El lunes 7 de febrero, el gobernador de Florida, Ron DeSantis, la vicegobernadora Jeanette Nuñez y la fiscal general asistieron a una mesa redonda en el Museo Americano de la Diáspora Cubana de Miami. En su discurso, el gobernador afirmó que comparar el sufrimiento de los niños cubanos exiliados en la Operación Pedro Pan en los 60 con los niños inmigrantes de América Central es “repugnante”, porque los primeros huían del comunismo. 

Los otros huyen del capitalismo desde el siglo XIX.

Señor gobernador y aspirante a la Casa Blanca: lamento informarle que, más allá de los aplausos endogámicos, otra vez ha repetido usted una vieja mentira que se cayó a pedazos mucho tiempo atrás, aunque los fanáticos la continúen venerando como una revelación del Espíritu Santo. Los mismos agentes de la CIA lo reconocieron. Sé que se pasará esto por el traste, pero la verdad, por algún lado, tiene que entrar.

El 26 de diciembre de 1960, el nuevo gobierno de Cuba había iniciado un programa de reformas en la educación. Tal vez para evitar repetir la historia del golpe en Guatemala seis años atrás (inoculado por la CIA gracias a la apertura democrática del presidente finalmente depuesto), se quiso enseñar a los jóvenes a usar armas. En Estados Unidos, los conservadores hacen lo mismo con sus niños, pero no es un “adoctrinamiento” sino “para luchar por la libertad”. 

Como hacen los conservadores en Estados Unidos cuando le enseñan a sus niños a llamar comunista a cualquiera que en los países pobres luchen por sus derechos o contra las intervenciones de Washington, también el gobierno revolucionario de entonces pretendió enseñarle a sus niños canciones contra el imperialismo, el que, solo en la isla y también en nombre de la libertad, había comenzado antes de 1898. Para peor, muchos padres cubanos se preocuparon por el extremismo del programa de alfabetización indiscriminada del nuevo gobierno. 

Por décadas, los libros y los diarios del Mundo Libre reportaron que los niños en las escuelas primarias de la revolución cubana “eran obligados a aprender los valores de la Revolución”. Se asume que en el resto de los países los niños en las escuelas y en las iglesias son libres de pensar por cuenta propia (excepto cuando se hacen jóvenes adultos y llegan a las universidades; entonces son “adoctrinados” por los profesores).

En 1960, en las Islas del Cisne, reclamadas por Honduras y ocupadas por la CIA, se instaló una radio sin licencia para transmitir propaganda hacia Cuba, con locutores cubanos llegados de Miami. Radio Américas (más tarde presentada como “La primera voz democrática de América Latina”) comenzó a difundir el rumor de que los comunistas iban a enviar a los hijos de los cubanos a Rusia, por la fuerza. 

Como en el episodio de radio de Orson Welles sobre una invasión extraterrestre (puesto en práctica en el exitoso golpe de Estado de Guatemala), inmediatamente cundió el pánico. 47 años más tarde, en sus memorias Trained to Kill (Entrenado para matar), el agente cubano de la CIA, Antonio Veciana, reconocerá, con orgullo: “Maurice Bishop [David Atlee Phillips] sabía que yo había sido el responsable del incendio en una de las tiendas más famosas de La Habana, el que le costó la vida a una joven inocente, madre de dos niños. Él también sabía que yo había sido el responsable de esparcir el rumor que llevó al éxodo de miles de niños cubanos en la Operación Pedro Pan, con la ayuda de la Iglesia Católica, mintiendo que eran huérfanos. Él sabía que había sido yo quien casi había hecho colapsar la economía de Cuba con esa campaña de rumores que pretendía sembrar el pánico en la población”.

Pero Veciana había aprendido de Phillips. En sus memorias de 2017, reconoció que, según el agente de la CIA que lo había reclutado en La Habana, “las guerras modernas son, sobre todo, guerras psicológicas; el objetivo es torcer la opinión pública”. Las estrategias, claro, son más específicas: “nunca se debe dejar huellas de nuestras acciones; si esto no es posible, siempre y bajo cualquier circunstancia se debe negar cualquier participación en los hechos. Siempre. Incluso cuando lo contrario es lo más obvio…. Si los intereses de los otros se alinean con los nuestros, entonces son aliados; si no tienen ningún interés, son instrumentos; si se oponen a nuestros intereses, son enemigos”. 

Antonio Veciana, como empleado bancario del hombre más rico de Cuba, el Rey del azúcar Julio Lobo, se había reunido dos veces con el nuevo presidente del Banco Nacional de Cuba, Ernesto Guevara y, luego de alguna duda, había desestimado su pedido de reclutar contadores y administrativos para el nuevo sistema financiero de Cuba que seguiría a la nacionalización. Desde su retiro de Miami, Veciana definió a El Che como un fanático de decir la verdad a cualquier precio.

