I knew a couple of 2506 Brigade members, one christian-in-action case officer from then, and I knew a number of 60's refugees (and an uncle). I met some marielitos. A few of them would have been better off drowned.
When I saw the title of this, I said bullshit......
What I was taught and learned about Cuba was the real story.
What anybody under 40 has been taught is as good a guess as anything, and as much a fairy tale as anything. The clip is as said, in post 21, not completely accurate.
Maggot isnt entirely accurate about the mob controlling the island either.
Batista, mr corrupt, was installed by international business interests (lead by US businesses) so international business could rape and pillage Cuba.
My uncle worked for one of those companies, ran the operation in Cuba for them.
Castro put a price on his head. Uncle left ahead of a death squad. After Castro ran the mob out and nationalized the international businesses, life was better for some, and death for a bunch more people. Fool killed or ran off the people who could keep the businesses up.
The political game was played for a few years. Castro "forgave" my uncle and several more Americans who made those businesses run, AND paid them to come back, live in lush villas, and get those businesses back up running under Castro cronies. Money was made by Castro cronies and some others.... just sayin.....
Knowing when to jump ship again saved my uncles life and $. Some of the other Americans caught a flight out with some ragged prison clothes. Castro kicked them out.
By then the embargo was on, and the pissed off business people who lost their businesses and rape and pillage $ opportunities have ensured the embargo stays on.
American business interest issues were well covered by Smedley Butler and remain the truth today. Nothing has changed at all.
The Cuban peasants and mestizos merely changed owners who use them as slaves like foreign colonizers before. And like any dictator, no matter the classification, communist, socialist, fascist, or democrat...
jmhe and jmho
vr