Pedro Corzo – Translating Cuba

A Forgotten Crime of the Castro Regime, Cubana de Aviación Flight 495

Filmmaker Lilo Vilaplana and activist Reinol Rodríguez attempt to expose a crime that had the complicit silence of many, including authorities and numerous important press media of the time

Image from the documentary The Hijacking of Flight 495, made by filmmaker Lilo Vilaplana and activist Reinol Rodríguez. / Lilo Vilaplana

14ymedio, Miami, Pedro Corzo, October 12, 2025 — Decades have passed, overwhelming days and hours, to the point that those of us who live in these dark times hardly remember it.That is why it makes sense for the new generations of the hemisphere to know that Castroism has developed many of the most violent and criminal strategies known in the Americas.

It is very important to delve into the past. No crime should go unpunished and forgotten; hence, the importance of the work made by filmmaker Lilo Vilaplana and activist Reinol Rodríguez, with a historical documentary about ill-fated Flight 495 of Cubana de Aviación, from Miami to Varadero, which crashed in the vicinity of Nipe Bay after being hijacked by followers of Fidel and Raul Castro.

Rodriguez and Vilaplana try to expose a crime that had the complicit silence of many, including authorities and numerous and important press media of the time. The US Government itself declared that the event was outside its jurisdiction. Apparently, it was seduced by the paraphernalia of Castroism.

These two Cubans, committed to historical truth, thoroughly investigated the above-mentioned events and interviewed survivors of the disaster, including Omara González, a passenger on that flight.

The US Government itself stated that the event was outside its jurisdiction

Castroism was violent in the insurrection and much more so as a government. In its time they placed explosives in public places to force the population to stay in their homes, murdered police and military to provoke ferocious government repression, which must also be remembered, and which had as its climax the Castro strategy continue reading

of “the three Zs [C in Spanish]: zero cinema, zero cabaret and zero c… in reference to brothels.”

This threat was quickly confirmed by the explosion of a bomb placed in a woman’s abandoned purse in a cabaret in Havana, wounding several young women, one of whom had to have her arm amputated, according to writer Jose Antonio Albertini in a conversation. He was also one of those who attempted to rescue Flight 495 from oblivion in his WLRN TV program.

Violence sometimes ravaged the insurgent ranks themselves, as when two young students in the city of Santa Clara were carrying a bomb that fatally exploded prematurely.

The bombs and kidnappings carried out by the rebel forces in compliance with the disastrous orders of the Castro brothers pale before the horrendous crime that occurred on November 1, 1958, exactly two months before a darkness that has extended for 66 years and 10 months arrived in Cuba. It happened two days before the last pluralist, albeit fraudulent, elections in our history.

As a sign that the spiral of violence was ready to operate outside Cuba, Raül Castro issued Order 30 authorizing the kidnapping of US citizens, which led in June 1958 to 49 Americans, including 20 civilians, employees of the US-owned Moa nickel mining plant and 29 Marines being kidnapped in the Sierra.

Incomprehensibly, the painful events of Flight 495 were hardly mentioned among the Cubans. The rescue involved Gerardo Reyes, a notable Colombian journalist who dedicated 10 years of his life to an investigation that culminated in a book entitled Flight 495, in which he sees innocent people involved in complex situations that can end with their own death.

Cubana de Aviación Flight 495 was the first aircraft hijacked in US airspace

The passengers had no connection with the Cuban government and were not a political objective; simply, the kidnappers apparently intended to transport weapons, ammunition and perhaps money to the eastern guerrillas.

The trip to Varadero, just over 300 kilometers, 45 minutes long, never reached its destination. On board the Vickers Viscount turboprop, there were 16 passengers, including a pregnant woman.

The aircraft was captured by five young militants of the hapless July 26 Movement. It is claimed that they were following orders from Raúl Castro, and the operation ended in tragedy, according to the newspaper Gente in its edition of November 16, 1958. Seventeen people died, including six American citizens.

None of the guilty paid for the crime: another Cuban tragedy that “nobody wants to hear about and least of all see.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Elections Under Castrochavismo

The rulers of these countries tightly control the electoral mechanisms and present themselves as a bloc against a divided opposition.

Venezuelan citizens participating in primary elections. / EFE

14ymedio, Pedro Corzo, Miami, 7 September 2025 — In all honesty, I express my deepest doubts that the peoples subjugated by what we identify as Castrochavism – in Venezuela, Nicaragua, Bolivia and Cuba, controlled by organized crime in association with “real socialism” – can once again embrace democracy through the electoral route.

The rulers of these countries tightly control the electoral mechanisms and present themselves as a bloc in the face of a fractured opposition, with the exception of Bolivia, where the ruling party is broken into anthropophagic (cannibalistic) factions, which has led to its defeat.

With this statement I am not calling for violence, but for the leaders of the opposition of those nations to seek other alternatives to achieve the long-awaited change. If they do not do so, by participating in knowingly flawed elections, they are providing legitimacy to the regime they are fighting.

It is true that not participating in elections significantly affects the democratic identity of the cause that is defended, but to assume as valid spurious processes in which fundamental guarantees are absent, is to accept being part of the oppressive dystopia. It is a very complex situation, a real trap on the part of the ruling party. continue reading

The mock elections for the Castro-Chavistas are nothing more than public maneuvering, very similar to the military maneuvers to which dictatorships periodically resort

It is a kind of electoral suicide to exercise the right to vote regardless of the doubts we may have about the fairness of the process and knowing that the Government has abused the resources of the State in its favor, has resorted to the manipulation of information held by the State. This misinformation threatens the political challengers and undecided and announced that the triumph of the opposition could lead the country to ungovernability and Civil War.

The mock elections for the Castro-Chavistas are nothing more than public maneuvering, very similar to the military maneuvers to which dictatorships periodically resort to frighten the population and energize their supporters.

In each electoral cycle, controlled before it is carried out, these regimes emerge stronger and in clear progress towards the establishment of a totalitarian system of government whose only objective is the perpetuity and absolute power of its leadership, as has happened in Cuba, the model desired by the aforementioned partners.

Socialism of the 21st Century (read “Castrochavism”), encourages a false political pluralism that in each electoral incursion loses relevance and interest for the contenders, as a consequence of the growing rigidity of the imposed social control and the constant institutional reforms of the public powers that exclusively strengthen the executive.

The citizenry in general also suffers from the repression by the ruling class. The population suffers from the ineptitude of its rulers and the deterioration of the general conditions of the community, to which is added an abusive police action that enjoys total impunity, particularly when it acts against the sectors that antagonize it.

These servile collaborators of the despots in power do the real dirty work

The temporary enjoyment of freedoms such as those of expression and information decreases drastically until it reaches its absolute extinction. Civil society organizations will be integrated as a whole into the immense government machinery and formulas will be established that seek to outlaw the most innocuous opposition, while promoting apparently contrary political groups, which in reality will respond to the government’s plans.

These servile collaborators of the despots in power do the real dirty work. The so-called organic or functional opponents are those who most contribute to the fact that the citizenry, transformed into a servile mass, adopts a double standard in which they conceal their true views, contributing to the widespread display of hypocritical moral conduct in society in which the true opinion is ignored.

