HOW did the US and Cuba get involved?The US occupied Cuba in 1898 after the Spanish-American War. Though Cuba declared independence in 1902, the US dominated its economy and often intervened militarily.Why did this change?In 1959 the charismatic socialist Fidel Castro led a guerrilla army into Havana, the capital, and ousted the pro-American Fulgencio Batista. In 1960 all US businesses in Cuba were nationalised without compensation. The US broke off diplomatic relations and imposed a trade embargo. There was no going back after the US backed the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba. This was compounded by the Cuban missile crisis when Russian nuclear missiles were deployed in Cuba, then withdrawn.When did matters improve?Fidel Castro’s brother Raul took over as president of Cuba in 2008 and US president Barack Obama lifted restrictions on family travel and remittances to Cuba a year later. Cultural exchanges began soon after. In 2013 Obama and Castro shook hands at Nelson Mandela...
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