Castro also made use of the Cuban’s belief in the occult. He came in with a dove sitting on his shoulder (ie, paralleling the Holy Spirit), and was therefore called “The Horse” (”El Caballo”), the one the spirits ride. (This can be seen in some newsreels.)
When Batista was riding high, the voodoo people used to send him little dolls every month. When they switched to Castro, they sent them to him. And gave his soldiers scarves which were supposed to make them impervious to bullets.
He had one girlfriend who was involved in such practices.
Cuba was always half-pagan and half-Christian; santeria has always been big there and was never persecuted by Castro, in contrast with Christianity.
Agreed, and that was shameful on our part. I’m not sure if the CIA had any real role in Fidel Castro’s rise to power other than maybe shipping arms to the wrong group by mistake, though. It was mostly the State Department that was responsible for actively backing Castro.
And quite frankly, one thing I have doubts about is the CIA being largely liberal during that time. I mean, wasn’t the entire reason the CIA was created was due to the OSS being riddled with liberals and communists? Seems like a waste to remove the OSS and replace them with the same. Besides, the likes of Eisenhower trusted them at least, he certainly trusted Allen Dulles with his life.