[Polybius]

Son of a corrupt Spaniard landowner, Castro was upper middle class, as were his friends. Due to the romantic myth created by the media – inaugurated by the articles of Herbert Matthews in The New York Times – only those who knew him personally, those who knew of his violent past . ............The struggle against Batista, Castro's predecessor, was dominated by Cuba’s huge middle class and some segments of the upper classes; but the early opposition to Castro came from all walks of life, including his old comrades in his fight against Batista.

Batista was a mulatto two bit thug that started his career as a Cuban Army sergeant stenographer in the 1930’s. When the NCO's of the Cuban Army revolted in the 1930’s because of proposed military pay cutbacks, Batista was chosen as their leader merely because he was a good public speaker. Batista assumed power over Cuban society, while spouting anti-American rhetoric, simply because the Cuban Army sergeants had the guns and the rest of Cuban society was going about it's daily business.

After Batista stepped down from power the first time, Cuba adopted a progressive Constitution in 1940. In 1953, Batista again staged a coup simply through force of arms.

All segments of Cuban society fought against Batista. Castro was only one of those elements, leading the 26 of July Movement. Castro’s promise was to restore the Constitution of 1940. He lied. Once Batista was gone, Castro disarmed the democratic groups that fought against Batista, liquidated any opposition inside and outside the 26 of July Movement and set himself up as the next thug.

“Meet the new Boss. Worse than the old Boss.”

My uncle fought in the 26 of July Movement with Castro against Batista. When he saw that Castro betrayed the Constitution of 1940 and was, in fact, merely a Communist dictator, he fought against Castro at the Bay of Pigs. After his release as a Bay of Pigs P.O.W., he joined the U.S. Army and served two combat tours as a Green Beret. Each tour ended with a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart.

The Left, however, paints Batista as the only thing that existed in Cuba prior to Castro and uses the corruption of that two bit thug to justify Communist oppression in Cuba for 42 years and counting.

[Luis Gonzalez]

I was told that the basic attitude of Cuban society towards Batista and about the Castro uprising was "cualquiera menos el negro", a lot of people unwittingly invited this 43-year old disaster. Your uncle had the courage to go to battle one more time to stand up for what he believed in, and to defend Cuba against Castro's treachery...a brave and honorable man, and my respect goes out to him.

You may be interested in a book by Dr. Miguel Faria titled "Cuba in Revolution. Escape From a Lost Paradise"...it details the other movement fighting Batista at the time, and their betrayal by Castro.

I had Dr. Faria as a guest in my FR Radio show sometime back, he was a fountain of information.