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[in Spanish] Cuba has always
been fighting for its freedom.
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[in Spanish] 100,000 died,
and even though we lost the war,
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00:00:31,320 --> 00:00:32,800
the country had changed.
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00:00:41,480 --> 00:00:46,920
There is little question that Meyer Lansky
had thoroughly corrupted Batista.
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00:00:51,000 --> 00:00:53,320
It's not a lie.
They didn't promise anything.
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They promised a revolution
and they did a revolution.
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[in Russian]
These guys were bound to become
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00:01:04,599 --> 00:01:07,200
either martyrs, or national heroes.
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Una revolución!
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-Fidel Castro!
-[cheering]
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He told Khrushchev, "You should unleash
the entire Soviet nuclear arsenals."
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Apocalypse.
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[in German]
Cuba will never bend its knee.
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The island of Cuba
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has been a socialist state
for over half a century.
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00:01:58,920 --> 00:02:01,920
Whether or not socialism in Cuba
began with,
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or well after Fidel Castro's revolution
in 1959 is a point of debate.
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But the icons of this revolution
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are still very much present
in Cuba's streets.
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As crises shook the country,
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00:02:23,400 --> 00:02:26,320
ordinary Cubans often had
other, more pressing worries
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00:02:26,400 --> 00:02:29,960
than where on the political spectrum
their country lay.
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00:02:40,840 --> 00:02:44,840
What caused hundreds of thousands
of Cubans to flee their country?
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00:02:47,680 --> 00:02:51,400
Why was the Cuban army involved
in bloody wars in Africa?
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00:02:55,360 --> 00:02:59,600
How did the island become a hub
for the international drug trade?
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00:03:03,720 --> 00:03:08,040
The history of Cuba is marked by
500 years of poverty and insurrection.
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But also by a dream that the Cuban people
have never given up on.
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[man, in Spanish]
Cuba was a pluralistic society,
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like any other in the world.
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There were liberals,
communists, socialists,
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there were right wing parties,
left wing parties...
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It was a society like any other.
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00:03:29,440 --> 00:03:33,040
When people realized that communism
was being established in Cuba,
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00:03:33,120 --> 00:03:36,240
we are talking of the early or middle
stages of the Cold War,
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00:03:36,320 --> 00:03:41,800
there was resistance, but this resistance
was repressed very strongly.
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Cuba is the biggest island
in the Caribbean.
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A mere 90 miles separate it
from the United States.
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But in the 1960s, this was one of
the front lines of the Cold War,
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since Cuba had allied itself firmly
with the Soviet Union
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and its satellite states in Europe.
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00:04:02,720 --> 00:04:05,760
To defend Cuba,
and the Soviet Union itself,
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nuclear missiles were secretly installed
on the island in 1962.
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They could have leveled
most American cities within minutes.
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00:04:14,520 --> 00:04:17,880
While the Soviet Union saw these missiles
as a means of self-defense -
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00:04:17,959 --> 00:04:22,960
the United States had similar weapons
close to the USSR as well -
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for the US President John F Kennedy,
this was an unacceptable threat.
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00:04:26,800 --> 00:04:31,000
The world had never been so close
to an all-out nuclear war.
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00:04:31,080 --> 00:04:35,440
[in Russian] We were all going to die,
and then a miracle happened.
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00:04:35,520 --> 00:04:38,800
It really was a miracle.
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00:04:38,880 --> 00:04:43,120
Reason triumphed,
for both Khrushchev and Kennedy.
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00:04:44,000 --> 00:04:47,040
The Cuban Missile Crisis lasted 13 days.
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13 days during which nobody knew
how things might turn out.
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00:04:51,960 --> 00:04:54,480
The United States set up
a naval quarantine around Cuba,
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and the Soviet Union
shot down a US plane.
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00:04:58,160 --> 00:05:02,480
In the end, back-channel negotiations
resolved the crisis.
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00:05:02,560 --> 00:05:05,520
The USSR proposed to withdraw
their missiles from Cuba,
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if the United States in turn
removed theirs from Turkey.
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00:05:09,280 --> 00:05:12,920
President Kennedy agreed.
Fidel Castro did not.
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00:05:13,000 --> 00:05:14,760
Khrushchev did not trust Castro.
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00:05:14,840 --> 00:05:18,800
He feared that Castro was going to bring
the whole world into a nuclear conflict.
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00:05:19,760 --> 00:05:22,040
The superpowers came to an agreement,
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00:05:22,120 --> 00:05:26,720
and eventually, with promises of copious
Soviet loans and arms shipments,
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Fidel Castro, too, came to accept it.
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His right-hand man,
Ernesto "Che" Guevara, disagreed.
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[in Spanish]
Che Guevara's problems with Fidel
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were because, for Che,
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the support that he was
giving the Soviet Union
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and revolutionary movements was very poor.
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00:05:58,360 --> 00:06:00,040
It was very little.
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00:06:00,120 --> 00:06:04,880
And he was expecting much more
out of the Soviets and the Chinese,
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00:06:04,960 --> 00:06:10,240
while Fidel had aligned himself
with the Soviets.
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After being sacked
from Cuba's government,
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"Che" Guevara went to Bolivia
with a few Cuban soldiers
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to help overthrow the government.
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He was injured and arrested.
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He approached me, we shook hands,
and we embraced,
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and then he stood at attention, thinking
I was the one that would shoot him.
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Shortly afterwards, Guevara was executed
by a Bolivian soldier.
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Che became a martyr and a myth.
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00:06:40,880 --> 00:06:44,320
A veritable worldwide icon for the left,
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00:06:44,400 --> 00:06:48,160
while Castro was free
to rule Cuba uncriticized.
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00:06:54,640 --> 00:07:00,000
Since his revolution took power in Cuba
on January 1st, 1959,
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Fidel Castro had seen the United States
as his principal enemy.
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♪ El socialismo... ♪
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He only became a socialist
after the revolution.
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00:07:16,240 --> 00:07:20,400
He wanted to combat poverty
and provide education for all.
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[in German] This was where
his literacy campaign came in.
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Until then, no-one had been
interested in poor, rural people.
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00:07:30,240 --> 00:07:34,360
And suddenly, Fidel sent
young people from the cities
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to teach the whole population
how to read and write.
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00:07:38,520 --> 00:07:41,240
Schools and hospitals
were built across the island.
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[in Spanish] Already in the early 1970s,
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social services and education
became free,
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for the whole country.
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More than a million boys and girls
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gained access to secondary education.
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On January 29th, 1974,
Soviet camera crews were in Cuba
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to capture the visit of General Secretary
Leonid Brezhnev to the island.
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Cuba's economy was firmly "Sovietized"
by the mid-1970s.
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00:08:27,320 --> 00:08:31,120
To sustain itself, Cuba relied on
its Socialist brother countries,
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chief among them the USSR.
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00:08:33,520 --> 00:08:36,240
Hence, trade agreements
were the focus of the visit,
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00:08:36,320 --> 00:08:40,520
as Cuba's economy is modeled
after that of the Soviet Union.
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00:08:40,600 --> 00:08:44,640
The State controlled and planned
agriculture, industry and trade.
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00:08:44,720 --> 00:08:50,000
[in Spanish] Sovietization means
that the state is omnipresent,
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00:08:50,080 --> 00:08:54,120
even in the smallest service industry,
like selling sandwiches.
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00:08:54,200 --> 00:08:59,280
Every type of private initiative,
even the very smallest,
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00:08:59,360 --> 00:09:02,040
was forbidden after 1968.
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00:09:04,840 --> 00:09:10,680
The Soviet Union provided an ideology,
but also sustained Cuba economically.