Pero Veciana se sintió orgulloso toda su vida por haber puesto en marcha el plan histórico, aún sin la aprobación inicial de la CIA. Incluso logró imprimir miles de panfletos en el cual informó de una ley que nunca existió. El efecto fue similar al descubierto por el propagandista y manipulador social Edward Bernays (hacer que una autoridad en la materia diga lo que uno quiere que todos piensen): en Miami, el sacerdote Bryan Walsh anunció que el gobierno cubano planeaba separar a todos los niños de entre tres y diez años de sus padres para enviarlos a Rusia. La CIA tomó nota y, desde su radio clandestina en las Islas del Cisne de Honduras, comenzó a repetir la historia falsa. Hasta que se convirtió en dogma.

El sacerdote Walsh, a través de su Oficina Católica de Bienestar, inició oficialmente la Operación Pedro Pan con la cual los padres cubanos, desesperados por el rumor, enviaron a sus hijos a Estados Unidos. Desde el 26 de diciembre de 1960 hasta la invasión de Bahía Cochinos en abril de 1961, cada día cientos de niños volaron, sin obstáculos y sin ser acompañados por un adulto, por Pan Am hacia Miami para ser salvados. 

Cuando el programa fue interrumpido, debido a la derrota de la Superpotencia en Bahía Cochinos, 14.048 niños ya habían arribado a Estados Unidos. Algunos, nueve o diez, fueron casos exitosos para los medios y para el sueño colectivo, según el concepto de éxito del momento. Uno será padrastro del hombre más rico del mundo, Jeff Bezos. Otro será Mel Martínez, senador de Estados Unidos (héroe de la propuesta “sólo inglés para los niños” y “ningún perdón para los inmigrantes ilegales”), prueba irrefutable del sueño americano y de la libertad del ganador.

En 2007, Robert Rodríguez, uno de estos niños “no exitosos”, denunciará ante la arquidiócesis de Miami al monseñor Bryan Walsh por repetidos abusos sexuales contra él y otros menores refugiados en Opa-locka, Florida. El sacerdote Mary Ross Agosta acusará al denunciante de “difamar a un respetado religioso que salvó la vida de catorce mil niños”. La denuncia de Rodríguez y otros contra la misma arquidiócesis será desestimada por tecnicismos legales que no se aplican en otros Estados. En Florida, diversos monumentos todavía hoy recuerdan con flores a monseñor Walsh.

Muchos niños salvados por la Operación Pedro Pan de ser separados de sus padres por el comunismo tardaron años, décadas en reencontrarse con sus padres. Algunos nunca los volvieron a ver. Por culpa del comunismo, claro.

JM, febrero 2022

majfud.org

Peter Pan and the power of political fictions

On Monday, February 7, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Lieutenant Governor Jeanette Nuñez and the Attorney General attended a round table at the American Museum of the Cuban Diaspora in Miami. In his speech, the governor confirmed that comparing the suffering of Cuban children exiled in Operation Pedro Pan in the 1960s with immigrant children from Central America is «disgusting», because the former fled from communism.

The others have been fleeing capitalism since the 19th century.

Governor and candidate for the White House: I am sorry to inform you that, beyond the inbred applause, you have once again repeated an old lie that fell apart a long time ago, although the fanatics continue to venerate it as a revelation of the Holy Spirit. The same CIA agents recognized it. I know this will go over the top, but the truth, somewhere, has to come in.

On December 26, 1960, the new government of Cuba had initiated a program of reforms in education. Perhaps to avoid repeating the history of the coup in Guatemala six years ago (inoculated by the CIA thanks to the democratic opening of the president who was finally deposed), they wanted to teach young people to use weapons. In the United States, conservatives do the same with their children, but it is not «indoctrination» but «to fight for freedom.»

As the conservatives do in the United States when they teach their children to call anyone who in poor countries fights for their rights or against Washington’s interventions a communist, the revolutionary government of that time also tried to teach their children canism, against the el that, only on the island and also in the name of freedom, had begun before 1898. To make matters worse, many Cuban parents worried about the extremism of the new government’s indiscriminate literacy program.

For decades, the books and newspapers of the Free World reported that children in the primary schools of the Cuban revolution «were forced to learn the values ​​of the revolution.» It is assumed that in the rest of the countries children in schools and in churches are free to think for themselves (except when they become young adults and arrive at universities, when they are «indoctrinated» by teachers).

In 1960, in the Cisne Islands, claimed by Honduras and occupied by the CIA, a radio was set up without a license to transmit propaganda to Cuba, with Cuban announcers from Miami. Radio Americas (later billed as «The First Democratic Voice of Latin America») began to spread the rumor that the communists were going to send the children of Cubans to Russia, by force.

