What do you think of all this?

Well, it's a pretext.

The charges against Raul Castro are really quite preposterous.

And it's really the United States creating a justification for increased hostility towards Cuba, which has been ramped up by this administration to seriousness and heights that it's not been before.

The background to this, of course, is you didn't mention the fact that the United States has been carrying out a complete oil blockade of Cuba for the last month.

And Cuba is without any oil.

There is no electricity.

A recent poll in the Miami Herald found Cuban Americans in South Florida overwhelmingly supported US military intervention in Cuba and wanted regime change.

How had it held onto Cuba for so long?

Um, well, the short answer is sugar and slavery.

So going back to the beginning of the nineteenth century, Cuba became very suddenly, at the end of the eighteenth, early nineteenth century, a major sugar producer, which entailed the importation of vast numbers of African slaves.

And there was a fear amongst the newly rich planter class at the time, uh, of another Haiti.

There was a slave rebellion in the neighboring colony of Saint-Domingue, which was owned by France.

Um, that was actually the cause of the explosion of sugar in Cuba.

The sugar industry in, in Saint-Domingue was decimated.

Can you tell us a bit about José Martí, who he was, and how he helped propel the Cuban independence movement?

How had it held on to Cuba for so long?

Um, well, the short answer is sugar and slavery.

So going back to the beginning of the nineteenth century, Cuba became very suddenly, at the end of the eighteenth, early nineteenth century, a major sugar producer, which entailed the importation of vast numbers of African slaves.

And there was a fear amongst the newly rich planter class at the time, uh, of another Haiti.

There was a slave rebellion in the neighboring colony of Saint-Domingue, which was owned by France.

Um, that was actually the cause of the explosion of sugar in Cuba.

The sugar industry in, in Saint-Domingue was decimated.

Can you tell us a bit about José Martí, who he was, and how he helped propel the Cuban independence movement?