 27, 1959 | PSP leaders urge a strengthening of the power of Urrutia government (as against Castro), holding on to the bourgeoisie and – of course – incorporating PSP ministers. |
| February 16, 1959 | Castro, impatient at government's inaction, and under militant pressure, takes over from Miro as Prime Minister. |
| February 20, 1959 | Castro brings in stiff laws against peasant land seizures. |
| March 6, 1959 | Castro promises elections. |
| March 1959 | Castro announces massive rent reductions and summary trials of Batista's torturers. |
| April 1959 | Castro visits USA, meets Vice President Nixon. |
| May 17, 1959 | Land reform law produces major split in coalition government – though it hits only an insignificant number of landlords and benefits up to 300,000 tenants and landless peasants. INRA established. |
| May 23, 1959 | Congress of largest CTC union – National Federation of Sugar Workers FNTA. PSP leader – a Politburo member – is not even a delegate. PSP daily prints critical article, but Congress throws out "unity" candidate, and backs hardline anti-PSP J26M slate. Carries motion of censure against Hoy. |
| June 8, 1959 | Huber Matos, an anti-communist J26M commander in Camaguey attacks activities of PSP. Backed by President Urrutia, Guevara opens first contacts with USSR. |
| June 12, 1959 | J26M anti-communists removed from two ministerial posts (Agriculture and Foreign Affairs). |
| End June 1959 | Castro initiates sweeping land expropriations in advance of agrarian law provisions. Urrutia goes onto television to denounce PSP activity. |
| June 29, 1959 | Death penalty restored for "counterrevolutionary" crimes. |
| July 16, 1959 | Castro resigns as Prime Minister, organising mass demonstration demanding removal of Urrutia as President. |
| July 17, 1959 | Urrutia resigns, to be replaced by former Stalinist Osvaldo Dorticos. Urrutia dies in exile in New York, July 1980. |
| October 1959 | US moves to prevent Cuba buying British planes. Cuba warns it will seek military supplies from "other sources". Raul Castro appointed Minister of the Armed Forces. Huber Matos resigns his post – arrested by Castro. Later jailed for 20 years. |
| November 1959 | Minister of Labour authorised to seize any factory not working satisfactorily. Guevara becomes President of the National Bank. Influence of anti-communist J26M members virtually ends with the resignation of two of its best-known leaders, Manuel Ray and Faustino Perez. |
| Autumn 1959 | Imposition of "unity" – PSP / Fidelista – leaderships in the Students' union and the CTC, against strong opposition from anti-communist J26M militants. A purge of anti-communists begins in the J26M and also in the unions, headed by General Secretary David Salvador. Soviet Prime Minister Mikoyan invited to Cuba in New Year. |
| December 1959 | Seizure of large cattle ranches. Eisenhower takes powers to cut or end Cuban sugar quota. |
| February 1960 | Economic Planning Board set up. Mikoyan visits and signs agreement to buy 1 million tons sugar (25% of output). Parallel deals signed with East Germany, Poland. |
| March 1960 | CIA given go-ahead to plan invasion of Cuba. |
| April 19, 1960 | Soviet oil begins to arrive. After sugar harvest, US sugar land is taken over by INRA. |
| May 1960 | Khruschev exploits U-2 Crisis to abort Paris summit. Cuba / USSR diplomatic relations opened. Moscow agrees to protect Cuba from any US blockade. |
| June 1960 | Raul Castro goes to Czechoslovakia "to attend Spartacus Games". Within weeks, arms supplies begin to flow – from Czechoslovakia. When US refineries refuse to refine crude oil from USSR, they are "intervened" and nationalised. |
| June 1960 | CTC General Secretary David Salvador goes underground with other J26M anti-communists, as counter-revolutionaries step up their activities. |
| July 1960 | USA cuts off Cuban sugar quota. More US industrial and agricultural holdings are nationalised. Khruschev states that: "In a figurative sense, if it became necessary, the Soviet military can support the Cuban people with rocket weapons". Agrees to buy another 700,000 tons of sugar cancelled by USA. |
