Pre-Columbian era

Humans first settled Cuba around 6,000 years ago, descending from migrations from northern South America or Central America.^[33] The arrival of humans on Cuba is associated with extinctions of the islands native fauna, particularly its endemic sloths.^[34] The Arawakan-speaking ancestors of the Taíno people arrived in the Caribbean in a separate migration from South America around 1,700 years ago. Unlike the previous settlers of Cuba, the Taíno extensively produced pottery and engaged in intensive agriculture.^[33] The earliest evidence of the Taíno people on Cuba dates to the 9th century AD.^[35] Descendants of the first settlers of Cuba persisted on the western part of the island until Columbian contact, where they were recorded as the Guanahatabey people, who lived a hunter-gatherer lifestyle.^[36]^[33]

Spanish colonization and rule (1492–1898)

After first landing on an island then called Guanahani on 12 October 1492,^[37] Christopher Columbus landed on Cuba on 27 October 1492, and landing in the northeastern coast on 28 October.^[38] Columbus claimed the island for the new Kingdom of Spain^[39] and named it Isla Juana ("John's Island") after John, Prince of Asturias.^[40]

Thumb — Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar, conquistador of Cuba

In 1511, the first Spanish settlement was founded by Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar at Baracoa. Other settlements soon followed, including San Cristobal de la Habana, founded in 1514 (southern coast of the island) and then in 1519 (current place), which later became the capital (1607). The Indigenous Taíno were forced to work under the encomienda system,^[41] which resembled the feudal system in medieval Europe.^[42] Within a century, the Indigenous people faced high incidence of mortality due to multiple factors, primarily Eurasian infectious diseases, to which they had no natural resistance (immunity), aggravated by the harsh conditions of the repressive colonial subjugation.^[43] In 1529, a measles outbreak killed two-thirds of those few Natives who had previously survived smallpox.^[44]^[45]

On 18 May 1539, conquistador Hernando de Soto departed from Havana with some 600 followers into a vast expedition through the American Southeast, in search of gold, treasure, fame and power.^[46] On 1 September 1548, Gonzalo Perez de Angulo was appointed governor of Cuba. He arrived in Santiago, Cuba, on 4 November 1549, and immediately declared the liberty of all Natives.^[47] He became Cuba's first permanent governor to reside in Havana instead of Santiago, and he built Havana's first church made of masonry.^[48]^[e]

By 1570, most residents of Cuba comprised a mixture of Spanish, African, and Taíno heritages.^[50] Cuba developed slowly and, unlike the plantation islands of the Caribbean, had a diversified agriculture. Most importantly, the colony developed as an urbanized society that primarily supported the Spanish colonial empire. By the mid-18th century, there were 50,000 slaves on the island. Estimates suggest that between 1790 and 1820 some 325,000 Africans were imported to Cuba as slaves, which was four times the amount that had arrived between 1760 and 1790.^[51]

In 1812, the Aponte Slave Rebellion took place, but it was ultimately suppressed.^[52] The population of Cuba in 1817 was 630,980 (of which 291,021 were white, 115,691 were free people of color (mixed-race), and 224,268 black slaves).^[53]

In part due to Cuban slaves working primarily in urbanized settings, by the 19th century, the practice of coartacion had developed (or "buying oneself out of slavery", a "uniquely Cuban development"), according to historian Herbert S. Klein.^[54] Due to a shortage of white labor, blacks dominated urban industries "to such an extent that when whites in large numbers came to Cuba in the middle of the nineteenth century, they were unable to displace Negro workers."^[55] A system of diversified agriculture, with small farms and fewer slaves, served to supply the cities with produce and other goods.^[55]

In the 1820s, when the rest of Spain's empire in Latin America rebelled and formed independent states, Cuba remained loyal to Spain. Its economy was based on serving the empire. By 1860, Cuba had 213,167 free people of color (39% of its non-white population of 550,000).^[55]

Independence movements

Full independence from Spain was the goal of a rebellion in 1868 led by planter Carlos Manuel de Céspedes. De Céspedes, a sugar planter, freed his slaves to fight with him for an independent Cuba. On 27 December 1868, he issued a decree condemning slavery in theory but accepting it in practice and declaring free any slaves whose masters present them for military service.^[56] The 1868 rebellion resulted in a prolonged conflict known as the Ten Years' War.

