TV show “Fantástico” (Globo channel) exhibited last Sunday, November 27 (watch here, in Portuguese), an interview in which I talked about an operation carried out by the Student Revolutionary Directory of Cuba (DRE, in Spanish), which I chaired in Exile in 1962, to try to assassinate dictator Fidel Castro during an event in Havana. It is necessary to go deeper into the Cuban case and what the late Fidel has represented for Cuba and the world.
Fidel Castro is a very well-constructed fraud for Cubans and the rest of the world. The Cuban Revolution that he subsequently kidnapped as a work of his was made by all of us, especially the young Cubans of the time.
Dictator Fulgencio Batista, who in a military coup took power on the Island in 1952, never had absolute control of the country. In the seven years in which he was in power, several actions of the Cuban youth put him in danger. The Army that supported him was an ill-prepared force, with no morals, with officers who were corrupt and had no interest in fighting for the survival of the Dictator. Fidel had the ability to appear in the midst of this situation, as a man who materialized the armed struggle, when, barely, arrived in the Sierra Maestra, in the east of the Island, after an operation almost failed.
The image of Fidel as the insurgent, subversive leader was created by the New York Times and journalist Herbert Matthew, who interviewed him as he began to settle in the Sierra Maestra.
Fidel was never interested in making alliances with other groups, such as DRE, which had a lot of penetration in the young people, and carried out the most daring operation against the dictator, in an attempt to assassinate him in the Presidential Palace – and failing very little.
Fidel came to power as a great leader without being one. He never participated in a great combat, but capitalized as his any action that arose.
The theory that North-Americans wanted to murder him countless times is false. We know from experience that they have always protected him. The operation that DRE carried out that night of 1962, to attack Fidel with a cannon from the sea, was done without the consent of the North-American Government. In the day after, FBI entered our offices in Miami and threatened us to take harsh measures against our activities.
At that time, US submarines patrolled the Cuban coast to prevent any action by the exiles. We often carried out propaganda trips with our boat to interfere with the audio channels of Havana TV and to convey our ideas to the population, but we were intercepted several times by these submarines and only released when they made sure they were advertisement operations.
Fidel has always enjoyed the silent protection of the various North-American Governments. Maybe Fidel was the best agent US intelligence ever had. He helped set up a shop window on the Island of a failed communism, which all the people who believed in the system promoted it. For this reason, Fidel’s contribution to the anti-Communist struggle was so great. And there it lies the reason for his survival up to 90 years of age and 58 of political power, which he enjoyed until the last 25th, when he abandoned this world leaving behind a legacy of blood, suffering and tears to the people who had to endure him.
Dr. Pedro A. Ynterian
General Secretary, GAP Project International