Category: CUBA

For more than sixty years, outsiders have tried to answer one deceptively simple question about Cuba: Who really runs the country? For decades, the answer seemed obvious. First there was Fidel Castro. Then there was Raúl Castro. Today, officially, there is President Miguel Díaz-Canel. But Cuba has never operated like an ordinary presidential democracy where political authority can be understood simply by reading an organizational chart. Real power has traditionally existed at the intersection of the Communist Party, the Revolutionary Armed Forces, the Ministry of the Interior, state security, military-controlled businesses, and personal relationships extending back to the revolution … Continue readingCuba After Raúl? “El Cangrejo,” the Castro Family, and the Quiet Battle Over Who Controls the Island Next

Nike Hercules, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the Nuclear Missiles Hidden in Our Backyard Most people who think about South Florida and the Cuban Missile Crisis picture Soviet missiles in Cuba pointed toward the United States. But there is another side of that story that is rarely discussed. The United States had nuclear missiles in South Florida too. Not strategic ICBMs buried in giant silos. These were Nike Hercules surface-to-air missiles, positioned around Miami, Homestead, the Everglades and the Florida Keys. Some carried nuclear warheads. And although their primary mission was to destroy attacking aircraft, the Nike Hercules also … Continue readingThe Forgotten Nuclear History of South Florida

There are moments in the history of a country that cannot be measured by elections, armies, speeches, or revolutions. They are measured by something much smaller. A suitcase. A passport. A photograph folded into a shirt pocket. A mother standing behind a glass partition at an airport, watching her child walk away. Between 1960 and 1962, 14,048 Cuban children arrived in the United States without their parents in an extraordinary exodus that became known as Operation Pedro Pan — Operación Pedro Pan. The National Archives describes it as the largest recorded exodus of unaccompanied minors in the Western Hemisphere. They were … Continue readingLos Hijos del Cielo Operation Pedro Pan and the Children Who Flew Alone

The City Where Everybody Eventually Passed Through There was an old joke about Miami in the 1980s: one-third of the city was supported by drugs, another third by the CIA, Cuban intelligence or the clandestine war, and only the remaining third was involved in normal business. The mathematics were almost certainly nonsense. But the fact that people could tell the joke—and that everyone in Miami understood what it meant—says something about the city at the time. Because for a remarkable period during the Cold War, it sometimes seemed as if every secret war in the Western Hemisphere eventually passed … Continue readingMiami, in the Center of It All – Drugs, Spies, Exiles, Covert Wars

How Castro Fought the CIA, the ounterrevolution, and the Secret War Against Cuba When Fidel Castro entered Havana in January 1959, the Cuban Revolution had won the war against Fulgencio Batista. It had not won peace. Within a remarkably short period, Cuba became the center of another conflict—one fought with guerrillas in the mountains, clandestine radios, boats crossing the Florida Straits, intelligence agents, neighborhood informants, sabotage teams, political prisoners, double agents, hijacked airplanes and competing governments that each believed the other was trying to destroy it. From Washington and Miami, the story looked like a struggle to overthrow an … Continue readingDefending the Revolution

A Timeline From Castro’s Revolution to the CIA, the Exile Armies and the Underground War, 1959–1980 When Fidel Castro entered Havana in January 1959, almost nobody could have predicted that the Cuban Revolution would produce a secret war lasting decades. Within two years, Cuban exiles would be training under the CIA. Within three, American intelligence officers would be planning sabotage and resistance operations against the new Cuban government. Within four, independent exile commandos would be attacking Cuba from small boats. Within eight, a Cuban exile working alongside the CIA would stand in a Bolivian schoolhouse with Che Guevara shortly before Che was executed. Within … Continue readingTwenty Years of the Secret CIA War for Cuba 1959–1980

For decades, Cuba exported revolution while the Soviet Union picked up the tab. Cuban blood, Soviet money, and foreign countries paid the price. Cuba’s Military Campaigns, Proxy Wars, and Intelligence Operations Abroad After 1959, Cuba was not merely a poor island claiming to defend itself against the United States. Under Fidel Castro, Cuba became an exporter of armed revolution. The regime sent soldiers, tanks, pilots, doctors, advisers, intelligence officers, trainers, weapons, propaganda, and political operatives across Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, and the United States. Havana called it “internationalism.” Its enemies called it subversion. In reality, it was … Continue readingCUBA Exports the Revolution

Batista spared Fidel Castro after Moncada. Cuban exiles financed his return. They believed they were funding Cuba’s liberation—only to discover they had financed the man who would imprison the nation. –YNOT! On July 26, 1953, Fidel Castro led roughly 160 armed followers in coordinated attacks against the Moncada Barracks in Santiago de Cuba and the Carlos Manuel de Céspedes Barracks in Bayamo. The plan was to capture weapons, seize strategic positions, and spark a national uprising against Fulgencio Batista, who had taken power through the military coup of March 10, 1952. Militarily, it was a disaster. The convoy became … Continue readingThe Man Batista Spared and Miami sent Back to Cuba

