Announcer: And now, in a special report from Channel 4, footage from the press interview held in Mexico City by Juana Castro Ruz, in which she denounces the tyrannical regime represented in Cuba by her brothers Fidel and Raúl.
Introducer: Miss Juana Castro Ruz, sister of Fidel Castro, the current Prime Minister of Cuba, who wishes to make a statement, here in Mexico City. The Miss Juana Castro Ruz.
Juanita Castro (1982)
Juana Castro: I have lived in Cuba up until the last couple of days and it is because I have a high regard for the Mexican people that I make these statements here today.
It takes a toll on me to speak in public and in particular about topics related to my own family. In spite of this, my conscience does not permit me to keep silent on this cause, that of Cuba. And even more when I know so deeply the subject and the people responsible for the situation that confronts my country.
My brothers Fidel and Raul were the principle leaders in the revolution against the dictator Fulgencio Batista. My brother Fidel filled the Cuban people with hopes, promising to permanently eliminate injustice, terror, and military domination. He guaranteed free elections, in short, everything that a people long for to be happy. Like many Cubans taking up this cause, I helped in any way I could, first in Cuba and later abroad, within the 26 of July Movement, collecting funds to buy arms, foodstuffs and medicines for the Cuban patriots who were fighting from the mountains of my country. In this way we contributed to the toppling of the existing regime, and implanting a system of liberty and social justice, that were the fundamental bases of our fight.
When the revolution triumphed and my brothers took the reins of power, I started working with great enthusiasm, dedicating my best efforts towards the creation of hospitals and rural schools, considering this one of the immediate tasks to be performed by the Revolutionary Government. I worked for what I considered a just revolution, until mid-1960, when I started realizing the shift that our revolution was taking. We were beginning to be victims of a hoax, because even though Fidel publicly denied the communist nature of the revolution, we could observe as the days passed how our country was being handed over to Russian imperialism.
By mid-1960 I broke with the Government. Some time later, this government ceased to obscure its intentions and did not hide itself behind the flag of the Just Revolution anymore, for in December of 1961 the Prime Minister of the Revolutionary Government declared himself Marxist-Leninist.
Myself and the majority of Cubans felt that this was not the revolution that we had fought for. Myself and the majority of Cubans, who believed in the promises of Fidel when he spoke of restoring justice and liberty for Cuba, knew that our ideals had been betrayed.
I know that there are many people in the Government and the Rebel Army that are not for the communist government, and they know perfectly well how and when the revolution was betrayed.
After breaking with the Government, I did everything I could do against it. I helped hide people persecuted by the famous G2, comparable to the worst elements of Hitler’s Gestapo. I helped many Cubans to leave the hell that is Cuba today; I helped buy and hide arms for counter-revolutionary groups. I helped send medicine and foodstuffs to political prisoners; I tried on many occasions to save the lives of convicted prisoners from the firing squad. I helped maintain my contacts in the spheres of the Government and received details, which did reach the intelligences of the counter-revolutionaries. I helped, in short, in whatever way I could, because I believed that I, better than most, knew that the Revolution and the people had been betrayed and deceived.
Cuba, my country, lives constantly under threat, becoming a victim of a brutal dictatorship that only supports terror and crime.
I will not speak of the lack of basic food to live in Cuba today. That everyone knows. Suffice to say that the famous booklet, that is a means of control to ration food, allows the following for one family composed of father, mother and two children:
Milk: two cans for each person, every 15 days;
Meat: a quarter of a pound, 125 grams per person, each week;
Sugar: 3 pounds, one kilo and half per person per month;
Coffee: half an ounce; 14 grams per person per week;
Rice: 6 pounds; 14 grams per person per month;
Chicken: only for children younger than 7 years old, and the elderly over 65; eggs only for children younger than 7 and those over 65.
I will not speak of the shortage of clothing and shoes. I will not talk about the lack of medicine, although we ask ourselves continuously what we did with the $63 million dollars worth of medicine that was sent in the wake of the exchange of the prisoners from Playa Giron, since in Cuba — children and adults die daily for lack thereof.
I will not speak of forced labor, which the communists call voluntary. I will not speak of the lack of freedom for individuals to choose their own work. The Government determines where to work, salary, schedule, since the known communist workers unions are far from guaranteeing workers security in their jobs, they have done nothing but strip them of their rights.
I will not speak of obligatory military service, that they impose even when Fidel does not get tired of announcing to the people on repeated occasions “arms so that,” “soldiers so that.” The worst of obligatory military service is that it is not such obligatory military service. Better to say that it is an obligatory agricultural service, since the recruits are sent to the countryside to carry out distinctly agricultural tasks, receiving only 7 pesos monthly as payment.
What I do wish to speak of is the terror and panic existing in my country. Sons and daughters ratting out parents and friends; committees of defense composed of neighbors on each block, who observe all the people that enter and leave their houses and notify the beasts in the G-2. Of the panic that seizes any and every home when the monsters of the G-2 knock on their doors at any time of the day or night.
I know very well that this terror and panic is not only felt by opponents of the regime, but rather has come to take of hold of their own military and government officials. The concepts of friendship and trust have been lost; I know of soldiers in the Rebel Army, who are not for Government, but who will not say it to anyone out of fear that they will be ratted out by their own companions.