| July 23, 1960 | China agrees to buy 500,000 tons sugar per year to 1965. |
| August 1960 | Blas Roca tells PSP Congress "Private enterprise that is not imperialistic or monopolistic or of a parasitic nature (!) is still necessary" . |
| August 6, 1960 | Castro nationalises 36 US-owned sugar mills, refineries, electric power and telephone companies. |
| September 13, 1960 | CMQ TV station "intervened". |
| September 15, 1960 | Cigar and cigarette factories intervened. US-owned banks nationalised. |
| September 19, 1960 | Removal of leading anti-PSPer from J26M journal Revolucion. |
| September 28, 1960 | Committees for the Defence of the Revolution (CDRs) formed. |
| October 1960 | Total US embargo on trade with Cuba. Cuban banks nationalised, plus remainder of sugar mills and 382 of the most important private enterprises, including railways, port facilities, cinemas. Guevara visits Moscow. |
| October 24, 1960 | Remaining US properties nationalised. This step neither preceded nor followed by mass demonstrations or meetings. PSP and Moscow leaders greet this step coolly. Only 18 months later does Moscow recognise "Cuban socialism" (April 1962). |
| November 1960 | Guevara, having achieved little in Moscow, moves to Peking: feted by Chinese leaders, who agree to buy 1 million tons of sugar per year for five years. US embargo on exports to Cuba other than food and medicine. |
| December 1960 | Electrical workers demonstrate, shouting slogans of "Cuba Yes, Russia No". Demo leaders hauled before CTC leadership, in meeting attended by Fidel Castro: accused of "unspeakable treachery" and expelled. David Salvador caught sailing a yacht out of Havana carrying $13,000 to finance the counter-revolutionary "30 November Movement". Eventually jailed for 30 years. |
| April 1961 | Bay of Pigs fiasco as US-run invasion routed by Castro's militia units. First declaration of Havana. Castro for the first time proclaims the "socialist" character of the revolution. Crackdown on oppositionists. |
| July 26, 1961 | Castro announces merger of J26M, RD and PSP to form the Integrated Revolutionary Organisations (ORI) under Stalinist General Secretary Anibal Escalante. |
| October 1961 | Cheddi Jagan visits US. Fails to satisfy Kennedy administration of anti-communist credentials. |
| December 1961 | Castro pronounces himself a "Marxist Leninist". |
| February 4, 1962 | Second Declaration of Havana. |
| February 1962 | Tobacco trade with USA cut off. |
| March 1962 | "Escalante Affair" – Escalante sent off in disgrace to Czechoslovakia for 2 years having been denounced by Castro for his attempts to make ORI a replica of the old PSP, with old Stalinists in complete control. Castro applauded by PSP and by Moscow. |
| Summer 1962 | Khruschev orders positioning of intermediate range missiles in Cuba, capable of hitting targets on US mainland. |
| October 1962 | Cuban "Missiles Crisis". Faced by full-scale US naval blockade (with Kennedy administration seriously considering nuclear strike against Cuba), Khruschev orders Soviet missiles ships to turn back in exchange for Kennedy pledge not to attack Cuba, and token withdrawals of US missiles in Europe. Deal done without consultation with Castro, who is openly critical of Soviet retreat. |
| February 1963 | ORI dissolved and United Party of Socialist Revolution erected in its place. Accompanied by a purge of half the membership of the ORI. |
| March 1963 | US-funded General Strike called by yellow unions in British Guiana – lasts 80 days. |
| May 1963 | Castro / Khruschev communiqué ambiguously worded – appears to represent Kremlin shift towards Castro's guerrillaist line. |
| June 1963 | Rioting in British Guiana instigated by British and CIA agents. |
| November 1963 | Cuban arms intercepted en route to Venezuelan guerrillas. |
| Autumn 1964 | Latin American CPs meet in Havana. Castro agrees to stick with official Stalinist parties in exchange for support to armed struggle in six Latin American countries. |
