1 00:00:17,960 --> 00:00:22,960 [in Spanish] Cuba has always been fighting for its freedom. 2 00:00:27,920 --> 00:00:31,240 [in Spanish] 100,000 died, and even though we lost the war, 3 00:00:31,320 --> 00:00:32,800 the country had changed. 4 00:00:41,480 --> 00:00:46,920 There is little question that Meyer Lansky had thoroughly corrupted Batista. 5 00:00:51,000 --> 00:00:53,320 It's not a lie. They didn't promise anything. 6 00:00:53,400 --> 00:00:56,040 They promised a revolution and they did a revolution. 7 00:01:00,320 --> 00:01:04,519 [in Russian] These guys were bound to become 8 00:01:04,599 --> 00:01:07,200 either martyrs, or national heroes. 9 00:01:09,080 --> 00:01:10,560 Una revolución! 10 00:01:12,160 --> 00:01:15,520 -Fidel Castro! -[cheering] 11 00:01:19,800 --> 00:01:24,240 He told Khrushchev, "You should unleash the entire Soviet nuclear arsenals." 12 00:01:26,000 --> 00:01:27,080 Apocalypse. 13 00:01:35,480 --> 00:01:37,640 [in German] Cuba will never bend its knee. 14 00:01:53,240 --> 00:01:54,680 The island of Cuba 15 00:01:54,760 --> 00:01:58,840 has been a socialist state for over half a century. 16 00:01:58,920 --> 00:02:01,920 Whether or not socialism in Cuba began with, 17 00:02:02,000 --> 00:02:06,960 or well after Fidel Castro's revolution in 1959 is a point of debate. 18 00:02:08,320 --> 00:02:10,160 But the icons of this revolution 19 00:02:10,240 --> 00:02:13,640 are still very much present in Cuba's streets. 20 00:02:21,880 --> 00:02:23,320 As crises shook the country, 21 00:02:23,400 --> 00:02:26,320 ordinary Cubans often had other, more pressing worries 22 00:02:26,400 --> 00:02:29,960 than where on the political spectrum their country lay. 23 00:02:40,840 --> 00:02:44,840 What caused hundreds of thousands of Cubans to flee their country? 24 00:02:47,680 --> 00:02:51,400 Why was the Cuban army involved in bloody wars in Africa? 25 00:02:55,360 --> 00:02:59,600 How did the island become a hub for the international drug trade? 26 00:03:03,720 --> 00:03:08,040 The history of Cuba is marked by 500 years of poverty and insurrection. 27 00:03:10,480 --> 00:03:14,640 But also by a dream that the Cuban people have never given up on. 28 00:03:16,680 --> 00:03:19,800 [man, in Spanish] Cuba was a pluralistic society, 29 00:03:19,880 --> 00:03:21,600 like any other in the world. 30 00:03:21,680 --> 00:03:24,840 There were liberals, communists, socialists, 31 00:03:24,920 --> 00:03:27,680 there were right wing parties, left wing parties... 32 00:03:27,760 --> 00:03:29,360 It was a society like any other. 33 00:03:29,440 --> 00:03:33,040 When people realized that communism was being established in Cuba, 34 00:03:33,120 --> 00:03:36,240 we are talking of the early or middle stages of the Cold War, 35 00:03:36,320 --> 00:03:41,800 there was resistance, but this resistance was repressed very strongly. 36 00:03:42,640 --> 00:03:45,600 Cuba is the biggest island in the Caribbean. 37 00:03:45,680 --> 00:03:49,200 A mere 90 miles separate it from the United States. 38 00:03:50,880 --> 00:03:55,440 But in the 1960s, this was one of the front lines of the Cold War, 39 00:03:55,520 --> 00:03:59,320 since Cuba had allied itself firmly with the Soviet Union 40 00:03:59,400 --> 00:04:01,400 and its satellite states in Europe. 41 00:04:02,720 --> 00:04:05,760 To defend Cuba, and the Soviet Union itself, 42 00:04:05,840 --> 00:04:09,760 nuclear missiles were secretly installed on the island in 1962. 43 00:04:09,840 --> 00:04:14,440 They could have leveled most American cities within minutes. 