Cuba Debate

Fidel, together with Dr. Osvaldo Dorticos, Minister in Charge of the Presentation and Study of Revolutionary Laws, signs the Agrarian Reform Law on May 17, 1959 / Sitio Fidel Soldado de las Ideas.

The 17th of May is a historical date that has more than enough reasons to celebrate, since it gathers the humblest of the social classes, whose roots are linked to the conquests and achievements of the Revolution.

On May 17, 1959, the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro Ruz, signed the Agrarian Reform Law at the Comandancia de la Plata, which gave the land to its true owners, the peasants who worked it. On this historical occasion he declared May 17, 1984 in the Central Act for the XXV Anniversary of the Agrarian Reform Law:

“The Revolution, when it proclaimed the Agrarian Reform on May 17, 1959, liberated the peasant and working masses from exploitation: 100,000 tenants, sharecroppers and squatters became owners by virtue of that law; and by virtue of that law, the large foreign and national estates were condemned to disappear”.

“It was not only the handing over of the land to the peasants who worked it, it was not only the liberation of the agricultural workers; but in a whole set of fundamental aspects we could say that on May 17 the liberation of our peasants and our agricultural workers began”.

The 1959 Agrarian Reform Law was the first revolutionary action that initiated the transformation of Cuba’s economic and social structure and facilitated its development process. Confronted with this and other measures, the U.S. government determined to initiate subversive and extraterritorial actions against the Cuban people and its Revolution.

Fidel announces the transcendental event to the people. Behind Celia Sanchez, Faustino Perez, (with beret) Minister of Recovery of Embezzled Goods, and Captain Antonio Nuñez Jimenez, on May 17, 1959 / Sitio Fidel Soldado de las Ideas.

Cubadebate and Fidel Soldado de las Ideas share with their readers fragments of the book Documentos de la Revolución cubana – 1959 (Documents of the Cuban Revolution – 1959), which examines documents, actions carried out and measures taken 60 years ago around the Agrarian Reform Law.

Sugar monoproduction (since the end of the 19th century) and livestock production (approximately since the fourth decade of the 20th century) had been based on extensive agriculture that made the latifundia flourish until it became the most acute structural problem of Cuban society. Why? Because latifundia is the concentration of land ownership in the hands of a few, it constitutes an economic aberration. In the Cuban case, this concentration was not only very high, but a good part of those lands were idle. According to data from 1952, the owners of sugar estates and cattle ranchers spread over 75% of the country’s agricultural surface.

Because it was one of the political pillars of dependence, since more than one million one hundred thousand hectares of the best Cuban lands were owned by the United States.

Because the expansion of the sugar estate, in particular, meant in Cuba the virtual disappearance of the peasantry, the proliferation of the agricultural worker and the high exploitation of both social classes. This would lead to their growing social impoverishment. In “La historia me absolverá” (History will absolve me), his defense plea in the trial for the assault on the Moncada Barracks on July 26, 1953, Fidel Castro would take up again the historical demands on the Cuban agrarian question and incorporate them as one of the first problems to be solved by the revolutionary government that would be constituted when the popular insurrection derived from that action triumphed. Previously, in his presentation, he had characterized the structure of the exploited classes of Cuban society, clarifying that for him, the key concept was people, that is, the mass that would carry out the revolutionary process: “We call people, if it is a matter of struggle (…) the five hundred thousand farm workers who live in miserable huts, who work four months a year and starve the rest (…), the one hundred thousand small farmers, who live and die working a land that is not their own (…)”.1 Later on, he announces the revolutionary program that would be applied immediately, once power is taken (Moncada Program): “The second revolutionary law granted the unseizable and untransferable ownership of land to all settlers, sub-settlers, tenants, sharecroppers and squatters who occupied plots of land of five or fewer chivalries (…)”.2 The second revolutionary law granted the unseizable and untransferable ownership of land to all settlers, sub-settlers, tenants, sharecroppers and squatters who occupied plots of land of five or fewer horses (…). The fact of establishing an agrarian law as the second action of the transforming movement was an indicator of the relevance that the revolutionary group gave to this problem and of the depth of its political projection. It is important to emphasize that the agrarian law that was proposed to approve that triumphant revolutionary government, was supported legally in article 90 of the Constitution of 1940, which established the proscription of the latifundio although the complementary legislation would never be elaborated, essential to carry out such a significant purpose.3 In 1955, when the Revolutionary Movement 26 de Julio was already organized, the “Manifesto No. 1 to the People of Cuba” was released, in which the elimination of the latifundia appeared as the first issue to be resolved after the seizure of power. Once the war of liberation began in the eastern mountains and the Rebel Army expanded in its different territories, the battle fronts were given the task of organizing agricultural production, establishing some basic social services and responding, as far as possible, to the main demands of the rural population. Among others, we consider the following events as antecedents of the Agrarian Reform Law of 1959: The peasant assembly of Vegas de Jibacoa, held on May 25, 1958 in that liberated territory, headquarters of the IV Front, under the command of Commander Ernesto Che Guevara. It was attended by 400 peasants and was presided over by the Commander in Chief of the Rebel Army, Fidel Castro.

