The combination of failed economic policies, increasing authoritarianism and a growing sense of disappointment with the way the revolution was working in practice led to the growth of opposition. Those who had regarded Castro's 26 July Movement as a movement for liberation now began to have doubts.
The worldwide adulation among liberals for the Cuban leaders (see box below) served to make it additionally troubling to the idealists in Cuba when they realized that the admiration felt by outsiders for Castro's revolution was based on a misunderstanding of the actual situation. Unfulfilled hopes were, therefore, an important element in the formation of opposition. The same idealism that had motivated support for Castro now aroused opposition to him.
International icons
InternationaLLy the 1960s had been a period when many people, particuLarLy the young, had begun to challenge the old established governments and the ideas on which they were based. The challenge was not aLways cLearLy articuLated; it tended to be a protest movement rather than a defined set of objectives, but it had taken its inspiration from such
Developments as Maoism in China (see page 156) and Castroism in Cuba, which were interpreted as representing a new form of poLitics Liberated from the corrupt capitalism of the West and the rigid communism of the Eastern bloc. It was in this atmosphere of youthful rebellion that Castro and Guevara became iconic figures. Posters bearing their words and images became commonpLace on Western university campuses.
World History