“I am not a Communist, and neither is the evolutionary movement.” —Fidel Castro, July 17, 1959 That was perhaps the greatest lie ever told by the 26th of July Movement. Castro did not reveal the truth until Cuba was already under his control. The Cuban dictatorship celebrates July 26 as the beginning of its revolution. It should be remembered as the beginning of Cuba’s catastrophe. On July 26, 1953, an armed group led by Fidel Castro attacked the Moncada Barracks in Santiago de Cuba and the Carlos Manuel de Céspedes Barracks in Bayamo. The assault failed militarily, but it … Continue readingJuly 26: The Day Cuba’s Destruction Began

Cuba never needed to be the largest power in the world. It only needed the patience to place or extort the right person in the right room—and wait. — YNOT! Cuba is a small island with limited economic resources, but since Fidel Castro took power in 1959, it has operated an overseas military and intelligence apparatus far larger than its size would suggest. Cuban soldiers fought in Africa and the Middle East. Cuban advisers trained foreign militaries, guerrillas, police forces, and intelligence services. Cuban diplomats were accused of operating under intelligence cover. Cuban agents infiltrated exile organizations, military installations, … Continue readingCuban Overseas Intelligence – the Who, How, and What

To understand the Cuban Revolution, we must first stop lying about the Cuba that existed before it. On the eve of Fidel Castro’s victory in January 1959, Cuba was not the tropical paradise sometimes remembered by nostalgic exiles. But neither was it the miserable, backward “brothel of the Western Hemisphere” portrayed by defenders of the Revolution. Both versions distort the truth. Pre-Castro Cuba was one of the most modern, prosperous, and socially advanced countries in Latin America. It was also a nation divided by corruption, racial discrimination, rural poverty, political violence, and enormous differences between Havana and the countryside. … Continue reading1959 – Cuba Before Castro

The Reality Behind Your All-Inclusive Cuban Vacation Let me ask you an uncomfortable question—one that may upset tourists, travel agencies, hotel companies, and everyone who prefers the postcard version of Cuba. While you are lying on a lounge chair in Varadero, sipping a mojito beside the pool, did you know that the Cuban serving your drink may have returned home the night before to a house without electricity? While you walk through an all-inclusive buffet filled with chicken, rice, bread, fruit, seafood, desserts, and imported drinks, Cuban families living only a few kilometers away may be rationing food, searching … Continue readingHow Tourism Works in Cuba

The Prisoners Who Survived the War—Only to Be Killed After It History often remembers the men who die in battle. It is less comfortable remembering the men who survive the battle, surrender, spend years in prison, and are then taken into the darkness to be machine-gunned by the government holding them. That is the story of the Manacas–Iznaga massacre of 1963. It is a story buried beneath disputed dates, incomplete records, exile testimony, revolutionary propaganda, and the silence of a government that controlled the courts, the press, the prisons, and the place where the bodies fell. The central facts, … Continue readingThe Manacas–Iznaga Massacre — July 13th, 1963

Forty-One Cubans Died Trying to Escape—Including Ten Children. More Than Three Decades Later, No One Has Been Held Accountable.   On , approximately seven miles north of Havana, the Caribbean Sea became the grave of 41 Cuban men, women, and children. They were not soldiers. They were not terrorists. They were not armed insurgents attempting to overthrow the government. They were ordinary Cuban families trying to escape the island aboard an aging, state-owned tugboat named the 13 de Marzo. Before sunrise, the vessel was pursued by other government-owned tugboats, struck repeatedly, flooded with high-pressure water cannons, and sent beneath the … Continue readingThe Tugboat Massacre: 13 de Marzo — July 13, 1994

Throughout this series, I will try to approach Cuba’s history as honestly and fairly as possible. Some records are incomplete, and some events are still debated, so the goal is not to repeat propaganda from either side, but to look at the facts as clearly as we can. The Platt Amendment is often presented as one of the reasons Fidel Castro and later Cuban revolutionaries became so hostile toward the United States. There is some truth to that argument, because the amendment became a symbol of American control over Cuba. But it is also important to remember that the … Continue readingThe Platt Amendment: Cuba’s Independence Came With Fine Print

The Story of José Hernández My name is José Hernández, and I survived Cuban socialism. I do not use the word survived lightly. I was not rescued from a battlefield. I was not pulled from the ruins of a collapsed building. I survived something slower—a political system that enters the classroom, the workplace, the neighborhood, the family, and eventually the private thoughts of every person living beneath it. In Cuba, fear does not always announce itself. It does not always arrive wearing a military uniform or carrying a rifle. Sometimes it lives in a conversation that suddenly becomes quiet … Continue readingI Survived Cuban Socialism

The Revolution Before the Revolution Before Cuba became a republic, before Castro, before Batista, before the slogans and speeches of the twentieth century, there was another revolution. The original Cuban revolution was not one man standing at a podium. It was not one army marching into Havana. It was not one single battle, one single date, or one clean victory wrapped in a flag. It was a long, painful, unfinished struggle that stretched across generations. It began with conspiracies, slave rebellions, exile movements, failed expeditions, and men who dreamed of breaking Cuba away from Spain long before the island … Continue readingCuba’s Long Road to Freedom – The First Time

