Perhaps I should have been clearer in indicating that the Venceramos Brigades knew full and well that native Cubans were forced into the harvesting work, yet all, almost without exception, sang glory hallelujahs praising the communist regime in Cuban. And continue to do so to this day, as well as aligning themselves with the BLM faction.
And the media of the day was complicit in the presentation of them in a positive light.
Thousands of Walter Durantys blossoming to present the leftist slant on the news. Many, such as the lefts highly respected writer I. F. Stone were outright paid prevaricators. The Venona files and other documents reveal the extent of the KGB infiltration and direction of the wests leftists.
So true. Herbert Matthews was one of the big cheerleaders for the New York Times. I'm ashamed to say my wife's aunt (a revolutionary at the time) was the one who took Matthews to Castro in the mountains. She and other family members later had a crude awakening to who Castro was and "defected" to the US.