Fidel Castro my life. Fidel Castro. My life. Fidel on perverts

The French philosopher Regis Debreu, a comrade of Fidel Castro and Che Guevara in the 1960s, gives the following story in his book “Praise to Our Masters” dedicated to them. Edgar Degas said that in early childhood his mother took him to the house of Madame Le Bas, the widow of the great Jacobin. Seeing portraits of Robespierre, Couthon, and Saint-Just on the walls, the pious Madame Degas exclaimed in horror: “But they were monsters!” “No,” the hostess answered calmly. “They were saints.”

This dilemma becomes the most important in the historical assessment of any revolutionary, especially a figure of such magnitude as Fidel Castro, who not only changed the fate of Cuba and, in many respects, Latin America, but also left its mark on the world history of the second half of the twentieth century. Fidel addresses history directly in his famous speech at his trial after the failed assault on the Moncada barracks in Santiago de Cuba in 1953: “Condemn me, I don’t care: history will acquit me!” Undoubtedly, the main judgment of history is still ahead, but so far, it must be admitted, it has not disposed of Fidel’s fate very mercifully. “If Fidel Castro had died 10 or 15 years ago, the world would have said goodbye to a historical figure on a completely different scale than the one who left this world today,” writes a commentator for the Spanish newspaper El Pais. A brilliant politician, forced in 2006 due to sharply deteriorating health to cede power to his brother, Raul Castro, Fidel for 10 years turned into a ghost, a shadow of himself. The Comandante became a frail old man with a fading gaze, who from time to time tried to interfere in politics and published thoughts that were no longer of interest to anyone.

Existential choice

Perhaps this can be considered retribution for the existential choice that Fidel himself made. A year before the desperate expedition of the Cuban revolutionaries on the Granma boat, he gives a speech in New York in which he says: “In 1956 we will either be free or martyrs.” During the unsuccessful landing of the detachment on the coast of the Cuban province of Oriente, out of 82 people, only 20 survived; the rest died immediately or were captured and killed by the troops of dictator Batista. In two years, a handful of people led by Fidel Castro accomplish the impossible - they turn into a rebel army that overthrows the dictatorship and, on January 1, 1959, triumphantly enters Havana. Fidel turned out to be a brilliant subverter of the Marxist-Leninist dogmas of the time. He showed that there is no need to wait for “the maturation of objective and subjective conditions” for revolution, that a united and determined minority can radically change the situation in the country and overthrow the authoritarian regime that seemed unshakable by armed means. The unexpected, incredible victory of the Cuban revolution for several decades determined the fate of hundreds of Latin American revolutionaries who tried, mostly unsuccessfully, to repeat the Cuban experience in their countries.

Fidel became a brilliant exponent of the social revolution that was awakened by his personal subjective action. This revolution was born of desperate injustice, the deepest inequality that corroded Cuban society, half of which was doomed to inescapable poverty, to daily humiliation and violation of human dignity, to remain victims of the tyranny of the rich and powerful all their lives. The desire of the humiliated for justice and equality made the Cuban revolution invincible in the first, decisive years of its existence. It was a liberation revolution - not inspired by anyone, unlike any of its predecessors, shocking the world with its authenticity. The Cuban revolution became a breath of freedom for the socialist world, coinciding in time with the Khrushchev thaw. Twice in the early 1960s, people spontaneously, without any order, took to the streets of Moscow en masse, meeting Yuri Gagarin in April 1961 and Fidel Castro in April 1963.

Fidel's leadership was undeniable, his personal charm and gift of words were mesmerizing. He was able to keep the electrified crowds of people in Havana's Revolution Square in suspense for many hours. “Amazing! The real Mussolini!” - the Italian writer Alberto Moravia said about him without a hint of irony, who until the end of his life remained an anti-fascist, a supporter of Fidel and revolutionary Cuba.

Great War with America

Fidel Castro was a man of unconditional personal courage: he himself led the armed response to the CIA-sponsored invasion of Playa Giron in April 1961. This victory became a turning point for Cuba: Fidel proclaims the socialist nature of the Cuban revolution, anti-Americanism becomes its main dominant feature.

