Dissection of a Tyranny (Part V)

Map of armed conflicts in which Cuba was involved in throughout the world.

by Jose Luis Garcia Paneque

Four generations of Cubans were born, raised, and some- with much pain for their family and friends- lost their lives under the order of “The War of the Entire Country” and the fear of an attack by the traditional enemy or some other entity which never occurred.

The island was converted into a sort of Gruyere cheese full of many tunnels and military entrenchments which were dug during the numerous “revolutionary offenses”.  The objective was beyond clear: to keep the people in a state of constant anxiety, without offering them any time to think- that was the constant assumed by the regime during each of its crisis.  The daily life of a Cuban can be summed up as a constant struggle for survival, while having their fates at the hands of an egotistical man.

In fact, that same regime dragged an entire defenseless country into a conflict which could have provoked the disappearance, not only of our own island, but also of a great part of humanity when they were on the verge of causing a nuclear disaster with the missile crisis of October 1962.

From the moment we turn 16 years old we Cubans are enlisted in military services, participate in mobilizations, take part in “defense Sundays”, serve mandatory military time, carry out military operations, and are subject to a lifetime of military service according with the slogan of the ideological leaders of these wars: “If you’re not good at being in a war, at least you will serve in the production and defense brigades”.  All for the sake of defending “the Revolution and all the Conquests of Socialism”.  52 years later and we are still trying to gather the sustainable achievements of a tyrant’s work!

Exporting war was the doctrine, according to one of the commanders: “It was almost a reflex.  Cuba defended itself by attacking its aggressor.  That was our philosophy.  The Yankees were harassing us, so we had to challenge them anywhere we could.  Throughout the world.  We had to divide their forces so that they could not attack us, or any other country, with all their strength.  Our response had to be bold”.  (Victor Dreke)

And that is how they applied the 5th postulate of Sain Thomas of Aquilas.

“The tyrant must also provoke armed conflicts at both the internal the external levels, so that no movements could organize against them.”

Thousands of youths and fathers were forced to march off to wars they never understood and which ultimately took many of their lives.  There are many bodies of Cubans out there which were not allowed to rest, for the last time, in their homelands.

I was an adolescent during the time when men were called forth en masse to serve in the wars of Ethiopia and Angola.  Families suffered so much as they saw their sons, brothers, and husbands march off, uncertain of where they were going or when they were going to return!  It was all kept a secret, and it was worse for those who refused to march off into a war they did not believe in.  We were still at the stage of “revolutionary unrest” and they dubbed us “cowards“.  We then became stigmatized, we lost all sort of social recognition, and we also lost our jobs.  Many families ended up divided and many marriages ended in divorce all because they had a “weakling” in the family.

There were military conflicts in Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, and even Asia.  They imposed death and destruction on many countries in the name of a sacred solidarity of “proletariat internationalism”.  Although Nicholas Machiavelli never quite said it, he is associated with the phrase “the end justifies the means”, since it sums up many of his ideas.  In truth, Machiavelli would have been at loss of words with Fidel Castro.  A tyrant like Fidel believes that absolutely anything should be done, despite the consequences, to conserve his dictatorship.  More than a quarter of a million Cubans served as soldiers, while more than 3,000 lost their lives and thousands of others suffered the scars of foreign wars, most of which were lost.

In January of 1962, just two years after triumphing over Batista, Cuban troops disembarked in Algeria and joined an armed conflict in the other side of the ocean.  It was just the beginning of a crusade which lasted for 30 long years.

It would be followed by Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Congo, Zaire, Angola, and many other armed conflicts throughout various countries which the Cuban regime provided arms, instructors, and soldiers for, continuing the illusion of Che Guevara which was to export revolutions throughout the world, despite considering if they were possible or justifiable.  Today, the facades of the UN Security Council are torn apart when they make the decision to put an end to dictators who massacre their own people, and I ask myself: How many dictatorships did he (Fidel Castro) impose on different countries?

Since way before, they had forged armed invasions like the one in Dominican Republic against Trujillo in 1965 and have meddled in internal affairs of other countries which derived from coups: Chile 1976, Granada 1982, without forgetting to mention others which ended in bloody wars.  The words of ex-Salvadoran President Francisco Guillermo Flores Perez (1999-2004) still echo in our ears when, during the X Summit of Latin-American Chiefs of States and Governments on March 17th and 18th of November 2000 in Panama, he reminded Fidel Castro of all the deaths he caused his country through wars carried out in the 1980’s throughout Central America, where the small Latin island was involved.

Guerrilla movements sprung forth like fungi in a humid jungle, and very rarely were any of them spontaneous like they make them seem.  What’s certain is that they were created in Cuba and exported to other countries.  The case of Bolivia is the most representative of this.  That country’s’ political organizations and its people did not want it, but guerrillas commanded by Che Guevara were imposed on them all the way from Cuba.  Guevara is a person who is now painted as a symbol of rebellion but who has a dark past full of crimes which are worth demystifying.

For more than three decades, Fidel Castro thrust many undesired conflicts upon countries that did not want them, with the sole objective of perpetuating his dictatorship, based on his selfish works and desires to be known as a great figure.  And do not doubt that he would do all of this again if he had the means to do so, not only at the expense of one country, but of many.