44 00:04:14,520 --> 00:04:17,880 While the Soviet Union saw these missiles as a means of self-defense - 45 00:04:17,959 --> 00:04:22,960 the United States had similar weapons close to the USSR as well - 46 00:04:23,040 --> 00:04:26,720 for the US President John F Kennedy, this was an unacceptable threat. 47 00:04:26,800 --> 00:04:31,000 The world had never been so close to an all-out nuclear war. 48 00:04:31,080 --> 00:04:35,440 [in Russian] We were all going to die, and then a miracle happened. 49 00:04:35,520 --> 00:04:38,800 It really was a miracle. 50 00:04:38,880 --> 00:04:43,120 Reason triumphed, for both Khrushchev and Kennedy. 51 00:04:44,000 --> 00:04:47,040 The Cuban Missile Crisis lasted 13 days. 52 00:04:47,120 --> 00:04:50,520 13 days during which nobody knew how things might turn out. 53 00:04:51,960 --> 00:04:54,480 The United States set up a naval quarantine around Cuba, 54 00:04:54,560 --> 00:04:58,080 and the Soviet Union shot down a US plane. 55 00:04:58,160 --> 00:05:02,480 In the end, back-channel negotiations resolved the crisis. 56 00:05:02,560 --> 00:05:05,520 The USSR proposed to withdraw their missiles from Cuba, 57 00:05:05,600 --> 00:05:09,200 if the United States in turn removed theirs from Turkey. 58 00:05:09,280 --> 00:05:12,920 President Kennedy agreed. Fidel Castro did not. 59 00:05:13,000 --> 00:05:14,760 Khrushchev did not trust Castro. 60 00:05:14,840 --> 00:05:18,800 He feared that Castro was going to bring the whole world into a nuclear conflict. 61 00:05:19,760 --> 00:05:22,040 The superpowers came to an agreement, 62 00:05:22,120 --> 00:05:26,720 and eventually, with promises of copious Soviet loans and arms shipments, 63 00:05:26,800 --> 00:05:29,600 Fidel Castro, too, came to accept it. 64 00:05:31,840 --> 00:05:35,680 His right-hand man, Ernesto "Che" Guevara, disagreed. 65 00:05:44,080 --> 00:05:46,720 [in Spanish] Che Guevara's problems with Fidel 66 00:05:46,800 --> 00:05:50,560 were because, for Che, 67 00:05:50,640 --> 00:05:54,800 the support that he was giving the Soviet Union 68 00:05:54,880 --> 00:05:58,280 and revolutionary movements was very poor. 69 00:05:58,360 --> 00:06:00,040 It was very little. 70 00:06:00,120 --> 00:06:04,880 And he was expecting much more out of the Soviets and the Chinese, 71 00:06:04,960 --> 00:06:10,240 while Fidel had aligned himself with the Soviets. 72 00:06:11,280 --> 00:06:13,600 After being sacked from Cuba's government, 73 00:06:13,680 --> 00:06:17,240 "Che" Guevara went to Bolivia with a few Cuban soldiers 74 00:06:17,320 --> 00:06:19,320 to help overthrow the government. 75 00:06:19,400 --> 00:06:21,080 He was injured and arrested. 76 00:06:22,800 --> 00:06:25,600 He approached me, we shook hands, and we embraced, 77 00:06:25,680 --> 00:06:28,680 and then he stood at attention, thinking I was the one that would shoot him. 78 00:06:29,840 --> 00:06:34,400 Shortly afterwards, Guevara was executed by a Bolivian soldier. 79 00:06:37,040 --> 00:06:39,400 Che became a martyr and a myth. 80 00:06:40,880 --> 00:06:44,320 A veritable worldwide icon for the left, 81 00:06:44,400 --> 00:06:48,160 while Castro was free to rule Cuba uncriticized. 82 00:06:54,640 --> 00:07:00,000 Since his revolution took power in Cuba on January 1st, 1959, 83 00:07:00,080 --> 00:07:04,000 Fidel Castro had seen the United States as his principal enemy. 84 00:07:04,080 --> 00:07:10,040 ♪ El socialismo... ♪ 85 00:07:10,120 --> 00:07:13,560 He only became a socialist after the revolution. 