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00:09:12,880 --> 00:09:17,360
[Schumann, in German] In the 1960s,
Cuba faced serious supply problems.
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It only survived thanks to the "pipeline"
they established with the USSR,
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00:09:22,400 --> 00:09:25,520
and thanks to their ships
which constantly delivered oil.
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00:09:25,600 --> 00:09:28,720
They delivered food as well,
and many other things.
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00:09:28,800 --> 00:09:32,000
It's likely that Cuba would
have gone under without the USSR.
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00:09:34,080 --> 00:09:37,800
Castro was welcomed to the Soviet Union
with full honors,
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00:09:37,880 --> 00:09:40,560
and as proof of the friendship
between the two states,
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was allowed to take home
some of the latest examples
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of socialist innovation.
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[in German]
They charged solidarity prices, of course.
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00:09:49,120 --> 00:09:51,920
Solidarity was not limited
to public events.
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00:09:52,000 --> 00:09:56,800
Solidarity also existed
in their relations with each other.
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00:09:56,880 --> 00:10:01,160
Moscow also supported Cuba
in competitive sports.
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00:10:01,240 --> 00:10:05,440
Success here was supposed to show
the superiority of socialism.
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00:10:08,640 --> 00:10:12,120
Cuba had to come up with a way
to repay its brother countries.
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00:10:13,760 --> 00:10:18,960
The island's main export was sugar,
so Fidel Castro decided to majorly expand
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sugar exports to
the socialist bloc countries.
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00:10:24,280 --> 00:10:28,080
[in French] The 1960s don't end
with exploits of war,
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00:10:28,160 --> 00:10:30,920
but instead with exploits
in the economy.
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00:10:31,000 --> 00:10:33,520
It was the harvest, which they call Zafra.
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00:10:33,600 --> 00:10:36,680
They wanted to harvest
ten million tons of sugarcane.
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00:10:36,760 --> 00:10:38,240
This was supposed to show
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that Cuba could surpass all previous
records of sugarcane production.
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00:10:44,160 --> 00:10:48,440
Almost the entire population of Cuba
is called upon to help.
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00:10:48,520 --> 00:10:51,600
Workers, farmers, academics,
civil servants.
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00:10:51,680 --> 00:10:54,400
Everyone was enrolled
for the sugar harvest.
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00:10:58,200 --> 00:11:01,240
This truck carries a banner
calling for the sugar cane plant
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00:11:01,320 --> 00:11:04,040
to be felled with one machete blow.
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00:11:04,120 --> 00:11:08,080
[in German] Furthermore,
he wanted to mobilize the masses,
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00:11:08,160 --> 00:11:12,880
to unite them for a common project,
and meet the challenge:
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00:11:12,960 --> 00:11:16,520
could we produce ten million tons
or not?
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00:11:18,080 --> 00:11:22,680
But in exchange for a record harvest
of sugarcane in 1969,
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Cuba neglected all other industry.
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00:11:26,640 --> 00:11:29,560
Classrooms and factories
remained empty,
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00:11:29,640 --> 00:11:32,760
as people from all walks of life
worked in the cane fields.
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00:11:35,440 --> 00:11:39,000
Even Fidel Castro himself
took part in the harvest.
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00:11:41,000 --> 00:11:45,800
Cuba's economy ground to a halt
and would take months to recover.
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00:11:45,880 --> 00:11:47,920
[In French] It ended rather pathetically.
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00:11:48,000 --> 00:11:52,240
Not because they only attained
nine million tonnes, that's forgivable,
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00:11:52,320 --> 00:11:54,920
but because even to obtain that,
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he had totally destroyed the economy,
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00:12:01,040 --> 00:12:02,600
and even political life.
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The ministers would meet at a hacienda
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in the middle of
a sugarcane plantation.
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00:12:10,600 --> 00:12:14,200
The entire state apparatus
was on the point of collapse.
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00:12:15,600 --> 00:12:18,200
The only benefit of the disaster:
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00:12:18,280 --> 00:12:20,680
the Soviet government
forgave Cuba's debt,
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00:12:20,760 --> 00:12:23,120
rather than see its ally go under.
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00:12:23,200 --> 00:12:27,080
[in German]
Brezhnev granted his first debt relief.
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00:12:27,160 --> 00:12:29,720
And commercial relations with the USSR
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00:12:29,800 --> 00:12:33,200
and the socialist bloc in general
were reinforced.
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00:12:33,280 --> 00:12:38,480
[in Spanish] The Soviet presence in Cuba
wasn't like you might imagine.
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You didn't see Soviets all over the place.
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There were some Soviet companies.
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00:12:45,720 --> 00:12:49,120
But of course, they were always
talking about the brother countries
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that the Soviet Union was supporting.
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00:12:51,720 --> 00:12:56,920
But as a boy, I wasn't aware
of their presence in the streets.
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00:12:57,960 --> 00:13:02,360
Even closer collaboration with
the Soviet Union paid off for Cuba.
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00:13:02,440 --> 00:13:03,920
In terms of education and health,
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the island was soon far ahead
of other Latin American countries.
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00:13:08,440 --> 00:13:11,360
As a precaution mainly against
the United States,
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00:13:11,440 --> 00:13:14,000
the island also acquired
military equipment,
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00:13:14,080 --> 00:13:16,520
and Cuban military advisers were present
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wherever rebels were fighting
in the Third World.
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00:13:21,640 --> 00:13:25,240
[Clerc, in French]
Castro adored everything military.
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00:13:25,320 --> 00:13:28,440
And he must have known
that he owed them something.
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So he found an excellent occasion
to project Cuba internationally.
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He wanted the prestige.
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00:13:36,080 --> 00:13:39,840
[in Spanish]
And for the Cuban revolutionaries...
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00:13:41,360 --> 00:13:46,240
the battlefield against imperialism...
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00:13:47,200 --> 00:13:50,160
encompasses the whole world.
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00:13:52,840 --> 00:13:54,880
That is how we...
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00:13:56,400 --> 00:13:59,040
the Cuban revolutionaries...
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conceive our internationalist duty.
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00:14:06,000 --> 00:14:10,000
This is how our people
conceive their duties...
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00:14:12,160 --> 00:14:14,720
because they understand
that the enemy is one.
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The same that attacks us
on our coasts and in our lands.
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00:14:26,080 --> 00:14:28,080
The same that attacks the rest.
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00:14:28,960 --> 00:14:32,960
Fidel Castro still felt indebted
to the Soviet Union.
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00:14:33,040 --> 00:14:37,080
He intended to pay them back,
but this time, not in sugar.
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00:14:38,240 --> 00:14:42,960
In 1974, Portugal withdrew
from its former colony of Angola.
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00:14:43,040 --> 00:14:45,320
A bloody civil war erupted,
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00:14:45,400 --> 00:14:48,560
with communist and nationalist factions
vying for power
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00:14:48,640 --> 00:14:51,520
and calling upon
the international community for help.
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00:14:53,960 --> 00:14:56,960
[in French]
It's basically a win-win situation.
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00:14:57,040 --> 00:15:01,960
The USSR says there's a way
for communists and Soviets
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00:15:02,040 --> 00:15:04,520
to progress in Africa,
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00:15:04,600 --> 00:15:11,600
and for Castro,
a way to improve Cuba's image
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00:15:11,680 --> 00:15:15,720
and to pay his debt to the Soviet Union.
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00:15:15,800 --> 00:15:18,520
[in German]
It became something of a proxy war,
200
00:15:18,600 --> 00:15:20,880
within the parameters of the Cold War.
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00:15:20,960 --> 00:15:27,360
But it really grew out of the local war
for independence,
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00:15:27,440 --> 00:15:31,160
and the division it resulted in.