I would like to explain something about the situation of the Church in Cuba. The communist Government did not want to remove religious worship in Cuba, considering that that would be detrimental material for propaganda abroad. However, there were confiscations and closures of schools of religious education and the expulsion of a great number of priests and nuns. There does not exist one law that prohibits attending Churches. Furthermore, however, they consider it contrary to the regime for all who visit them.
And in relation to this I can explain something that I could live myself because I participated in it. It was in the year ’61, the Feast of Our Patron Saint, the Virgin of Charity, was being celebrated in Cuba, in September, they had permitted a parade, — a procession around the Church. Then, as soon as the procession started, which was organized perfectly well, — the police batons arrived, or the “claque,” as they like to call it, from the Government, that the Government sends in for these matters, and they charged at all who were peacefully in the procession. Including myself I was in the first ones, going in on the first group, next to to boy who carried the image of the Virgin, and I saw when the boy fell too, that he was a member of the Catholic Youth. I saw when he fell dead there by the militias, by the army, I don’t know in what moment who could have fired the shot. And it wasn’t this that was even the saddest part in this case, but that they took the corpse, they did it, they did, they seized the corpse to make propaganda based in this and throw the blame on the Catholics, saying that they had caused this disorder, since it was the boy who belonged to the Catholic Youth of Cuba.
I would also like to speak of the political prisoners, whose unique crime has been not agreeing with the communist regime. There are those who assure that in the Cuban prisons there are one hundred thousand political prisoners. Clearly for the majority of the people it is impossible to know the exact number, but these facts are maintained by the Government in the official books. I have asked to know, for reports of people of the Government related with this Unit, that there exists around 75,000 political prisoners. No one can imagine the situation for which they go through. They are victims of the cruelest mistreatment, and can affirm that the penitentiary system in Cuba in relation to the political prisoners has completely forgotten the human condition thereof.
As I explained before, I have many friendships linked to people of importance inside the communist regime. From them I have been able to learn that Cuba is leading the communist subversion in Latin America. I know of Latin Americans that have entered Cuba with false documents, some through legal means and others by vessels operating illegally. These individuals have been trained as guerillas and agitators, and now prepared, are sent to their respective countries. I know of aircraft flights carrying personnel and weapons along hidden tracks in Latin America. They also use ships and fishing vessels.
A friend, closely linked to the Government, I cannot mention his name, told me that the Department of State Security has an important section dedicated solely to matters of espionage and guerillas in Latin America. This section prepares false documents, trains personnel, specializing in espionage and subversion, and prepares Cuban diplomats, who work in countries who claim to be friends of communist Cuba. The Cuban diplomatic cables belong to this Section. Its mission is to bring instructions for communist agents, as well as arms and propaganda, to introduce them in the friendly countries and be distributed both in these as well as in countries that don’t maintain relations with the Cuban Government. I have also come to learn that the Cuban Embassies in Latin America are nests of subversion and espionage. The Section of the Department of State Security that deals with the aforementioned work, is called the Director General of Intelligence, and its head of it is Commander Manuel Piñeiro Losada, (alias) Barba Roja.
All of America ignores that Cuba is an immense prison surrounded by water. Ignores that the Cuban people are pinned to a Cross of martyrdom imposed by international communism and those who are betraying their homeland and giving it up to the Russian imperialists, who are exploiting and bleeding out our beloved Cuba.
It is my hope, as well as that of all Cubans, that in next Conference of the Organization of American States, this Organization takes definitive action against the dictatorial Government of Cuba, as they did against the dictatorial Government of the right-wing Trujillo.
I know that the majority of Latin American peoples believe in self-determination of the people, of their form of government. I believe that this determination is shown by the use the people’s vote. Fidel promised elections 18 months after the triumph of the Revolution. After, to not perform them, he filled the Plaza Civica with people, declaring that they didn’t want elections.
The history of the Latin American people is filled with dictators and plazas on the order of the dictator and screaming yes to whatever the dictator suggests.
I know that there are opposition groups in Cuba against the regime, anxious to receive effective assistance at the earliest possible. Considering that these groups are not enough to overthrow the communist Government, supported by thousands of Russian troops, we hope that this call is heard by the sister American nations, and thus avoid repeating in Cuba a similar situation to that of Hungary in the year 1956.
I would have wanted to stay in my home country and continue cooperating in the anonymous fight the Cuban people are making against communist tyranny implanted in Cuba. However, my situation worsened in the last few months, seeing myself obligated to abandon my country. I hope that the Government of Mexico accepts me as a political asylee, until I can return to my free homeland, Cuba.
Thank you for the attention that you have so graciously given me.
Vela: Guillermo Vela once again speaks with you. You have just finished watching some dramatic statements made by the Miss Juanita Castro Ruz, sister of Fidel Castro of Cuba, definitively breaking off with her brother, an exceedingly painful and difficult task for her. She has chosen Mexico for these first declarations immediately after leaving Cuba, I have been informed, for the great esteem that she has for the Mexican press and for the people of Mexico. Thank you for being with us.
[Student Translation]
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/cuban-rebels/juanita-7-3-1964.pdf