They fought for a freedom they were promised, then came home to a country still deciding whether that freedom included them. I could say that for Afro-Cuban veterans of 1912 or Tuskegee Airmen, Cuba was ahead by 30 years. — YNOT! There are some wounds in a nation’s history that do not bleed in public anymore, but they never fully close. Cuba remembers Spain. Cuba remembers independence. Cuba remembers Martí, Maceo, Máximo Gómez, the machete charges, the jungle camps, the hunger, the sacrifice, and the dream of a free republic. But not every Cuban sacrifice was honored equally after the flag … Continue readingLa Guerra de 1912 – The Forgotten War

Cuba’s Revolving Door of Presidents – How a Nation Won Its Independence but Never Secured Its Democracy Cuba did not suffer from a shortage of presidents. It suffered from a shortage of institutions strong enough to restrain them. Between the founding of the Cuban Republic in 1902 and the triumph of the Revolution in 1959, Cuba passed through elected presidents, provisional presidents, military strongmen, temporary caretakers, revolutionary councils and men who occupied the presidential palace for such a brief time that they barely had a chance to sit behind the desk. Some arrived through elections. Some arrived through military coups. … Continue readingCuba’s Revolving Door of Presidents

It may happen in a single night, or it may take much longer. But the ending does not change. The curtain will rise, the drama will unfold, and history will make its decision. — YNOT! Wars are funny things. Everyone spends years talking about how they begin, and almost nobody spends enough time thinking about what happens the morning after. History teaches us something simple: governments do not collapse in slow motion. They often appear strong right until the moment they break. Then suddenly, the impossible becomes inevitable. If Cuba ever reaches the point of a foreign intervention or … Continue readingThe Day After Díaz-Canel

  There are nations that fall because they run out of money. There are nations that fall because they run out of food. There are nations that fall because the lights go out, the factories stop, the roads break, and the people finally understand that the promises were never promises at all. They were bait. But Cuba is different. Cuba has been hungry before. Cuba has been dark before. Cuba has watched its children leave, its hospitals decay, its farms collapse, and its old people stand in lines for bread like prisoners waiting for mercy. And still the regime survived. Why? … Continue readingThe G2: The Hidden Machine That Keeps Cuba in Chains

“Cuba was not born for chains. It was born through blood, poetry, sacrifice, and rebellion — and every tyrant who tried to own her only proved why her people must be free.” — YNOT! Birthing a country is a painful thing. It does not always begin clean. It does not always end well. And it almost never happens without blood, betrayal, sacrifice, and men arguing over the bones of the future. Cuba was no different. Before Castro. Before communism. Before the firing squads, the exile, the ration books, the political prisons, and the ruined promises. There was another Cuba. A … Continue readingCuba Before Castro: The Long Road from Spain’s Chains to a Wounded Republic

Cuba does not need new masters. Cuba needs the old Mambí spirit — the courage to say that no dictator, no party, and no army owns the Cuban people. –YNOT! Before Castro. Before communism. Before the lies, the slogans, the ration books, the political prisons, and the exile of millions. There were the Mambises. The Mambises were the Cuban patriots who fought against Spanish colonial rule in the 19th century. They were the men and women who gave their blood, their land, their families, and their lives so that Cuba could be free. They fought in the Ten Years’ … Continue readingThe Mambises: Cuba’s Original Freedom Fighters

The revolution promised equality, but it created a royal family in olive-green uniforms while the Cuban people waited in line for bread. –YNOT! One of the most controversial questions surrounding Cuba’s ruling elite is the alleged “treasure” of the Castro family. For decades, rumors, journalistic investigations, defector testimonies, financial estimates, and official denials have surrounded the same question: How much wealth did the Castro family really control? There is no publicly proven, irrefutable number. There is no single bank statement, no official account, no transparent audit showing the full fortune. But there are several major clues that help explain … Continue readingThe Castro Family Fortune: Myth, Estimate, or Reality

The money enters Cuba. The food enters Cuba. The hotels are built. The problem is not the absence of resources — it is who controls them.–YNOT! To understand Cuba’s deep crisis, we have to move beyond ideological slogans and look at the facts: the economic data, the internal power structure, and the way resources are actually controlled on the island. The crisis is often blamed entirely on a suffocating external siege — the so-called “blockade.” But the reality is more complicated, and far more revealing. Cuba’s collapse is not simply the product of foreign pressure or abstract ideology. It … Continue readingCuba’s Economic Reality: Beyond the Myth of the “Blockade”

Cuba does not need more hotels built on top of prisoners. It needs the regime that destroyed its faith, family, culture, and future to finally end. –YNOT! No negotiation. No cosmetic reform. No pretending that opening Cuba as a travel destination is the priority when you are dealing with a regime built on murder, repression, exile, fear, and the destruction of a people’s soul. A true Genocide of CUBA And some people will ask, “What do you mean by that?” Let me explain. Cuba was not just an island. Cuba was a civilization of its own. It had its … Continue readingThe Cuban Regime Cannot Be Reformed – The present Cuban regime has to end.