Fidel Castro, his brother, Raul Castro, and Che Guevara were angry about Batista's dictatorship government. The Castro brothers and Guevara quickly combined their power. They pushed out all of the enemy rebel groups that had helped them in their rise to power, so they would be the only revolutionary group in charge. In 1959, the three of them overthrew Batista and established their own government. Raul Castro and Ché Guevara were put in charge of organizing groups to bring to trial and execute the Batista "war criminals" who had tortured and murdered under Batista’s old government.

Castro was an unknown factor in 1959 and the United States was hopeful that he would bring about a democracy. After taking over power, Castro made Cuba a communist country. The U.S. considered Communist Cuba a threat to the United States for years, especially since it was only 90 miles south of Florida. Cuba became communist during the Cold War, which was a time when democratic United States was trying to stop the spread of communism. This fear and dislike between Cuba and the United States caused international events such as the Bay of Pigs and the Cuban Missile Crisis. The United States imposed a trade embargo in 1962, which was a stop of all goods and services imported and exported to Cuba. The embargo led to years of hardship for the Cuban people, especially since the United States originally purchased 90% of Cuba's sugar cane crops.

2. According to the passage above, how did the Castro brothers strengthen their power?