The Peasant Congress of the Frank País Eastern Front II, liberated territory, under the command of Commander Raúl Castro. The Congress, which took place on September 21, 1958, was attended by 160 representatives of the seven municipalities in which the II Front was based and was presided over by Commander Raúl Castro.

Law No. 3 of the Rebel Army “On the Right of Peasants to Land”. (It was published in the Official Bulletin of the Rebel Army in the extraordinary edition of October 20, 1958.)

After the triumph, the Council of Ministers approved on February 23, 1959, a law by means of which several departments of the Rebel Army were created -attached to the Ministry of National Defense- with a view to involving it in various economic and social tasks to which priority was given. Among these departments, we cite: technical, material and cultural assistance to the peasantry; housing construction. The 1959 Agrarian Reform Law was signed on May 17 of that year by the Prime Minister of the Revolutionary Government, Commander Fidel Castro, in the General Command of the Rebel Army in La Plata, Sierra Maestra, and put into effect on June 3. In its first article, the Law outlawed latifundia and established in 30 caballerias (402 ha) the maximum limit of land that could be owned by a natural or legal person. Exceptions were larger farms that demonstrated a high level of production and productivity, although the final limit for these was up to 100 caballerías. In his article 15, he made it clear that only Cuban citizens or societies formed by Cuban citizens could own land. These two articles were a deadly blow to national and foreign landowners, particularly Americans, who had accumulated enormous amounts of the best Cuban lands. The law decided to distribute land to non-owner peasants (tenants, settlers, sub-settlers, sharecroppers and squatters) and thus consolidated small agricultural property by eliminating, for the first time in Cuba, land leases in cash and in kind. Approximately 200,000 peasant families benefited from the distribution of a little more than five million caballerias. Article 29 of the Law recognized the constitutional right of expropriated large landowners to receive compensation. To this end, the Law included a specific article. The lands expropriated from U.S. capital were, of course, included in the compensation, but the U.S. government, while recognizing Cuba’s right to nationalize its property, demanded that the expropriation be paid fairly, promptly, adequately and effectively. The Revolutionary Government, with a Treasury embezzled by Tyranny, could not attend to such demands. It was not until 1974 that the UN approved the Charter of Economic Rights and Duties of States, in which appears the concept that compensation is “appropriate” according to the law of the nationalizing State. The United States did not accept Cuba’s legislation on economic compensation to its nationalized properties; however, the rest of the governments whose nationals had been affected did negotiate and were compensated. As part of its articles, the National Institute of Agrarian Reform (INRA) was created, to whose management was assigned the application of the Law and the promotion of the country’s agricultural development.

The first revolutionary law returned sovereignty to the people and proclaimed the 1940 Constitution as the supreme law of the Cuban state.

Other revolutionary laws would address serious social problems affecting the Cuban people, such as public health, education, security, employment, housing.

Casa de la Comandancia de La Plata with its cedar walls and guano roof, from where the final offensive of the Rebel Army and other actions were coordinated and elaborated. In this historic place Fidel signs the Agrarian Reform Law on May 17, 1959 / Sitio Fidel Soldado de las Ideas.

Fidel, together with Captain Antonio Núñez Jiménez, economist Oscar Pino Santos and other members of the Council of Ministers, put the final touches to the Agrarian Reform Law on May 17, 1959 / Sitio Fidel Soldado de las Ideas.

Fidel signs the Agrarian Reform Law in La Plata, Sierra Maestra, on May 17, 1959 / Sitio Fidel Soldado de las Ideas.

After signing the Agrarian Reform Law, Fidel gives the historic document to Luis Orlando Rodriguez, who is signing it. Along with the Commander in Chief appear the doctor Comandante Julio Martínez Páez, Minister of Health and the Minister of Labor, Manuel Fernández, on May 17, 1959 / Sitio Fidel Soldado de las Ideas.

Fidel, after signing the Agrarian Reform Law, goes from the La Plata Headquarters to the house where the equipment of the Radio Rebelde radio station was installed on May 17, 1959 / Sitio Fidel Soldado de las Ideas. Fidel communicates the transcendental event to the people. In the center, Captain Jorge Enrique Mendoza, who was one of his speakers and Commander Crescencio Pérez, on May 17, 1959 / Sitio Fidel Soldado de las Ideas.

Fidel in the delivery of land titles to peasants, December 9, 1959 / Sitio Fidel Soldado de las Ideas.

Campesina de Baracoa muestra el título de propiedad de la tierra, el 9 de diciembre de 1959./ Sitio Fidel Soldado de las Ideas.

Translation by Internationalist 360°

