The historian Jorge Luis León dismantled in an interview granted to CiberCuba the heroic narrative built around Fidel and Raúl Castro, labeling them as "cowards without guts" and questioning the fundamental pillars of the Cuban revolutionary myth.
León analyzed key episodes of the official history of Castroism, from the assault on the Moncada Barracks in 1953 to the military missions in Africa, concluding that the entire heroic narrative is a fabrication.
Regarding the attack on the Moncada, the historian was emphatic: "Fidel was armed, he was armed. He didn't fire a single shot, and being from Santiago de Cuba, he got lost and didn't reach the Moncada Barracks."
In the case of Raúl Castro, it was noted that the paraffin test conducted after his arrest following the assault was negative, confirming that he did not fire a weapon either. According to León, Raúl did not identify himself as a combatant but as a farmer, and he was only recognized as a participant when they pulled down his pants and saw that he was wearing athletic underwear, a garment that country men did not wear at that time.
"They are a couple of miserable men who really lack guts. That’s why they portray themselves as patriots and heroes willing to do anything," stated León, who extended this assessment to the current leaders of the regime.
"Fidel was neither intelligent nor brave. Never. Neither of the two. And those today are artists of the same ilk. All trash," he said in reference to Díaz-Canel and his associates.
About the famous image of Fidel Castro on a tank during the Battle of Playa Girón in April 1961, León was equally devastating: "The scene of the famous tank at Playa Girón, being fired upon, was staged after everything had ended. It's all a sham," he pointed out, referring to a photo that became one of the most widely circulated propaganda icons by the regime, but critical historians have questioned its authenticity as a spontaneous moment for decades.
León also dismantled the narrative of the so-called proletarian internationalism in Africa. According to the historian, the Cuban military missions on that continent, which mobilized over 300,000 combatants between 1975 and 1991, were not an act of solidarity but a business.
"The wars in Africa under the guise of internationalism were nothing but a means to sell Cuban blood for resources in gold, silver, and cash, as soldiers were paid a thousand dollars each and two thousand for officers. It was a business." He also points out that there are more than 7,000 documented deaths attributable to the regime.
León denounced that the same scheme of exploitation is repeated with the medical missions: "They arrive in a country and have their passports taken away so they cannot escape. The government does all this. Right to their faces, shamelessly." International organizations and several governments have documented these practices, which the International Labour Organization and some countries have classified as forced labor.
León also directed his criticisms towards the meeting held in Barcelona on April 18, where Claudia Sheinbaum, Lula da Silva, and Gustavo Petro gathered for the so-called IV Meeting in Defense of Democracy convened by Pedro Sánchez. The historian pointed out the contradiction that leaders who claim to defend democracy remain silent in the face of the Cuban dictatorship: "A meeting where a dictatorship that is murdering, killing, and suffocating a people was not discussed. And it was a meeting to defend democracy. But Cuba is not a democracy."
"Justice must indeed come (to Cuba)," concluded León, who warned that the European Union "is starting to belatedly realize the entire farce, all the sham" of the Cuban regime.
Filed under: