This is the second installment in a 15-part series written by Cuban American engineer Humberto (Bert) Corzo exclusively on Babalú (see Part 1, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Part 11, Part 12):
“The word is not to conceal the truth, but to say it” – José Martí.
Why this topic is called One Hundred Lies told by Fidel Castro? Because he affirms the opposite of what is in his mind, he disguises his thinking by making his pronouncements look like another thing. Because the fake promises he made breaking his word. Of him we can say that “He lies more than he speaks the truth.”
In order to understand Fidel Castro’s actions, it is necessary to understand him as he really is, not as people want him to be. He is a man with two faces, one is the face of a revolutionary who promise prosperity, democracy and the restoration of Cuba’s 1940 constitution. The other is the face of a consummate liar who says and promises anything in order to stay in power for life.
The following infamous lies were used by Fidel Castro to coax the Cuban people, to later betray the true principles of the revolution by turning the island into a satellite of the Soviet Union.
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13. “We have said that we will turn Cuba into the most prosperous country of the world. We have said that the people of Cuba will reach the higher standard of living than any country in the world.” Speech, March 13, 1959.
In 1999 the United Nations development program placed Cuba next to the last place among the poorest countries in Latin America. Only one Latin American country was poorer than Cuba, Haiti. Cuba’s statistical reports and specialized agencies show that Cuba’s agricultural production declined year after year from 1980 to 2010. There is a shortage of fruits, vegetables, potatoes, bananas, mangos, sweet potatoes, taro, rice and other foodstuffs that traditionally have been produced in the island. The 2017-2018 sugar harvest with a production of 1.1 million tons of sugar represents the worst harvest in 124 years.
From 1961 to 1990, the Castro tyranny received an average of four billion dollars a year in subsidies from the Soviet Union. From the year 2000 to 2014 Venezuela’s subsidy has been estimated at $105 billion. During all those years the resources dedicated to house construction, public transportation and infrastructure were minimal, the rationing card was not eliminated, and the standard of living decreased significantly.
14. “They married us to the lie and forced us to live with it in shameful collusion; they accustomed us to lying, and we are scared of the truth. It seems to us like the world is sinking when a truth is said. !As if not to be more worthwhile that the world would sink, rather than to live with the lie!” Speech at the National Medical Association, March 16, 1959.
“If you repeat a lie often enough, it becomes the truth”, Joseph Goebbels. Fidel Castro has used the lie as a political weapon. Known as “the father of the lie”, his lies do not have any limit. He transformed the lie into truth. That is precisely what he did; he married us with the lie and has forced us to live with it until his regime disappears from the face of the earth. But time is the greatest friend of the truth that always triumphs in the end.
15. “Of all forms of racial discrimination, the worst is the one that limits the black Cuban’s access to job sources because it is true that in our country has existed, in some sectors, the embarrassing procedure of excluding blacks from jobs.…we are going to end to him the racial discrimination in the work centers, making a campaign to put an end to this odious and repugnant system.” Speech, March 22, 1959.
Constitution of 1940, Article 20: “It is considered punishable all discrimination on grounds of sex, race, color or class and any other one harmful to human dignity.” Since the beginning of the republic in 1902, began the process of racial integration. There was no segregation in the public transportation, public schools, most of the workplaces, armed forces and the political leadership.
During the Republican era a certain number of Cuban blacks made it to positions of great political importance. Batista, Cuba’s military leader, President and strongman, who was of mix race, Spanish and Taino decent. During his leadership a large number of the army officers were black and mulattoes.
Under the Castro regime Black Cubans have been displaced from jobs in tourism, joint ventures, managerial positions, and the better paid jobs. Since the regime controls the employment in those sectors, we can affirm that the regime exercises racial discrimination.
The Cuban of color is doubly discriminated; by being a Cuban citizen and by the color of his skin. Under the Castro dictatorship blacks and mulattos, which represent 36% of the population, only hold six seats in the 24-member Politburo, and only 10% of seats in the Central Committee. However in 1908, when the proportion of the population of color ascended to 30%, the proportion of blacks and mulattos in the House of Representatives and the Senate was 15%.
In the army among the officers of high rank, where 95% are white, they practically don’t have any representation, but certainly have it among the victims in the Castro wars in Africa where they have been the majority, serving as cannon fodder.