203
00:15:31,240 --> 00:15:35,960
Cuba is more than 11,000 km away
from Angola.
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00:15:38,320 --> 00:15:42,200
The former Portuguese colony is
on the south-west coast of Africa
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00:15:42,280 --> 00:15:44,080
and has a border with Namibia,
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00:15:44,160 --> 00:15:47,440
at the time a sort of
South African colony.
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00:15:47,520 --> 00:15:52,480
One of the three resistance groups
in Angola was the communist MPLA.
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00:15:52,560 --> 00:15:54,080
As both a show of force,
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00:15:54,160 --> 00:15:58,080
and to pay back the Soviet Union
for its help in saving Cuba,
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00:15:58,160 --> 00:16:02,480
Fidel Castro decided to intervene
on a massive scale.
211
00:16:02,560 --> 00:16:06,840
[in German] They basically lobbied for
international support
212
00:16:06,920 --> 00:16:08,400
and then Cuba became involved,
213
00:16:08,480 --> 00:16:12,680
but on a much bigger scale than
the Angolan government had expected.
214
00:16:12,760 --> 00:16:14,280
No-one could have imagined that.
215
00:16:14,360 --> 00:16:18,000
There were the world powers,
the great powers,
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00:16:18,080 --> 00:16:21,360
and Cuba was, of course,
just a little fish.
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00:16:22,720 --> 00:16:27,080
Cuba initially sent advisers
to train the MPLA's fighters.
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00:16:27,160 --> 00:16:29,600
Their opponent factions
were supported by arms shipments
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00:16:29,680 --> 00:16:32,840
from South Africa and the United States.
220
00:16:32,920 --> 00:16:37,120
The MPLA leaders hoped that Cuba
would support them similarly.
221
00:16:42,840 --> 00:16:45,640
On November 4th 1975,
222
00:16:45,720 --> 00:16:50,520
Fidel Castro sent 35,000 Cuban soldiers
to Angola.
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00:16:50,600 --> 00:16:54,800
In Angola, Cuba and the Soviets
cooperated, they worked together.
224
00:16:54,880 --> 00:16:59,480
Cuba supplied the men and the Soviet Union
supplied the weapons.
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00:16:59,560 --> 00:17:04,480
[in Russian]
Our experts were adherents
226
00:17:04,560 --> 00:17:09,640
of operational concept from World War II.
227
00:17:09,720 --> 00:17:13,599
First, establish a bridgehead,
228
00:17:13,680 --> 00:17:16,880
then advance step by step.
229
00:17:16,960 --> 00:17:20,240
Like from Stalingrad to Berlin.
230
00:17:20,319 --> 00:17:23,839
The Cubans had
a completely different tactic,
231
00:17:23,920 --> 00:17:27,160
the methods of guerrilla warfare.
232
00:17:27,240 --> 00:17:31,440
To strike and to capture the enemy
through counterattacks.
233
00:17:33,120 --> 00:17:38,480
The war in Angola was a proxy war,
fought in the context of the Cold War.
234
00:17:39,480 --> 00:17:43,200
Cuba fought for the East,
and South Africa for the West.
235
00:17:44,480 --> 00:17:48,640
The war was broadcast
to both sides of the Iron Curtain.
236
00:17:48,720 --> 00:17:51,440
These images are from
Soviet state television.
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00:17:59,080 --> 00:18:03,120
[in Spanish]
The elite of the Cuban army went there.
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00:18:03,200 --> 00:18:07,400
Furry, Arnaldo Ochoa.
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00:18:07,480 --> 00:18:12,200
They were the elite.
And they fought with pride.
240
00:18:13,600 --> 00:18:16,840
General Arnaldo Ochoa was
the Cuban supreme commander
241
00:18:16,920 --> 00:18:18,400
during the war in Angola.
242
00:18:22,240 --> 00:18:24,440
Despite the logistical difficulties
243
00:18:24,520 --> 00:18:27,640
of fighting half a world away
from their home country,
244
00:18:27,720 --> 00:18:32,080
he led Cuban troops to victory
after victory over their enemies.
245
00:18:32,160 --> 00:18:34,240
[shouting]
246
00:18:39,480 --> 00:18:43,600
[in Spanish] General Ochoa
was one of the youngest officers
247
00:18:43,680 --> 00:18:46,960
in Fidel Castro's troop
in the Sierra Maestra.
248
00:18:47,040 --> 00:18:50,640
He distinguished himself as
a military leader at a very young age,
249
00:18:50,720 --> 00:18:53,920
before the triumph over Batista.
250
00:18:54,000 --> 00:18:57,920
Later, when the revolution succeeded,
251
00:18:58,000 --> 00:19:01,760
he became one of the youngest comandantes.
252
00:19:01,840 --> 00:19:05,800
Then he went to military academy
in the USSR
253
00:19:05,880 --> 00:19:09,600
and won the respect of Soviet officers.
254
00:19:12,080 --> 00:19:14,800
The success of the Cuban army
under his command,
255
00:19:14,880 --> 00:19:18,400
as well as the fact that he had been
with the revolution since the beginning,
256
00:19:18,480 --> 00:19:20,640
gave his word much weight in Cuba.
257
00:19:20,720 --> 00:19:25,640
When he began criticizing Fidel Castro
for Cuba's treatment of his soldiers,
258
00:19:25,720 --> 00:19:27,560
people paid close attention.
259
00:19:31,720 --> 00:19:35,680
[in Spanish] General Ochoa was
260
00:19:35,760 --> 00:19:41,600
an extremely intelligent man
on the battlefield.
261
00:19:42,440 --> 00:19:45,000
He was a strategist of modern warfare.
262
00:19:47,600 --> 00:19:51,000
With extraordinary military capabilities.
263
00:19:51,080 --> 00:19:55,320
But Ochoa's successes
came at a steep price.
264
00:19:55,400 --> 00:19:58,280
Thousands of Cubans died in Angola,
265
00:19:58,360 --> 00:20:01,040
as did over half a million
Angolan civilians.
266
00:20:11,640 --> 00:20:17,280
[in Spanish] It was a bloody war.
Many people died.
267
00:20:17,360 --> 00:20:20,560
It was bloody
and it was very long, too.
268
00:20:20,640 --> 00:20:22,520
It lasted many years.
269
00:20:22,600 --> 00:20:28,280
In 1976, the Cuban-supported MPLA
won a provisional victory.
270
00:20:28,360 --> 00:20:31,920
But the fighting did not stop
until the early 1990s,
271
00:20:32,000 --> 00:20:34,680
and neither did Cuba's involvement
in Angola.
272
00:20:34,760 --> 00:20:38,160
Castro was reluctant to order
his troops to come home.
273
00:20:38,240 --> 00:20:42,560
[Jaime Suchlicki] Fidel Castro was not
interested in the welfare of the Cubans.
274
00:20:42,640 --> 00:20:45,960
His was interested
in his own position in history
275
00:20:46,040 --> 00:20:48,400
when he went to Africa and became
276
00:20:48,480 --> 00:20:52,040
the secretary general
of the non-aligned nations.
277
00:20:52,120 --> 00:20:57,400
He was dressed in African garb
and sitting in a throne in Africa.
278
00:20:57,480 --> 00:21:02,040
That made him feel good.
And that was his mindset.
279
00:21:05,920 --> 00:21:09,360
Castro let the propaganda machine
exalt him as a winner,
280
00:21:09,440 --> 00:21:14,440
but very few Cubans knew
anything about his private life.
281
00:21:14,520 --> 00:21:17,040
[in German]
Until the 90s, the ordinary Cuban people
282
00:21:17,120 --> 00:21:19,800
didn't even know that he was married.
