Castro’s Washington visit ends

The government took control of the foreign-owned utility and lowered rates, presenting public services as a social right.

A law substantially lowered many rents, one of the government’s early measures to redistribute income toward tenants.

The Cuban prime minister travelled to explain the revolution and seek economic understanding without requesting formal state honours.

During his United States tour, he defended Cuban sovereignty and argued that social reform was necessary for democracy.

The long Washington meeting exposed differing expectations about elections, economic policy and the future relationship between Cuba and the United States.

At an inter-American economic meeting in Buenos Aires, he called for large-scale investment to overcome poverty and dependence.

The law limited large estates, redistributed land and created a framework for cooperatives and state farms. It struck at concentrated and foreign landownership.

The National Institute of Agrarian Reform became a major instrument of economic and political transformation in the countryside.

The law challenged the dominance of overseas corporations and connected national sovereignty with redistribution in the countryside.

The programme aimed to turn tenants and precarious cultivators into landholders while also organizing cooperatives on large estates.