86 00:07:16,240 --> 00:07:20,400 He wanted to combat poverty and provide education for all. 87 00:07:23,760 --> 00:07:26,880 [in German] This was where his literacy campaign came in. 88 00:07:26,960 --> 00:07:30,160 Until then, no-one had been interested in poor, rural people. 89 00:07:30,240 --> 00:07:34,360 And suddenly, Fidel sent young people from the cities 90 00:07:34,440 --> 00:07:37,520 to teach the whole population how to read and write. 91 00:07:38,520 --> 00:07:41,240 Schools and hospitals were built across the island. 92 00:07:49,320 --> 00:07:53,360 [in Spanish] Already in the early 1970s, 93 00:07:53,440 --> 00:07:58,800 social services and education became free, 94 00:07:58,880 --> 00:08:01,440 for the whole country. 95 00:08:01,520 --> 00:08:05,240 More than a million boys and girls 96 00:08:05,320 --> 00:08:09,760 gained access to secondary education. 97 00:08:11,040 --> 00:08:16,000 On January 29th, 1974, Soviet camera crews were in Cuba 98 00:08:16,080 --> 00:08:20,320 to capture the visit of General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev to the island. 99 00:08:22,880 --> 00:08:27,240 Cuba's economy was firmly "Sovietized" by the mid-1970s. 100 00:08:27,320 --> 00:08:31,120 To sustain itself, Cuba relied on its Socialist brother countries, 101 00:08:31,200 --> 00:08:33,440 chief among them the USSR. 102 00:08:33,520 --> 00:08:36,240 Hence, trade agreements were the focus of the visit, 103 00:08:36,320 --> 00:08:40,520 as Cuba's economy is modeled after that of the Soviet Union. 104 00:08:40,600 --> 00:08:44,640 The State controlled and planned agriculture, industry and trade. 105 00:08:44,720 --> 00:08:50,000 [in Spanish] Sovietization means that the state is omnipresent, 106 00:08:50,080 --> 00:08:54,120 even in the smallest service industry, like selling sandwiches. 107 00:08:54,200 --> 00:08:59,280 Every type of private initiative, even the very smallest, 108 00:08:59,360 --> 00:09:02,040 was forbidden after 1968. 109 00:09:04,840 --> 00:09:10,680 The Soviet Union provided an ideology, but also sustained Cuba economically. 110 00:09:12,880 --> 00:09:17,360 [Schumann, in German] In the 1960s, Cuba faced serious supply problems. 111 00:09:17,440 --> 00:09:22,320 It only survived thanks to the "pipeline" they established with the USSR, 112 00:09:22,400 --> 00:09:25,520 and thanks to their ships which constantly delivered oil. 113 00:09:25,600 --> 00:09:28,720 They delivered food as well, and many other things. 114 00:09:28,800 --> 00:09:32,000 It's likely that Cuba would have gone under without the USSR. 115 00:09:34,080 --> 00:09:37,800 Castro was welcomed to the Soviet Union with full honors, 116 00:09:37,880 --> 00:09:40,560 and as proof of the friendship between the two states, 117 00:09:40,640 --> 00:09:43,360 was allowed to take home some of the latest examples 118 00:09:43,440 --> 00:09:45,160 of socialist innovation. 119 00:09:46,240 --> 00:09:49,040 [in German] They charged solidarity prices, of course. 120 00:09:49,120 --> 00:09:51,920 Solidarity was not limited to public events. 121 00:09:52,000 --> 00:09:56,800 Solidarity also existed in their relations with each other. 122 00:09:56,880 --> 00:10:01,160 Moscow also supported Cuba in competitive sports. 123 00:10:01,240 --> 00:10:05,440 Success here was supposed to show the superiority of socialism. 124 00:10:08,640 --> 00:10:12,120 Cuba had to come up with a way to repay its brother countries. 125 00:10:13,760 --> 00:10:18,960 The island's main export was sugar, so Fidel Castro decided to majorly expand 126 00:10:19,040 --> 00:10:22,240 sugar exports to the socialist bloc countries. 