According to one military historian, "The thirty-eight individuals who responded to the call for independence on 9 October 1868 had almost no military experience. They, and other Cubans, ignorant of the martial skills, were soon joined by a small band of political refugees from Santo Domingo. A number of these individuals had fought for Spain in Santo Domingo following its re-annexation (1861–65). When Spain quit Santo Domingo for the second time, some Dominican colonial officers immigrated to Cuba. Most were unable to find service in the Spanish army in Cuba. Some of these former soldiers joined the new Revolutionary army and provided its initial training and leadership."^[57] Mercenaries from Canada, Colombia, France, Mexico, and the United States also joined the Cuban Revolutionary Army. Chinese nationals, brought to Cuba as indentured servants, also fought for the cause.^[57]

By 1876, the Cuban Revolutionary movement was facing internal strife, largely driven by racial tensions. General Máximo Gómez surrendered his command after officers refused to follow his orders because he was Dominican. At the same time, the campaign against Antonio Maceo, a mulatto leader, grew stronger as white factions sought to undermine his leadership because of his race. These racial divisions contributed to a decline in morale within the Revolutionary Army.^[58]

The United States declined to recognize the new Cuban government, although many European and Latin American nations did so.^[59] In 1878, the Pact of Zanjón ended the conflict, with Spain promising greater autonomy to Cuba. In 1879–80, Cuban patriot Calixto García attempted to start another war known as the Little War but failed to receive enough support.^[60] Slavery in Cuba was abolished in 1875 but the process was completed only in 1886.^[61]^[62] An exiled dissident named José Martí founded the Cuban Revolutionary Party in New York City in 1892. The aim of the party was to achieve Cuban independence from Spain.^[63] In January 1895, Martí traveled to Monte Cristi and Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic to join the efforts of Máximo Gómez.^[63] Martí recorded his political views in the Manifesto of Montecristi.^[64] Fighting against the Spanish army began in Cuba on 24 February 1895, but Martí was unable to reach Cuba until 11 April 1895.^[63] Martí was killed in the Battle of Dos Rios on 19 May 1895.^[63] His death immortalized him as Cuba's national hero.^[64]

Around 200,000 Spanish troops outnumbered the much smaller rebel army, which relied mostly on guerrilla and sabotage tactics. The Spaniards began a campaign of suppression. General Valeriano Weyler, the military governor of Cuba, herded the rural population into what he called reconcentrados, described by international observers as "fortified towns". These are often considered the prototype for 20th-century concentration camps.^[65] Between 200,000^[66] and 400,000 Cuban civilians died from starvation and disease in the Spanish concentration camps, numbers verified by the Red Cross and United States Senator Redfield Proctor, a former Secretary of War. American and European protests against Spanish conduct on the island followed.^[67]

The U.S. battleship USS Maine was sent to protect American interests, but soon after arrival, it exploded in Havana harbor and sank quickly, killing nearly three-quarters of the crew. The cause and responsibility for the sinking of the ship remained unclear after a board of inquiry. Popular opinion in the U.S., fueled by active yellow press, concluded that the Spanish were to blame and demanded action.^[68] Spain and the United States declared war on each other in late April 1898.^[f]

Republic (1902–1959)

First years (1902–1925)

After the Spanish–American War, Spain and the United States signed the Treaty of Paris (1898), by which Spain ceded Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and Guam to the United States for the sum of US$20 million^[71] and Cuba became a protectorate of the United States. Cuba gained formal independence from the U.S. on 20 May 1902, as the Republic of Cuba.^[72] Under Cuba's new constitution, the U.S. retained the right to intervene in Cuban affairs and to supervise its finances and foreign relations. Under the Platt Amendment, the U.S. leased the Guantánamo Bay Naval Base from Cuba.