283
00:21:19,880 --> 00:21:23,520
He was their "comandante en jefe",
284
00:21:23,600 --> 00:21:28,360
a great, free man who basically
lived only for the revolution.
285
00:21:28,440 --> 00:21:33,800
No-one really knew where he was.
He was only there for the revolution.
286
00:21:35,560 --> 00:21:38,520
The heads of the Cuban government,
along with their families,
287
00:21:38,600 --> 00:21:43,120
lived in a secluded and heavily fortified
property not far from Havana.
288
00:21:53,440 --> 00:21:56,160
[in Spanish] Fidel Castro's main home
was called Punto Cero,
289
00:21:56,240 --> 00:21:58,960
and Fidel Castro
lived there with his family.
290
00:21:59,040 --> 00:22:05,800
It has a golf course,
two and a half miles square,
291
00:22:05,880 --> 00:22:12,400
and he lived there with his wife
Dalia Soto del Valle
292
00:22:12,480 --> 00:22:14,200
and their five children.
293
00:22:15,520 --> 00:22:20,920
Google Earth shows the outlines of
the estate, along with a swimming pool.
294
00:22:21,000 --> 00:22:23,680
The entire area is heavily guarded.
295
00:22:23,760 --> 00:22:28,840
A chance snapshot shows
Fidel Castro and his wife in 2007.
296
00:22:30,120 --> 00:22:32,520
They have been married since 1980.
297
00:22:32,600 --> 00:22:35,960
[in Spanish] She was a teacher
at the school their children attended,
298
00:22:36,040 --> 00:22:39,800
and the children of other leaders
and high-placed officials.
299
00:22:39,880 --> 00:22:42,960
She was a strong-willed woman
and she gave the orders at Punto Cero.
300
00:22:44,120 --> 00:22:47,160
Cuba's leaders enjoyed
certain privileges on the island.
301
00:22:47,240 --> 00:22:51,040
But in typical socialist manner,
they still lived rather modestly.
302
00:22:53,440 --> 00:22:58,040
[in Spanish] As for the privileges,
there's little difference
303
00:22:58,120 --> 00:23:05,040
between a man with power
and a humble Cuban citizen.
304
00:23:05,120 --> 00:23:11,280
The difference is two wheels.
The Cuban citizen goes by bicycle
305
00:23:11,360 --> 00:23:17,320
and the Cuban in power
gets around in a car,
306
00:23:17,400 --> 00:23:20,640
although a pretty humble car.
307
00:23:21,880 --> 00:23:23,880
Cuba is known for its curious mix
308
00:23:23,960 --> 00:23:27,480
of "ancient" American
and Eastern Bloc built cars.
309
00:23:29,240 --> 00:23:33,400
But for himself, Fidel Castro chose
something more extravagant,
310
00:23:33,480 --> 00:23:35,000
a Mercedes.
311
00:23:39,720 --> 00:23:43,920
[in Spanish] For years,
Fidel had a Mercedes Benz, a 280SE,
312
00:23:44,000 --> 00:23:48,400
a car that can be very luxurious,
313
00:23:48,480 --> 00:23:53,080
but from another point of view,
I rode in his car several times.
314
00:23:53,160 --> 00:23:56,800
It wasn't a very luxurious car.
315
00:23:56,880 --> 00:23:59,360
It was a normal car.
316
00:24:02,760 --> 00:24:08,640
A little beat up and scratched
from the guards' rifles.
317
00:24:08,720 --> 00:24:11,960
It was not a luxurious car.
318
00:24:13,360 --> 00:24:20,160
[Montaner, in Spanish] His biggest
pleasure was not his fortune,
319
00:24:20,240 --> 00:24:27,240
but being at the center of the universe.
320
00:24:27,320 --> 00:24:31,240
It's interesting how he relates to people.
321
00:24:33,120 --> 00:24:37,520
Fidel is always looking for a way...
322
00:24:37,600 --> 00:24:41,400
to subjugate the people around him,
323
00:24:41,480 --> 00:24:44,360
to convince them of his greatness,
324
00:24:44,440 --> 00:24:49,000
and to impress them with his memory
and an absurd amount of information.
325
00:24:50,600 --> 00:24:54,200
While their head of state lived
a modest, but well-protected life,
326
00:24:54,280 --> 00:24:58,280
the situation for many other Cubans
was more dire.
327
00:25:01,080 --> 00:25:05,560
The number of people wanting to leave
grew constantly.
328
00:25:05,640 --> 00:25:09,680
Many contacted the US diplomatic mission
on the island,
329
00:25:09,760 --> 00:25:12,920
which had provisionally re-opened
in 1971.
330
00:25:14,440 --> 00:25:18,240
It was called the American Interest
section of the Swiss Embassy.
331
00:25:27,880 --> 00:25:33,280
So we are in the same building
in the malecón for decades
332
00:25:33,360 --> 00:25:38,280
and then we had an office down the street
where we processed refugees.
333
00:25:38,360 --> 00:25:42,280
We had one of the three refugee
processing centers in the world
334
00:25:42,360 --> 00:25:44,280
outside of the United States.
335
00:25:46,720 --> 00:25:50,080
Some Cubans fled with the help of
the US diplomatic mission.
336
00:25:50,160 --> 00:25:54,160
Others chose more dangerous ways,
such as crossing the ocean.
337
00:25:54,240 --> 00:25:58,720
Year by year, thousands of Cubans left
their homeland for the United States.
338
00:26:02,440 --> 00:26:05,920
[Montaner, in Spanish] The old expression
is that in dictatorships,
339
00:26:06,000 --> 00:26:10,160
people vote with their feet.
They walk away.
340
00:26:10,240 --> 00:26:14,720
This is very interesting,
because at the end of '79,
341
00:26:14,800 --> 00:26:19,160
Fidel thought he was
at the height of his glory,
342
00:26:19,240 --> 00:26:23,600
and in April 1980,
to his great misfortune...
343
00:26:25,280 --> 00:26:32,280
...there was a massive wave
of rejection of his system.
344
00:26:33,880 --> 00:26:38,000
Supply problems, the lack of consumer
goods and sometimes even food,
345
00:26:38,080 --> 00:26:41,960
as well as travel restrictions,
encouraged young people to leave.
346
00:26:42,040 --> 00:26:45,800
They wanted to go to the USA
or to Europe.
347
00:26:45,880 --> 00:26:49,040
In April of 1980,
the pressure boils over,
348
00:26:49,120 --> 00:26:53,520
when the regime restricts legal ways
for Cubans to leave the island.
349
00:26:53,600 --> 00:26:56,920
[in German] There were other periods
of restrictions later,
350
00:26:57,000 --> 00:26:58,880
when it was but a trickle for years.
351
00:26:58,960 --> 00:27:03,400
And then there was this mass exodus,
especially in 1980,
352
00:27:03,480 --> 00:27:06,120
with over 100,000 people leaving
from the port of Mariel.
353
00:27:06,200 --> 00:27:07,960
On April 1st 1980,
354
00:27:08,040 --> 00:27:12,440
a group of Cubans crashed their bus
through a fence at the Peruvian Embassy,
355
00:27:12,520 --> 00:27:14,200
and asked for asylum.
356
00:27:15,840 --> 00:27:20,600
Peruvian embassy staff refused to hand
them over to the Cuban authorities.
357
00:27:25,720 --> 00:27:30,520
Castro's reaction was surprising,
essentially for its lack of diplomacy.
358
00:27:32,360 --> 00:27:34,880
He removed the guards
from around the embassy
359
00:27:34,960 --> 00:27:37,640
and encouraged all those
who wanted to leave Cuba
360
00:27:37,720 --> 00:27:39,920
to try their luck with the Peruvians.