For its part, Cuban totalitarianism has all these ailments and more. Fidel Castro from the same year 1959 made his supporters proclaim a slogan against the elections, “Elections? What for?”, after having promised in a public statement to go to the polls within a year under the Constitution of 1940 and the Electoral Code of 1943.

Based on the beliefs of Nicolas Maduro, Daniel Ortega, and Evo Morales, the largest island in the Caribbean enjoys a kind of paradise from repression, a perfect police state where the only existing political party doesn’t require electoral simulations and the enjoyment of citizen prerogatives is a power of the totalitarian state, the blessing of all autocrats.

Translated by Hombre de Paz

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The Castro Fraud

They consciously acted against the rights of their fellow citizens and actively participated in the destruction of civic values.

Several Cuban leaders and military personnel during a session of the National Assembly in 2023. / Canal Caribe-Facebook-Screen Capture

14ymedio, Pedro Corzo, Miami, 17 August 2025 — Even before the totalitarian system was imposed in Cuba, the Castro nomenklatura promoted false heroic narratives upon which the current system of absolute control was cemented, a task they have carried out with extreme efficiency, to the chagrin of the Cuban people and the misfortune of Nicaraguans, Bolivians, and Venezuelans, whose leaders turned out to be frauds every bit as much as the Castros.

These lies, all grandiose, such as Fidel Castro’s heroic participation in the assault on the Moncada barracks, the landing, read shipwreck, of the yacht Granma, and the deceptive military epics in the Sierra Maestra and Cristal in which the Castro brothers imaginatively squandered military genius and personal courage, these were the symphony on which they orchestrated a colossal plot supported by officials, military personnel and oppressors who were presented as upright citizens, selfless servants who served the country when in reality they were criminals who only sought their personal benefit while crushing the citizenry.

Disgracefully, a notable quantity of supporters of Castro’s totalitarianism believed this story. Some may have identified with the proposal with absolute sincerity and, in the dire present in which they lives they were completely frustrated on seeing the results for which they even imprisoned and killed, while others, the majority, bet on winning, aware of the atrocities in which they were complicit and choosing not to see the overcrowded prisons nor to hear the roar of the firing squad. continue reading

Those primarily responsible for the Cuban tragedy have been those who provided political, military and repressive services under totalitarianism.

There were many athletes from different fields, as well as outstanding individuals in professions, arts, and trades, who rejected generous offers of a better life and professional success because they believed, perhaps sincerely, that they were building a just and equitable society. This naiveté has left them mired in a miserable life in which they lack the most basic rights, while continuing to suffer degrading misery. Others, conversely, continue to fulfill their chosen role: executioners.

However, those primarily responsible for the Cuban tragedy have been those who served politically, militarily, and repressively under totalitarianism. They consciously acted against the rights of their fellow citizens and actively participated in the destruction of civic values.

The principle support of the Cuban system has been the military, and later, at a great distance, the repressive bodies and international intelligence forces, along with the diplomatic service.

From the very year of the triumph of the insurrection, in 1959, the military assumed control, while civilians were displaced. Society became militarized, and commanders became ministers. In these more than six decades in the military ranks, there has only been one defection, framed by a major question mark: the Arnaldo Ochoa case. This demonstrates a stability and loyalty unmatched in other government organs, including the Ministry of the Interior.

The Castros’ hegemonic appetites were always satisfied by their military, which, covertly or acting as international gendarmes, intervened on three continents without generating any questioning of the tyrant’s dictates.

The main support of the Cuban system has been the military and then, at a great distance, the repressive and international espionage bodies together with the diplomatic service.

They have always displayed discipline, a desire to serve, a mystique of glory, and unwavering obedience to the supreme leader. However, a recent article published in the Miami Herald and other media outlets confirms that the servile obedience of the Cuban generals is not the product of ethical or political convictions, but rather that the island’s generals are mere mercenaries seeking only their own personal enrichment and that of their families.

According to the report, the Cuban military, through the monopolistic Grupo de Administración Empresarial SA (Gaesa), controls assets totaling $18 billion.

The group operates in key sectors of the economy such as tourism, finance, construction, and transportation, while maintaining a significant presence in the rest of the Cuban economy. According to the report, Gaesa generated $2.1 billion in profits in the first quarter of 2024 alone. According to these documents, the flagship company is Cimex, a company that carries out retail activities, in addition to banking and international trade activities, reaching revenues of $2.1 billion.

These individuals, who can never plead ignorance or misinformation, were the bricklayers who supplied the necessary products and essential labor for the construction of totalitarianism. They were the ones who, in the heat of extremist fervor, understood that when their leader, the condottiere Fidel, exclaimed the slogan “the future belongs to socialism,” he was actually repeating a slogan from a pirate movie: “Take what you can, give nothing in return.” This is what they have done for these past 66 years: steal and kill.

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Of Statues and Monuments

The mayor of Cuauhtémoc in Mexico City, Alessandra Rojo de la Vega, removed the statues of the tyrant Fidel Castro and the murderer Ernesto ’Che’ Guevara.

Image from the day the statues of the tyrant Fidel Castro and the murderer Ernesto ’Che’ Guevara were removed. / X General Directorate of Culture

14ymedio, Pedro Corzo, Miami, 3 August 2025 — La señora Alessandra Rojo de la Vega, mayor of Cuauhtémoc, a town considered the heart of Mexico City, decided to remove the statues of the tyrant Fidel Castro and the murderer Ernesto Che Guevara. The sculptures had been in place in a park in the district since 2017, following the decision of a Mexican official close to the Cuban regime and a member of the administration of current President Claudia Sheinbaum.

Castro and Guevara had already been removed in 2018, when it was discovered that the permits to install the figures in the park were lacking. They had also been the target of vandalism in protest and neighborhood demonstrations against them.

In consequence, the mayor, within the powers conferred by her office, determined that the monuments had generated controversy and that their placement in Tabacalera Park was unjustified due to irregularities. She made no mention of the $32,000 in public funds spent on the statues’ construction or the fact that they were paying tribute to two individuals who represented values contrary to what Mexican society and its government claim to ennoble. She added: “Neither Che nor Fidel requested authorization to be installed in Cuba, nor in Tabacalera Park.”

Castro and Guevara had already been removed in 2018, when it was discovered that the permits to install the figures in the park were not adequate.

The sculptures, placed on a park bench, depicted Castro and Guevara with a book and a tobacco pipe, respectively, instead of an assault rifle or an explosive device, objects more closely related to their history. continue reading

The removal of the statues has sparked numerous comments, but undoubtedly the most striking have been the remarks of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, who said that Mayor Rojo de la Vega had acted illegally by removing the monuments and accused the official of displaying “tremendous intolerance.”

La señora presidenta, following the Castro regime’s pattern of attempting to discredit its adversaries and enemies, stated that the mayor had gone to Cuba on vacation, which, in her opinion, showed that she was not against the regime, ignoring the fact that not everyone who visits the island does so out of love for the dictatorship.

To honor the truth, I am not in favor of destroying statues and monuments. Every day I become more convinced that there are indelible values represented by images and monoliths dedicated to distinguished personalities or events in history, even though each person’s perception of the same events and people may be radically different from that of others.

Mayor Rojo de la Vega made it clear: “Fidel Castro and Che Guevara were murderers. A murderer is no less a murderer if he’s on the left.”