Following disputed elections in 1906, the first president, Tomás Estrada Palma, faced an armed revolt by independence war veterans who defeated the meager government forces.^[73] The U.S. intervened by occupying Cuba and named Charles Edward Magoon as Governor for three years. Cuban historians have characterized Magoon's governorship as having introduced political and social corruption.^[74] In 1908, self-government was restored when José Miguel Gómez was elected president, but the U.S. continued intervening in Cuban affairs. In 1912, the Partido Independiente de Color attempted to establish a separate black republic in Oriente Province,^[75] but was suppressed by General Monteagudo with considerable bloodshed.

In 1924, Gerardo Machado was elected president.^[76] During his administration, tourism increased markedly, and American-owned hotels and restaurants were built to accommodate the influx of tourists.^[76] The tourist boom led to increases in gambling and prostitution in Cuba.^[76] The Wall Street Crash of 1929 led to a collapse in the price of sugar, political unrest, and repression.^[77] Protesting students, known as the Generation of 1930, turned to violence in opposition to the increasingly unpopular Machado.^[77] A general strike (in which the Communist Party sided with Machado),^[78] uprisings among sugar workers, and an army revolt forced Machado into exile in August 1933. He was replaced by Carlos Manuel de Céspedes y Quesada.^[77]

Revolution of 1933–1940

In September 1933, the Sergeants' Revolt, led by Sergeant Fulgencio Batista, overthrew Céspedes.^[79] A five-member executive committee (the Pentarchy of 1933) was chosen to head a provisional government.^[80] Ramón Grau San Martín was then appointed as provisional president.^[80] Grau resigned in 1934, leaving the way clear for Batista, who dominated Cuban politics for the next 25 years, at first through a series of puppet-presidents.^[79] The period from 1933 to 1937 was a time of "virtually unremitting social and political warfare".^[81] On balance, during the period 1933–1940 Cuba suffered from fragile political structures, reflected in the fact that it saw three different presidents in two years (1935–1936), and in the militaristic and repressive policies of Batista as Head of the Army.

Constitution of 1940

A new constitution was adopted in 1940, which engineered radical progressive ideas, including the right to labor and health care.^[82] Batista was elected president in the same year, holding the post until 1944.^[83] He is so far the only non-white Cuban to win the nation's highest political office.^[84]^[85]^[86] His government carried out major social reforms. Several members of the Communist Party held office under his administration.^[87] Cuban armed forces were not greatly involved in combat during World War II—though president Batista did suggest a joint U.S.-Latin American assault on Francoist Spain to overthrow its authoritarian regime.^[88] Cuba lost six merchant ships during the war, and the Cuban Navy was credited with sinking the German submarine U-176.^[89]

Batista adhered to the 1940 constitution's strictures preventing his re-election.^[90] Ramon Grau San Martin was the winner of the next election, in 1944.^[83] Grau further corroded the base of the already teetering legitimacy of the Cuban political system, in particular by undermining the deeply flawed, though not entirely ineffectual, Congress and Supreme Court.^[91] Carlos Prío Socarrás, a protégé of Grau, became president in 1948.^[83] The two terms of the Auténtico Party brought an influx of investment, which fueled an economic boom, raised living standards for all segments of society, and created a middle class in most urban areas.^[92]

Batista regime

Thumb — Slum (*bohío*) dwellings in Havana, Cuba in 1954, just outside Havana baseball stadium. In the background is advertising for a nearby casino.

