Captain Ibrahim Traoré says Burkina Faso must 'forget' about democracy
BBC →Burkina Faso, like its junta-led neighbours Mali and Niger, has moved away from working with Western countries, especially France, in its fight against Islamist militants, which have waged a decade-long insurgency in the region.
Castro Withholds Elections, Reps At Corruption
HAVANA, April 10 (AP)— Prime Minister Fidel Castro said last night elections will be held in Cuba only when there are guarantees they will be truly democratic and free from corrupt politics. In a speech marking the first anniversary of an abortive rebel-called strike, Mr. Castro said elections can be fair only when the Cuban voter is free from exposure to corrupt influ- ences. He said national elections in the past have been marked by vote buying and other forms of pressure. A military tribunal in San- tiago de Cuba sentenced former Senator Rolando Masferrer to death yesterday in absentia. The head of a private army in the days of President Fulgencio Batista was accused of numer- ous killings. He is living in exile in Miami. Six men were shot by firing squads yesterday in Manzanillo, Pinar del Rio and Santa Clara, raising the unofficial total of war crimes executions to 411. Among those executed were former Maj. Carlos Fernan- dez Suarez, chief of the Man- zanillo military post in Oriente Province under the Batista re- gime, and former Lt. Armando Cazola, convicted of killing 20 peasants in Pinar del Rio.
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Agrarian reforms in Cuba
First agrarian reform
The first reform law was implemented in May 17, 1959, which eliminated latifundios—large scale private ownerships, and granted ownership and titles to workers who previously worked on those lands, and paying rent for land was abolished. Any holdings over these limits were expropriated by the government and either redistributed to peasants in 67-acre parcels or held as state-run communes.
Wikipedia →United States embargo against Cuba – Eisenhower presidency
After the Castro socialist government came to power on January 1, 1959, relations were initially friendly between Castro and the Dwight D. Eisenhower administration. In December 1959, less than twelve months after the revolution, the U.S. imposed a comprehensive trade embargo on Cuba, as Castro's nationalizations of American-owned businesses and agrarian expropriations pushed Washington to sever economic ties — a direct consequence of Castro's consolidation of power without elections or democratic accountability.
Wikipedia →Bay of Pigs Invasion – Initiation
The Bay of Pigs Invasion was a failed military landing operation on the southwestern coast of Cuba in April 1961 by the United States and the Cuban Democratic Revolutionary Front, consisting of Cuban exiles who opposed Fidel Castro's Cuban Revolution, clandestinely and directly financed by the U.S. government. The operation took place at the height of the Cold War, and its failure influenced relations between Cuba, the United States, and the Soviet Union.
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