For example, I reject the removal of statues dedicated to Christopher Columbus and other discoverers and conquerors of the Americas from public spaces. I don’t believe the demonizing arguments of those who promote their removal. It’s true that the figures represented by many of these statues committed countless abuses and crimes, but they were also the ones who made possible the collision of two worlds and the enrichment of both.

The same cannot be said of Castro and Guevara, nor of those who supported them in their control of Cuba and their failed attempt to destabilize an entire continent in order to impose totalitarian power.

Monuments and statues represent momentous episodes in history, and their construction or removal should be the subject of detailed research, the outcome of which should not be influenced by sympathies but by the contribution they have made to humanity.

Knowing the ways these criminals operate, I think it is a good idea to remove similar monuments anywhere in the world that represent individuals like these, particularly the one dedicated to Che Guevara in the city of Santa Clara. Mayor Rojo de la Vega stated clearly: ” Fidel Castro and Che Guevara were murderers. A murderer is no less a murderer if he is on the left.”

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José Martí Was Not the Mastermind Behind the Attack on Cuba’s Moncada Barracks

In the early years of his tyranny, Fidel Castro attributed to José Martí all imaginable civic virtues, not out of respect for the patrician, but to use him as a wild card in the construction of the totalitarian system.

Statue of José Martí / Abel Padrón Padilla/Cubadebate

14ymedio, Pedro Corzo, Havana, 27 July 2025 — I have the firm conviction that one of the most regrettable events in the history of Cuba, with grave repercussions in numerous countries far from our shores, was and is the 26th of July 1953, the date of the attack on the Moncada Barracks and the day Fidel Castro entered national history to destroy the future of a now-defunct republic.

Fidel Castro, since his days as a university gang member, counted on a small following of loyalists, but he never enjoyed the popular support to achieve any of the many elected positions he always aspired to, including the presidency of the University Student Federation (FEU), or the same position in the Faculty of Law, or Representative to the House of Representatives, the latter ambition cut short by the disastrous military coup of March 10, 1952.

It is presumed that Castro welcomed the military coup. His many failures in the electoral races convinced him that it was easier to fight with arms than to participate in an electoral contest in which the loser disappeared ingloriously and the winner had to periodically submit to the popular will.

Hence, one of his first slogans, on the very days of the attack on the barracks, was that “José Martí is the intellectual author of this revolution.”

In the early years of his tyranny, Castro attempted to diminish the historical value of our wars of independence, arguing that the patriots had acted out of petty interests, excluding only Martí, to whom he attributed every imaginable civic virtue, not out of respect for the patrician, but to use him as a wild card in the construction of the totalitarian system. Hence, one of his first slogans, on the very days of the attack on the barracks, was that “José Martí is the intellectual author of this revolution.”

Castro, a notable disciple of the best propagandists of Marxism and fascism, loudly proclaimed the virtues of Martí, constantly claiming that the Maestro had been his inspiration while denying one of the apostle’s* most sublime thoughts: “Let us place around the star, on the new flag, this formula of triumphant love: With all, and for the good of all.”

Castro’s lies and the usurpation of Martí’s life and work to justify continue reading

totalitarianism led Carmen Gómez de Toro to organize a conference with scholars specializing in the life and work of this eminent Cuban, which she later compiled and published under the title we have hijacked for this column.

In the introduction to her book, Gómez de Toro affirms aspects of Martí’s gospel, such as freedom, sovereignty, and human dignity, which are diametrically opposed to the Cuban totalitarian system. She reminds us of the apostle’s comment: “The right of the worker can never be the hatred of capital; it must be harmony, conciliation, and a common understanding of one another.” She adds that Martí divided men into two camps: “those who love and build, and those who hate and destroy,” as has been the result of Fidel Castro’s life and work, which devastated lives and property.

Castro’s lies and the usurpation of Martí’s life and work to justify totalitarianism led Carmen Gómez de Toro to organize a conference with scholars specializing in the life and work of this eminent Cuban

The scholars on José Martí’s life who participated in the conference were Eduardo Lolo, José Raúl Vidal, Emilio Sánchez, and Daniel Pedreira, who demonstrated in their respective presentations that this first slogan of Castro’s totalitarianism is a fallacy without the slightest semblance of authenticity.

In the book, Dr. Emilio Sánchez states: “The distortion of José Martí’s ideas for political purposes immediately emerges upon a careful reading of his splendid work.” Dr. Eduardo Lolo, for his part, notes: “A revolution is still necessary, one that does not make its leader president, the revolution against all revolutions.”

This approach to José Martí, sponsored by Carmen de Toro, is further enriched by the expression also recalled by Dr. Daniel Pedreira: “The homeland belongs to no one, and if it belongs to anyone, it will be, and this only in spirit, to the one who serves it with the greatest selflessness and intelligence.” The book closes with a lecture by a young Cuban, José Raúl Vidal y Franco, who, although he grew up under totalitarianism, had the intelligence and courage to free José Martí from the slanderous lies of Castroism, recalling a fragment of what the illustrious Cuban wrote about Karl Marx upon his death: “The task of casting men upon men is terrifying.”

*Martí was and is referred to as the “Apostle of Cuban Independence”
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Cuba: 11 July, Four Years Later

Díaz-Canel and all the henchmen who accompany him in government and in the inevitable repression are consumed by the fear of losing power.

The 11th of July protests will forever remain in our history / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Pedro Corzo, Miami, 21 July 2025 — Castro’s totalitarian regime has once again demonstrated that the only thing left in its arsenal of lies and manipulation is the most brutal and destructive repression, the preferred tool of despots who are accustomed to using bayonets to hide their fears.

Cubans on the island ignore numerous anniversaries of the struggle for freedom that a large segment of the population has led against the Castro tyranny, but everyone knows that on the 11th of July 2021, the population took to the streets to demand their rights despite police brutality and the inevitable prison sentences they would face.

The protests of 11 July will forever remain in our history. Citizens fed up with the dictatorship, mostly young people, took to the streets and staged protests that had been lost to the national scene for decades, for a free Cuba, responding to the satrap Miguel Díaz-Canel: “You know your time is up, freedom is coming!” an expression I read with great satisfaction on the Martí Noticias website.

Another important report from Radio Martí, a piece by journalist Ivette Pacheco, reminds us that 1,597 people were arrested for participating in the protests on 11 July and the following days, and that “at least 360 remain in prison and others remain deprived of their liberty.” Camila Rodríguez, founder of Justicia 11J, told the station that those incarcerated are serving between 10 and 22 years in prison for protesting and that more than 60 minors continue reading

were among those arrested, three of whom remain in prison.

All this information about the extreme cruelty of the dictatorship is a clear message to those outside of Cuba who have defended totalitarianism.

All this information about the dictatorship’s extreme cruelty is a clear message to those outside Cuba who have defended totalitarianism, arguing that the Cuban people didn’t rebel because they agreed with their government. Now they will have to admit that they never wanted to listen to the cries of the dictatorship’s opponents, because there are many Cubans who oppose Castroism.