As in Orson Welles’s radio episode about an alien invasion (played out in the successful Guatemalan coup), panic immediately set in. 47 years later, in his memoir Trained to Kill, the Cuban CIA agent, Antonio Veciana, would proudly admit: “Maurice Bishop [David Atlee Phillips] knew that I had been responsible for the fire in one of the most famous stores in Havana, the one that cost the life of an innocent young woman, mother of two children. He also knew that I had been responsible for spreading the rumor that led to the exodus of thousands of Cuban children in Operation Pedro Pan, with the help of the Catholic Church, lying that they were orphans. He knew that I had been the one who had almost caused the Cuban economy to collapse with that campaign of rumors that tried to sow panic in the population.”

But Veciana had learned from Phillips. In his 2017 memoirs, he acknowledged that, according to the CIA agent who had recruited him in Havana, “Modern wars are, above all, psychological wars; the goal is to twist public opinion.” The strategies, of course, are more specific: “now we must leave traces of our actions; if this is not possible, any participation in the events must always and under any circumstances be denied. Always. Even when the opposite is the most obvious…. If the interests of others align with ours, then they are allies; if they have no interest, they are instruments; if they oppose our interests, they are enemies”.

Antonio Veciana, a bank clerk for Cuba’s richest man, Sugar King Julio Lobo, had met twice with the new president of the National Bank of Cuba, Ernesto Guevara, and, after some hesitation, had turned down his request to recruit accountants and clerks for Cuba’s new financial system that would follow nationalization. Since his retirement from Miami, Veciana defined El Che as a fanatic of telling the truth at any price.

But Veciana was proud all his life for having launched the historic plan, even without the initial approval of the CIA. He even managed to print thousands of pamphlets in which he reported a law that never existed. The effect was similar to that discovered by the propagandist and social manipulator Edward Bernays (make an authority on the matter say what you want everyone to think): in Miami, the priest Bryan Walsh announced that the Cuban government planned to separate all children between three and ten years old from their parents to send them to Russia. The CIA took note and, from its clandestine radio station in the Swan Islands of Honduras, began repeating the false story. Until it became dogma.

Priest Walsh, through his Catholic Welfare Office, officially started Operation Pedro Pan with which Cuban parents, desperate because of the rumor, sent their children to the United States. From December 26, 1960 until the Bay of Pigs Invasion in April 1961, every day hundreds of children flew, unhindered and unaccompanied by an adult, by Pan Am to Miami to be saved.

When the program was interrupted due to the Superpower’s defeat at the Bay of Pigs, 14,048 children had already arrived in the United States. Some, nine or ten, were successful cases for the media and for the collective dream, according to the concept of success at the time. One will be the stepfather of the richest man in the world, Jeff Bezos. Another will be Mel Martínez, a United States senator (hero of the proposal “only English for children” and “no forgiveness for illegal immigrants”), irrefutable proof of the American dream and the freedom of the winner.

In 2007, Robert Rodríguez, one of these “unsuccessful” children, filed a complaint with the Archdiocese of Miami against Monsignor Bryan Walsh for repeated sexual abuse against him and other minor refugees in Opa-locka, Florida. The priest Mary Ross Agosta will accuse the complainant of «defaming a respected religious who saved the lives of fourteen thousand children.» The complaint by Rodríguez and others against the same archdiocese will be dismissed on legal technicalities that do not apply in other states. In Florida, various monuments still today commemorate Monsignor Walsh with flowers.

Many children saved by Operation Pedro Pan from being separated from their parents by communism took years, decades to reunite with their parents. Some never saw them again. Because of communism, of course.

JM, February 2022

The CIA against Cuba. Peter Pan and the Power of Political Fictions. By Jorge Majfud | Cuba-Network in Defense of Humanity. In defense of the truth and plurality information (cuba-networkdefenseofhumanity.blogspot.com)

In Italian http://www.cubainformazione.it/?p=73152

Peter Pan and the power of political fictions

On Monday, February 7, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Lieutenant Governor Jeanette Nuñez, and the Attorney General attended a round table at the American Museum of the Cuban Diaspora in Miami. In his speech, the governor confirmed that comparing the suffering of Cuban children exiled in Operation Pedro Pan in the 1960s with immigrant children from Central America is «disgusting», because the former fled from communism.

The others have been fleeing capitalism since the 19th century.

Governor and candidate for the White House: I am sorry to inform you that, beyond the inbred applause, you have once again repeated an old lie that fell apart a long time ago, although the fanatics continue to venerate it as a revelation of the Holy Spirit. The same CIA agents recognized it. I know this will go over the top, but the truth, somewhere, has to come in.