After finishing his term in 1944 Batista lived in Florida, returning to Cuba to run for president in 1952. Facing certain electoral defeat, he led a military coup that preempted the election.^[93] Back in power, and receiving financial, military, and logistical support from the United States government, Batista suspended the 1940 Constitution and revoked most political liberties, including the right to strike. He then aligned with the wealthiest landowners who owned the largest sugar plantations, and presided over a stagnating economy that widened the gap between rich and poor Cubans.^[94] Batista outlawed the Cuban Communist Party in 1952.^[95] After the coup, Cuba had Latin America's highest per capita consumption rates of meat, vegetables, cereals, automobiles, telephones and radios, though about one-third of the population was considered poor and enjoyed relatively little of this consumption.^[96] However, in his "History Will Absolve Me" speech, Fidel Castro mentioned that national issues relating to land, industrialization, housing, unemployment, education, and health were contemporary problems.^[97]

In 1958, Cuba was a well-advanced country in comparison to other Latin American regions.^[98] Cuba was also affected by perhaps the largest labor union privileges in Latin America, including bans on dismissals and mechanization. They were obtained in large measure "at the cost of the unemployed and the peasants", leading to disparities.^[99] Between 1933 and 1958, Cuba extended economic regulations enormously, causing economic problems.^[84]^[100] Unemployment became a problem as graduates entering the workforce could not find jobs.^[84] The middle class, which was comparable to that of the United States^[how?], became increasingly dissatisfied with unemployment and political persecution. The labor unions, manipulated by the previous government since 1948 through union "yellowness", supported Batista until the very end.^[84]^[85] Batista stayed in power until he resigned in December 1958 under the pressure of the US Embassy and as the revolutionary forces headed by Fidel Castro were winning militarily (Santa Clara city, a strategic point in the middle of the country, fell into the rebels hands on December 31, in a conflict known as the Battle of Santa Clara).^[101]^[102]

In the 1950s, various organizations, including some advocating armed uprising, competed for public support in bringing about political change.^[103] In 1956, Fidel Castro and about 80 supporters landed from the yacht Granma in an attempt to start a rebellion against the Batista government.^[103] In 1958, Castro's July 26th Movement emerged as the leading revolutionary group.^[103] The U.S. supported Castro by imposing a 1958 arms embargo against Batista's government. Batista evaded the American embargo and acquired weapons from the Dominican Republic.

By late 1958, the rebels had broken out of the Sierra Maestra and launched a general popular insurrection. After Castro's fighters captured Santa Clara, Batista fled with his family to the Dominican Republic on 1 January 1959. Later he went into exile on the Portuguese island of Madeira and finally settled in Estoril, near Lisbon. Fidel Castro's forces entered the capital on 8 January 1959. The liberal Manuel Urrutia Lleó became the provisional president.^[104] One of the goals of Castro's revolution was to achieve economic independence, but Cuba instead became heavily dependent on Soviet subsidies, with additional economic aid provided by Eastern European countries through COMECON.^[105]

Militant anti-Castro groups, funded by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Rafael Trujillo, carried out armed attacks and set up guerrilla bases in Cuba's mountainous regions. This led to the unsuccessful Escambray rebellion (1959–65), which lasted longer and involved more soldiers than the Cuban Revolution.^[106]^[107]

Revolutionary government (1959–present)

Consolidation and nationalization (1959–1970)

Thumb — Che Guevara and Fidel Castro, photographed by Alberto Korda in 1961

According to Amnesty International, official death sentences from 1959 to 1987 numbered 237 of which all but 21 were carried out.^[108] The vast majority of those executed directly following the 1959 Revolution were policemen, politicians, and informers of the Batista regime accused of crimes such as torture and murder, and their public trials and executions had widespread popular support among the Cuban population.^[109]

The United States government initially reacted favorably to the Cuban Revolution, seeing it as part of a movement to bring democracy to Latin America.^[111] Castro's legalization of the Communist Party and the hundreds of executions of Batista agents, policemen, and soldiers that followed caused a deterioration in the relationship between the two countries.^[111] The promulgation of the Agrarian Reform Law, expropriating thousands of acres of farmland (including from large U.S. landholders), further worsened relations.^[111]^[112] In response, between 1960 and 1964 the U.S. imposed a range of sanctions, eventually including a total ban on trade between the countries and a freeze on all Cuban-owned assets in the U.S.^[113] In February 1960, Castro signed a commercial agreement with Soviet Vice-Premier Anastas Mikoyan.^[111]