A new generation of Cubans has redeemed those who, for ideological reasons, opportunism, or any other motive, collaborated in the construction of a totalitarian system that destroyed the Republic and who have the sense of nation of a population in comatose state. This new generation, mostly born after Castro’s regime, are the ones occupying prisons for political reasons, as the NGO Prisoners Defenders states in one of its most recent reports.

Díaz-Canel and all the henchmen who accompany him in the government and in the inevitable repression are consumed by the fear of losing power and facing the consequences of their humiliating and degrading actions against the people. For this reason, their threats are always accompanied by criminal actions against the population, as in the time of Fidel Castro, lord and master of the Díaz-Canels who continue to sink Cuba: “We were born in a free country bequeathed to us by our parents, and the island will sink into the sea before we consent to be anyone’s slaves.” Destruction and death have always been this subject’s maxim.

This Numantian commitment of Castro’s loyalists was what led to the intermittent interruption of telephone and internet services. This is also why several police officers were stationed in front of the home of Oscar Elías Biscet and his wife, Elsa Morejón, while the regime organized a dance show near the residence in an effort to provide a circus for the citizens, since bread is conspicuously absent.

Castro’s repressive practices resemble the actions in George Orwell’s book 1984: the authorities arrest and suspend public services to prevent protests when the regime suspects something contrary to its interests is about to happen. For example, in the city of Santa Clara, Guillermo Fariñas was arrested, and in the capital, the tireless Berta Soler, leader of the Ladies in White, was arrested along with her husband, former political prisoner Ángel Moya Acosta. This is how Castro’s totalitarianism operates.

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Exile as a Catalyst, A Cuban Perspective

Cubans on the island, not having full enjoyment of their rights, suffer from a social defenselessness that emigrants from other systems of government do not suffer.

Being away from one’s home country offers a panoramic view of national life, past and present. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Pedro Corzo, Miami, 30 June 2025 — Many years ago, I came to the conclusion that leaving Cuba generates very significant personality transformations in many people. I have witnessed such radical changes. I know of heads of families, once strong-willed, demanding, and steadfast in their environment, who have given up the spaces they once zealously defended, having to assume the abandoned leadership role by someone of their own lineage. This reveals the great potential of every human being to rebuild their existence and the inability of others to cope with change.

I had a chance conversation about this with journalist Rolando Nápoles, an excellent reporter. Nápoles told me that these spontaneous changes could be identified as the Miami Syndrome, because he had also observed that people who in Cuba had held a certain position on the island’s reality and a different way of living life, changed completely abroad, regardless of the context in which they worked and regardless of any political commitments they may have had.

“Jumping the pond,” as writer Jose Antonio Albertini calls leaving Cuba, truly exerts a profound influence on expatriates. Life changes radically, the abusive paternalism of the totalitarian state disappears, and individuals fully assume their civic responsibilities for the first time. This demands a remarkable ability for reinvention, especially when a person is over forty and has a family to support. continue reading

The limitations imposed by the control that the system exercises over the person are so intense and unfathomable that the capacity for individual management is practically zero.

Cubans on the island, lacking full enjoyment of their rights, suffer from a social vulnerability that immigrants from other systems of government do not experience. The limitations imposed by the system’s control over individuals are so intense and unfathomable that one’s capacity for individual agency is practically nonexistent.

The relationship between individuals and their environment in a free society is open, with responsibility down to the smallest detail. In Cuba, this is not the case. The island citizen is burdened by the condition that only what is explicitly authorized can be undertaken; a simple thought, let alone an action, can constitute a crime.

There are many other characteristics that can impact Cuban emigrants, regardless of their ideological or political beliefs, such as the change in economic activity to support themselves or their families. Many professionals find themselves unable to perform the duties for which they were trained and are forced to take on tasks they may never have imagined. Others find themselves facing unplanned career and social opportunities, and even unimaginable health changes.

There is no lack of those who, far from their country and despite having been treated like sheep by the regime, are always ready to justify and serve it.

I know individuals who had a sympathetic view of totalitarianism, blaming foreign factors, and even those who had previously left the country, for the corrupt and inept actions of the island regime. However, new knowledge and experience led them to change their minds, taking a position of condemnation and rejection of the system. I have particularly appreciated this profound change of perspective among those who left Cuba for economic reasons and among those sectors on the island who worked in the arts and academia or carried out government activities.

However, there are those who, far from their country and despite having been treated like sheep by the regime, are always ready to justify and serve it. Unfortunately, there are individuals who use their privileges as free citizens to defend the dictatorship and despotism, to justify its depredations, however horrific they may be. However, most, based on the knowledge they have acquired, change their perspectives, no matter how blind they may have been.

On the other hand, and in all honesty, we all change, and most of us feel a closeness to the Island that fuels a nostalgia that never ceases to grow. Being away from one’s homeland offers anyone interested an almost unlimited panoramic view of national life, past and present. The emigrant or exile who loves their country seeks to treasure their homeland’s traditions and strives to ensure that new generations preserve their mother tongue. They love what they left behind, with the Martí-like hope of one day bidding farewell to the shores of exile.

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Cuban Students: The Homeland Belongs to Everyone

Cuban students, particularly those in high school and university, are fed up with the restrictions and violations of their citizenship rights by totalitarianism.

The rising cost of telephone services provided by the state through Etecsa sparked student protests. / Radio Rebelde

14ymedio, Pedro Corzo, Miami, 22 June 2024 — Recent student protests in Cuba raise hopes for a return to the days when this transient sector of Cuban society was a constant and just demander of its rights.

Cuban students, particularly those in high school and university, are fed up with the restrictions and violations of their citizenship rights imposed by totalitarian regimes. The rise in the price of telephone services provided by the state through one of its entities, the Cuban Telecommunications Company (ETECSA), has fueled frustration and a lack of hope for a better life for the entire population, particularly young people, with steep price hikes for internet and phone services, the so-called ‘tarifazo.’

According to an article published by El Nuevo Herald, the State’s communications monopoly Etecsa is at least partially owned by Cuban military companies, the true owners of the island.

According to an article published by El Nuevo Herald, the State’s communications monopoly Etecsa is at least partially owned by Cuban military companies, the true owners of the island.

These uniformed thugs have earned millions of dollars selling telephone services to Cubans living abroad for their relatives living in Cuba. Furthermore, columnist Nora Gámez states, “secret financial documents obtained by the Miami Herald show that Rafin SA, a military-controlled company with a significant stake in Etecsa, had $407 million in cash in continue reading

August of last year.”

The inefficiency and greed of the Cuban totalitarian system are equal. Its officials refuse to engage in profitable productive activities, but they adore the means that allow them and their offspring to enjoy a better life, as evidenced by the fact that Manuel Anido Cuesta, a law graduate from the University of Havana who is Miguel Díaz-Canel’s stepson with Cuba’s titled First Lady, Lis Cuesta, is enrolled in the National Taxation Program for Professionals at IE University Business School in Madrid.

The sum accumulated by these Etecsa partners is so significant that it is impossible for Díaz-Canel to have spent it enrolling his wife’s son at the Madrid university or the children of other women at various higher education centers, while ordinary students on the island cannot access the services of the Island’s only existing cell phone service due to its high prices.

The protests by students and the rest of the population are very important. We don’t know how long they will last, but nevertheless they demonstrate the massive exhaustion of the population, which is most aptly reflected in the high number of political prisoners more than six and a half decades after the Castros came to power.