127 00:10:24,280 --> 00:10:28,080 [in French] The 1960s don't end with exploits of war, 128 00:10:28,160 --> 00:10:30,920 but instead with exploits in the economy. 129 00:10:31,000 --> 00:10:33,520 It was the harvest, which they call Zafra. 130 00:10:33,600 --> 00:10:36,680 They wanted to harvest ten million tons of sugarcane. 131 00:10:36,760 --> 00:10:38,240 This was supposed to show 132 00:10:38,320 --> 00:10:42,960 that Cuba could surpass all previous records of sugarcane production. 133 00:10:44,160 --> 00:10:48,440 Almost the entire population of Cuba is called upon to help. 134 00:10:48,520 --> 00:10:51,600 Workers, farmers, academics, civil servants. 135 00:10:51,680 --> 00:10:54,400 Everyone was enrolled for the sugar harvest. 136 00:10:58,200 --> 00:11:01,240 This truck carries a banner calling for the sugar cane plant 137 00:11:01,320 --> 00:11:04,040 to be felled with one machete blow. 138 00:11:04,120 --> 00:11:08,080 [in German] Furthermore, he wanted to mobilize the masses, 139 00:11:08,160 --> 00:11:12,880 to unite them for a common project, and meet the challenge: 140 00:11:12,960 --> 00:11:16,520 could we produce ten million tons or not? 141 00:11:18,080 --> 00:11:22,680 But in exchange for a record harvest of sugarcane in 1969, 142 00:11:22,760 --> 00:11:25,240 Cuba neglected all other industry. 143 00:11:26,640 --> 00:11:29,560 Classrooms and factories remained empty, 144 00:11:29,640 --> 00:11:32,760 as people from all walks of life worked in the cane fields. 145 00:11:35,440 --> 00:11:39,000 Even Fidel Castro himself took part in the harvest. 146 00:11:41,000 --> 00:11:45,800 Cuba's economy ground to a halt and would take months to recover. 147 00:11:45,880 --> 00:11:47,920 [In French] It ended rather pathetically. 148 00:11:48,000 --> 00:11:52,240 Not because they only attained nine million tonnes, that's forgivable, 149 00:11:52,320 --> 00:11:54,920 but because even to obtain that, 150 00:11:55,000 --> 00:12:00,960 he had totally destroyed the economy, 151 00:12:01,040 --> 00:12:02,600 and even political life. 152 00:12:02,680 --> 00:12:05,080 The ministers would meet at a hacienda 153 00:12:05,160 --> 00:12:07,760 in the middle of a sugarcane plantation. 154 00:12:10,600 --> 00:12:14,200 The entire state apparatus was on the point of collapse. 155 00:12:15,600 --> 00:12:18,200 The only benefit of the disaster: 156 00:12:18,280 --> 00:12:20,680 the Soviet government forgave Cuba's debt, 157 00:12:20,760 --> 00:12:23,120 rather than see its ally go under. 158 00:12:23,200 --> 00:12:27,080 [in German] Brezhnev granted his first debt relief. 159 00:12:27,160 --> 00:12:29,720 And commercial relations with the USSR 160 00:12:29,800 --> 00:12:33,200 and the socialist bloc in general were reinforced. 161 00:12:33,280 --> 00:12:38,480 [in Spanish] The Soviet presence in Cuba wasn't like you might imagine. 162 00:12:38,560 --> 00:12:41,640 You didn't see Soviets all over the place. 163 00:12:41,720 --> 00:12:45,640 There were some Soviet companies. 164 00:12:45,720 --> 00:12:49,120 But of course, they were always talking about the brother countries 165 00:12:49,200 --> 00:12:51,640 that the Soviet Union was supporting. 166 00:12:51,720 --> 00:12:56,920 But as a boy, I wasn't aware of their presence in the streets. 167 00:12:57,960 --> 00:13:02,360 Even closer collaboration with the Soviet Union paid off for Cuba. 168 00:13:02,440 --> 00:13:03,920 In terms of education and health, 169 00:13:04,000 --> 00:13:08,360 the island was soon far ahead of other Latin American countries. 