| October 1964 | After change in electoral laws imposed by British, Jagan "loses" election in British Guiana to US-backed Forbes Burnham. |
| March 1965 | Castro publicly breaks with Chinese leadership. |
| April 1965 | US invades Dominican Republic. Che Guevara leaves Cuba. USSR opens up relations with Christian Democratic regime in Chile. |
| Autumn 1965 | Kremlin leaders organise conferences to commemorate 30th anniversary of Popular Front policy. |
| October 1965 | "Cuban Communist Party" launched to replace PURS. Dominated by Fidelistas. It holds no Congresses for ten years. Economic policy shifts from industrialisation back to sugar. |
| January 1966 | Tricontinental Conference held in Havana, organised by Cuban leaders in consultation with Kremlin. But Kremlin plans sabotaged as Castro embarks on independent line. Launches Organisation of Latin American Solidarity (OLAS). |
| Summer 1966 | Cuban CP supports guerrillaist split in Venezuelan CP. |
| August 1966 | USSR loans over $100m in credits to Brazilian dictatorship. |
| March 1967 | Cuban CP formally breaks from Venezuelan CP. |
| June 1967 | Johnson / Kosygin talks take place as US bombing of Vietnam intensifies. Castro has declared 1967 "The Year of Heroic Vietnam". |
| July 1967 | Inaugural conference of Organisation of Latin American Solidarity (OLAS) in Havana. |
| December 1967 | Guevara killed in Bolivian guerrilla struggle, ending attempts to export the "Cuban model". |
| January 1968 | Purge of Moscow-backed "micro-faction" around Escalante. Soviet sanctions begin to hit Cuban economy. |
| Spring 1968 | Castro's "Revolutionary Offensive" – expropriation of 56,000 small private concerns. |
| Autumn 1968 | Castro endorses Soviet intervention in Czechoslovakia in speech which also contains his last criticisms of the USSR leaders. Sugar harvest 3 million tons below target. |
| Mid 1969 | In switch of foreign policy, Castro extends support to "left" military regime of Velasco in Peru. |
| 1970 | Failure of the "Ten Million Tons" campaign for the sugar harvest prompts a major rethink on the economy and methods of management. Massive labour unrest and absenteeism brings promise of local level union elections. Cuba signs agreement with Chile's Christian Democratic government. |
| Late 1971 | Castro visits Allende's newly elected "Popular Unity" government in Chile, urging workers not to strike against regime, while making vague and ambiguous gestures of warning. |
| 1972 | New economic agreements with the USSR lead to Cuba joining Comecon and debts to USSR postponed for payment until 1986, with interest cancelled. |
| 1973 | Beginning of sustained increase in military spending, to grow faster than the economy. At Non-Aligned conference in Algiers, Cuba breaks diplomatic relations with Israel and adopts anti-Zionist rhetoric. |
| September 11, 1973 | Pinochet's coup crushes Allende's Popular Unity government and Chilean trade unions. |
| 1975 | First Congress of Cuban Communist Party. Veteran Stalinists brought into prominent – though not decisive – roles in government and Party. |
| End of 1975 | Cuban troops sent to Angola. |
| 1976 | New Constitution establishes concept of "People's Power", and a structure of municipal, regional and National Assembly. Castro elected President – with full powers to appoint or dismiss ministers. Military coup in Argentina. Videla junta establishes trade and political links with USSR – backed up by Argentine CP. |
| December 1977 | Cuban troops sent to prop up Mengistu regime in Ethiopia. |
| April 1978 | Mengistu visits Havana. Castro likens Eritrean liberation struggles to Southern states' secessionist movement in American Civil War. |
| February 1979 | Iranian revolution. |
| 1978 – 79 | Sandinista struggle against Somoza reaches a high point: no evidence of any substantial Cuban backing for guerrillas until after their victory in July 1979. |
| March 1979 | Grenadian revolution. |
| Autumn 1979 | Cuban leadership admits to dire economic crisis which without Soviet assistance would produce a "sequel of starving people and hundreds of thousands unemployed". |