Cuba is an extremely dry prairie. For 66 years, government failure has accumulated the malignant residue of its errors, lies, failed plans, misery, and death, making it very possible that the humblest rebuke could unleash a chain of events that displaces the ruling class and paves the way for momentous changes.

The protests by students and the rest of the population are very important. We don’t know how long they will last, but they still show the massive exhaustion of the population.

Igniting the redeeming spark that will bring the island’s fields, destroyed by totalitarianism, is in the hands of Cubans themselves. There are plenty of examples in the land of our birth, such as on January 12, the eve of the assault on the city of Bayamo, Oriente, when a group led by Pedro Figueredo Perucho , author of the lyrics to “La Bayamesa,” decided to set fire to their homes.

Cuban students, especially university students, played a particularly vigilante role during the Republican era, and Fidel Castro was quick to neutralize them in the initial months after the triumph of the insurrection when he decided to take control of the University Student Federation, an entity that for decades yielded to the will of totalitarianism, as evidenced by the statement by the national president of that organization, Ricardo Rodríguez González, who accused “supposed enemies of manipulating the recent expressions of discontent in the country’s universities, following the tuition increase announced by the state university.”

Students, like the rest of the population, are forced to demand their rights. General Antonio Maceo said: “Freedom is conquered with the edge of the machete, it is not asked for; for begging for rights is typical of cowards incapable of exercising them.”

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Fractures of Castroism

Citizens are becoming more aware of their rights and are demanding from the dictatorship the spaces that belong to them.

Several people close a street in Old Havana to protest after several days without drinking water in their homes, on 11 November 2023 / Felipe Borrego/EFE

14ymedio, Pedro Corzo, Miami, 8 June 2025 — Everything seems to indicate that the ironclad social control established in Cuba by brothers Fidel and Raúl Castro, inherited by the inept Miguel Diaz-Canel, is cracking, although it is fair to say that this is not exclusively a consequence of the opposition’s courage, but rather the chronic inefficiency of the system, which has accumulated endless failures and errors over 66 years.

In a telephone conversation from Santa Clara, Guillermo Fariñas, 2010 Sakharov Prize winner and leader of the United Anti-Totalitarian Forum (Fantu), described how, despite the repression, which has resulted in the constant growth of the prison population for political reasons, citizens are developing a more precise awareness of their rights and demanding from the dictatorship the spaces that are theirs.

According to Fariñas, based on these demands, his organization has established a number of issues that activists promote in the queues that people are inevitably forced to stand in to resolve any situation, particularly those related to food and medicine.

One of the themes is the Castro regime’s unfulfilled promise to restore the 1940 Constitution, which guaranteed an open society with full respect for the rights of citizens. He told us that this is a case that is virtually unknown to younger generations, who have been submerged in complete ignorance of the past. continue reading

The immense majority of those who fought ’Castro-Communism’ in the initial years of the revolution and even afterwards, came from the revolutionary ranks.

Another issue that is brought up in the queues and discussed as if it were casual conversations is the farce that Fidel Castro embodied during the first months of the insurrection, denying that he intended to establish a communist regime, pointing out to people that the dictatorship was established with lies and false promises, an atmosphere that has been perpetuated over time.

The opposition leader, who is categorically prohibited from traveling to the nation’s capital, says that another issue that the militants in the queues is inciting violence, arguing that the Castro-led insurrection resorted to terrorism throughout its administration and that, consequently, they are morally invalidated from questioning anyone who resorts to intimidation to attack the government, since terrorism does not become good just because it promotes socialism.

Another interesting aspect that individuals in the ranks speak of as if by chance, is that the vast majority of those who fought Castro-communism in the initial years of the revolution and even afterward, came from the revolutionary ranks because they had been defrauded by the farce orchestrated by the Castros to perpetuate themselves in government.

The so-called internationalist missions in Africa are widely discussed, explaining to people that they were not genuine acts of solidarity, but rather Castro’s way of compensating for the economic and military aid coming from the Soviet Union, using Cubans as “cannon fodder,” sending them to fight on that continent where thousands of soldiers died and others were abandoned to the most extreme poverty.

The insurrection led by the Castros resorted to terrorism throughout its administration.

Two of the Castro regime’s biggest falsehoods are the free provision of medicine and education. Fantu activists point out that, since 1962, all workers have been directly deprived of 11.1% of their net wages, based on Decree-Law 147/1962. This deprivation also covers Social Security, a condition that does not make it a gift of totalitarianism.

The privileges in food and goods received by members of the Armed Forces and the Ministry of the Interior are addressed in the queues, in addition to the reasons that prevent the existence of other political parties. They add that the current energy crisis could have been avoided if, during the period of Chavismo’s rise in Venezuela (2001-2016), the enormous financial loans granted by Hugo Chávez for the remodeling of Cuban thermoelectric plants had been used.

Guillermo Fariñas says that several Fantu activists are in prison for bringing up these issues in the queues, including Oscar Sánchez Madan, political coordinator of the Fantu National Council and resident in the municipality of Matanzas, Pedro Luis Fernández Peralta, Fantu coordinator in the municipality of Diez de Octubre (Havana province), and Amaury Díaz García, municipal coordinator of Fantu in the city of Sancti Spíritus.

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The Second International Congress for the Cuban Book in Exile

Cuban authors have been victims of the cultural war that Castroism started in 1959.

Mancha’s idea was taken up as very valid by writers and publishers / Capture

14ymedio, Pedro Corzo, Miami, May 11, 2025 — Ten years ago, the Cuban journalist Silvio Mancha proposed to convene a group of writers and publishers to hold a literary meeting that would bring together books, authors and publishing houses that Castro’s totalitarianism does not allow in Cuba. Or, in other words, for creators and their creations that have suffered banishment.

From its first day in power, the Regime declared a full-scale offensive against those who did not think like them. They practiced sectarianism and ideological discrimination, imposing an information control that culminated in a real war against political opposition and the moral execution of those who thought freely.

From the first moment, people of integrity, those who refused to put a price on their creation, suffered an internal exile that forced them to write, paint and think in obscurity. Life became complicated for all of us, because listening to a song by Jose Feliciano or simply commenting on a joke by Guillermo Álvarez Guedes was enough to end up in a dungeon.

The stark reality is that Cuban authors have been victims of the cultural war that Castro started in the same year as the triumph of the insurrection, in 1959. Censorship was immediately established; the seizure of publishing houses, printing houses and bookstores did not wait, along with the seizure of all the information and broadcast media: radio, television and press. They made the word their own, and as the writer Jose Antonio Albertini says, “they began to kill with ink, not just with bullets.” continue reading

They made the word their own, and as the writer Jose Antonio Albertini says, “they began to kill with ink, not just with bullets”

Mancha’s idea was taken up as very valid by writers and publishers, among them Jose Antonio Albertini, Ángel Cuadra, Rosa Leonor Whitmarsh, Luis de la Paz, Ángel de Fana, Rolando Morelli, Alberto Muller and Juan Manuel Salvat, among others. The event was held for two days at a facility of the International University of Florida and was dedicated to the memory of a great exile, Enrique Ros, writer and tireless fighter against totalitarianism.

