As far as we know, Fidel Castro was the First Secretary of a Communist Party since 1965. Years later, in the Constitution approved in 1976, the role of the Communist Party in Cuban society was defined as:
"The Communist Party of Cuba, Martiano and Marxist-Leninist, organized vanguard of the Cuban nation, is the superior leading force of the Society and the State, which organizes and guides the common efforts towards the high ends of the construction of socialism and advance towards communist society. ” 1
The decision to continue the final objective of building a Communist Society is also proposed:
"... with the Communist Party at the forefront, ... with the ultimate goal of building the Communist Society ..." (2)
It is easy to assume then that Fidel Castro was a Communist, who turned the Republic into a Society that walks towards Communism, led by a Communist Party. However…
"WE ARE NOT COMMUNISTS",
Fidel would say on multiple occasions, managing to convince many.
In 1959, the same Minister of Agriculture Humberto Sorí Marin had told the US ambassador to Cuba (Bonsal), that he firmly believed that Fidel was anti-Communist. This is evidenced in a telegram that Bonsal sent from the US Embassy in Cuba to the State Department.
SECRET DOCUMENT
"... the Minister of Agriculture, Sori Marin, told me that he believed Castro was firmly anti-communist .." 3
Not only Bonsal did repeat it. The idea that Fidel was not a communist had been embraced by many sectors of the American government apparatus.
On February 26, 1960, The Chief of Naval Operations (Burke) would write a letter to the Assistant Secretary of State for Political Affairs (Merchant). In the third paragraph, among other things, he commented that:
"... It has not been proven even that Castro is a Communist ..." (4)
The same Secretary of State already had similar feelings and he communicated them to the President in January 1959 in this way:
"The provisional government seems free from the communist stain" (5)
Now, from the mouth of Fidel Castro himself, the affirmation of not being a communist was reflected above all in the North American press. The New York Times was one of them and Herbert Matthews, one of the most notable interviewers.
But in February 1958, there was another interview in the Sierra. This was also published on NYT but the interviewer was not a journalist but a former intelligence agent named Saint George Andrew. This is what they talked about in regards to communism:
S T. GEORGE: "There have been charges that your movement is communist-inspired. How about this?" (6)
CASTRO: This is absolutely false. Every American journalist who has come here at great personal risk, Herbert Matthews of the New York Times, two CBS reporters, and you have said this is false. .... In reality, the Cuban communists, as their journalist John Gunther once reported, never opposed Batista, for whom they seemed to feel a closer relationship." (7)
It should be noted that, despite the strange differences between the Spanish version and the English version, the denial of communism is clear.
Shortly after Fidel Castro's rise to power in 1959, Allen W. Dulles, Director of Central Intelligence, told a Senate committee in a secret session that the Cuban leader had "no Communist bent."
"We do not believe that Castro himself has communist leanings." (8)
And the Cuban media also did their thing.
The well-known Bohemian magazine surprises everyone the same January 1959 with the publication of a special edition called "Ediciones de la Libertad". And in the first part, on page 95, an article called "Against Communism" appears, alleging Fidel's anti-communist sentiment:
"... the new government will deny all treatment to the dictatorially ruled states ... in the first place to the Soviet Union ... the roots of Communism lie in social and political injustice ... Communism will not have justifications or complicity of power here..." (9)
With everything here exposed, plus several videos documenting words spoken by Fidel (10), a solid base is created to support the opinion that Fidel Castro lied. He lied before when he said he was not a Communist and he lied later when he ended up being one or pretending to be, but the fact is that he lied.
This statement is evidenced in a record written by the Director of the Office for Mexican and Caribbean Affairs (Wieland) on April 21, 1959:
"... My informant told me that he had the impression that Castro is deeply concerned that, in his efforts to confuse American public opinion about the real objectives of the Cuban revolution, also, in his public statements, he has caused confusion and uncertainty among his own people, In Cuba. Therefore, Castro will seek to correct this situation upon his return and will return to the attitude he had demonstrated before coming to the United States shortly after returning to Havana. My informant also commented that Castro would be even more dangerous on his return than he is today ..." (11)
The door is then opened to new questions:
Why did he lie?
Did he wanted to deceive the Cuban people or the US government? Did he has instructions to do so? Whose?
All that and more will be analysed in future articles.
Something to say? LEAVE US YOUR COMMENT.
References:
2- Constitucion de 1976: https://www.wipo.int/edocs/lexdocs/laws/es/cu/cu054es.pdf
3-Foreign Relations of the United States, 1958–1960, Cuba, Volume VI: https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1958-60v06/pg_474
4- Foreign Relations of the United States, 1958–1960, Cuba, Volume VI:https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1958-60v06/pg_816
5- Foreign Relations of the United States, 1958–1960, Cuba, Volume VI: https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1958-60v06/d217#fn:1.5.14.4.24.30.22.1.2
6-Fidel Soldado de las Ideas (ESP): http://www.fidelcastro.cu/es/documentos/entrevista-de-andrew-st-george-fidel-castro-en-la-sierra-maestra-en-1958
7-Fidel Soldado de las Ideas (ENG): http://www.fidelcastro.cu/en/documentos/excerpts-interview-andrew-george-fidel-castro-sierra-maestra-1958
8- New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/1982/03/28/world/castro-a-non-communist-cia-said-in-1959.html
9- Revista Bohemia. Ediciones Libertad (impreso pag 95, digital pagina 48): http://bohemia.cu/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/1-11-de-enero-de-1959-No-2-compressed.pdf
10-Videos "We are not Communist", YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-lAM56FATE
11- Foreign Relations of the United States, 1958–1960, Cuba, Volume VI: https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1958-60v06/pg_478