If Fidel's Marxism was largely forced, due to dependence on Soviet economic assistance, then his anti-Americanism was deep and genuine, determining his worldview and, in many respects, the structure of his personality. In a famous 1958 letter to Celia Sánchez, he says: “When this war [against the Batista dictatorship] ends, a much longer and greater war will begin for me: the war I will start against them [the Americans]. I think this will be my real destiny." This was undoubtedly due to the unique - even in Latin America - situation in which pre-revolutionary Cuba found itself. Arthur Schlesinger, an aide to President John F. Kennedy, described his impressions this way: “I was fascinated by Havana, but I was horrified that this delightful city had been turned into a large casino and brothel for American businessmen.<…>My compatriots walked through its streets, taking with them girls of 14 years old and, for fun, throwing coins into the street crowd to watch the fight of people trying to grab them. I asked myself if Cubans, seeing this reality, could treat the United States with anything other than hatred.”

It must be said that Fidel not only retained this hatred until the end of his life, but also managed to use it to strengthen the revolutionary and especially his personal power. In general, he was distinguished by his exceptional ability to turn the enemy’s weaknesses to his advantage. For half a century, the “frontal” and stupid American policy towards Cuba - an unsuccessful military invasion, numerous sabotages, attempts to assassinate Fidel and, most importantly, a trade embargo - gave Fidel Castro a unique weapon for uniting the population, an excellent and effective excuse for explaining all internal difficulties the machinations of US imperialism. Barack Obama became the first US president to try to break this vicious circle: he eased the embargo, in December 2014 restored diplomatic relations with Cuba that had been severed in January 1961, and in March 2016 he made the first visit of an American president to the island in 80 years. The reaction of Fidel, who was gradually leaving for another world, “disappearing,” was unchanged: “We do not need handouts from the empire!”

Denial of freedom

The great Latin American writer Gabriel García Márquez, a long-time friend of Fidel Castro and his unconditional supporter, explained his interest in the Cuban leader to his Soviet friend Kiva Maidanik: “Unlike Che Guevara, who preferred martyrdom to destruction * by power, Fidel chose the latter.” Most likely, it was not even a choice: he was first and foremost a man of power, a man initially focused on gaining power and maintaining it at any cost. The dilemma of 1956 (“we will become free or martyrs”) turned out to be false: having won power, Fidel Castro renounces freedom and, in particular, his promise to hold free elections within 18 months. Power, won with such difficulty, had to be aimed at implementing those social transformations for which so many revolutionaries had laid down their lives. “First the revolution, then the elections!” - says Fidel. The revolution begins with agrarian reform - the confiscation of large latifundia and sugar factories, many of which belonged to the Americans. This was followed by a campaign to eradicate illiteracy, the creation of a free education and health care system for the population, which truly became one of the best in the world. After the failed invasion of Playa Giron, the Cuban authorities begin a large-scale nationalization of all industry, transport and agriculture. The Cuban economy is becoming socialist, that is, state-owned.

The renunciation of freedom - first political and economic, and then, from the late 1960s to the early 1970s, cultural and spiritual - in the name of social justice was not perceived tragically by the majority of the Cuban population, which before the revolution, in fact, lived outside society and often outside the state. The revolution raised millions of people to normal life and human dignity: their children went to school, they saw a doctor for the first time in their lives and received poor, but humane housing and work. At the same time, the revolution destroyed the way of life, the usual standards of consumption, and then the habitat of hundreds of thousands of other people - the Cuban middle class. It was these people who laid the foundation for the mass emigration of Cubans from the island - to the USA, Canada, Spain, and Latin American countries. For half a century, this flow has not dried up: people who grew up after the revolution, and their children, at the first opportunity, flee from Liberty Island, legally and illegally, using all available means - from rafts to inflatable boats, since the Florida peninsula is “only” 90 miles away from the northern coast of Cuba. The country, as Cuban writer Luis García Méndez, who lives in Chile, put it, has transformed from the world's largest exporter of sugar into the largest exporter of Cubans.

Two million Cubans living in the diaspora, despite the island's population of 11 million, is probably the most cruel and unmistakable indictment of the system that has developed in Cuba since the revolution. The state economy has once again demonstrated its insolvency. In Cuba this was exacerbated by what might be called Fidel's voluntarism. His unshakable faith in the effectiveness of subjective action, which became his strength during the revolutionary war, turned into a weakness in peaceful life. Attempts to preserve Cuba's economic and political independence gave rise to the illusion of the “Great Leap Forward” - the Safra of 1970, when almost the entire population of the island was thrown into harvesting 10 million tons of sugar cane. The failure of this endeavor led to the final turn of the Cuban economy towards the Soviet model and Cuba's growing dependence on Soviet oil supplies in exchange for sugar. The collapse of the USSR and the end of Soviet subsidies led to a dire economic and social situation in Cuba (the 1990s were officially declared a “peacetime special period”), when most opponents of the Cuban regime were confident that it would collapse. But it persevered and, since the early 2000s, has found a new economic footing in Venezuelan oil, generously supplied to Cuba by the Hugo Chavez regime in exchange for the labor of Cuban doctors and teachers in the poor rural areas and urban slums of Venezuela.