361
00:27:42,720 --> 00:27:47,000
[Menier, in Spanish] Mariel began because
the embassy granted asylum
362
00:27:47,080 --> 00:27:48,400
to anyone who came.
363
00:27:48,480 --> 00:27:54,040
Fidel removed the security,
the embassy guards.
364
00:27:54,120 --> 00:27:59,400
Suddenly, in one day, there were
10,000 people on the embassy grounds.
365
00:27:59,480 --> 00:28:01,720
It was a global scandal.
366
00:28:01,800 --> 00:28:04,280
So how did he solve this?
367
00:28:04,360 --> 00:28:08,280
"You want to leave, so go,
have people in Miami come pick you up."
368
00:28:09,720 --> 00:28:14,720
Everyone wanting to leave had to go
to the beach of Mariel, west of Havana,
369
00:28:14,800 --> 00:28:16,440
and be transferred to Key West,
370
00:28:16,520 --> 00:28:19,040
the southernmost point
of the United States.
371
00:28:22,880 --> 00:28:27,080
Exiled Cubans in Florida organized
the first ferries for the refugees.
372
00:28:30,800 --> 00:28:33,520
Between April and October 1980,
373
00:28:33,600 --> 00:28:36,680
boats worked non-stop
to deal with the human tide.
374
00:28:40,080 --> 00:28:42,880
[in Spanish]
To those who would seek exile,
375
00:28:42,960 --> 00:28:45,640
we wish them well
with their consumer society
376
00:28:45,720 --> 00:28:52,040
and their American citizenship,
after abandoning their homeland.
377
00:28:52,880 --> 00:28:56,600
And to those who want to leave
but can't,
378
00:28:56,680 --> 00:28:58,880
it is not our fault,
379
00:28:58,960 --> 00:29:02,600
but the fault of the US government,
which refuses admission.
380
00:29:02,680 --> 00:29:05,920
We don't forbid them
from leaving the country.
381
00:29:06,000 --> 00:29:08,760
On the contrary, the door is open.
382
00:29:12,520 --> 00:29:18,080
27 refugees died, most of them
drowning after falling overboard.
383
00:29:18,160 --> 00:29:24,080
More than 100,000 arrived safe and sound
in the USA, and obtained work permits.
384
00:29:24,160 --> 00:29:27,880
But the Cuban government
had its own plans as well.
385
00:29:31,320 --> 00:29:37,040
[in Spanish]
The idea was to flood Miami,
386
00:29:37,120 --> 00:29:43,120
to empty the Cuban prisons
and the madhouses
387
00:29:43,200 --> 00:29:46,440
and send them to Miami
and let them take care of it.
388
00:29:46,520 --> 00:29:49,440
"Didn't you want to leave?
Well, here you are!"
389
00:29:51,560 --> 00:29:55,200
The American administration arrested
all suspicious refugees
390
00:29:55,280 --> 00:29:57,240
and checked criminal records.
391
00:29:58,960 --> 00:30:02,400
[Montaner, in Spanish] Of the 130,000
people that went to the United States,
392
00:30:02,480 --> 00:30:06,280
probably between 10 and 20,000
were murderers
393
00:30:06,360 --> 00:30:10,080
that they took out of prison.
394
00:30:10,160 --> 00:30:14,400
Crazy people and other misfits
395
00:30:14,480 --> 00:30:20,720
made up maybe 10%
of the entire Mariel exodus.
396
00:30:22,360 --> 00:30:26,800
Some 2,500 Cubans spent up
to 15 years in American jails
397
00:30:26,880 --> 00:30:29,400
before Cuba agreed to repatriate them.
398
00:30:35,320 --> 00:30:38,280
In 1980, the massive arrival of Cubans
399
00:30:38,360 --> 00:30:41,240
raised the unemployment rate in Florida
by one percent.
400
00:30:41,320 --> 00:30:43,920
But most Cubans managed to find jobs,
401
00:30:44,000 --> 00:30:49,080
and news of their success only served
to spread dissatisfaction on the island.
402
00:30:50,000 --> 00:30:54,320
Relations between Cuba and the US
were seriously impaired.
403
00:30:54,400 --> 00:30:59,280
Then, at the end of the 1980s,
a new conflict made things even worse.
404
00:31:00,200 --> 00:31:04,240
American narcotics agents claimed
that large quantities of cocaine
405
00:31:04,320 --> 00:31:07,560
were entering the United States
through Cuba.
406
00:31:07,640 --> 00:31:11,120
Cuba has been involved in
narco-trafficking for a long time.
407
00:31:11,200 --> 00:31:15,160
There's more than plenty records
of their participation in it.
408
00:31:16,720 --> 00:31:19,400
The cocaine came from Colombia.
409
00:31:19,480 --> 00:31:23,720
Since the 1960s, Cuba had supported
a communist rebel group here.
410
00:31:26,160 --> 00:31:27,600
The highlands of Colombia
411
00:31:27,680 --> 00:31:31,000
formed the main growing area
for the coca plants.
412
00:31:31,080 --> 00:31:34,600
Cocaine was extracted
and distributed around the world.
413
00:31:38,120 --> 00:31:40,800
In order to finance
their clandestine combat,
414
00:31:40,880 --> 00:31:44,880
the communist rebels, the FARC,
collaborated with drug barons.
415
00:31:45,760 --> 00:31:50,280
[Menier, in Spanish]
The story of Cuban drug dealing begins
416
00:31:50,360 --> 00:31:57,000
when Cuba starts having difficulties
supplying the guerrillas in Colombia.
417
00:31:58,160 --> 00:32:02,720
Cuba has been supporting Colombian
guerrilla groups since the 1960s,
418
00:32:02,800 --> 00:32:06,640
and some of these groups have,
since the 1970s,
419
00:32:06,720 --> 00:32:09,360
cooperated with drug barons
to finance their activities.
420
00:32:09,440 --> 00:32:15,480
[in Spanish]
One of the officers in Cuba had an idea.
421
00:32:15,560 --> 00:32:18,280
"Why don't I talk to these drug people,
the drug dealers,
422
00:32:18,360 --> 00:32:23,960
so that they help me get
logistical help to the guerrilla,
423
00:32:24,040 --> 00:32:29,240
and take some guerrilleros
and have them train in Cuba?"
424
00:32:30,480 --> 00:32:31,480
Fidel approved that.
425
00:32:32,480 --> 00:32:33,480
[gunshot]
426
00:32:33,560 --> 00:32:38,040
Weapons, especially machine guns,
were smuggled into Colombia.
427
00:32:38,120 --> 00:32:41,680
Colombian drug dealers
transported weapons for the guerillas,
428
00:32:41,760 --> 00:32:45,680
while they took care of
coca plantations and labs.
429
00:32:45,760 --> 00:32:48,560
[in Spanish] It began to work
430
00:32:48,640 --> 00:32:54,040
and Fidel, in exchange,
431
00:32:54,120 --> 00:33:00,320
told the drug dealers that they could
use Cuban territorial waters.
432
00:33:00,400 --> 00:33:05,160
That's when the planes started
dropping things that floated.
433
00:33:05,240 --> 00:33:08,440
The boats came,
picked them up, and left.
434
00:33:08,520 --> 00:33:12,080
But then Fidel demanded
435
00:33:12,160 --> 00:33:15,560
that he be paid a share of 10%.
436
00:33:17,480 --> 00:33:20,640
As US agents interrogated
captured drug mules,
437
00:33:20,720 --> 00:33:23,720
it became clear that Cuba
and the Cuban government
438
00:33:23,800 --> 00:33:26,040
were involved in the cocaine trade.
