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Political Violence pp 143–154Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Political Repression in Castro’s Cuba: Policies, Institutions and Victims

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Abstract

Among the Communist systems of the past century, and those that still survive, Cuba has been one of the most repressive and depriving as is indicated by the huge numbers of refugees escaping the island often under extremely difficult and life-threatening conditions. It has also been a system that allowed less freedom of expression than most other Communist states. Especially significant is that, unlike in Eastern Europe, the liberalization and later collapse of the Soviet Union did not lead to the relaxation of repressive policies or to a weakened will to power on the part of its leaders.

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Notes

  1. Brian Latell, After Fidel (New York, 2005). See, in particular, Chapter 4, “My True Destiny.” Latell conducted years of research into Fidel’s childhood and youth. The author shares his findings after having studied Castro for years and after having had numerous conversations with many individuals who have known him since childhood, during his revolutionary days, and as ruler of Cuba.

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  2. Fidel Castro in “Conversation with the students at the University of Concepción,” November 18, 1971. See

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  3. Education for Socialists, National Education Department of the Socialists Workers Party, Fidel Castro on Chile (New York, 1982), p. 46.

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  4. Nestor Carbonell provides a compelling, firsthand account of Castro’s alignment with the Soviet Union, beginning immediately after Castro’s takeover. See Nestor Carbonell, And the Russians Stayed: The Sovietization of Cuba (New York, 1989).

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  5. Fidel Castro, Fidel: My Early Years (Melbourne; New York, 1998). See, in particular, Chapter 2, “University Days,” pp. 73–96.

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  6. See Tad Szulc, Fidel: A Critical Portrait (New York, 1986), p. 328.

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  7. See Fidel’s speech at the Universidad Popular, Cuba, December 2, 1961 in Leovigildo Ruíz, Diario de una traición: 1961 (Miami, 1972), pp. 206–207.

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  8. Fidel Castro, as cited in Leovigildo Ruíz, Diario de una traición: 1959 (Miami, 1965), p. 84. Translated from Spanish by the author.

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  9. Arguably the best accounts of Castro’s international subversion have not been translated from Spanish. See Juan Benemelis, Las guerras secretas de Fidel Castro (Miami, 2003) and

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  10. Enrique Ros, Castro y las Guerrillas en Latinoamérica (Miami, 2001). The literature on Castro’s more overt international interventions and direct military campaigns is considerable in both languages but two works in Spanish stand out. See

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  13. Castro’s involvement with terrorist groups worldwide is well-documented in published accounts of participants. The Argentine Jorge Masetti provides details in his In the Pirate’s Den (San Francisco, 1993) of his activities as an international terrorist under Cuba’s command. The author has had extensive conversations with him and other former high-ranking participants who have offered firsthand details of these activities. (See MariaWerlau, “Fidel Inc.: A Global Conglomerate,” Cuba in Transition: Volume 15—Papers and Proceedings of the Fifteenth Annual Meeting of the Association for the Study of the Cuban Economy (ASCE), Miami, August 2005 (Washington, D.C., 2005), <http://www1.lanic.utexas.edu/project/asce/pdfs/volume15/pdfs/werlau.pdf>.

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  14. Castro was forced to transfer power to his brother after severe bleeding from an “acute intestinal crisis” led to emergency surgery and ensuing complications and surgeries. See FidelCastro, “Proclama del Comandante en Jefe” (Julio 31 del 2006), Granma, Organo Oficial del Partido Comunista de Cuba, 1 de agosto 2006, <http://www.granma.cubaweb.cu/secciones/siempre_con_fidel/art-021.html>. After apparently overcoming several life-threatening complications, the Cuban government has given many indications that he is running the show from the sidelines, at least to a degree. He has also been photographed and filmed with world leaders, and the Cuban media still publishes his writings and statements.

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  15. These volumes were published by small printing presses probably in very small numbers and are treasured relics. The author has unconfirmed reports that Mr. Ruíz died shortly after reaching exile, which explains why only three annual volumes were produced. See Ruíz, Diario, 1959; Leovigildo Ruíz, Diario de una traición: 1960 (Mami, 1970); and Ruíz, Diario, 1961.

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  18. On January 7, 1959, Col. Cornelio Rojas Fernández, who was in charge of the Santa Clara garrison under the Batista government, was executed by firing squad under direct order of Ché Guevara without a trial on charges of torture and assassinations. The execution was shown on Cuban television. Humberto Fontova, Exposing the Real Che Guevara and the Useful Idiots who Idolize Him (New York, 2007), p. 106; “Ya tienen la revolución: no la pierdan,” Recuento1, no. 2 (1975);

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  20. Francisco Fernández Zayas, a resident of Miami and a former political prisoner held at Boniato prison in Santiago de Cuba from 1963 to 1968. (Telephone interview, Cuba Archive, February 17, 2006. Translation from Spanish by the author.) Chapter 8 of Juan Clark, Cuba: Mito y Realidad, 2nd edition (Miami-Caracas, 1992), details the practice of blood extraction at Boniato prison.

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  24. Armando Valladares, Against all Hope: A Memoir of Life in Castro’s Gulag, trans. Andrew Hurley (San Francisco, 2001). First published in Spanish in 1985; the English translation was published in 1986 by Alfred Knopf.

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  25. Ana Rodríguez and Glenn Garvin, Diary of a Survivor: Nineteen Years in a Cuban Women’s Prison (New York, 1995).

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  26. For details, see Michael Levitin, “E. Germans drew blueprint for Cuban spying,” The Miami Herald, November 4, 2007.

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  27. Juan Antonio Rodríguez Menier, Cuba Por Dentro: El MINIT (Miami, 1994), p. 51. Manuel Beunza, a former high-ranking Cuban intelligence officer who defected in 1989, has confirmed this to the author.

