Americans ran Cuba back then. They owned 90 percent of the mines and mineral concessions, 80 percent of public utilities, half of the railroad companies, and two-fifths of its sugar plantations. The US supplied two-thirds of the imports. A friend of Castro’s, García Márquez tried nevertheless to be frank about what the revolution didn’t plan for and didn’t make happen, at least by the time he wrote. Batista started out as leftist, but found himself negotiating with and then controlled by US interests, until Castro and Che and the revolution came along. They reclaimed the wealth and incensed
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