The Special Period for Raúl, the FAR, and Cuba

Abstract

In July 1990, Fidel announced in even more dramatic fashion than usual that there would now be a modification of the standing national defense plan for time of war, termed a “special period”; it would now apply instead, with obviously major modifications, in time of peace. The end of the vast majority of Soviet trade with the island, and of all development cooperation, investment, and credit arrangements had come as a hammer blow and the comandante en jefe made no secret about the implications being a major period of belt-tightening such as revolutionary Cuba had never known before.