In March 1960, U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower gave his approval to a CIA plan to arm and train a group of Cuban refugees to overthrow the Castro government. The CIA provided B-26 light bombers and ships to the rebels for the invasion. On 15 April at dawn, Brigade 2506 flew from Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua, and carried out preemptive airstrikes on Cuban military airfields at San Antonio de Los Baños, Ciudad Libertad, Pinar del Río, and Santiago de Cuba, destroying five aircraft and damaging an indeterminable number.^[114] The invasion (known as the Bay of Pigs Invasion) took place on 17 April 1961, during the term of President John F. Kennedy.^[112] About 1,400 Cuban exiles disembarked at the Bay of Pigs. Cuban troops and local militias defeated the invasion by 19 April, killing over 100 invaders and taking the remainder prisoner.^[112] Five rebel B-26s were shot down by the Cuban air force, and one was downed by anti-aircraft fire.^[115] In January 1962, Cuba was suspended from the Organization of American States (OAS), and later the same year the OAS started to impose sanctions against Cuba of similar nature to the U.S. sanctions.^[116] The failed amphibious assault on Cuba contributed to the Soviet decision to deploy missiles there,^[117] and the ensuing Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 almost sparked World War III.^[118]^[119] In 1962, American generals proposed Operation Northwoods which would entail committing terrorist attacks in American cities and against refugees and falsely blaming the attacks on the Cuban government, manufacturing a reason for the United States to invade Cuba. This plan was rejected by President Kennedy.^[120] By 1963, Cuba was moving towards a full-fledged communist system modeled on the USSR.^[121]

Eloy Gutiérrez Menoyo founded the anti-Castro group Alpha 66 in the early 1960s, which used small craft to attack Cuban and Soviet merchant ships, killing or wounding crew members. In 1964, Menoyo set up a guerrilla training camp in the Dominican Republic, and after entering Cuba in 1965, he was captured; however, Alpha 66 continued its raids under new leadership.^[122] By the mid-1960s, Soviet aid had strengthened the Cuban air force and navy, making raids against the island by Cuban dissidents costly without significant U.S. support.^[123]

In 1963, Cuba sent 686 troops together with 22 tanks and other military equipment to support Algeria in the Sand War against Morocco.^[124] The Cuban forces remained in Algeria for over a year, providing training to the Algerian army.^[125] Che Guevara, authorized by Fidel Castro, engaged in guerrilla activities in Africa and was killed in 1967 while attempting to start a revolution in Bolivia.^[50] By the middle of 1965, Cuba had begun supplying arms to the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA). In 1966, Cuban aid also reached the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde. Furthermore, by the late 1960s, Cuban instructors were providing military training to members of the Mozambique Liberation Front.^[125] Cuban troops prevented the 1966 Republic of the Congo coup attempt. The coup collapsed when the Congolese army refused to engage in combat against the Cubans.^[125] In February 1967, Cuban advisors began operating with guerrillas in the Guinea-Bissau War of Independence, and in November 1969, the Portuguese captured Cuban Captain Pedro Rodriguez Peralta.^[125]

Starting in 1968 a campaign titled the "revolutionary offensive" was initiated to nationalize all remaining private small businesses, which at the time totaled to be about 58,000 small enterprises.^[126] The campaign would spur industrialization in Cuba and focus the economy on sugar production, specifically to a deadline for an annual sugar harvest of 10 million tons by 1970. The economic focus on sugar production involved international volunteers and the mobilization of workers from all sectors of the Cuban economy.^[127] Economic mobilization also coincided with greater militarization of Cuban political structures and society in general.^[128] The ten million ton harvest goal was not reached.^[129]^: 37–38 The Cuban economy fell into decline after large sectors of the economy were neglected when large amounts of urban labor mobilized to the countryside.^[129]^: 38

The standard of living in the 1970s was "extremely spartan" and discontent was rife.^[130] Fidel Castro admitted the failures of economic policies in a 1970 speech.^[130] In 1975, the OAS lifted its sanctions against Cuba, with the approval of 16 member states, including the United States. The U.S., however, maintained its own sanctions.^[116]