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  28. Rolando García Quiñones, Director del Centro de Estudios Demográficos (CEDEM), Universidad de La Habana, “International Migrations in Cuba: persisting trends and changes,” Seminar on Migration and Regional Integration, Havana, August 1–2, 2002. (The 2000 U.S. census provides slightly higher numbers for the foreign-born population of Cuban origin that arrived before 1959.)

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  29. For an estimate of the hard-currency earnings this leaves the Cuban government, see Maria C.Werlau, “U.S. Travel Restrictions to Cuba: Overview and Evolution,” Cuba in Transition: Volume 13, Papers and Proceedings of the Thirteenth Annual Meeting of the Association for the Study of the Cuban Economy (ASCE), Miami: August 2003 (Washington, D.C.: 2003), pp. 384–409, http://lanic.utexas.edu/project/asce/pdfs/volume13/werlau.pdf.

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  30. On this subject, see Maria C.Werlau, “International Law and other Considerations on the Repatriation of Cuban ‘balseros’ by the United States,” Cuba in Transition, Volume 14, Papers and Proceedings of the Fourteenth Annual Meeting of Association for the Study of the Cuban Economy (ASCE), August 2004 (Washington, D.C.: 2004), http://lanic.utexas.edu/project/asce/pdfs/volume14/werlau.pdf.

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  31. On this topic, see Maria C. Werlau, “Foreign Investment in Cuba: The Limits of Commercial Engagement,” World Affairs 160, no. 7 (Fall 1997): 51–69.

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  32. From 1992–1996 remittances are reported to have grown by 242 percent. (Pedro Monreal, “Las remesas familiares en la economía cubana,” Encuentro de la Cultura Cubana 14 (otoño del 1999): 49–62.)

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  33. Clive Foss, The Tyrants: 2,500 Years of Absolute Power and Corruption (London, 2006).

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  34. Clive Foss, Fidel Castro (Phoenix Mill, 2000).

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  35. See Maria C.Werlau, “The Effects of the U.S. Embargo on Health and Nutrition in Cuba: A Critical Analysis,” Cuba in Transition: Volume 8, Papers and Proceedings of the Eight Annual Meeting of Association for the Study of the Cuban Economy (ASCE), Miami, August 1998 (Association for the Study of the Cuban Economy [Washington, 1998], reproduced by the Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies, University of Miami, http://ctp.iccas.miami.edu/CTPDocs/ctp1_00532.pdf”http://ctp.iccas.miami.edu/CTPDocs/ctp1_00532.pdf. For a recent informative study of the shortcomings of the Cuban healthcare system see

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  36. Katherine Hirschfeld: Health, Politics and Revolution in Cuba Since 1898, New Brunswick, NJ, 2007.

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Further Reading

  • Barrionuevo, Alexei. “Cash-stuffed suitcase splits Venezuela and Argentina.” International Herald Tribune, August 14, 2007, <http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/08/14/america/14argentina.php>.

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  • Conquest, Robert. Reflections on a Ravaged Century. New York: Norton & Company, 2000.

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  • Conquest, Robert. The Harvest of Sorrow. New York: Oxford University Press, 1986.

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  • Hernández Cuellar, Jesús. “Cuba: The Price of Dissent—Cuban Political Prisons.” Contacto, May 22, 1998.

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  • Hitler and Stalin: Roots of Evil. History Channel, 2002.

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  • Hitler, Stalin and Saddam. History Channel, n.d.

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  • Hollander, Paul. Political Pilgrims. New York: Oxford University Press, 1981; New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books, 1997.

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  • Hollander, Paul. The End of Commitment: Intellectuals, Revolutionaries and Political Morality. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2006.

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  • Index of Economic Freedom. Heritage Foundation www.heritage.org/research/features/index/countries.cfm.

  • Iskander Maleras and Luis Angel Valverde. Case Profile. Cuba Archive. http://www.cubaarchive.org/english_version/articles/44/1/Iskander-Maleras-and-Luis-Valverde”www.cubaarchive.org/english_version/articles/44/1/Iskander-Maleras-and-Luis-Valverde.

  • Líneas Generales del Plan de Desarrollo Económico y Social de la Nacion 2007–2013. República Bolivariana de Venezuela. Caracas, Septiembre 2007. www.minci.gov.ve/doc/lineas_gen_nacion.pdf.

  • Report of the National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation. Santiago, Chile, 1991. http://www.usip.org/library/tc/doc/reports/chile/chile_1993_toc.html.

  • Oppenheimer, Andrés. “Chávez destabilizes, and U.S. pays bill.” The Miami Herald, October 18, 2007. www.miamiherald.com/news/columnists/andres_oppenheimer/story/275738.html.

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  • “The sinking of the ‘13 de marzo’ tugboat.” Cuba Archive. http://www.cubaarchive.org/english_version/articles/97/1/The-Tugboat-Massacre-of-July-13%2C-1994.

  • “Update of Findings.” Cuba Archive. October 31, 2007. http://www.CubaArchive.org.

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  • RLINK. http://www1.lanic.utexas.edu/project/asce/pdfs/volume15/pdfs/werlau.pdf.

  • Yañez, Eugenio. “La riqueza de Fidel Castro: Mito y Realidad.” La Nueva Cuba, August 17, 2005. www.futurodecuba.org/la_riqueza_de_fidel_castro_.htm.

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Authors
  1. Maria C. Werlau
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Paul Hollander

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© 2008 Paul Hollander

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Werlau, M.C. (2008). Political Repression in Castro’s Cuba: Policies, Institutions and Victims. In: Hollander, P. (eds) Political Violence. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230616240_9

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