"Nation or death": the Cuban Revolution and the 1990’s crisis.

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the survival conditions of the cuban political regime from the end of the cold war, during the “Special Period”. The breakdown of the socialist bloc between 1989 and 1991 certainly represented an important change of direction for the Cuban Revolution and generated an economic crisis of great proportions, which put at risk the very permanence of the revolutionary regime. However, it was allowed to survive - despite the diffi cult inner and outer conditions and the frequent contrary predictions – to its most delicate moment since the origin in 1959. Although there was a plan for economic reforms and policies to a lesser extent, the survival of the regime was bounded to its nationalistic appeal, what was the political legitimacy before the socialism crisis, as well as the defense of the social achievements of the 30 years of the revolutionary regime.