Foreign interventions (1971–1991)

During the Cold War, Cuba received $33 billion in Soviet aid,^[105] and Cuban forces were deployed to all corners of Africa, either as military advisors or as combatants.^[131] Soviet pilots and technicians assumed defense duties in Cuba, freeing up Cuban personnel to be deployed in Africa.^[125] In 1979, the U.S. objected to the presence of Soviet combat troops on the island.^[50]

Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR) commanders in Angola during the Battle of Quifangondo

A Cuban-manned Soviet PT-76 in Luanda

Cuban artillery crew in Ethiopia during the Ogaden War

In November 1975, Cuba deployed more than 65,000 troops and 400 Soviet-made tanks in Angola in one of the fastest military mobilizations in history.^[132] South Africa developed nuclear weapons due to the threat to its security posed by the presence of large numbers of Cuban troops in Angola.^[133] In 1976 and again in 1988 at the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale, the Cubans alongside their MPLA allies defeated UNITA rebels and apartheid South African forces. In December 1977, Cuba sent its combat troops from Angola, the People's Republic of the Congo, and the Caribbean to Ethiopia,^[125] assisted by mechanized Soviet battalions, to help defeat a Somali invasion. On 24 January 1978, Ethiopian and Cuban troops counterattacked, inflicting 3,000 casualties on the Somali forces.^[125] In February, Cuban troops launched a major offensive and forced the Somali army back into its own territory.^[125] Cuban forces remained in Ethiopia until September 1989.^[125]

Despite Cuba's small size and the long distance separating it from the Middle East, Castro's Cuba played an active role in the region during the Cold War. In 1972, a major Cuban military mission consisting of tank, air, and artillery specialists was dispatched to South Yemen. Cuban military advisors were sent to Iraq in the mid-1970s but their mission was canceled after Iraq invaded Iran in 1980.^[125] The Cubans were also involved in the Syrian-Israeli conflict (November 1973–May 1974) that followed the Yom Kippur War (October 1973).^[134] Israeli sources reported the presence of a Cuban tank brigade in the Golan Heights, which was supported by two brigades.^[135] The Israelis and the Cuban-Syrian tank forces engaged in battle on the Golan front.^[136]^: 37–38

After the U.S. was defeated in the Vietnam War, Castro began supporting Marxist insurgencies in Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Colombia by supplying weapons, munitions, and training.^[137] Following the 1983 coup that resulted in the execution of Grenadian Prime Minister Maurice Bishop and establishment of the military government led by Hudson Austin, U.S. forces invaded Grenada in 1983, overthrowing the pro-Castro government. In a few days of fighting, 6,000 American combat troops defeated 784 Cubans (636 construction workers with military training, 43 military advisors, and 18 diplomats).^[138]

Cuba gradually withdrew its troops from Angola in 1989–91.^[125] An important psychological and political aspect of the Cuban military involvement in Africa was the significant presence of black or mixed-race soldiers among the Cuban forces. According to one source, more than 300,000 Cuban military personnel and civilian experts were deployed in Africa. The source also states that out of the 50,000 Cubans sent to Angola, half contracted AIDS and that 10,000 Cubans died as a consequence of their military actions in Africa.^[125]

Political readjustments (1991–present)

Soviet troops began to withdraw from Cuba in September 1991,^[50] and Castro's rule was severely tested in the aftermath of the Soviet collapse in December 1991 (known in Cuba as the Special Period). The country faced a severe economic downturn following the withdrawal of Soviet subsidies worth $4 billion to $6 billion annually, resulting in effects such as food and fuel shortages.^[139]^[140] The government did not accept American donations of food, medicines and cash until 1993.^[139] On 5 August 1994, state security dispersed protesters in a spontaneous protest in Havana. From the start of the crisis until 1995, Cuba saw its gross domestic product (GDP) shrink by 35%. It took another five years for its GDP to reach pre-crisis levels.^[141]