439
00:33:34,960 --> 00:33:38,080
We definitely have information
and intelligence
440
00:33:38,160 --> 00:33:40,720
that there was some
high-government officials
441
00:33:40,800 --> 00:33:45,920
facilitating the move of cocaine
through Cuba.
442
00:33:46,000 --> 00:33:47,360
That information existed.
443
00:33:47,440 --> 00:33:52,000
I personally participated with a group
of a task force from the United States.
444
00:33:52,080 --> 00:33:53,880
I was already retired.
445
00:33:53,960 --> 00:33:59,160
They had information there was a brother
of a Cuban general here in Miami.
446
00:33:59,240 --> 00:34:03,400
They caught him with 100 tons of cocaine
or something like that.
447
00:34:03,480 --> 00:34:06,600
The guy was trying to get
a reduced sentence,
448
00:34:06,680 --> 00:34:08,480
and he claimed his brother
was a general
449
00:34:08,560 --> 00:34:11,400
had dealings out of Pinar del Rio
with Raúl Castro personally.
450
00:34:11,480 --> 00:34:15,639
The Americans only managed
to catch small-time dealers,
451
00:34:15,719 --> 00:34:18,400
and were unable to identify and stop
the ring-leaders.
452
00:34:20,639 --> 00:34:23,360
[Simmons] I think there were those
within the regime
453
00:34:23,440 --> 00:34:27,840
that sold drugs as a legitimate weapon
454
00:34:27,920 --> 00:34:30,320
in trying to destabilize
the United States...
455
00:34:31,760 --> 00:34:37,760
and had the secondary effect
of it raised a lot of money.
456
00:34:37,840 --> 00:34:41,080
Furthermore, drug money
was laundered in Cuba,
457
00:34:41,159 --> 00:34:43,239
apparently with government approval.
458
00:34:47,560 --> 00:34:51,239
The international banks
that were established in Cuba,
459
00:34:51,320 --> 00:34:55,800
they were used to facilitate
the money laundering.
460
00:34:55,880 --> 00:34:59,000
The United States, however,
could find no direct evidence
461
00:34:59,080 --> 00:35:02,520
linking Fidel Castro
to the cocaine trade.
462
00:35:03,680 --> 00:35:06,360
[in Spanish]
Fidel never spoke to a drug dealer.
463
00:35:06,440 --> 00:35:08,040
That was Tony de la Guardia.
464
00:35:08,960 --> 00:35:13,000
Tony de la Guardia was a colonel
in Cuba's ministry of the interior,
465
00:35:13,080 --> 00:35:16,240
and here, he was responsible
for special missions.
466
00:35:18,080 --> 00:35:21,840
[in Spanish] They began carrying out
special missions for Fidel Castro.
467
00:35:21,920 --> 00:35:25,200
In the '80s, in 1982,
468
00:35:25,280 --> 00:35:31,960
they asked my father
not to violate the embargo
469
00:35:32,040 --> 00:35:38,920
but to go to the United States,
470
00:35:39,000 --> 00:35:42,960
and collect high tech material
471
00:35:43,040 --> 00:35:49,720
that you couldn't get in Cuba
under normal circumstances
472
00:35:49,800 --> 00:35:52,640
because of the embargo.
473
00:35:54,080 --> 00:35:57,000
The US administration
claimed to have evidence
474
00:35:57,080 --> 00:35:59,240
of Cuban involvement in the drug trade.
475
00:35:59,320 --> 00:36:02,360
Some Cuban officials
were charged in absentia,
476
00:36:02,440 --> 00:36:05,360
but the real targets were
their superiors in the government.
477
00:36:05,440 --> 00:36:08,320
Meanwhile, Cuba received
disturbing news from Moscow.
478
00:36:08,400 --> 00:36:12,280
The new Soviet General Secretary,
Mikhail Gorbachev,
479
00:36:12,360 --> 00:36:15,080
had decided
to introduce historic reforms,
480
00:36:15,160 --> 00:36:18,920
which would, in the end,
prove to be fatal for the Soviet Union.
481
00:36:25,120 --> 00:36:29,600
[in Russian]
His attitude was the same as ours.
482
00:36:29,680 --> 00:36:34,040
At first,
I thought he was doing a good job,
483
00:36:34,120 --> 00:36:37,520
that there would be democracy,
484
00:36:37,600 --> 00:36:39,760
that we would improve the situation
in the country.
485
00:36:43,080 --> 00:36:48,240
He was saying good things, but in fact,
he did what the Americans wanted.
486
00:36:50,520 --> 00:36:55,240
But it was impossible to say
what Gorbachev would become.
487
00:36:56,600 --> 00:37:00,480
Castro did not think much
of Gorbachev's reforms.
488
00:37:02,280 --> 00:37:06,880
But as Cuba depended on the Soviet Union
for its economic survival,
489
00:37:06,960 --> 00:37:09,920
whether he liked it or not,
he had to work with Gorbachev.
490
00:37:14,200 --> 00:37:17,200
[in German]
There was a new generation of leaders
491
00:37:17,280 --> 00:37:19,080
in power in the Soviet Union.
492
00:37:19,160 --> 00:37:21,320
But more important was the fact
493
00:37:21,400 --> 00:37:23,960
that there had been basically
a new revolution
494
00:37:24,040 --> 00:37:28,640
in the motherland
of the great socialist revolution.
495
00:37:28,720 --> 00:37:34,360
It was a cultural revolution
496
00:37:34,440 --> 00:37:37,320
with Perestroika and Glasnost,
497
00:37:37,400 --> 00:37:40,000
an opening which encouraged new ideas.
498
00:37:40,960 --> 00:37:44,520
In the Soviet Union,
"Perestroika", restructuring,
499
00:37:44,600 --> 00:37:49,280
and "Glasnost", transparency,
became official state policy.
500
00:37:49,360 --> 00:37:52,080
The old system
is on the brink of collapse.
501
00:37:52,160 --> 00:37:55,560
Gorbachev believes his reforms
to be the only way
502
00:37:55,640 --> 00:37:57,880
to save his immense empire
from going bankrupt.
503
00:38:00,320 --> 00:38:06,400
[in Spanish] Gorbachev wanted clarity,
transparency, honesty.
504
00:38:06,480 --> 00:38:08,000
Can you imagine?
505
00:38:08,080 --> 00:38:12,360
Fidel has been an enemy
to transparency, and honesty.
506
00:38:12,440 --> 00:38:15,200
For Fidel it was clear.
507
00:38:15,280 --> 00:38:18,760
He said it would be the end
of the Soviet Union, and it was.
508
00:38:18,840 --> 00:38:23,840
The end of the Soviet Union would be
a catastrophe for Castro's regime.
509
00:38:23,920 --> 00:38:27,200
In order to be seen as also
embarking upon reforms,
510
00:38:27,280 --> 00:38:30,000
he introduced a policy
called "Rectificación",
511
00:38:30,080 --> 00:38:31,800
straightening of the path.
512
00:38:31,880 --> 00:38:35,640
But the government's total
power was not an issue to be questioned.
513
00:38:36,360 --> 00:38:43,080
[in Spanish] Fidel refused
to implement any necessary reforms.
514
00:38:43,160 --> 00:38:47,280
His exact words:
515
00:38:47,360 --> 00:38:54,080
"The island will sink into the sea
before it abandons Marxism-Leninism."
516
00:38:55,400 --> 00:38:58,800
During this time, an assistant director
of Cuba's secret services,
517
00:38:58,880 --> 00:39:02,520
Juan Antonio Rodriguez Menier,
was stationed in Hungary.
