Exercises on Cuban Revolution

“(...) Fidel benefited from the Cold War and sold Cuba's geopolitical importance to the Soviet Union in exchange for generous subsidies. Cuba is much more important in the world as a symbol. And she is a symbol because of Fidel. Without Fidel, the Cuban regime loses the symbol of the vanguard of international communism or, at least, of anti-imperialism, especially anti-Americanism. The Cuban Revolution was never seen as a change of government in Cuba alone. Ernesto Che Guevara's performance in Africa and South America was part of the mystique surrounding the Sierra Maestra fighters. For Latin America, specifically, Fidel was the icon of the changes that leftist organizations across the continent were looking for”. (Época Magazine, February 2008).

Fidel Castro's departure from the leadership of the government reignited the debate over the controversial Cuban history. Regarding the topic, consider the statements below.

I. In the international context of the Cold War, Cuba was an important stage in the dispute between the US and the former USSR, with emphasis on the 'Missile Crisis' in 1962, when the world was on the verge of a nuclear confrontation.

II. The Cuban Revolution inspired leftist movements in Latin America from the 1960s onwards, being adopted as a model for pro-socialist guerrilla groups, such as the Guerrilha do Araguaia in Brazil.

III. In order to overcome the crisis experienced by Cuba since the end of the USSR, the country seeks to expand its economic-trade relations, especially in Latin America, highlighting its approach to Hugo Chávez's Venezuela.

This way,

a) only statements I and II are correct.

b) only statements II and III are correct.

c) only statements I and III are correct.

d) only statement III is correct.

e) all statements are correct.

“Condemn me, never mind. History will absolve me ”. This sentence was uttered by Fidel Castro, the main leader of the Cuban Revolution, when he:

a) was accused of assassinating President Fulgencio Batista, 1959.

b) commanded the executions of American military supporters of Fulgencio Batista.

c) was tried for the assault on the Moncada barracks in 1953.

d) joined the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

e) joined the government of Hugo Chávez, president of Venezuela.

(FGV/2011) The Cuban Revolution, victorious in 1959, had as its main characteristic:

a) Popular mobilization through mass demonstrations and the organization of successive general strikes that interrupted Cuba's economic activities.

b) The practice of “foquismo”, with armed groups that were dedicated to the armed struggle characterized by the tactics of guerrillas.

c) International mobilization through campaigns denouncing the disrespect for human rights by the Cuban government.

d) The Soviet intervention, which sent troops to support the revolutionaries and bombed Cuban government bases.

e) The electoral victory of the revolutionaries in the 1958 election and the gradual implementation of socializing measures by Fidel Castro.

The occasion on which the Brazilian government most explicitly strengthened diplomatic relations with the Cuban revolutionary government was:

a) when Cuban doctors came to work in Brazil during Dilma Rousseff's government.

b) when Che Guevara received, from President Jânio Quadros, the commendation of the National Order of the Southern Cross.

c) when Lionel Brizolla received money from Fidel Castro to mount a revolutionary guerrilla against the Military Regime established in 1964.

d) when Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez came to Brazil in 2013.

e) when President Luís Inácio Lula da Silva took office in 2003.

Letter E

All the alternatives are correct, given that the “missile crisis” really put the world in tension in 1962, with Cuba being the center of the problem. Furthermore, the Cuban Revolution, carried out in 1959, was the first socialist revolution carried out on American soil after the Russian and Chinese revolutions. This exercised a great influence on the Latin American left. Finally, after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, Cuba had to follow other alternative paths to the socialist one, whose ideology and modus operandi were already scrapped.

Letter C

Fidel Castro and more than a hundred men were responsible for the assault on the Moncada military barracks, in Santiago de Cuba, carried out in 1953. This fact was the first attempt to carry out the communist revolution on the island. Most of the men died in combat. Castro was arrested and sentenced to 15 years in prison. On the occasion of his trial, he uttered the phrase highlighted in the statement of the question.

Letter B

“Foquismo” was a guerrilla method applied not only in Cuba, but in other parts of Latin America, whose strategic development was elaborated by Ernesto “Che” Guevara. The “revolutionary focus”, or “foquismo”, was a guerrilla method that aimed to install several points of revolutionary insurrection in a given territory in order to eventually create a large integrated revolutionary organism.

Letter B

The decoration of Che Guevara by Jânio Quadros was one of the most controversial actions in the history of the Brazilian Republic, given that the Cuban revolution had only been carried out two years ago, which represented a risk of something similar happen in Brazil at the same time.