Apparently fidel didn’t get the memo

by

Against communism
2nd Editorial
Bohemia Magazine
January 11, 1959
One of the big fabrications of the [Batista] dictatorship that has happily disappeared was the one that tried to paint the revolutionary movement, with its deep democratic content and Fidel Castro as its primary leader, red. The fact that Batista and his men, professional liars, hoisted such an accusation systematically should have been enough so as to discredit it. At present, the historic events that have taken place since New Year’s Day are of such magnitude and evidence that nobody can retain doubts of any kind in this regard.
It’s clear that the communists collaborate extensively in the task of establishing the mistaken Minority of Minorities in Cuba, without a real basis in the country, stubbornly trying, with their tenacious proselytizing to infiltrate all the revolutionary movements and exploit historic moments of political transformation, like the ones carried out in Cuba. But the conscience and actions of our people have matured enough so that nobody can derail them, at the instant of re-conquering their democracy, toward ideologies that deny freedom.
A very recent event confirms this assertion: the statement just made by the head of the Revolution, Dr. Fidel Castro, announcing that the new government will refuse all treaties with states governed dictatorially, and mentioning in the first instance the Soviet Union. It is impossible for there to be the slightest convergence among those who just emancipated a people and those that crushed the freedom of a dozen European countries, machine-gunned the defenseless Hungarian people and constitute the highest example of despotism in the world. BOHEMIA welcomes this pronouncement as a positive development.
Moreover, the roots of communism lie in social and political injustice. A truly revolutionary government, loyally committed to helping its people in the urgent battle against traditional ills and injustices, in doing so prevents the fans totalitarianism, which draw on the ills suffered by the people from establishing a police state under the pretext of abolishing them.
Nothing of the sort will happen in our homeland. Communism will not have justifications nor the complicity of power here. The Revolution that advances unstoppably is Cuban and Democratic in intent and at its core. It has nothing to do with enemies of freedom.

12 thoughts on “Apparently fidel didn’t get the memo”

  1. Who was the editor at the time that wrote this? Was he on the take or on drugs?
    I know there were people duped, which is something my family was never able to comprehend. Both sides of my family, who didn’t know each other at the time, were completely aware that the revolution was blood red. Pun intended.

  3. Henry, MAQ was one of the biggest dupes of the era. Why not also publish his suicide letter-it is quite illuminating.

  4. George Moneo has it posted at Universal Spectator, but I have been informed that the letter is a fake.

  5. The New York Times and Herbert Mathews were babies in diapers compared to the harm BOHEMIA did to Cuba. The editor, Miguel Angel Quevedo and many of his writers hated Batista with a pasion. The did everything they could to discredit Batista, including lying. It was in Bohemia that the “20,000 men murdered by Batista” rumor originated. Something that was completely fabricted in order to turn the tide towards fidel castro.
    Miguel Angel Quevedo couldn’t live with himself after he realized what he had done and blew his brains out.

  8. Henry
    Is that cite and its translation with author and page numbers on the web?
    However one should also recall that, as much as Batista said that Castro was a communist (which was true), there were many doubts since all also recalled that Batista had an extensive record of collaborated extensively with the communists especially in the trade unions.
    In addition, as many resistance groups would learn to their great regret, communists would turn in any they opposed to Batista. Such were Frank Pais, and the students killed at Humbolt 7.
    Another problem was that the histories of Cuba taught in highschool (bachillerato) were incomplete and had strong “liberal” bias. If it had been common knowledge what really happened in the 1930s things would have been far different.
    In my personal view the senior Moscow agent in Cuba, Fabio Grobart trained a number of candidates for the position of communist dictator. These candidates may, or may not, have included such as Julio Antonio Mella, Antonio Guiteras, Roland Masferrer who all ended up rebelling in one way or the other against the communist party and its leaders in Moscow. Eventually, as in turn each candidate proved unsuitable for that pupose, Grobart had to arrange, or try to arrange, their murder
    Then Grobart stumbled on the Castro brothers, who proved to be his perfect Golem, monsters without scruples made from the crudest clay …

  9. Larry,
    I actually translated the column from a hard copy of the Bohemia Magazine, that belongs to Val, that I have at my house. I can look up the page number tonight.

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