Cuba has since found a new source of aid and support in the People's Republic of China. In addition, Hugo Chávez, then president of Venezuela, and Evo Morales, former president of Bolivia, became allies and both countries are major oil and gas exporters. In 2003, the government arrested and imprisoned a large number of civil activists, a period known as the "Black Spring".^[142]^[143]

In February 2008, Fidel Castro resigned as President of the State Council due to the serious gastrointestinal illness which he had suffered since July 2006.^[144] On 24 February, the National Assembly elected his brother Raúl Castro the new president.^[145] In his inauguration speech, Raúl promised that some of the restrictions on freedom in Cuba would be removed.^[146] In March 2009, Raúl Castro removed some of his brother's appointees.^[147]

On 3 June 2009, the Organization of American States adopted a resolution to end the 47-year ban on Cuban membership of the group.^[148] The resolution stated, however, that full membership would be delayed until Cuba was "in conformity with the practices, purposes, and principles of the OAS".^[116] Fidel Castro wrote that Cuba would not rejoin the OAS, which, he said, was a "U.S. Trojan horse" and "complicit" in actions taken by the U.S. against Cuba and other Latin American nations.^[149]

Effective 14 January 2013, Cuba ended the requirement established in 1961, that any citizens who wish to travel abroad were required to obtain an expensive government permit and a letter of invitation.^[150]^[151]^[152] In 1961 the Cuban government had imposed broad restrictions on travel to prevent the mass emigration of people after the 1959 revolution;^[153] it approved exit visas only on rare occasions.^[154] Requirements were simplified: Cubans need only a passport and a national ID card to leave; and they are allowed to take their young children with them for the first time.^[155] However, a passport costs on average five months' salary. Observers expect that Cubans with paying relatives abroad are most likely to be able to take advantage of the new policy.^[156] In the first year of the program, over 180,000 left Cuba and returned. As of December 2014^[update], talks with Cuban officials and American officials, including President Barack Obama, resulted in the release of Alan Gross, fifty-two political prisoners, and an unnamed non-citizen agent of the United States in return for the release of three Cuban agents currently imprisoned in the United States. Additionally, while the embargo between the United States and Cuba was not immediately lifted, it was relaxed to allow import, export, and certain limited commerce.^[157]

Raúl Castro stepped down from the presidency on 19 April 2018 and Miguel Díaz-Canel was elected president by the National Assembly following parliamentary elections. Raúl Castro remained the First Secretary of the Communist Party and retained broad authority, including oversight over the president.^[158]

Cuba approved a new constitution in 2019. The optional vote attracted 84.4% of eligible voters. 90% of those who voted approved of the new constitution and 9% opposed it. The new constitution states that the Communist Party is the only legitimate political party, describes access to health and education as fundamental rights, imposes presidential term limits, enshrines the right to legal representation upon arrest, recognizes private property, and strengthens the rights of multinationals investing with the state.^[159] Any form of discrimination harmful to human dignity is banned under the new constitution.^[160]

Raúl Castro announced at the Eighth Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba, which began on 16 April 2021, that he was retiring as secretary of the Communist Party.^[161] His successor, Miguel Díaz-Canel, was voted in on 19 April.^[162]

In July 2021, there were several large protests against the government under the banner of Patria y Vida. Cuban exiles also conducted protests overseas.^[163]^[164]^[165] The song associated with the movement received international acclaim including a Latin Grammy Award.^[166]

On 25 September 2022, Cuba approved a referendum which amended the Family Code to legalise same-sex marriage and allow surrogate pregnancy and same-sex adoption. Gender reassignment surgery and transgender hormone therapy are provided free of charge under Cuba's national healthcare system. The proposed changes were supported by the government and opposed by conservatives and parts of the opposition. Official policies of the Cuban government from 1959 until the 1990s were hostile towards homosexuality, with the LGBT community marginalized on the basis of heteronormativity, traditional gender roles, and strict criteria for moralism.^[160]^[167]