The Cuban regime has always relied on the 11 principles of the Nazi minister’s propaganda.
14ymedio, Rolando Gallardo, Huesca (Spain), 5 January 2025 — The propaganda machine of the Cuban government is unmistakably inspired by the teachings of the terrible Nazi minister Josef Goebbels. His words echo in my head as a statement of the character of the Cuban Revolution: “The bourgeoisie must yield to the working class…. Whatever is about to fall must be pushed. We are all soldiers of the revolution. We want the victory of the workers over filthy profit. That is socialism” (quoted in Doctor Goebbels: His Life and Death). The slogans of the “Ñico Lopez” Communist Party University are a discursive copy of Goebbels. Goebbels’ contributions in the field of propaganda make Cuban socialism akin to German National Socialism.
It is necessary to review Joseph Goebbels’ 11 principles of propaganda to understand how the Cuban regime uses Nazi mechanisms against the Cuban people and its rebellious freethinkers.
11 Principles for 1 Revolution:
Principles of single enemy and contagion: For the Revolution, there are not numerous adversaries, there is only one that manifests itself in various forms. Imperialism is always linked to dissidents; it does not matter that there is no proof. If you are against it, you are a “gusano” (worm) in the service of imperialism. The image of the Cuban “gusano” is not accidental, it was one of the many used by the Nazis to represent the Jew, depersonalize them and then execute them in mass without remorse. The independent journalist, the sportsman who flees, the doctor who abandons a mission or the citizen who demands humanitarian intervention in times of crisis is just as much an enemy of the Revolution. Those who dare to contradict will be in the same bag.
Principle of Transposition: Goebbels recalled that for effective propaganda it is necessary “to make the people believe that hunger, thirst, scarcity and disease are the fault of our opponents and to make [the] sympathizers repeat this to themselves at all times…” All the mistakes and negative tendencies of the regime and the failures of past, present and future rearrangements are the fault of imperialism, mafias and traitors. For the propaganda, the corruption, brazenness, incoherence and bad decisions they make daily are not, and cannot be their fault.
Principle of Exaggeration and Disfigurement: To turn any anecdote into a serious threat, no matter how small. The country is falling, garbage is overflowing, and people are starving, but the news in the official media is the invasion attempts on a jet ski of two dangerous counterrevolutionaries who intend to exert terrible actions against Cuba. They have very well-oiled mechanisms for stories of this kind, which must be believed no matter how implausible
Principle of Vulgarization: “All propaganda must be popular” If they are hungry promise lots of chicken and if it is ostrich, so much the better. Say adorable idiocies, the media will put up with everything and the masses will eventually forgive you. Democratizing idiocy is a guarantee of communicative effectiveness, adapting political communication to the least intelligent of the individuals to whom it is addressed. “The larger the mass to be convinced, the smaller the mental effort to be made. The receptive capacity of the masses is limited and their comprehension is scarce; besides, they have a great capacity to forget,” said Goebbels.
Principle of Orchestration: Propaganda should be like a catchy summer song: a few ideas, repeated to exhaustion, from all possible angles, but always aiming at the same conga-style refrain: “Hey I am Fidel,” “We are continuity,” “Cuba advances and that hurts them.” Repeating things with no practical sense but with an air of confidence. This is the origin of the famous phrase: “If a lie is repeated enough, it ends up becoming the truth,” in people’s minds. That is why they insist that the socialism of the PCC (Cuban Communist Party) is viable, only that, of course, they do not let them. How convenient!
Principle of Renewal: It is vital to constantly issue new information and arguments at such a pace that, by the time the adversary responds, the public is already interested in something else. The adversary’s responses must never be able to counteract the growing tsunami of accusations. For this, the regime takes permanent measures and countermeasures with the promise that everything will improve, that now they will build what they have never built. And, boy, are they effective: they have been telling the same story for almost seven decades and there are still those who swallow it hook, line and sinker as if it were the first day. It is enough to compare Granma’s slogans of the 60’s and 80’s of the last century with the current ones. It is the same melody, only now with a couple more off-key notes.
Principle of Verisimilitude: To build plots from different sources, through the so-called probe balloons or fragmentary information. They use phrases from their allies in this or that country, from loyal intellectuals, and from media such as Telesur that serve the same political agenda. So, if NTV (National News) quotes a seemingly foreign media, or a foreign friend of the regime’s, or they showcase the increasingly fewer Spanish artists they have on their payroll, everything seems more real and they manage to convince many that the first world is worse off than Cuba and that in the largest Island of the Antilles, there is an oasis of prosperity.
Principle of Silencing: To remain silent on issues for which there are no reasons and to conceal the news that favors the adversary, also by counter-programming with the help of like-minded media. In particular, denying any right to reply and denying access to divergent criteria in the partisan spaces they call public media.
Propaganda always operates based on a pre-existing substratum, be it a national mythology or a complex of traditional hatreds and prejudices.
Principle of Transfusion: As a general rule, propaganda always operates based on a pre-existing substratum, whether it is a national mythology or a complex of traditional hatreds and prejudices; the aim is to disseminate ideas that can take root in primitive attitudes. They set some Cubans against others, manipulate history and take the issue to the confrontational plane between nation and colonialism. On that line, they develop the Castro mythology and his epic fight against an imperialism ready to attack at any moment. Although the Cuban Army does not have the military capacity for a frontal clash with the United States, the technological gap being evident, they still call for ridiculous exercises to keep active the imminence of the myth of the invasion or the idea of a besieged place.
Principle of Unanimity: To convince many people that they think “like everyone else,” creating the impression of unanimity. The false unanimity, the promulgation that all of Cuba is communist, Fidelista, and whoever is not is because he is an ex-Cuban, a non-patriot, a lackey, a mercenary and all the appellatives that the propaganda promotes. And this practice extends to the structures of the State, where it is not necessary to choose a president among several options and projects since ratifying the candidate imposed by the single party is enough. In the same way, laws are passed and, when they fail to be implemented, there is nothing to fear because there are enemies to blame.
Epilogue
Goebbels’ principles have found a natural extension in the Cuban regime. Propaganda is the oxygen of the Revolution, and as long as the slogan that hunger and misery are the enemy’s fault resonates, the spirit of the Nazi minister will continue to walk the streets of Havana. What is the Cuban Revolution if not the most perfect incarnation of Goebbels’ words, sacrificing the self for the whole, dooming entire generations to the service of a lie repeated a thousand times over? While they demand sacrifices from the hungry, they live like kings.
Translated by LAR
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