Fidel Castro: History Will Absolve Me

Impact

Castro's speech did not lead to his release. Despite his defense of his actions at the Moncada Barracks and his condemnation of the Batista regime, the judges sentenced him to fifteen years in prison. In the end, he only served one year and seven months. On May 15, 1955, Archbishop Pérez Serrantes secured Castro's release, assuring Batista that Castro was no longer a public threat. Batista granted amnesty to Castro and his colleagues. Castro went into exile in Mexico, where he continued to build support for his revolutionary movement. The date of the Moncada Barracks attack became the name of the revolutionary movement: the 26th of July Movement. In 1956 the 26th of July Movement—which included Fidel and Raúl Castro, Ruz Camilo Cienfuegos, José A. Echeverria, Ernesto “Che” Guevara, Frank País, Abel Santamaria, and Hubér Matos—launched a full-scale guerilla war against Batista and his supporters, and History Will Absolve Me was their manifesto. Castro finally received the support of the people that he had sought during the attack on the Moncada Barracks and led a successful guerilla war against the dictatorship. On January 1, 1959, Castro's forces entered Havana and defeated Batista.

The full impact of History Will Absolve Me and the revolutionary laws that were iterated in it were felt in 1959. Castro became prime minister on February 16, 1959. On May 17, 1959, the Cuban revolutionary government instituted the agrarian reform law to appropriate property owned by foreigners and limit property owners from holding more than thirty caballerías. The law eradicated the plantations and did away with North American control and exploitation of Cuban land. The fifth revolutionary law was realized in 1959 when the revolutionary government created the Ministry of the Recuperation of Financial Embezzlement. The Cuban state was then able to recuperate more than four hundred million pesos in embezzled funds as well as properties that were owned by people linked to the Batista regime who had become rich through illegal revenues. In August and October 1960, Castro's revolutionary government nationalized both foreign and Cuban private enterprises. Castro also succeeded in implementing universal health care in Cuba as well as free college education.

Although Castro's government was able to institute some of the social, economic, and political measures outlined in History Will Absolve Me, many of Castro's original proposals were never executed. For example, Castro was never able to turn Cuba into an industrialized nation and therefore never broke Cuba's economic dependence on sugar and tobacco crops. Another idiosyncrasy appears in his solution for the six problems facing Cuba. Castro states that Cuba should invest in its people instead of in weapons. As historians are quick to point out, Castro did not comply with his own economic plan; the Soviet Union during the cold war continually supplied Cuba with military weapons in order to maintain a strategic military location close to the United States. Another discrepancy between Castro's plan and his implementation is found in the first revolutionary law, which people initially understood as a reinstatement of the articles of the 1940 constitution mandating regular elections and alternating political parties. However, Castro never set a time frame for the revolutionary forces to relinquish power, and he never restored Cuba to democracy after defeating Batista. Castro held power for forty-nine years.