In 1959, the Cuban Revolution, an armed guerrilla revolt led by Fidel Castro and Che Guevara, ousted Cuba’s president Fulgencio Batista, who had allowed organized crime to flourish and American corporations to take over the island’s sugar plantations. Over the next six years, Castro transformed a colonial society of landowners and peons into a Communist state. All property was nationalized and programs developed to eliminate illiteracy and improve health, housing, and educati