One must think that the dependent, dependent nature of the Cuban economy oppressed Fidel. In the 1970s and 1980s, Cubans tended to explain their problems by saying that they were forced to copy the Soviet model, that “everything bad” they had was Soviet. It must be admitted, however, that it was precisely this system that best suited the needs of maintaining power, and above all Fidel’s personal power. The system deteriorated, became less and less attractive culturally and ideologically, and more and more repressive politically. It became impossible to breathe in the country, but Fidel’s power remained unshakable. He decided to allow or prohibit private restaurants, hotels and hairdressers, to publish books and films or not, to punish or pardon the increasingly active Cuban dissidents.

*The Spanish word “desgaste” is difficult to adequately translate into Russian; it means “wear and tear”, “deterioration”, “decay”.

Loneliness of power

For half a century, one person determined the fate of an entire, albeit small, country. From the very beginning, he did not separate his own fate from the fate of the country, but the longer he was in power, the more the country’s fate seemed to him to be a part, a continuation of his own destiny. The man who came to power for the sake of freedom and social justice increasingly clearly headed a regime whose essence was the self-preservation of power, power for power’s sake. The personal power of Fidel Castro. All those who seemed to him to be a possible rival in the struggle for this power were cut off and removed from government positions during permanent purges. The most dangerous, in Fidel's opinion, rivals were sent into political or actual oblivion. In 1959, the hero of the revolutionary war, the commander of the revolution, Uber Matos, who objected to the communist, in his opinion, bias of the victorious revolution, “for incitement to rebellion” was imprisoned, from which he was released 20 years later, in 1979. In 1989, Revolutionary Armed Forces General Arnaldo Ochoa, commander of Cuban forces in Angola and official Hero of the Republic of Cuba, was executed by firing squad on charges of organizing a drug trafficking network that used Cuban airfields to transport Colombian cocaine to the United States. In a country where nothing happened without Fidel’s sanction, this verdict was perceived as reprisal against the popular military man and at the same time as an attempt to blame the charges of connections with the Medellin drug cartel brought by the American administration against the Cuban authorities on him.

Fidel sank more and more into the loneliness of power. When the need for a successor became urgent, it turned out that Fidel could only be replaced by his own, but also very elderly brother. And in Fidel’s behavior, and in his personal life, and especially in the transfer of power, the textbook features of Caribbean dictatorships described in the books of the classics of great Latin American literature - Gabriel García Márquez and Mario Vargas Llosa - increasingly emerged. The man who led the great revolution towards freedom and renewal to victory spent almost half a century at the head of the longest Latin American dictatorship. A colossal will to power devoured a man who outlived himself: leaving power marked his political death, which occurred 10 years before his biological one.

Fidel Castro was neither a monster nor a saint. He gave his life to the most powerful of human passions - the desire for power. Mario Vargas Llosa refused to justify the story. Time will tell what her final verdict will be.

Tatiana Vorozheikina -
especially for Novaya

“I received your letter dated October 30. You present the matter in such a way that they really consulted with us before withdrawing strategic missiles... I don’t know what news you received, but I am only responsible for the message I sent on the evening of 26 October and received by you on October 27.
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In Cuba there was only one kind of alarm: combat alarm... Danger could not frighten us, because we have long felt how it hangs over our country.
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The news of the sudden and almost unmotivated decision to withdraw the missiles brought tears to many Cubans and Soviets who were ready to die with their heads held high. You probably don't know how determined the Cuban people are to fulfill their duty to their homeland and to humanity.
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Do you, Comrade Khrushchev, think that we thought selfishly about ourselves, about our selfless people, ready to sacrifice themselves, and, of course, not blindly, but fully aware of the danger they expose themselves to?
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We knew that we would be destroyed, as you hint in your letter, in the event of a thermonuclear war. However, we did not ask you to withdraw the missiles. We did not ask you to give in.
My understanding of the matter is that if aggression is unleashed, one must not give up to the aggressors the privilege of deciding when to use nuclear weapons.
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I did not suggest to you that in the midst of the crisis the USSR would attack. I suggested that after the imperialist attack, the USSR should act without hesitation and in no case make the mistake of allowing its enemies to launch a nuclear strike on it first.
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I took on this matter, not paying attention to how delicate it was, obeying the duty of a revolutionary and experiencing the most disinterested feeling of admiration and love for the USSR.
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Not a section of the Cuban people, as you have been informed, but the vast majority of Cubans are currently experiencing unspeakable bitterness and sadness.
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The imperialists are again talking about the occupation of our country, declaring that your promises are ephemeral. But our people are eager to resist, perhaps more than ever, relying on themselves and their will to win.
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We will fight against hostile circumstances. We will cope with difficulties and persevere. At the same time, nothing can destroy the bonds of our friendship and endless gratitude to the USSR.
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With brotherly greetings,
Fidel Castro"

