The German public television Deutsche Welle (DW) aired a comprehensive and powerful documentary titled “Cuba: the Betrayed Promise,” which examined how the revolution led by Fidel Castro became one of the longest-lasting and most repressive dictatorships in the Western Hemisphere.
The report, narrated by journalists Laura Iglesias San Martín, Jaime González Arguedas, and Mariano Ramírez Gisbert, provides a stark view of the failure of the Castro model and its devastating impact on the Cuban population.
“Cuba is falling into a bottomless pit”, warned journalist and historian González Arguedas, emphasizing the current situation in the country: a collapsed economy, widespread shortages of food and medicine, blackouts lasting more than 24 hours, and an exodus that has seen nearly 30% of the population flee in just two years.
The documentary provided a timeline that explored the key moments in Cuban history from the late 19th century, through the republican era, the Batista dictatorship, and the rise of Fidel Castro to power.
But beyond the historical narrative, what stood out in German public television is the transformation of the so-called "revolutionary project" into a system of absolute control, based on repression, fear, and propaganda.
“Fidel learned early on that whoever controls the narrative controls power,” noted historian Lillian Guerra, one of the experts interviewed alongside Cuban writer Amir Valle. Both emphasized how Castro's initial charisma was used to replace democratic promises with an authoritarian regime lacking elections and fundamental freedoms.
Upon taking power in 1959, Castro promised to restore the 1940 Constitution and hold free elections within a year. However, the documentary showed how those promises quickly faded as a one-party state led by him was established, along with a progressive communist infiltration.
Dissident voices within the revolutionary movement itself —such as Commander Hubert Matos or President Manuel Urrutia— were silenced through imprisonment or exile. Even the mysterious disappearance of Camilo Cienfuegos, one of the most popular leaders of the revolution, was portrayed as part of an internal purge instigated by Fidel and Raúl Castro.
The production also delved into the social control that the regime established with the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR), described as an unprecedented neighborhood surveillance structure inspired by methods from the former East Germany.
This network allowed the State to maintain systematic repression, even as the much-praised "revolutionary enthusiasm" began to fade.
Another of the most striking points of the documentary was the review of the televised summary trials in the early months of revolutionary power, where the population, hypnotized by the official narrative, shouted "¡Paredón!" for any accused person, without judicial guarantees. "Repression in reverse," as DW called it: the people, instead of liberating themselves, ended up demanding blood.
The report also addressed the role of the United States in the early days of the so-called "Cuban Revolution," and how the definitive break between the two countries was hastened by the nationalization of American companies on the island and the subsequent imposition of the embargo, a topic that the regime has systematically used as an excuse to justify its economic failures.
However, the conclusion of the report was unequivocal: the current crisis in Cuba cannot be attributed to the embargo, but rather to the model of absolute control that has stifled any private initiative, criminalized dissent, and perpetuated poverty. "The Cuban people have never been as desperate as they are now," Valle noted.
Almost a decade after Castro's death, which occurred on November 25, 2016, the documentary questioned the legitimacy of his legacy as gathered by Miguel Díaz-Canel in the political project of "Continuity."
That leader who, in 1953, defended himself during the trial for the assault on the Moncada barracks by saying, “history will absolve me,” has not only not been absolved, but has also left behind a country mired in chaos, despair, and exodus.
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