On December 26, 1960, the new government of Cuba had initiated a program of reforms in education. Perhaps to avoid repeating the history of the coup in Guatemala six years ago (inoculated by the CIA thanks to the democratic opening of the president who was finally deposed), they wanted to teach young people to use weapons. In the United States, conservatives do the same with their children, but it is not «indoctrination» but «to fight for freedom.»

As the conservatives do in the United States when they teach their children to call anyone who in poor countries fights for their rights or against Washington’s interventions a communist, the revolutionary government of that time also tried to teach their children songs against imperialism, which in the island (and also in the name of freedom) had begun before 1898. To make matters worse, many Cuban parents worried about the extremism of the new government’s indiscriminate literacy program.

For decades, the books and newspapers of the Free World reported that children in the primary schools of the Cuban revolution «were forced to learn the values ​​of the revolution.» It is assumed that in the rest of the countries children in schools and in churches are free to think for themselves (except when they become young adults and arrive at universities when they are «indoctrinated» by teachers).

In 1960, in the Cisne Islands, claimed by Honduras and occupied by the CIA, a radio was set up without a license to transmit propaganda to Cuba, with Cuban announcers from Miami. Radio Americas (later billed as «The First Democratic Voice of Latin America») began to spread the rumor that the communists were going to send the children of Cubans to Russia, by force.

As in Orson Welles’s radio episode about an alien invasion (played out in the successful Guatemalan coup), panic immediately set in. 47 years later, in his memoir Trained to Kill, the Cuban CIA agent, Antonio Veciana, would proudly admit: “Maurice Bishop [David Atlee Phillips] knew that I had been responsible for the fire in one of the most famous stores in Havana, the one that cost the life of an innocent young woman, mother of two children. He also knew that I had been responsible for spreading the rumor that led to the exodus of thousands of Cuban children in Operation Pedro Pan, with the help of the Catholic Church, lying that they were orphans. He knew that I had been the one who had almost caused the Cuban economy to collapse with that campaign of rumors that tried to sow panic in the population.”

But Veciana had learned from Phillips. In his 2017 memoirs, he acknowledged that, according to the CIA agent who had recruited him in Havana, “Modern wars are, above all, psychological wars; the goal is to twist public opinion.” The strategies, of course, are more specific: “now we must leave traces of our actions; if this is not possible, any participation in the events must always and under any circumstances be denied. Always. Even when the opposite is the most obvious…. If the interests of others align with ours, then they are allies; if they have no interest, they are instruments; if they oppose our interests, they are enemies”.

Antonio Veciana, a bank clerk for Cuba’s richest man, Sugar King Julio Lobo, had met twice with the new president of the National Bank of Cuba, Ernesto Guevara, and, after some hesitation, had turned down his request to recruit accountants and clerks for Cuba’s new financial system that would follow nationalization. Since his retirement from Miami, Veciana defined El Che as a fanatic of telling the truth at any price.

But Veciana was proud all his life for having launched the historic plan, even without the initial approval of the CIA. He even managed to print thousands of pamphlets in which he reported a law that never existed. The effect was similar to that discovered by the propagandist and social manipulator Edward Bernays (make an authority on the matter say what you want everyone to think): in Miami, the priest Bryan Walsh announced that the Cuban government planned to separate all children between three and ten years old from their parents to send them to Russia. The CIA took note and, from its clandestine radio station in the Swan Islands of Honduras, began repeating the false story. Until it became dogma.

Priest Walsh, through his Catholic Welfare Office, officially started Operation Pedro Pan with which Cuban parents, desperate because of the rumor, sent their children to the United States. From December 26, 1960 until the Bay of Pigs Invasion in April 1961, every day hundreds of children flew, unhindered and unaccompanied by an adult, by Pan Am to Miami to be saved.

When the program was interrupted due to the Superpower’s defeat at the Bay of Pigs, 14,048 children had already arrived in the United States. Some, nine or ten, were successful cases for the media and for the collective dream, according to the concept of success at the time. One will be the stepfather of the richest man in the world, Jeff Bezos. Another will be Mel Martínez, a United States senator (hero of the proposal “only English for children” and “no forgiveness for illegal immigrants”), irrefutable proof of the American dream and the freedom of the winner.

In 2007, Robert Rodríguez, one of these “unsuccessful” children, filed a complaint with the Archdiocese of Miami against Monsignor Bryan Walsh for repeated sexual abuse against him and other minor refugees in Opa-locka, Florida. The priest Mary Ross Agosta will accuse the complainant of «defaming a respected religious who saved the lives of fourteen thousand children.» The complaint by Rodríguez and others against the same archdiocese will be dismissed on legal technicalities that do not apply in other states. In Florida, various monuments still today commemorate Monsignor Walsh with flowers.

Many children saved by Operation Pedro Pan from being separated from their parents by communism took years, decades to reunite with their parents. Some never saw them again. Because of communism, of course.

JM, February 2022

Peter Pan y el poder de las ficciones políticas