The Cuban Revolution vs. Negative Media Campaigns
By Elio Delgado Legon
HAVANA TIMES – Smear campaigns against the Cuban Revolution began as soon as the popular uprising defeated dictator Fulgencio Batista’s armed forces, who were backed, armed and trained by the US to repress the Cuban people. Twenty thousand young revolutionaries’ lives were the price for freedom.
The first great smear campaign, after the Revolution’s triumph on January 1, 1959, and is still repeated today, 60 years later, by counter-revolutionaries so as to confuse and deceive people, was that in Cuba there was a bloodbath, and that people were being killed here, there and everywhere.
The most important international media outlets repeated this fake news, and we had to invite the global press to take part in “Operation Truth”, which involved reporting what was really going on in Cuba, as the Revolution’s leadership have never told a single lie, even though their enemies claim the opposite.
In the revolutionary government’s first few months in power, what really happened was that many criminals from Batista’s police force, who had killed and tortured thousands of revolutionary youth and weren’t able to leave the country with the dictator, were caught and put on trial, and the ones who were found guilty of their crimes were given the death penalty and sentenced to execution by a firing squad.
However, nobody was given this sentence until there crimes were duly proven. The Revolution’s justice has always abided by the law, even though media campaigns continue to try and smear its reputation.
The other big lie the counter-revolutionary press conjured up in those tumultuous early years, had to do with Parental Rights. Invented by the US’ Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and supported by some members of the Catholic clergy in Cuba, the rumor was spread worldwide that the Revolution would strip parents of their Parental Rights and send their children to Russia. It was complete madness and yet many people believed it, deciding to send their small children off to the United States, all alone.
The revolutionary government didn’t stop them from committing such a barbaric act because it respected their freedom to travel, and 20,000 children were sent off, who suffered a great deal, far from their parents, and many of them never saw their parents every again and most of them carried this trauma with them for the rest of their lives, which the CIA wasn’t at all bothered by.
In order to give this despicable lie some credibility, a false document was disseminated which outlined a legal project in this regard, and it even had the Cuban President’s signature.
These are just two examples of two great lies that the world was told in the early years of the Revolution. However, the media campaign against Cuba hasn’t stopped inventing lies for almost 60 years, like the ones John Bolton invented: first, that Cuba was manufacturing chemical weapons and more recently, that Cuba had 20,000 soldiers in Venezuela, when the truth is that Cuba only has doctors, nurses and other social workers, in culture and sports, in that country.
So many lies have been spread about Cuba, all over the world, that the majority of foreigners who visit the country are shocked by the differences they find between what the press in their countries report and the reality they can see in Cuba.
It was precisely because of these media campaigns that I decided, five years ago, to write brief articles that show our country’s true reality, which is not only subject to smear campaigns, but to a cruel economic, commercial and financial blockade, which is becoming more and more tough, to the point that it is now a real economic war that chases after any international trade or financial activity in Cuba, imposing sanctions and fines, with complete disdain for International Law.
Let make it simple for Elio to understand
1 Castro never kept his promise of free elections after the triumph of the communist revolution. Fact not fiction .
2 The thousands of cubans that were slaughter at the firing squads after Castro took over its a documented fact not fiction.
3 The thousand of Cubanas that were incarcerated and sentenced to 20 to 30 years for disagreeing with the cuban government it’s documented fact not fiction, not mention those that were incarcerated and were never seen again.
4 The lost of every human right known to civilization for sake of the communist revolution .
5 The rationing of food and all products of daily consumption for the purpose population control.
6 Cuba history was completely changed or distorted for the purpose of indoctrination and brainwashing the following generations of Cuban.
7 A C.D.R. on each street to control every movement and the very life of each Cuban everyday of their lives.
8 Making life impossible to live in Cuba if you disagree with the communist government.
9 Taking all private business away from their owners , from the biggest corporations to the mom and pop bodegas,farms and incarceration for those people who dared to defend their rights to own the business they build
I can stay here and do this all day long but by now if you are not blind like Elio you will see that there’s are facts that you collaborate with the UN or the state department.
Cuba had a dream that fought and bleed for it, but people without a concise like the Castro brothers and che gevara stole it from them and been waging war against the Cuban people for 60 years.
I Love Cuba and my people.