| December 1979 | Soviet invasion of Afghanistan weakens Cuban influence in "Non-Aligned" movement. |
| Spring 1980 | Mass exodus of 125,000 dissidents and criminals from port of Mariel in Cuba to USA. |
| August 1980 | Rise of Solidarnosc trade union movement in Poland through mass strikes. |
| December 1980 | Second Congress of Cuban CP acknowledges "common historical objective" with USSR. Militia relaunched as answer to US threats. |
| August 1981 | Cuban leadership laments death of President Trujillo of Panama: a "hero of the people". |
| September 1981 | Cuban government denies any involvement with or supply of arms to Salvadorean guerrillas. |
| December 1981 | Cuban leadership supports martial law crackdown in Poland against growing trade union and political challenge to Stalinist bureaucracy. |
| Summer 1983 | Castro and Cuban leaders begin to press for negotiated settlement in El Salvador and Central America. Still no evidence of Cuban arms for Salvadorean guerrillas. |
| October 1983 | US invasion of Grenada. |
| 1984 | 25th Anniversary of Castro's victory. Average life expectancy of Cuban male has been raised from 53 to 73. |
| January 1984 | Cuba joins with 26 other Latin American governments in conference in Quito, Ecuador, protesting at the massive burden of debts and interest payments inflicted upon Latin America by Western banks and economic crisis. Arranges to reschedule Cuban debts to foreign banks. Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ricardo Alarcon, rules out possibility of Cuban military defence of Latin American revolutionary struggles, both in El Salvador and Nicaragua. "Contra" forces in Nicaragua suffer military setbacks and political split over links with Somozista forces. |
| February 1984 | Nicaragua bombed by planes flown from Honduras. Sandinistas fix elections for November 1984, for 90-member assembly. Parties to be allowed public meetings, demonstrations, TV and radio time and granted state funds. Special provisions to ensure representations of parties with more than 3% of the vote. |
| March 1984 | Nicaragua ports mined by CIA and contra forces. Foreign shipping damaged. Nicaraguan Minister of Labour resigns post to concentrate on organising Independent Liberal Party for the elections. Daniel Ortega travels to Moscow and N. Korea, possibly in search of minesweeping equipment. Reagan seeks another $21m to fund contras. |
| April 1984 | Amid Senate fury, Reagan forced to withdraw US ship organising mining of Nicaraguan ports. Ortega meets Soviet Defence chief Ustinov. No pledge of extra USSR military support. Ex-CIA man – opposing Reagan policy in Central America – reveals that Nicaraguan supply of arms to El Salvador had dried up in 1981. |
| June 1984 | Nicaragua agrees to peace talks with USA: appear ready to consider formally renouncing support for Salvadorean FMLN fighters. Jesse Jackson feted by Castro in Havana. |
| July 1984 | Wide reports that Cuba is seeking new deal with USA – expecting re-election of Reagan. |
| August 1984 | Cuban scheme to speculate in sugar and force up prices winds up with embarrassing $100m failure and huge stockpiles. |
| November 1984 | Sandinistas win overall majority in high poll: pledged to maintain mixed economy. Reagan returned to office by "landslide" vote of one third of US electorate. Renewed US threats against Nicaragua. |
| December 1984 | Cuba agrees to take back 2,700 criminals and psychiatric patients who had headed for USA in Mariel exodus (spring 1980). Seen as a move to reopen talks with USA. |
| January 1985 | Castro announces new economic strategy, focussed on increasing exports, particularly to Western countries; holding down public expenditure on health, housing and schools; and holding back consumer market growth. Castro attends inauguration of elected Nicaraguan President Ortega. Reiterates hopes of talks with USA, and support for Contadora "peace" plan. |
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