Fidel on perverts:

“What problem arose here? In the first years, we were forced to carry out almost complete mobilization of the country in view of the imminent US aggression. Universal conscription was introduced.
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There were groups that, on principle, did not recognize the banner or weapons. Some people used this as an excuse to reject mobilization.
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This is how the situation arose with homosexuals who were not drafted into military service. We had to deal with a sharp rejection of homosexuality in our society; after the victory of the Revolution, we had a strong sense of male superiority and sentiments against the presence of homosexuals in military units prevailed.
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Due to the above factors, people were not drafted into the army. However, this became an additional factor of irritation. Homosexuals found themselves excluded from such an intense process of self-giving. Some have used this argument to criticize homosexuals.
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From the indicated categories (those who were not subject to conscription), Military Production Assistance Units were formed, to which the mentioned persons were sent. That's how it was."

Fidel on Marxism and Christianity:

“At the university, leftists looked at me sideways as if I were an outsider, saying: “The son of a landowner and a graduate of the Jesuit Bethlehem College must be a complete reactionary....
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...More than 30 years ago I came into contact with Liberation Theology. I met with many clergy and pastors of various ranks, gathering them at the Cuban Embassy. And then, after several hours of discussion, I put forward an idea that had been brewing for a long time - about a union of believers and non-believers. believers, that is, Marxists and believers in support of the Revolution.
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As the Sandinistas said, “Christianity and the Revolution - there is no contradiction here”?
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We started talking about this much earlier, since the Sandinista revolution won in 1979, and I defended this idea wherever I went: in Chile, when I visited Salvador Allende in 1971, and even in Jamaica, when I visited Michael Manley in 1977 year. I declared that the revolutionary change needed in our hemisphere required an alliance between Marxists and Christians.
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We had a chaplain in the Sierra Maestra, a Catholic priest, who joined the rebels. He even rose to the rank of major and wore a dark olive uniform. Father Guillermo Sardiñas, known and loved by everyone. It’s not that my comrades were zealous Catholics, but almost everyone here was baptized, and the unbaptized, as I already said, were called “Jews.”
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I told you that this was a question not only of principle, but also of elementary common sense: a priest who was shot by revolutionaries would immediately fall into the category of great martyrs, this would become a gift to the empire and an insult to many honest believers in Cuba and in the world.
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During the revolution of 1789, the French killed each other because ordinary priests were on the side of the revolution, and church hierarchs were on the side of the feudal authorities. During the October Revolution, events of this kind also took place.
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In 1910, a revolution began in Mexico, a real social revolution - not a socialist, but a deep social revolution - and there they killed each other, making no exception for priests.
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Then the Spanish Civil War broke out. The Spaniard is very religious, most Spaniards supported the republic, and priests were shot on both sides.
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We are the exception. And this proves that we were guided by certain ethical principles. This is extremely significant. "

As it is written in the annotation, “Fidel Castro. My Life" is the first autobiography of the Comandante of the Cuban Revolution; 100 hours of interviews resulting in a fascinating, sincere and frank monologue about the time and about himself of the most controversial political leader of the second half of the 20th century.

The book is unique in that for the first time Fidel Castro himself talks about his family, about his not at all simple childhood, about the storming of the Moncada barracks, about the legendary Che Guevara, about the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Cuban Revolution.

Indeed, this is a fairly candid interview conducted intermittently by a French journalist from 2003 to 2005, shortly before Fidel's 80th birthday. The interview covers the entire period of the Comandante’s life, so it turned out to be somewhat cumbersome. Frequent repetitions, which are necessary in oral speech to focus on the main thing, are somewhat tiring when presented in writing. But these shortcomings are compensated by interesting facts and the utmost clarity with which Castro conveys his position, his vision of the situation.

