In Cuba in the summer of 1994, Cuba’s economic panorama was dire, following the disappearance of trade with the Soviet Union, which eliminated the source of more than 70% of the country's foreign currency income: power outages lasted more than 12 hours, a dwindling food supply turned a phrase from a popular soap opera, "Hey girl, say hello to your boyfriend," into a synonym for rice and beans, the most frequently available dish, along with other Creole inventions such as soy meat and goose paste, while access to the few cafes that sold hamburgers was organized by neighbo

Few other public figures in history have, during their lives, faced an organized demonization machine like that wielded against Fidel. Perhaps in no other case has so much money been spent - not only to eliminate him physically, but to annihilate his moral stature as well. Everything from powders meant to make his legendary beard fall out, to substances that would allegedly cause him fits of uncontrollable laughter in public, were fabricated in CIA laboratories.