The meeting was really a success, very politically defined. No Castro hitman was invited, and the participation of persons and institutions that had any link with totalitarianism, inside or outside Cuba, was rejected because the organizers, following the teachings of José Martí, are convinced that the slavery of thought, like physical slavery, is a form of oppression which prevents individual and collective development.

The invitation and call issued is international in nature and has been extended to the United States, Canada, South America and Europe

This year, the academic Daniel Pedreira, current president of the Pen Club of Cuban Writers in Exile, shared the idea of calling a second meeting that immediately had the support of several institutions and personalities of the exile. They included the Institute of Cuban Historical Memory against Totalitarianism, Plantados hasta la Libertad de Cuba, the publishing houses El Ateje and Gota de Agua, and the Academia de la Historia de Cuba en el Exilio. Together with other institutions and personalities, they joined the project and decided to dedicate it to “Juan Clark, in memoriam,” in tribute to a Cuban academic who participated as a paratrooper in the incursion to Cuba of the 2506 Brigade. He later taught classes at Miami Dade College, besides being the author of one of the masterpieces of the Cuban exile, Cuba, Myth and Reality, Testimony of a People.

The invitation and call issued is of an international character and has been extended to the United States, Canada, South America and Europe, and to any Cuban national author who has a work that totalitarian censorship does not allow to circulate in Cuba no matter where he is. Authors residing on the Island have agreed to join this meeting that once again seeks to denounce the numerous limitations to creation that Castroism has imposed on citizens in general, including its own supporters, who also do not enjoy the freedom to praise their masters without restrictions.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Celac Circus

The institution is an essential instrument to promote despotism

Image of the IX Summit of Heads of State and Government of CELAC, in Tegucigalpa (Honduras) / EFE

14ymedio, Pedro Corzo, May 6, 2025 — It must be admitted that Castrochavismo has been very lavish in setting up regional organizations with the aim of having several means to control politics in any of its expressions in the hemisphere and thus build the sea of happiness dreamed of by Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez, one of the most cruel realities for those who are trapped in their dystopias.

One of these institutions is the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), which held its most recent summit last April in Honduras under the pro tempore presidency of Xiomara Castro, president of the Central American country, who passed the baton to Colombia in the person of Gustavo Petro.

It is interesting to note that the CELAC Summit takes place in Honduras when this country is preparing for presidential elections and hands over the presidency to Colombia, which also holds general elections next year. Therefore, it is easy to deduce that these meetings tend to politically boost their hosts, providing them with a platform that, although of little prestige, serves to promote them, a practice that Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez implemented during their respective dictatorships. They were fascinated by the circus, although they always rationed the bread to their sycophants. continue reading

Celac will always be an instrument of destabilization and cooperation for those who seek power, those who want to impose their will at the expense of the rights of the governed

CELAC is the populist counterpart of the Organization of American States, the OAS, which in fact seems to be a one-size-fits-all twin in terms of their mutual inefficiency in meeting their respective goals.

CELAC is an essential instrument to promote despotism, so its purposes will remain valid as long as autocrats like Rafael Correa and Evo Morales exert influence in the American context, and individuals like Nicolás Maduro, Daniel Ortega, Xiomara Castro and Miguel Díaz-Canel, who have never ceased to be enemies of democratic values, scrutiny and criticism, are in power.

They and their allies, even if they do not have the initial resources that Venezuela’s oil provided, are the enlightened ones of internet times who only appreciate the freedom and rights of others from the meridian of their interests. CELAC will always be an instrument of destabilization and cooperation for those who seek power, those who want to impose their will to the detriment of the rights of the governed.

Castro, Chavez and, of course, Luis Inacio Lula da Silva – once palatable for the Latin American political class and the United States – founded CELAC, UNASUR (Union of South American Nations) and ALBA (Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of our America), an outpouring of acronyms that have only served to disseminate their proposals with little success.

The decline of CELAC is more than evident, as indicated by the fact that only 11 presidents from the 33 states that make up the entity attended, lacking the most conspicuous of all, Nicolás Maduro, whom Washington equates with Osama Bin Laden by offering the same amount of money for his capture. The Cuban dictator Miguel Díaz-Canel was received in Tegucigalpa by what some say is the real commander in the country, Jose Manuel Zelaya.

The decline of CELAC is more than evident, as indicated by the fact that only 11 presidents from 33 states attended, lacking the most conspicuous of all, Nicolás Maduro

Another important aspect to highlight is that two of the three countries that are to some extent the backbone of the entity, Nicaragua and Venezuela, were absent. Only Cuba participated, because the beggar dictator does not miss an opportunity to claim a shred of anything that allows him to remain in power.

These three countries are facing a deep crisis of governance because of the widespread popular discontent that forces them to impose strict social control where what is not explicitly allowed is prohibited, while keeping numerous people in prisons.

Cuba has 1,152 people locked up for political reasons, most of them 66 years after the tyranny came to power; Venezuela has 1,601 political prisoners; and Nicaragua still has about 100 political prisoners after having emptied prisons by banishing several hundred prisoners and taking away their citizenship. However, any of them are citizens with more decency than the couple Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo will ever have.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Ecuador’s Rafael Correa Was Not Resurrected

The former president of Ecuador during an interview with the EFE agency.

14ymedio, Pedro Corzo, Miami, 27 April 2025 — It is more than obvious that the Ecuadorian people have given thought to what it would have meant for their country to reelect president Rafael Correa, a criminal convicted for corruption who will lament until his last day having supported Lenin Mareno in his quest toward the nation’s highest office.

This individual, newly in power, would have made a turn of the screw that would irrevocably rob them of the future, and what happens in Cuba, Nicaragua, Bolivia and Venezuela, where the Castro-Chavistas proposals have plunged those peoples into a state of moral and material prostration that is very difficult to overcome.

The populism sponsored by this autocrat is extremely dangerous because it personifies the enlightened despot who, armed with academic knowledge, uses that insight to more efficiently exploit the prerogatives of the citizenry. Correa, in my opinion, is the despot in the hemisphere who most resembles Fidel Castro, because he is an enlightened possessor of absolute truth who does not suffer the agony of doubt.

This individual, newly in power, would have made a turn of the screw that irredeemably shaped the future, as has happened in Cuba, Nicaragua, Bolivia y Venezuela

Subjects like Correa exercise a kind of fatal attraction over a sector of the population. They are capable of interpreting the anxieties of an important nucleus of people, who regardless the abuses and mistakes they commit, things always go in their favor. They count on a following that responds to the rhythm of their piper and revels in the vicissitudes of the abyss. continue reading

Correa, like Fidel Castro, Nicolas Maduro, Evo Morales y Daniel Ortega, to mention just a few of the caudillos of Castro-Chavista who possess a magical charm that, for their supporters, places them beyond good and evil, a reason that makes them a real danger in any democratic society.

An individual with firm democratic convictions can never agree to have their rights violated by a ruler who assumes the power to interpret the nation’s desires by creating committees of whistleblowers who scrutinize the lives of others or permits economic changes that would deepen the misery of all.

To claim that Nicolas Maduro represents a legitimate regime is an absurdity from the early days of 21st-century socialism, as when Hugo Chávez proclaimed he would lead Venezuela to the sea of Cuban happiness. Both Cuba and Venezuela are far from being a paradigm for any society, and anyone who proclaims this commits political suicide, as did candidate Luisa González.