The book focuses on the Cuban Revolution, the confrontation between an island state and a powerful superpower nearby. Opposition to military invasion, economic blockade, subversive and terrorist activities. A struggle in which the country not only survived, but also managed to save its face.

A country that counters aggression, relying not so much on weapons, but on the patriotic spirit of its people, on instilling the concepts of justice, freedom and brotherhood. Having your own opinion is expensive in the modern world. And this position is not the last merit of the former and current leaders of Cuba.

Another goal of the book was to try to solve “the mystery of Fidel Castro.” How did it happen that a child who was born in the wilderness of the countryside, to wealthy but conservative and poorly educated parents, was educated by Spanish Franco Jesuits in Catholic educational institutions intended for the children of the elite, and sat on the university bench side by side with his offspring big bourgeoisie, eventually became one of the most prominent revolutionaries of the second half of the 20th century?

Part of the interview is devoted to the ongoing changes in the country, which Fidel Castro dreamed of from the very beginning of coming to power - the creation of a new type of society with less social inequality, healthy and better educated, without discrimination, with a comprehensively developed culture accessible to the entire population.

You can glean a lot of interesting information from the book. For example, how the Texas flag of the slave-holding south of the United States became the national flag of Cuba in 1868. Or how José Marti, the Spanish poet and writer, became a folk hero in Cuba.

“Martí’s main merit is the following: the liberation war of the Cubans, which lasted from 1868 to 1878, ended; he, a young intellectual and patriot, poet, writer, is passionate about the idea of the struggle for Cuban independence; he was only 25 years old when this struggle ended, and he begins to take his first steps and ultimately unites and guides the veterans of that cruel and glorious Ten Years' War. There is nothing more difficult in the world than leading war veterans, especially if the one who set out to bring them together is an intellectual who lived in Spain, and who also did not participate in that war. Marty managed to unite them. This is talent, this is ability!”

Many kind words are dedicated to Ernesto Che Guevara, the Argentine doctor and future ally of Castro, whom Fidel met in Mexico during his exile.

“Che endeared himself to people. He was one of those people who immediately evoke sympathy; his naturalness, simplicity, friendliness and dignity attracted people to him. He worked as a doctor in one of the centers of the Institute of Social Insurance, doing research - I don’t know, either in the field of cardiology, or allergies, because he himself was an allergy sufferer. Our small group, who ended up in Mexico, liked it. Raoul managed to make friends with him. I met Che when I arrived in Mexico. He was 27 years old at the time.”

“Che studied and practiced, but as a military doctor he was there with us and turned out to be an outstanding doctor, treating our comrades. He had one characteristic which I valued most among his many virtues. In the vicinity of the Mexican capital there is the Popocatepetl volcano. Che prepared his equipment - this mountain is high (more than five thousand meters), with eternal snow on the top - he began the ascent, made enormous efforts - and did not reach the top. Che suffered from asthma. Asthma thwarted all his attempts to climb the mountain. A week later, he again tried to reach the top of Popo, as he called this volcano mountain, and was not successful. He never reached the top of Popocatepetl. However, Che set off again to make another attempt, and, probably, the desire to conquer Popocatépetl never left him all his life. Che made heroic efforts, although he failed to reach the alluring peak. This showed Che’s character.”

“When we were still a very small group, whenever a volunteer was needed for a certain task, Che was always the first to offer himself.”

Regarding the story about Che.

“A period came when the National Bank was left without funds, the available funds were extremely small, because Batista stole the reserves, and the National Bank needed a leader. At that moment a revolutionary was needed. Che was a proven man, also talented, disciplined and incorruptible, and he was appointed president of the National Bank of Cuba.

In this regard, jokes appeared. Enemies always try to make us laugh, we joke too; however, in an anecdote that had political implications, it was about the fact that I once said: “We need an economist.” At the same time, confusion arose, and they decided that I said: “We need a communist.” That's why they called Che, because he was a communist. There was an error, they say.

And Che was exactly the person we needed in this position, don’t even doubt it, because Che was a revolutionary, a real communist and an excellent economist. Yes, because what makes an excellent economist is the idea that the person who leads the front of the country's economy wants to implement, in this case the front of the National Bank of Cuba. So in his double role as a communist and an economist, Che turned out to be at his best. Not because he was a certified specialist, but because he read and observed a lot. Whatever business Che Guevara was involved in, he performed it extremely conscientiously. I have already spoken about his perseverance and willpower. Whatever task was put in front of him, he was able to cope with it.”

