SUMMARY
[Note to reader: this Country page primarily contains brief information about state-based violence during the period 1946-1974, and to some extent 1975-1988. For more detailed information on organized violence after 1989, please consult the specific Conflict and Dyad pages available on the left-hand side of this page. These pages contain more detailed information regarding all three categories of organized violence in this country from 1989 and onwards (when applicable), as well as detailed information about state-based violence 1975-1988. The left-hand side menu also contains links to Actor pages for all groups involved in organized violence since 1989 in this country, as well as actors involved in state-based violence 1975-1988.]
Cuba had been colonized by Spain for nearly four hundred years when the Spanish-American war broke out in 1898, which resulted in the defeat of Spain and a US military occupation of Cuba until 1902, when the USA granted the island independence. For the first half of the 20th century, however, Cuba remained vastly economically dependent upon the USA and the latter's culture inundated large parts of Cuban society – to the discontent in nationalist segments of the population. The island's post-independence tendency of strongman rule also served as a pretext for the approaching revolution and the twenty-five years leading up to the watershed events of the late 1950s was dominated by the personage of Fuelgencio Batista.
Fidel Castro, the leader of the revolutionary movement against Batista and subsequently of Cuba, first drew national attention when he launched an attack against the provincial army barracks in Moncada on 26 July 1953. The assault, which reached the level of a minor intrastate conflict, was unsuccessful – yet it has come to mark the beginning of the Cuban revolution and its date became the namesake of Castro's armed group, M26J (Movimiento 26 de Julio, 26 July Movement). The minor conflict became active again in late 1956 when the core of M26J returned from exile in Mexico by boat and clashed with Batista troops as they attempted to get ashore on the island. The group continued to wage an increasingly successful guerrilla campaign from the Sierra Maestra mountains until the end of 1958; by that time public support for the Batista regime had also eroded and the tacit USA support was withdrawn. On 1 January 1959, Batista fled into exile and Castro's movement took over the capital.
In the first two years of power, Castro's regime became increasingly anti-American as its economic reforms collided with American interests in the country. The reforms also led to the exodus of thousands of upper- and middle class Cubans, primarily to the USA. Concurrently, Cuba-Soviet relations blossomed and their rapprochement became a major concern for the USA. Hence, in April 1961, an – informally USA-backed – invasion force consisting of exile Cubans, organized by Consejo Revolucionario Cubano (Cuban Revolutionary Council), landed in the Bay of Pigs, Cuba in an attempt to overthrow the Castro regime. The invasion, a minor intrastate conflict, was unsuccessful and the invaders were killed or captured.
Cuba has been a secondary warring party in intrastate conflicts in Angola (1975–1989) and Ethiopia (against Western Somali Liberation Front, WSLF in 1975-1983), in both cases on the side of the respective Marxist governments.
Since 1946 Cuba has experienced the intrastate category of UCDP organized violence.
