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Lansky receives a boost from Batista
Hotel Law 2074 is passed, all new businesses providing tourist accommodations, including hotels, will be tax exempt. Any hotel with more than $1 million dollars in new investment or nightclubs valued over $200,000 were entitled to apply for a casino license.
Source: Havana Nocturne -
Mirta Divorces Fidel Castro.
Mirta's employment in the Ministry of the Interior stoked immense rage in Castro. Separation, infidelity, and the mutual hatred that Castro and the Diaz-Balart family had for one another caused an irreparable break. Both Fidel and Mirta started divorce proceedings, with Mirta taking custody of their son Fidelito. Pictured, see -
Batista inaugurated
Constitutional government is allegedly restored, but turmoil caused by students, or Prio supporters, or Castro supporters, engaging in violence, terrorism, or protest, meant trouble was here to stay.
Source: Cuba by Hugh Thomas for book click here -
Political Amnesty Campaign Concludes
A women's protest in Santiago sparked a year long amnesty campaign for political prisoners, Castro among them. Coupled with the recent smuggling out of "History will Absolve Me"- it heightened Castro's fame.
Source: Young Castro -
Batista's General Amnesty, Castro is Released
In 1954, Batista's government won a fraudulent, unopposed election. It allowed some political opposition to be voiced, & Castro's supporters had agitated for an amnesty for the Moncada incident's perpetrators. Some politicians suggested an amnesty would be good publicity, and the Congress and Batista agreed. Backed by the U.S. and major corporations, Batista believed Castro to be no threat, and on 15 May 1955, the prisoners were released.
Source: Young Castro -
Naty goes to meet Fidel
As her marriage struggles with boredom, she takes her husband's Mercedez-Benz and goes to meet Fidel upon his release from jail without telling him.
Source: Havana Dreams -
Naty and Fidel consummate their relationship
Revuelta described ten days in Castro’s company in the small apartment attached to a space Lidia (Fidel's sister) had rented. They pored through old letters, soothed old wounds, and clarified misconceptions. Castro, a passionate cook, recreated favorite recipes from prison, including paella, pulled pork, and garlic chicken, all devoured in the rosy glow of the rising sun. Naty becomes pregnant, they both knew it wouldn't last.
Source: Havana Dreams -
Naty tells Fidel she is pregnant
The date of when this event happens is unknown. When Fidel learned that Naty was pregnant, he asked her to follow him to Mexico, where he promised to marry her. She refused. She did not have it in her to live life on the run. -
Fidel arrives in Mexico
Fleeing possibly assassination by police forces and the reticence of the Orthodox party to work with him, Fidel leaves with the promise to raise a revolutionary force. Met by his brother Raul and a Cuban émigré named María Antonia González, sister of a July 26th member.
Source: Young Castro -
Exile in Mexico and Meets Ché Guevara.
Castro sent a letter to the press, saying he was "leaving Cuba because all doors of peaceful struggle have been closed to me. As a follower of Martí, I believe the hour has come to take our rights and not beg for them, to fight instead of pleading for them."The Castros & several comrades arrive in Mexico, where Raúl befriends a Marxist Argentine doctor named Ernesto "Che" Guevara.
Source: Young Castro -
Manifesto No. 1 of the July 26 Movement to the People of Cuba
Smuggled in a copy of Don Quixote from Mexico, the document defended the Moncada attack and explained Castro’s decision to go into exile. It also laid out the Movement’s revolutionary platform, much of it already aired in “History Will Absolve Me.” There were a few items in the manifesto new to Castro’s agenda. The Revolution would end “racial and sexual discrimination that lamentably exist in the eld of social and economic life."
Source: Young Castro -
Batista’s Secret Service Chief follows Castro to Mexico
Batista applies pressure to the Mexican government in the coming years to kick out Castro.
Source: Cuba by Hugh Thomas for book click here -
Batista agrees to meet with opposition
A new united front had formed, communists excluded, to force Batista to hold elections in 1956. Batista met their leader, veteran of every Cuban event going back to the war against Spain, for talks. He never intends to hold elections in 1956.
Source: Cuba by Hugh Thomas for book click here