16. In the speech at the swearing ceremony as Prime Minister on February 16, 1959, Fidel said: “Projects are already carrying out to dry the Zapata Swamp, where we will reclaimed 15,000 caballerías (201,300 hectares) of land, and to recover the lowlands of the Cauto river, also drying and preparing them for agriculture, where we calculate to obtain another 10,000 caballerías (134,200 hectares) of land.” In a speech at the National Medical Association on March 16 he said: “I think it is one more crime that the Zapata Swamp had not been dried many years ago…. The Zapata Swamp, nothing more easier in the world than drying it, is not even a swamp….therefore, before the 30 of this month, the Zapata Swamp will begin to be dried, and before a year and a half we will have recovered 15,000 caballerías of land, of the most fertile land in the Zapata Swamp….For the coming year will be planted in the Zapata Swamp all the rice that today is imported, 24,000 families will have land, and 50,000 people will be working, only in which was a swamp, a marsh.”
On March 29 of 1959 Castro ordered the intensification of the works in the Zapata Swamp. The drying up the Swamp intended to turn it into productive land, but in reality it caused great destruction of its ecological system.
Currently 58% of the country’s agricultural area is not in production (Cuba’s National Bureau of Statistics, Panorama Uso de la Tierra, 2013) and the people lacking food. Cuban ornithologist Carlos Wotzkow, from his own studies in the region, estimates that 50 percent of the Zapata Swamp ecosystem has already been destroyed and lost in wanton environmental degradation and ecologic destruction.
The crazy plan of drying the Zapata Swamp to plant rice in order to satisfy domestic consumption, and the recovery of the lowlands of the Cauto River, were another resounding failures of Fidel Castro. Millions of dollars were spend on such projects, which caused considerable ecological damage. The swampy areas adjacent to the Bay of Pigs were practically destroyed, and also its flora and fauna.
17. “Democracy is a right for some and for others, let all theories be discussed, all sermons be written, be discussed, because man is reason and not force, man is intelligence and not imposition nor whim, to talk, to discuss, since what we look for is that freedom where all ideas are discussed, in which we all have the right to think, freedom to write, freedom of assembly, for all lawful and legal acts. Man is truly democratic….And even if it’s on a corner and where 20 people can hear if not 100 people, that man can express his thoughts. And if you want to make copies of a political thesis then print it and hand it out in the University without being taken to the police station.” “Before the Press”, CMQ TV, La Habana, April 2, 1959.
All of that is true in a Democracy, but not under the Castro tyranny in which have been abolished political philosophies that differ from the prevailing system, the freedom of assembly, the right to write and express ideas that criticize the regime. Tell that to all those who have dared to express their thoughts in a corner and have gone to jail. Tell that to all those who have been beaten and jailed for distributing copies of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, categorized as a crime of distributing “enemy propaganda.”
18. “Respect to Communism, I can only say one thing, I AM NOT COMMUNIST, nor the Communists have the strength to be a determining factor in my country.” Address before the “American Society of Newspaper Editors”, Washington DC, April 17, 1959. “This revolution is not communist, but humanist.” Appearance on the TV program “Meet the Press”, Washington, DC, April 19, 1959.
In his appearance on the TV program “Popular University”, December 1, 1961, said: “I say, here, with complete satisfaction and confidence, that I am a Marxist-Leninist and will be so until the last day of my life.”
Castro, a shameless pathological liar, emphatically denied that Communism has anything to do with him, to proclaim later on that he had been Marxist-Leninist all his life. The eye of the Russian master fattens the “Horse”.
19. “We wish to establish a true democracy in Cuba, without a trace of Fascism, Peronism or Communism. We are against any kind of totalitarianism.” Press conference in New York with Dr. Gainza Paz, editor of the newspaper “La Prensa” from Buenos Aires, April 23, 1959.
He established a totalitarian state, Castroism, where the political parties were banned. He destroyed the labor movement and their multiple labor and social achievements were eliminated. He persecuted and cornered religious institutions. Censored and seized the organs of the press, radio and television. Repressed the people and sowed terror. Planned poverty creating food shortages, forcing women into prostitution to live. His purpose has been to wield absolute personal power of indefinite duration.
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Humberto Corzo was born in Matanzas, Cuba. In 1962 he graduated from University of Havana with a degree in Civil Engineering. Since coming to the United States in 1969, he established his residence in Los Angeles, California, where in 1972 he obtained the registration as a Professional Engineer. He has over forty five years of experience in the field of Structural Engineering. He is a Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers and the Cuban-American Association of Civil Engineers.