518
00:39:02,600 --> 00:39:05,080
He took advantage of his position
to flee,
519
00:39:05,160 --> 00:39:07,440
taking his wife and children with him.
520
00:39:13,120 --> 00:39:15,840
[Menier, in Spanish]
What could I hope for? I was 52.
521
00:39:15,920 --> 00:39:20,040
The question was to ensure
that my family could prosper,
522
00:39:20,120 --> 00:39:23,240
the way they wanted to be.
523
00:39:23,320 --> 00:39:25,840
They were young,
but I didn't have any ambitions,
524
00:39:25,920 --> 00:39:28,680
nor do I have any now.
525
00:39:29,440 --> 00:39:33,000
Cuba's Angolan War hero,
General Arnaldo Ochoa,
526
00:39:33,080 --> 00:39:35,960
remained in close contact
with the Soviet Union
527
00:39:36,040 --> 00:39:38,760
both during and after the conflict.
528
00:39:38,840 --> 00:39:41,640
He was a few years younger
than Fidel Castro,
529
00:39:41,720 --> 00:39:45,280
and his military prowess had made him
a hero in Cuba.
530
00:39:45,360 --> 00:39:50,160
He met with Gorbachev and seemed to be
open to discussing the need for reforms.
531
00:39:50,240 --> 00:39:55,600
His criticism of Fidel Castro
had not gone unnoticed in the USSR.
532
00:39:55,680 --> 00:39:57,840
[in Spanish]
Gorbachev met with Arnaldo Ochoa
533
00:39:57,920 --> 00:40:00,520
to talk about these issues.
534
00:40:00,600 --> 00:40:07,200
Ochoa spoke Russian
and had many contacts in Russia
535
00:40:07,280 --> 00:40:09,600
because he had gone
to military academy there.
536
00:40:09,680 --> 00:40:13,080
He witnessed the changes
happening in Russia,
537
00:40:13,160 --> 00:40:17,520
so Fidel said:
"No, no, no, I'm not going to lose power."
538
00:40:18,640 --> 00:40:24,400
On June 12th 1989, Arnaldo Ochoa
was arrested and put on trial.
539
00:40:25,920 --> 00:40:30,200
The hero of the republic was accused
of being involved in drug trafficking.
540
00:40:33,680 --> 00:40:38,280
The prosecution claimed that,
together with 14 co-conspirators,
541
00:40:38,360 --> 00:40:40,760
he turned Cuba into a hub
of the cocaine trade
542
00:40:40,840 --> 00:40:42,680
without the government's knowledge.
543
00:40:42,760 --> 00:40:45,560
[Masetti, in Spanish]
If this operation really existed,
544
00:40:45,640 --> 00:40:48,400
it could only have existed
if Fidel and Raúl Castro knew about it.
545
00:40:48,480 --> 00:40:50,120
They made these accusations,
546
00:40:50,200 --> 00:40:55,840
which were supposed to make
the case against Ochoa.
547
00:40:55,920 --> 00:41:00,520
Arnaldo Ochoa was never proven
to have smuggled drugs.
548
00:41:00,600 --> 00:41:05,360
The direct evidence does not exist,
but they accused Ochoa, and why?
549
00:41:05,440 --> 00:41:10,840
Because Fidel wanted to send a message
to all the officials with high authority.
550
00:41:10,920 --> 00:41:17,600
"If I'm capable of killing one of
my most important and glorious generals,
551
00:41:17,680 --> 00:41:19,240
no-one is safe."
552
00:41:21,120 --> 00:41:24,040
Before the trial, the United States
had provided evidence
553
00:41:24,120 --> 00:41:28,040
that the Cuban government itself
was involved in drug trafficking.
554
00:41:28,120 --> 00:41:29,640
Castro had to act.
555
00:41:32,880 --> 00:41:35,840
[Montaner, in Spanish]
The United States government
556
00:41:35,920 --> 00:41:40,640
found proof of Cuba's ties
to drug trafficking.
557
00:41:40,720 --> 00:41:42,640
Proof that they couldn't deny.
558
00:41:43,880 --> 00:41:48,000
Tony de la Guardia, a close friend
of Fidel's brother, Raúl Castro,
559
00:41:48,080 --> 00:41:52,200
was accused of treason, and put on trial
alongside General Ochoa.
560
00:41:55,160 --> 00:41:58,920
In a public show trial, he said
what the regime wanted to hear.
561
00:41:59,000 --> 00:42:03,320
[in Spanish] We were waiting...
562
00:42:03,400 --> 00:42:08,080
for a plane load of cocaine,
563
00:42:08,160 --> 00:42:10,880
due to land at Varadero,
564
00:42:10,960 --> 00:42:14,880
and we loaded the drugs onto a boat
to be taken to the United States.
565
00:42:14,960 --> 00:42:20,000
[in Spanish] The trial was televised,
566
00:42:20,080 --> 00:42:25,320
but the process began before the trial.
567
00:42:25,400 --> 00:42:30,280
They made press statements saying
568
00:42:30,360 --> 00:42:33,480
this offence to the fatherland would be
washed away with blood.
569
00:42:33,560 --> 00:42:40,560
Even before the death sentence
was announced,
570
00:42:40,640 --> 00:42:45,240
they were saying that they were
going to execute them.
571
00:42:45,320 --> 00:42:48,960
General Arnaldo Ochoa
and Tony de la Guardia
572
00:42:49,040 --> 00:42:52,280
were among four defendants
executed by firing squads.
573
00:42:52,360 --> 00:42:54,920
All others received
harsh prison sentences.
574
00:42:55,640 --> 00:42:58,160
[in Spanish] My father was arrested
on the 13th of June
575
00:42:58,240 --> 00:43:00,640
and executed on the 13th of July.
576
00:43:00,720 --> 00:43:05,560
That shows they wanted to eliminate
these people very quickly.
577
00:43:06,680 --> 00:43:08,720
Fidel and Raúl Castro claimed
578
00:43:08,800 --> 00:43:12,600
they had never been involved
in the drug-trafficking.
579
00:43:12,680 --> 00:43:15,600
The verdict underlined
their authority over the country.
580
00:43:15,680 --> 00:43:21,280
There was no room for either reform,
nor for pretenders to their succession.
581
00:43:21,360 --> 00:43:25,200
Their propaganda painted Cuba
as a socialist utopia,
582
00:43:25,280 --> 00:43:30,000
a country which sent doctors to every
humanitarian hotspot around the world.
583
00:43:34,480 --> 00:43:37,480
Meanwhile, in Europe,
socialism was failing.
584
00:43:37,560 --> 00:43:40,840
The Berlin Wall collapsed
in November 1989.
585
00:43:40,920 --> 00:43:45,160
One people's government after the next
was swept aside.
586
00:43:45,240 --> 00:43:48,680
[Krenz, in German] I was in Cuba.
I had a long talk with Raúl Castro,
587
00:43:48,760 --> 00:43:52,080
and I told him about what happened
in the fall of 1989.
588
00:43:52,160 --> 00:43:56,880
They had to understand
why East Germany had failed,
589
00:43:56,960 --> 00:43:59,920
and the Soviet Union had failed.
590
00:44:00,000 --> 00:44:04,880
It was vital for them,
because they wanted to learn
591
00:44:04,960 --> 00:44:10,000
how to keep going and to go
even further than we had.
592
00:44:10,080 --> 00:44:15,760
Mikhail Gorbachev was General Secretary
of the Communist Party until 1989,
593
00:44:15,840 --> 00:44:20,040
when he became president of
the Soviet Union for a mere two years.
594
00:44:21,480 --> 00:44:23,680
While Europe's
formerly socialist countries
595
00:44:23,760 --> 00:44:25,720
looked forward to a bright, new future,
596
00:44:25,800 --> 00:44:29,960
Cuba was caught in a vicious cycle
of fear and isolationism.