Furthermore, the survival capacity of these individuals is unprecedented. They are capable of allying themselves with their bitter enemies in order to remain in power, as Daniel Ortega did in Nicaragua when he reached an electoral agreement that allowed him to win the presidency in 2007, or as Fidel and Raúl Castro did in Cuba, having managed to blame the US embargo for all their faults, even though they spend hundreds of millions of dollars a year in that market, while imposing a blockade on the people they misgovern that has been in place for 66 years

Correa, in my opinion, is the despot in the hemisphere who most resembles Fidel Castro, because he is an enlightened possessor of absolute truth who does not suffer the agony of doubt

It would seem that Ecuadorians have become acutely aware of reality when they realize that the election of a Correa front man would imply his return, since he would have carried out the necessary maneuvers to allow the fugitive from justice to return, just as Argentine Justicialist* leader Héctor Cámpora did in the 1970s, when upon becoming president, he eliminated all existing restrictions against Juan Domingo Perón, making it possible for him to become president.

The fugitive who lost in the polls was not candidate González. However, I do not doubt the survival capacity of these demiurges, as Anatole France would say, and as my friend Alberto Paz, a profound connoisseur of Ecuadorian and Cuban reality, has told me. He believes that Correa’s failure was a consequence of the many campaign errors of his front men, a claim echoed by some media outlets in the South American.

The thing is, these guys never lose. They accuse the winner of fraud, yet they haven’t filed a complaint backed up with sufficient evidence.

The former president has proven himself as among those who believe themselves chosen. His vision of reality only allows him to appreciate the existence of two colors, black and white, a character he manages to instill in his supporters, just as it enables his followers to seek only confrontation, the all-or-nothing attitude we experienced in Cuba when the masses demanded the firing squad without knowing why or for whom.

*Translator’s note: The Justicialist Party is a major political party in Argentina, and the largest branch within Peronism.

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Nicaragua, the Insatiable Dictatorship

President Daniel Ortega and his co-dictator Rosario Murillo are two insatiable autocrats, individuals who do not respect limits when it is necessary to satisfy their hunger for power.

Nicaraguan Vice President Rosario Murillo and President Daniel Ortega. / EFE

14ymedio, Pedro Corzo, Miami, 6 April 2025 — It must be repeated ad nauseam: both Daniel Ortega and his co-dictator Rosario Murillo are insatiable autocrats. Men who respect no boundaries when it’s time to satisfy their hunger for power.

It is well known that Castro-Chavism is sustained by bayonets, although at present they are sitting on AK-47s, supplied by Vladimir Putin, the close friend of all autocrats.

Co-dictator Daniel Ortega has legitimized a practice we are all familiar with, consisting of the subordination of the powers of the State—legislative, judicial, electoral, oversight and supervision, regional and municipal—to the Executive Branch, an aberration enshrined by the apocryphal National Assembly of Nicaragua, composed of lackeys of the supreme couple, and who, as always, voted unanimously in favor of the proposal.

With this dictatorial disposition, public powers disappear, democracy ceases to exist, and precarious citizen participation is completely extinguished by the decision of two despots and the complicity of their servants.

In reality, both Ortega and his co-ruler are faithful admirers of the worst scum in the world, including Josef Stalin, Adolf Hitler, Mao Zedong, and, of course, Fidel Castro, the man behind the cancers of Castro-Chavism, who was the direct diabolical architect of the Nicaraguan regime. continue reading

In reality, both Ortega and his co-ruler are faithful admirers of the worst scum in the world: Josef Stalin, Adolf Hitler, Mao Zedong, and, of course, Fidel Castro

The reform to Nicaragua’s perpetually violated Constitution establishes the well-known positions of co-presidents, a condition that already existed in the country. It also extends the term of office for positions that are supposed to be elected.

In my opinion, the Nicaraguan regime, while seeking to resemble the totalitarian dictatorship established in Cuba by the brothers Fidel and Raúl Castro as much as possible, seeks to lend legitimacy to all its actions and is also not immune to the habits of military dictatorships, such as its vocation to make its enemies disappear or to exile them. Although, in all honesty, the two greatest similarities between Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua are their immense capacity for repression and their cruelty in imprisoning their adversaries, generating an environment of citizen defenselessness that paralyzes communities.

One such scheme was recently denounced by the human rights organization Nunca Más, made up of exiled people in Costa Rica. According to this organization, the dictatorship has imposed a policy of forced disappearance on its opponents, as has happened with at least a dozen of them who were arrested several months ago.

The Castros and Ortegas like legitimacy, pretending to be democrats who respect the will of the people. Hence this latest reform to the Constitution — which proclaimed that socialism in Cuba was irrevocable — just as Castroism did in Cuba after the success of the Varela Project, proposed in 2002 by the Christian Liberation Movement led by the martyr Oswaldo Paya Sardiñas.

However, the co-dictators aren’t sleeping well. It’s April, the seventh anniversary of the popular protests in which Ortega’s henchmen killed nearly 400 people.

For the benefit of Rubén Darío’s people, international bodies continue to denounce the crimes of the Ortega regime. Recently, at a hearing before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), Lesly Guerrero, a representative of the Center for Justice and International Law, said that the reforms have allowed the executive branch, headed by two “co-presidents,” to consolidate total control over the legislative, judicial, and electoral branches. She added: “These modifications not only eliminate institutional checks and balances, but also establish a system of government where repression and authoritarianism are presented with a veneer of legality.”

Furthermore, the co-dictators’ arrogance is boundless, a fact demonstrated by the country’s withdrawal from the United Nations Human Rights Council, following the request by the Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua to sue the Central American country before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for depriving Nicaraguans of their nationality.

Everything seems to indicate that Nicaragua and Venezuela are seeking to establish regimes similar to Cuba’s. They want to impose a closed society in which any vestige of freedom and respect for human dignity disappears.

Nevertheless, the co-dictators aren’t sleeping well. It’s April, the seventh anniversary of the popular protests in which Ortega’s henchmen killed nearly 400 people (325 according to the OAS-CIDH).

The blood of all these martyrs is on the hands of Ortega and Murillo, and blood stains, as the writer Jose Antonio Albertini affirms in one of his novels.

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Cuba’s UMAP Camps or the Slavery of Youth

The UMAP lasted several years; it is estimated that at least 25,000 young people passed through its camps.

To say that the UMAP was implemented to seek the social re-education of repressed individuals is false. / Archive of “El Nuevo Herald”

14ymedio, Pedro Corzo, Miami, 31 March 2025 — Cuban filmmaker Lilo Vilaplana and the tireless fighter against Castro’s totalitarianism, Reinold Rodríguez, have committed to bringing to the big screen one of the most painful tragedies suffered by Cuban youth: the camps known as Military Production Assistance Units (UMAP).

They did an excellent job with the film Plantadas*, without overlooking Plantados*, so we are confident that this will be a testimony of immense value like the previous ones.