170 00:13:08,440 --> 00:13:11,360 As a precaution mainly against the United States, 171 00:13:11,440 --> 00:13:14,000 the island also acquired military equipment, 172 00:13:14,080 --> 00:13:16,520 and Cuban military advisers were present 173 00:13:16,600 --> 00:13:18,840 wherever rebels were fighting in the Third World. 174 00:13:21,640 --> 00:13:25,240 [Clerc, in French] Castro adored everything military. 175 00:13:25,320 --> 00:13:28,440 And he must have known that he owed them something. 176 00:13:28,520 --> 00:13:34,120 So he found an excellent occasion to project Cuba internationally. 177 00:13:34,200 --> 00:13:36,000 He wanted the prestige. 178 00:13:36,080 --> 00:13:39,840 [in Spanish] And for the Cuban revolutionaries... 179 00:13:41,360 --> 00:13:46,240 the battlefield against imperialism... 180 00:13:47,200 --> 00:13:50,160 encompasses the whole world. 181 00:13:52,840 --> 00:13:54,880 That is how we... 182 00:13:56,400 --> 00:13:59,040 the Cuban revolutionaries... 183 00:14:00,160 --> 00:14:04,160 conceive our internationalist duty. 184 00:14:06,000 --> 00:14:10,000 This is how our people conceive their duties... 185 00:14:12,160 --> 00:14:14,720 because they understand that the enemy is one. 186 00:14:17,920 --> 00:14:24,080 The same that attacks us on our coasts and in our lands. 187 00:14:26,080 --> 00:14:28,080 The same that attacks the rest. 188 00:14:28,960 --> 00:14:32,960 Fidel Castro still felt indebted to the Soviet Union. 189 00:14:33,040 --> 00:14:37,080 He intended to pay them back, but this time, not in sugar. 190 00:14:38,240 --> 00:14:42,960 In 1974, Portugal withdrew from its former colony of Angola. 191 00:14:43,040 --> 00:14:45,320 A bloody civil war erupted, 192 00:14:45,400 --> 00:14:48,560 with communist and nationalist factions vying for power 193 00:14:48,640 --> 00:14:51,520 and calling upon the international community for help. 194 00:14:53,960 --> 00:14:56,960 [in French] It's basically a win-win situation. 195 00:14:57,040 --> 00:15:01,960 The USSR says there's a way for communists and Soviets 196 00:15:02,040 --> 00:15:04,520 to progress in Africa, 197 00:15:04,600 --> 00:15:11,600 and for Castro, a way to improve Cuba's image 198 00:15:11,680 --> 00:15:15,720 and to pay his debt to the Soviet Union. 199 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. 201 00:15:20,960 --> 00:15:27,360 But it really grew out of the local war for independence, 202 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. 204 00:15:38,320 --> 00:15:42,200 The former Portuguese colony is on the south-west coast of Africa 205 00:15:42,280 --> 00:15:44,080 and has a border with Namibia, 206 00:15:44,160 --> 00:15:47,440 at the time a sort of South African colony. 207 00:15:47,520 --> 00:15:52,480 One of the three resistance groups in Angola was the communist MPLA. 208 00:15:52,560 --> 00:15:54,080 As both a show of force, 209 00:15:54,160 --> 00:15:58,080 and to pay back the Soviet Union for its help in saving Cuba, 210 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, 216 00:16:18,080 --> 00:16:21,360 and Cuba was, of course, just a little fish. 217 00:16:22,720 --> 00:16:27,080 Cuba initially sent advisers to train the MPLA's fighters. 218 00:16:27,160 --> 00:16:29,600 Their opponent factions were supported by arms shipments 219 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. 223 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. 225 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. 237 00:17:59,080 --> 00:18:03,120 [in Spanish] The elite of the Cuban army went there. 238 00:18:03,200 --> 00:18:07,400 Furry, Arnaldo Ochoa. 239 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.