597
00:44:33,920 --> 00:44:39,600
The fall of the Soviet Union
was catastrophic for Cuba.
598
00:44:39,680 --> 00:44:42,680
Selling all these things
that nobody was going to consume.
599
00:44:43,440 --> 00:44:46,800
In 1991, the Soviet Union broke apart,
600
00:44:46,880 --> 00:44:52,240
and Boris Yeltsin succeeded
Mikhail Gorbachev as president of Russia.
601
00:44:52,320 --> 00:44:56,200
Faced with a bankrupt economy,
Yeltsin cut financial and material aid
602
00:44:56,280 --> 00:44:59,560
to Russia's former, and remaining,
socialist allies.
603
00:44:59,640 --> 00:45:03,480
Cuba's economy, and its army,
were in serious difficulties.
604
00:45:05,240 --> 00:45:08,400
[Latell] If there was a crisis in the
Soviet Union it was going to impact Cuba,
605
00:45:08,480 --> 00:45:12,640
because Cuba was dependent at that time
on the Soviet Union
606
00:45:12,720 --> 00:45:14,640
for its economic lifeline,
607
00:45:14,720 --> 00:45:18,480
about $5 billion dollars a year
of economic support,
608
00:45:18,560 --> 00:45:21,520
and another $1 billion a year
of military support.
609
00:45:25,320 --> 00:45:29,000
[Krenz, in German]
In 1990, a major West German newspaper
610
00:45:29,080 --> 00:45:32,120
asked me to write an article
on Cuba and its future.
611
00:45:32,200 --> 00:45:37,560
I did so, and the conclusion was,
"Cuba will never bend the knee."
612
00:45:38,360 --> 00:45:42,000
The island underwent one of
the most serious crises in its history.
613
00:45:42,080 --> 00:45:44,800
Electricity, coal, gas and oil,
614
00:45:44,880 --> 00:45:48,760
as well as the most basic necessities,
were rationed.
615
00:45:48,840 --> 00:45:51,800
People hoarded food,
fearing shortages and famine.
616
00:45:52,920 --> 00:45:56,520
In the larger towns, they took to
raising animals and growing vegetables,
617
00:45:56,600 --> 00:45:58,840
just to have something to eat.
618
00:45:58,920 --> 00:46:03,400
[Schumann, in German] And so began,
from the late '80s to the late '90s,
619
00:46:03,480 --> 00:46:05,040
a period of independence.
620
00:46:05,120 --> 00:46:09,920
But Cuba's situation, in terms
of supplies, was so catastrophic,
621
00:46:10,000 --> 00:46:13,400
that the people really suffered
from hunger.
622
00:46:13,480 --> 00:46:16,080
The island, or the island's government,
623
00:46:16,160 --> 00:46:20,320
was incapable of meeting people's needs
without outside help.
624
00:46:21,520 --> 00:46:23,600
Like before the days of revolution,
625
00:46:23,680 --> 00:46:27,000
Cuba once more tried
to finance itself through tourism.
626
00:46:27,080 --> 00:46:30,160
Hotel complexes were built or modernized,
627
00:46:30,240 --> 00:46:32,600
and the island's
tropical beaches restored.
628
00:46:32,680 --> 00:46:37,040
Europeans and Canadians arrived
and brought hard currency to the island.
629
00:46:43,800 --> 00:46:46,800
[Clerc, in French] It was
a partial solution but still significant.
630
00:46:46,880 --> 00:46:51,600
I say partial, because the problem with
tourists is that you have to feed them.
631
00:46:53,160 --> 00:46:55,040
To attract tourists and their money,
632
00:46:55,120 --> 00:47:00,640
in 1993 Fidel Castro authorized
a mini-revolution.
633
00:47:00,720 --> 00:47:05,640
The US dollar was introduced as a second
legal tender, primarily for tourists.
634
00:47:07,160 --> 00:47:09,360
An additional advantage of this measure
635
00:47:09,440 --> 00:47:11,920
was that Cubans in exile
in the United States
636
00:47:12,000 --> 00:47:13,480
could now send money to Cuba
637
00:47:13,560 --> 00:47:16,720
to better the lives of their families
on the island.
638
00:47:16,800 --> 00:47:19,080
[Hoffmann, in German]
Making the US dollar legal tender
639
00:47:19,160 --> 00:47:21,680
was an emergency measure in 1993,
at the height of the crisis.
640
00:47:21,760 --> 00:47:25,280
It was done to get money
from Cuban exiles,
641
00:47:25,360 --> 00:47:30,960
as a new source of hard currency
that would ensure Cuba's survival.
642
00:47:31,040 --> 00:47:34,800
It was a lot of money,
around $2 billion a year.
643
00:47:34,880 --> 00:47:40,760
That's more than Cuba's income from
tobacco and sugar sales combined.
644
00:47:41,880 --> 00:47:43,600
Dollars were welcome,
645
00:47:43,680 --> 00:47:47,800
but US citizens could still only
go to Cuba via other countries.
646
00:47:55,400 --> 00:47:58,440
[Cason] The regime needs an enemy,
it always has,
647
00:47:58,520 --> 00:48:00,600
and Fidel said from his early days,
648
00:48:00,680 --> 00:48:03,920
"A revolution like mine needs an enemy,
and the US will always be the enemy."
649
00:48:04,000 --> 00:48:07,040
So they do not want, really,
normalization with us.
650
00:48:07,120 --> 00:48:11,320
They need to keep us as an enemy
to explain the failure of the system.
651
00:48:12,880 --> 00:48:15,680
As he grew older,
and his health began to deteriorate,
652
00:48:15,760 --> 00:48:18,960
Fidel Castro increasingly
had to delegate.
653
00:48:19,040 --> 00:48:21,880
His brother Raúl took over
some of his responsibilities.
654
00:48:25,640 --> 00:48:31,480
[in German] Raúl had two projects in mind,
which he managed to push through.
655
00:48:31,560 --> 00:48:37,560
On one hand were military companies,
656
00:48:37,640 --> 00:48:40,960
meaning civil companies
under military command.
657
00:48:41,040 --> 00:48:43,640
The second were farmers' markets.
658
00:48:43,720 --> 00:48:48,760
Small-scale producers could now sell
home-grown groceries and turn a profit.
659
00:48:48,840 --> 00:48:52,480
40% of the economy, however,
mostly generated by tourism,
660
00:48:52,560 --> 00:48:54,760
was directly controlled by the army.
661
00:48:55,920 --> 00:48:59,280
[in Spanish] We have to note
that the Cuban Armed Forces,
662
00:48:59,360 --> 00:49:01,080
unlike anywhere else in the world,
663
00:49:01,160 --> 00:49:05,480
have transformed themselves into a kind of
ministry of the national economy.
664
00:49:06,280 --> 00:49:11,080
Fidel Castro's promise of freedom
and socialism for Cuba ultimately failed
665
00:49:11,160 --> 00:49:13,160
when the rest of the socialist world
collapsed.
666
00:49:17,160 --> 00:49:19,560
In order to save his island,
and his rule,
667
00:49:19,640 --> 00:49:23,680
he established total military control
of the economy and society.
668
00:49:26,240 --> 00:49:28,640
After the collapse of the Soviet Union,
669
00:49:28,720 --> 00:49:31,440
he had to find new partners
to ensure his survival.
670
00:49:33,440 --> 00:49:36,840
The revived tourist trade
had one principal objective.
671
00:49:38,120 --> 00:49:40,341
Financing Cuba's army,
and thus keeping the Castros in power.
60388
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