The sadism of the Castro regime’s highest hierarchy—Fidel Castro, Raúl Castro, and Ernesto Che Guevara, with the complicity of the entire upper echelons of government—arranged a repressive scheme that sought to severely harm young people who expressed their opposition to the Revolution in various ways. First, they were militarized; second, they were forced to perform work contrary to their abilities; and third, they foisted upon the conscripts a web of lies and manipulations aimed at socially crippling them.

The first and permanent targets were the Church, the political opposition, the free press, and independent economic activities, part of a long and continue reading

painful relationship.

The UMAP was a sophisticated instrument of political repression that, based on existing prejudices, sought to discredit the victims.

In 1960 and 1961, Guevara and Raúl Castro launched an official persecution against prostitutes, pimps, and homosexuals, but also against any individual who did not hide their rejection of the new order.

Those arrested in the raids were concentrated on the Guanahacabibes Peninsula. The official version stated that these individuals had to be rehabilitated, and according to reports at the time, more than 4,000 people of both sexes were imprisoned in that region. As a document from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights denounced in May 1963, “all of this without a written sentence, carried out by a police captain, without procedure or legal basis, much less a constitutional one.”

While this was happening, the prisons were filling up with political prisoners. The firing squads grew deafening, and the harassment of those who decided to leave the country gave rise to the ever-present protest rallies.

In November 1963, the Castros implemented Mandatory Military Service (SMO), a novel method of imprisoning young people. The SMO was another instrument of oppression and forced ideology that should be thoroughly studied.

The creative capacity to repress and control was inexhaustible, and they invented the UMAP, a sinister plan aimed at subjugating the citizenry.

Thousands of young people were literally kidnapped. They were taken from their homes, schools, and religious seminaries. They were deceived and rounded up by the police, with no grounds to justify their arrests, much less the forced deportation they were subjected to. They were never formally charged, much less tried by a court, however spurious.

Thousands of young people were literally kidnapped. Taken from their homes, schools, and religious seminaries.

Most of them were of military age, but they weren’t called up to the SMO because the dictatorship considered them even more “disposable.” The regime didn’t want them armed. They weren’t trustworthy. They were disaffected young people who committed the original sin of not believing in Castroism.

They were forcibly transported to barbed-wire concentration camps. Guarded by soldiers. Forced to survive in extreme poverty. Held in inhumane conditions, forced into involuntary agricultural labor. Their visits were monitored. They were frequently punished. Beaten by uniformed henchmen who relished the pain they inflicted. Some committed suicide, others were murdered by the jailers, and some were shot, like the young Alberto de la Rosa.

The UMAP lasted several years. It is estimated that at least 25,000 young people passed through its ranks. Raúl Castro, its architect, said: “The first group of comrades who joined the UMAP included some young people who hadn’t had the best conduct in life, young people who, due to poor upbringing and environmental influences, had taken the wrong path in society. They were incorporated in order to help them find a correct path that would allow them to fully integrate into society.”

The UMAP was a sophisticated instrument of political repression that, based on existing prejudices, sought to discredit the victims. To say that the UMAP was implemented to seek the social re-education of those repressed is false; its sole objective was to destroy them for being opposed to the regime. It’s as absurd and irrational as defending the Castro brothers’ dictatorship or believing that when the UMAP disappeared, the repression ended—a mistake, because other brigades like the Centenario Youth were soon created.

*Translator’s note: Plantado literally means “planted” (with plantada the feminine form), and refers to “the most uncooperative of Cuba’s political prisoners.”

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Shutting Down Radio Martí is the Cuban Regime’s Fondest Desire

Ceasing the broadcasts of these entities results in a great lack of information among those fighting against dictatorships.

Educating about freedoms and citizen prerogatives is a function that Radio Martí completely fulfilled / Radio Martí

14ymedio, Pedro Corzo, Miami, 23 March 2025 — This is not the first time I have written about Radio Martí, an entity that for many Cubans is an informational battering ram against the systematic and permanent lies of the Cuban dictatorship and its associates in Venezuela, Nicaragua and Bolivia. The Voice of America (VOA) and other similar agencies of the United States federal government have also done so for decades.

Transmissions are an expensive service that must be re-evaluated in its management without being eliminated. In any government entity, regardless of the country, mistakes are made and it is likely that acts of corruption are not lacking. However, the solution is never to throw out the sofa*, but rather the subjects who have carried out a bad administration, might be sanctioned judicially if the crime requires it.

Without a doubt, denouncing autocracies is an essential mandate of democracies. Educating in aspects such as citizen freedoms and prerogatives is an obligation for all of us who enjoy the freedoms and rights that make this great nation an example. Radio Martí, despite its inefficiencies, completely fulfilled this function for Cuba.

It is true that its transmissions have not overthrown Castro’s totalitarianism, nor has the VOA destroyed the regimes of Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua. However, by duly fulfilling its mission of providing true and balanced news, it cooperates with those who actively, and in different ways, fight the autocrats.

For more than six decades the Castro dictatorship has proven to be the most dangerous and consistent enemy of the United States in the Western Hemisphere

Ceasing the transmissions of these entities generates a great informational helplessness among those who fight against dictatorships. It must be borne in mind that if “knowledge is power,” ignorance on the part of opponents of continue reading

what is happening in Cuba and in the world leads them to absolute defenselessness.

For more than six decades, the Castro dictatorship has proven to be the most dangerous and consistent enemy of the United States in the Western Hemisphere, promoting throughout Latin America proposals contrary to American democracy.

Its weapons have been propaganda and terrorism, and it is the transmissions of these federal stations that neutralize the string of lies and deceptions that the Castro-chavista regimes manufacture against their people.

Cuban totalitarianism has used its vote in international organizations to favor resolutions against the United States, benefiting the enemies of Washington – Russia, China, Iran and North Korea – for at least fifty years.

According to numerous complaints, military and espionage bases of some adversaries of the United States have been installed in Cuba, consistently undermining US national security.

The regime has infiltrated the U.S. with its spies and has captured lackeys in universities and government agencies with the aim of obtaining information, while showing itself as an innocent victim of all kinds of aggression by the White House against its own people. Radio Martí has destroyed those lies for almost 40 years, thanks to a programming that, without being perfect, has always told the truth.

Radio Martí has destroyed those lies for almost 40 years, thanks to a programming that, without being perfect, has always told the truth

I joined Radio Martí in 1998, under the administration of Roberto Rodríguez Tejera, a man who, to my knowledge, completely fulfilled the mandates of his position.

I can assure you that during these 23 years I did not agree with many of the things that happened and even less with some of the executives of the Office of Transmissions to Cuba (OCB). However, I consider that “the Mission,” as the late Cristina Sansón said, is the most important thing, which is why I do not understand those who attack the station with the intention of destroying it. It is true that it had flaws, we all know that, but Cubans on the Island need it to continue to fulfill its functions.

I dare say that, despite its deficiencies and probable improper handling, the OCB has fulfilled its objectives of bringing the truth to Cuba and making many citizens on the Island oppose totalitarianism, because they have known the truth through the radio waves of Radio Martí. Opposition leaders, such as José Daniel Ferrer and Félix Navarro, and independent journalist Reinaldo Escobar also request that it not disappear.

*Translator’s note: A common Cuban expression that comes from the following joke: [Briefly]…A man comes home to find his wife and her lover having sex on the sofa. Enraged, he throws the sofa out the window.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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