The story itself is also of interest about how the 19 people who survived after arriving in Cuba from Mexico (a total of 89 fighters sailed on the Granma, including Fidel, Raul, Che) and entered into battle and of whom only 12 remained after the betrayal ( !), were able to organize a partisan movement and in 3 years liberate Cuba from the Batista regime with its 80,000-strong army.

Or about the terrorist actions of supporters of Batista and the CIA, especially after the failed US invasion of Cuba in the town of Playa Giron in 1961.

“From November 1961, after Playa Giron, to January 1963, that is, in a period of fourteen months, there were a total of 5,780 terrorist attacks against Cuba, including 717 serious attacks on Cuban industrial equipment, resulting in the death of 234 people. The overall result of this terrorist activity was 3,500 dead and more than 2,000 injured. Cuba is one of those countries in the world that has had to deal with organized terrorism.

During the Nixon presidency, in 1971, the swine fever virus was introduced into Cuba - according to a CIA source, via a container. And we had to sacrifice more than half a million pigs. This virus of African origin was completely unknown on the island. It was implemented twice.

And there was something even worse: Dengue virus type 2, which causes hemorrhagic fever, often fatal to humans. This happened in 1981. More than 350 thousand people were infected, 158 of them died, including 101 children. This strain of the virus was then completely unknown in the world. He was taken to the laboratory. The leader of the Florida-based terrorist organization Omega 7 admitted in 1984 that they spread this deadly virus into Cuba with the goal of causing as many casualties as possible."

“Not to mention the attempts on our life. In total, more than 600 different assassination plans have been registered.”

Also about relations with the Soviet Union during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, when the world was on the brink of nuclear war.

“At that moment of greatest tension, the Soviet side sends a proposal to the United States. Khrushchev does not consult us about this. They offer to remove missiles from Cuba if the Americans remove their Jupiter missiles from Turkey. Kennedy compromises on October 28. And the Russians decide to withdraw the SS-4 missiles. This seemed completely incorrect to us. Caused a storm of indignation."

“We learned from news reports that the Soviet side proposed to withdraw the missiles. Without any discussion with us! We did not oppose any decision because it was important to avoid a nuclear conflict. But Khrushchev had to tell the Americans: “This must also be discussed with the Cubans.” At that moment he lacked endurance and firmness. The Russians should have consulted us as a matter of principle.

Then the terms of the contract would probably have been better. The military base at Guantanamo Bay would not have remained in Cuba, and spy flights at high altitude would not have continued. All this affected us. We protested. And even after the agreement, they continued to shoot at planes flying at low altitude. The Americans had to stop them. Our relations with the Russians have deteriorated. This affected our relationship for several years to come."

“There was nothing illegal in our agreement with the Soviet side, given that the Americans deployed Jupiter missiles of the same class in Turkey, and even in Italy, and no one tried to bomb these countries or invade their territories.

The problem was not the legality, everything was completely legal, but the incorrect political handling of this matter by Khrushchev, when he began to build theories about offensive and non-offensive weapons. In political struggle, one must not lose face by resorting to hypocrisy and lies.

The content of the Soviet-Cuban agreement was completely legal, I repeat, legitimate, even justified. This was not an illegal act. It was wrong to resort to lies for the purpose of disinformation, which emboldened Kennedy. At that time, he had real evidence that the Americans had already received from the air, with the help of their U-2 spy plane, which invaded Cuban airspace, and he was allowed to do so. If you deploy surface-to-air missiles, you must not allow spy planes to fly over the territory you are committed to protecting. The United States does not allow any aircraft to fly over its territory, and it would not allow Soviet surveillance aircraft to fly over its missiles in Italy and Turkey."

“In October 1962, we not only allowed, we did not take measures to prevent the removal of missiles, since we would have entered into conflict with both superpowers. We had control over the country, nothing would move here without our decision, but it would be unreasonable, it would not make sense.”

And get information about the base at Guantanamo Bay.

“The United States, which occupied Cuba after its capture in 1898, insisted that an “amendment” be made to the Cuban Constitution of 1901 - the “Platt Amendment,” named after the American senator who proposed it. It significantly limited the sovereignty of the new Cuban republic, gave Washington the right to interfere in the internal affairs of the island, and obliged the Cuban state to cede to them a number of coal bases for refueling American ships. One of these “coal bases” became, beginning on June 2, 1903, the Guantanamo Bay naval base, which the United States still occupies against the will of Cuba. It has recently become the object of worldwide press attention due to the fact that the government of George W. Bush turned it into a center for the illegal detention of alleged Islamic terrorists subjected to torture and other torture by the American military.”