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Post by ReturnToPepperland on Oct 21, 2011 14:47:17 GMT -5
I wonder if anyone has an opinon on this since it has come to light that his parents fled Cuba in 1956 when it was under Batista's rule and not while Castro was in power.
I will give you a hint how much of a difference the distinction makes by using this quote from John Kennedy.
Senator John F. Kennedy, in the midst of his campaign for the U.S. Presidency, described Batista's relationship with the U.S. government and criticized the Eisenhower Administration for supporting him, on October 6, 1960:
Fulgencio Batista murdered 20,000 Cubans in seven years ... and he turned Democratic Cuba into a complete police state – destroying every individual liberty. Yet our aid to his regime, and the ineptness of our policies, enabled Batista to invoke the name of the United States in support of his reign of terror. Administration spokesmen publicly praised Batista – hailed him as a staunch ally and a good friend – at a time when Batista was murdering thousands, destroying the last vestiges of freedom, and stealing hundreds of millions of dollars from the Cuban people, and we failed to press for free elections.
Batista's rule was described by Kennedy as "one of the most bloody and repressive dictatorships in the long history of Latin American repression".
So Castro was not the only savage dictator for Rubio's family to fear.
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Post by ReturnToPepperland on Oct 21, 2011 15:03:29 GMT -5
This is from Wikepedia. (Remember the Rubio family fled Cuba May 21, 1956).
When Batista came to power in 1952 he did so with a miliary coup. Democratic elections were scheduled that year, but Batista knew he would be defeated. He took control by force and cancelled the elections. There was a failed coup by Castro an Che Guivara in 1953. They were jailed by Biatista then later released under public pressure as accusatons of corruption and brutality in Batista's regime grew.
By late 1955, student riots and anti-Batista demonstrations had become frequent, and unemployment became a problem as graduates entering the workforce could not find jobs. These were dealt with through increasing repression. All youth were seen as suspected revolutionaries. Due to its continued opposition to Batista and the large amount of revolutionary activity taking place on its campus, the University of Havana was temporarily closed and did not reopen until 1959 under Castro. In April 1956, Batista called popular military leader Col. Ramón Barquín back to Cuba from his post as military attaché to the United States. Believing Barquín would support his rule, Batista promoted him to General. However, Barquín's Conspiración de los Puros (Conspiracy of the Pure) was already underway and had already progressed too far.
On April 6, 1956, Barquín led a coup by hundreds of career officers but was frustrated by Lieutenant Ríos Morejón, who betrayed the plan. Barquín was sentenced to solitary confinement for eight years on the Isle of Pines, while some officers were sentenced to death for treason. Many others were allowed to remain in the military without being reprimanded.
The purge of the officer corps contributed to the inability of the Cuban army to successfully combat Castro and his guerrillas. Batista's police responded to increasing popular unrest by torturing and killing young men in the cities; his army, however, was ineffective against the rebels based in the Sierra Maestra and Escambray mountains. Another possible explanation for the failure to crush the rebellion was offered by author Carlos Alberto Montaner: "Batista does not finish Fidel out of greed ... His is a government of thieves. To have this small guerrilla band in the mountains is to his advantage, so that he can order special defense expenditures that they can steal."
Batista's rule became increasingly unpopular among the population, and the Soviet Union began to secretly support Castro. However, some of Batista's former generals have also criticized him over recent years, saying that Batista's excessive interference in his generals' military plans to defeat the rebels hampered Army morale and rendered all operations ineffective. It is clear that counterterror became the strategy of the Batista government. It has been estimated by some that as many as 20,000 civilians were killed. Picture of Batista's soldiers executing a rebel by firing squad in 1956.
In an effort to gather information about Castro's army, people were pulled in by Batista's secret police for questioning. Many innocent people were tortured by Batista's police, while suspects, including youth, were publicly executed as a warning to others who were considering joining the insurgency. Additionally, hundreds of mangled bodies were left hanging from lamp posts or dumped in the streets in a grotesque variation of the Spanish colonial practice of public executions. The behavior of Batista's forces backfired and increased support for the guerrillas.
RTP:
So it is under these circumstances on May 21, 1956, that the Rubio family fled Cuba as many other exiled families did during the late 1950s. Castro eventually came to power immediately after Batista fled the country during the night of December 31, 1958.
Marco Rubio has always said that his parents fled Cuba before Castro's revolution. There are no tapes or speeches that indicate he said they left after the revolution. Only his senate biograpy makes that error. But beyond that they are saying he lied because he called his family exiles. There are objectons to the word "exile" in this case.
But whether they left before or after Castro is of no consequence really. Batista was as brutal as Castro and was even supported by the Soviet Union in his last years in Cuba. Clearly there was reason for them to fear for their lives.
In my opinon the Rubio family fits the definition of exiles.
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Post by ReturnToPepperland on Oct 21, 2011 15:23:31 GMT -5
Exile means to be away from one's home (i.e. city, state or country), while either being explicitly refused permission to return, fearing for one's safety and/or being personally threatened with imprisonment, death or persecution. Exile can be a self-imposed departure from one's homeland. Self-exile is often depicted as a form of protest or as a form of self-preservation by the person who claims it. Over one million Cubans have left Cuba since the late 1950s. Most of these self-identify as exiles.
At times Rubio has been unsure as to whether his mother and father had left before or after Jan. 1, 1959 (when Castro took over). In one interview on Fox he is asked about it and he says "it was 1959, no 1958 when they left". In a recent interveiw for a newspaper he says specifically it was "shortly before 1959". It appears he knew it was before Castro came to power but didn't know it was as much as a couple of years before.
So in conclusion, there is no big lie that the Rubio family or Marco Rubio was trying to put over on anyone. Just correct the senate biography and get on with more important things.
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lowbasso
A Hard Day's Knight
Posts: 2,776
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Post by lowbasso on Oct 21, 2011 20:37:54 GMT -5
Ok, I give up. Is there a Beatle connection somewhere in this thread? Or a music connection of any sort I am missing?
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Post by Steve Marinucci on Oct 21, 2011 22:03:26 GMT -5
Ok, I give up. Is there a Beatle connection somewhere in this thread? Or a music connection of any sort I am missing? The topic's in the off-topic board, so it doesn't need to have a Beatles or any connection. Talk it up or don't.
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