2
Pobres diablos,,,están confundidos?,,,no hay peor ciego q el q no quiere ver,,,la realidad de Cuba no es compleja,,,la realidad es q existe un gobierno Comunista-estalinista,,así de simple,,Un gobierno de un solo partido y una dictadura q mata a su pueblo tanto de hambre como de todo derecho fundamental de sobrevivencia,,Lo único q le queda a esos pueblos es emigrar en masas,,,tratar de huir,,
Mi querido Peotr….de eso se trata,,dejar q los ciudadanos de países como Cuba,Venezuela, Nicaragua,,,tengan el gobierno que quieran,,un gobierno elegido por el pueblo y para el pueblo,,no una dictadura puesta a la fuerza,,con linchamientos y faltas de todas libertades..necesidades básicas y hambrunas es lo q traen esos gobiernos y una inmigración gigantesca a países vecinos,,sofocando la paz y soberanias de otros gobiernos ,,millones de venezolanos han huido de Venezuela,,a otros los han encarcelados o asesinados,,igual pasa en Nicaragua y Cuba..millones de ciudadanos saliendo de su país buscando la libertad q no tienen en sus paises,,Esa es la democracia q quieres para tú pais?
Countries have the government they deserve, a quote from Joseph de Maestri. But also remember that “I walk slow and carry a big stick. ” Whose quote is that?
The Castro regime David does not practice socialism – it is communist. That in turn means that Cuba is a one-party totalitarian state in which the people have no political choice.
The concept of an island in the Caribbean being in the “US back yard” reflects the policy of Monroe Doctrine of 1842. Canada and Mexico have borders with the US – does that mean that they also are in the US back yard? How big is the back yard?
I ask, because the view held by many that the US is a bully – a view that has been more widely held following the election of the narcissistic Donald Trump is a threat to the belief in democracy. One only has to observe the criticisms in these pages – many of which are by Americans, to understand that. I unlike you, find it impossible at find any merit in the policies and actions of the Castro regime because I believe in the freedom of the individual, not in repression.
I was lucky to visit Cuba last fall. I’m an American raised here. German/English heritage. The visit to Cuba had a huge impact on me. It was being exposed to a completely different reality. Americans are very divided over Cuba. Really they’re very divided overall. But anytime you talk about Socialism the debate goes to extreme levels. As an American, I see the situation with Cuba as extremely complex. I will say that I admire the challenge in the face of empire that Castro led. Do I agree with everything associated with it, no. Who agrees with anything any government does. My point is Cuba is complex. Probably the most complex foreign power in the US back yard.
Mr. Legon must be suffering from selective amnesia. Prior to the communist revolution there were no food shortages in Cuba. Putting the blame for the Castro economic disaster on the USA is the only propaganda tool left for the old communist guard.
Very sad to see a man whose 80 yrs of travel throughout the planet haven’t shaken his 10-yr-old beliefs in Castro’s fairy tales. Talk about brainwash and owning a mind forever. Wow, blindness and all its chosen stages are what I read each time I come across an article from Elio. I guess he will never see the light. Truly sad to live all those years with your head in the sand and trying to pull others down with you.
Why the choice always have to be between Batista and Castro? They both are dead and for me that lived iunder both “governments”. I prefer Batista a least under Batista was economic development and semi free press under Castro only repression and a general aspect of misery. The people of Cuba needs a new democracy with multiple political parties and they would make the choice.
David, I am sufficiently aware of the history of the US in regard to the Americas in general and Cuba in particular, to have written a complete chapter upon it in my book. That chapter commences:
“US policies towards the Latin American countries have been a succession of political blunders of magnitude since the adoption of the Monroe Doctrine in 1823 which said: “Any further efforts by European nations to colonize land or interfere with states in North or South America would be viewed as acts of aggression requiring US intervention.” This thus defined and claimed all the Americas from Canada to Chile as lying within the US sphere of interest. On July 20, 1895 the US Secretary of State wrote to Britain’s Foreign Secretary: “The United States is practically sovereign on this continent and its fiat is law upon the subjects to which it confines its interposition.” The conceit that the US was for example “practically sovereign” over Canada upon which it had declared war when British in June 1812 and endeavored to conquer without success for two years with Washington being invaded and set afire, as well as Latin America is indicative of hegemony.”
So Dear David, perhaps you may even agree that my view of the US is factual. You also say that the “US and Western press praised the dictator” -whereas i would not disagree with you about the US press, I challenge you to provide an illustration of the “Western press” doing so.
It is easy for anyone to criticize the US – you mention the police killing more than 600 a year, but that figure palls into insignificance compared with the 12,000 plus, killed in other shootings. What is the answer suggested by the US administration? Arm the teachers!
As one married to a Cuban and with our home in Cuba, I fully understand the difference between democracy and totalitarianism. It is not the US which enforces rationing in Cuba or creates food shortages – it is the Castro communist regime, and for your information, when we are able on occasion to buy frozen chicken, it is usually produced by TYSON!
