The Interpretation of Cuba and Fidel Castro in Iran in 1979

After the revolution of February 22, 1979, newspapers and publications in the country were filled with photos and reports related to revolutionary figures from around the world to give a global face to the Iranian revolution and to provide alternative perspectives beyond the Western view for the country's development goals and plans. One of the figures that both communist revolutionaries (Tudeh, Fadaei, and Peykar) and religious revolutionaries paid great attention to was Fidel Castro. For the revolutionary clerics and their Islamist allies, it did not matter that Castro was not a religious person but rather anti-religion and considered the Catholic Church a pro-capitalist institution. As an 18-year-old revolutionary youth during those days and years, when I review my journalistic and magazine memories, I recall the image of Fidel Castro alone (in military uniform) and alongside the leaders of the Islamic Republic (first Ibrahim Yazdi, the foreign minister, and later Mir Hossein Mousavi, Ali Khamenei, and then a list of government heads from Khatami to Ahmadinejad and Rouhani) accompanied by reports of progress in Cuba under his revolutionary government. Cuba was introduced to Iranian society as one of the paradises on earth. Castro's promises in 1979 and the experience of his government after 20 years were before the eyes of Iranian journalists, writers, and political activists, but not a word was mentioned about this experience. Castro had not yet undertaken many economic and social changes (such as abandoning the exclusive trade policy with Eastern bloc countries or softening his stance towards the Catholic Church), and his radical policies were ongoing. Before coming to power, Castro promised free elections—similar to the promises Khomeini made in Paris—but clung to power for half a century and labeled supporters of free and periodic elections as mercenaries of the United States. Ultimately, he could only trust his brother and kept the government within his family. The slogan of the Cuban revolutionaries was "freedom or death," but revolutionary freedom-seekers alongside Castro were imprisoned for decades after he came to power. All promises of democratic governance and free media were set aside just like Khomeini's promises after coming to power. During those years, I did not see a single article in Persian media (given that I was constantly following publications and newspapers at that time) on this subject. Unfortunately, the atmosphere had gripped everyone, and no one was supposed to hold political leaders accountable for their actions and promises. The economic experience of Cuba after twenty years of Castro's rule was also before the eyes of the world. Communist-ruled Cuba was filled with assessable information. In those days, discussions about Cuba's literacy advancements were prevalent, but audiences were never informed that literacy growth in the second half of the twentieth century was significant in all Latin American countries, and Costa Rica and Argentina had greater literacy growth than post-revolution Cuba without communist rule. The policy of moving Cuba away from sugar production as the main product for generating foreign currency was disastrous. The result of nationalizing the economy was the employment of about 75 to 90 percent of the workforce in jobs with very low pay and no tax payments. The Cuban society during the communist rule became poorer compared to other countries in the region; the per capita income of each Cuban is about $3,300 annually, while Cubans residing in Miami earn about $23,000 in just a few hours. Communists and religious revolutionaries, due to their hatred of the United States, were not supposed to see (and still do not see) these realities and report them, but others were also silent under the influence of the atmosphere. What the communists and their Islamist successors created was indifference to the truth to achieve absolute power. In reports about Castro and Cuba under his totalitarian and authoritarian rule in Iranian publications, it was never mentioned that Castro executed thousands after his revolution victory in 1959. Tens of thousands lost their lives fleeing repression in this country. About 14,000 were killed in the regime's foreign military interventions (like Angola) (the Islamic Republic is repeating this experience in Syria). I never saw any mention in these publications of the imprisonment, torture, and repression of hundreds of thousands in Cuba. However, there was endless talk about the health and education system in Cuba without mentioning where the resources for these showcase projects came from (cheap oil sales to this country and expensive sugar purchases from it by the Soviet Union) and what costs the Cuban rulers imposed on the economy of this country to maintain their socialist programs. The isolationist policies of Castro's regime, justified by anti-imperialist rhetoric, kept the Cuban people in poverty and destitution for half a century. The discourse surrounding Trump's election victory in the United States (the indifference of some voters to realities and statistics) and Oxford's cultural response by naming the term "post-truth" as the word of the year actually prevailed in a much more pronounced form in 1979 in Iran. Totalitarian regimes essentially live in the world they create and attempt to institutionalize indifference to the truth. If we delve into any of the discursive areas of the 1979 revolution, we face a sea of ignorance and lies to incite the masses. The image presented of Fidel Castro and the Cuban revolution in the print media of that time was merely one subset of one discursive area, namely "methods to achieve social justice" (through violence, execution, confiscation, and repression). The portrayal of early Islam (as a communist and utopian society), the fabricated crimes attributed to the Pahlavi regime (the killings of Ali Shariati, Samad Behrangi, and Mostafa Khomeini and the burning of Cinema Rex), the promotion of fabricated crimes by British and American imperialism (against fascism and communism), exaggeration of corruption and repression of the Pahlavi government, and the sanctification of clerics were all aimed at constructing an identity and mentality that would prepare the country's youth to accept the rule of those who had no belief in reality, truth, rights, and democracy. The ideological and intellectual leaders of the 1979 revolution and the intellectuals who accompanied it presented a mountain of lies to keep the people in ignorance and unawareness to mobilize the masses for their rise to power. Essentially, during that period, no journalist saw themselves responsible for "fact-checking" and "reporting both sides of the story." Fidel's Cuba is just a small example.