Horror, Sleaze and Trash.

Fidel Castro laughing at a newspaper headline while visiting New York in 1959. The United States made several attempts to assassinate or overthrow Castro during his premiership of Cuba, primarily because his anti-imperialist and socialist policies meant that the United States no longer had free reign to exploit the country’s resources. Prior to Castro’s overthrow of the Batista government private US business interests dominated the Island’s economy. While the media typically reports that US antagonism of Castro resulted from human rights abuses and lack of representative democracy, the Batista dictatorship - which had been  supported by the US government - had resorted to widespread violence, torture, public executions and a whole litany of human rights abuses. The primary difference was the ability of the US to profit from exploitation of Cuban resources during the Batista dictatorship, something they could no longer do under Castro