Dear Carlyle. His democratic perception is quite rare. In Cuba there was a capitalist system, as there is in the USA in France or Spain. The American and Western press praised the dictator as if he were an accomplished Democrat. Where do you say there is no barbarism, in the US, where the police kill more than 600 people annually without receiving any punishment? In the country that invades entire countries and destroys them to obtain their natural resources, in the country that generates a total blockade of a small island to force it to die of hunger because it is not subordinated. Do you know what the term democracy means? Rule the people in the US or the financial power of 1%?
Contrary to Peotr’s claim censorship would still exist in Cuba, Venezuela, and North Korea even without American paranoia and imperialism. While it’s true that siege mentalities can provide the rationale for authoritarianism their socialist ideologies are also an impetus to censorship. Any -ism purporting to provide an all-encompassing worldview that will remake society and save human souls is bound to inspire the suppression of dissent and nonconformity. This is as equally true of Medieval religious fanatics as it is of socialist revolutionaries. Fidel Castro once famously proclaimed that all is permissible within the Revolution while all is forbidden outside the Revolution. He was not speaking of emergency conditions brought on by confrontation with an outside power but of the very nature of his socialist vision.
The one party dictatorship in Cuba will never achieve anything it’s a complete failure as the economy goes into another tailspin.
Cuba is a oppresive tyranny built on lies.
Is this a sophisticated bit of irony? “Leaving people to decide their own preference” is exactly what does NOT happen in Cuba, DPRK and to an extent, Venezuela. When those countries allow their people to have a genuinely free choice in who governs them – unintimidated by the state – then their conditions will improve beyond recognition.
EU le molestaba el joven de la sierra, y lo hizo todo equivocado con el . Hoy todo es igual con el nuevo presidente ayer yo era niño, hoy soy retirado , todo ha sido igual (votos).
Oh Peotr how do you expect people with a respect for human rights and dignity to “respect other countries systems and governments” when those systems operate by totalitarian rule and repression?
I agree with you that people ought to decide their own preference. That right has been denied the people of Cuba by two successive dictatorships, those of Batista and the Castros.
You criticize the western press for being in a wide variety of private owner-ships, but do you really think that the total control of all media by a totalitarian government is preferable?
This article is pure garbage, trying to re write history! CUBA has been totally DESTROYED by the Castro criminals! Batista was a cruel dictator but Cuba thrived, Castro was a WORSE cruel dictator and turned Cuba into the poorest country in Latin America.
I find humor in the way these criminals lie outright and paint themselves as little Angels.These thugs have murdered, lied , stole from day 1, but yet blame it all on Batista or the Yankees or the us embargo, which they lie about and call blockade….everywhere they go they bring poverty ,hardship and misery,ie Venezuela, but it’s not their fault…its capitalism or the imperialists… support Havana times! Are you out of your tree?is this a feeble attempt at humor???
Dictatorial Fulgencio Batista was a Saint, Fidel Castro and his band of terrorist attack Moncada militar camp and Batista give 5 years in jail and pardon in one year, free this gang of criminals. When Castro take the power, kill one by one the military of Batista. Who is the real murder in the cuban revolution… Who the Dictatorship?
The western press with few exceptions, is completely biased and supported by capitalists. Therefore the truth is very rare in any political situation. Think again if you think “Democratic” countries get honesty in their news. Spin doctors.
Conditions in Cuba, Venezuela and DPRK, etc. would be much better if the paranoia of the west particularly the United States, would respect other countries systems and governments. ‘ hate corrodes the container that it’s stored in” and that is showing in western society.
Leave people to decide their own preference for a more peaceful world!
Elio Delgado Legon you know your paid to lie for the goverment yes Che Guevara Fidel and Raul Castro have been assassinating cubans from the time they in sierra maestra Cuba is the Island of slaves every body works for the goverment for free including you theirscno such thingbas free Education when the goverment rents you out to other countries and gets paid for your knowledge you know your lying on your article you know the revolution has been a failure since 1959 and besides the point Fidel Castro wanted Yankees to go home now the same comunist want The Yankees to help after Fidel and Raul stold all of american companies and corporations buisness.
Elio Delgado Legon CHE Guevara said in an interview in the early stage of the REVOLUTION that CUBA will surpass the USA pay by 80% and that CUBA will be a head of the USA its in you tube with CHE GUEVARA voice so keep being a puppet for your government
just like Trotsky In Russia, the executions in the cabaña fortress had the sole objective of intimidating the people and the opposition through terror. and today they continue doing the same. It is not because of justice. No more lie
In the years during which I have contributed to Havana Times, I have not observed a single comment praising the dictator Batista. Poor Elio is endeavoring to persuade us that the choice for Cubans is between a communist or a fascist dictatorship. Having lived all his adult life under two successive totalitarian dictatorships, Elio has no knowledge of the freedom of the capitalist world. Cubans given the opportunity and released from dictatorship would in my opinion choose to have a democratic multi-party political system.
Two wrongs don’t make a right!