SPECIAL PERIOD

At the beginning of the 1980s, there was a notable increase in the probability of military aggression against Cuba when the extreme right-wing came to power in the United States. At that same time, the leaders of the USSR surprisingly communicated to the Cuban authorities that they would not go to Cuba's aid in the case of a military blockade or the bombing or invasion of the island. The stage in which that extreme contingency was reached was called the "Special Period in Wartime" in the plans drawn up to face it.

When, in 1989, the Cuban leadership forecast the complex situation that could take place in the future, they came to the conclusion that, in a certain way, it would be assimilated to the situation anticipated in the case of the country having to confront military aggression by the main power on the planet unaided. The period of great economic difficulties that might take place then started being called the "Special Period in Peacetime". Work immediately began to put the country in conditions for confronting it decisively and successfully.

The following public statement by Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro in January 1990 is self-explanatory:

"What does 'special period in peacetime' mean? That the problems could have been so serious in the economic sphere due to relations with the countries of Eastern Europe or could have been so grave due to certain factors or processes in the Soviet Union that our country would have had to confront an exceedingly difficult supply situation. Take into account that all of the fuel comes from the USSR - or it might be, for example, that this could have been reduced to half due to difficulties in the USSR or even reduced to zero, which would be equivalent to a situation like the one we call special period in wartime. It would not, of course, be exceedingly grave in peacetime because there would be certain possibilities for exports and imports in that variant."

A few months later, that situation was already a reality and it is still hitting the Cuban people hard even today. But the Cuban people, far from becoming scared, carried out the extraordinary prowess of decisively confronting and emerging gracefully from the most difficult moment of this economic crisis caused by external factors, until they turned the situation around in order to start the gradual economic recovery now taking place.

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