Seventy years ago this year, on May 4, 1955, the Central Intelligence Agency helped Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista set up the Bureau for the Repression of Communist Activities (BRAC). The move came two years after Fidel Castro launched the Moncada Barracks attack in a bid to overthrow Batista’s regime and a year before Castro and his allies returned to Cuba from exile to begin a campaign of guerrilla warfare.
Batista had taken power in March 1952 after a coup that ousted President Carlos Prío. US support for the Batista dictatorship was the latest episode in a long history of interference with Cuban affairs, dating back to the late nineteenth century. BRAC agents spent the best part of four years brutally torturing and killing Batista’s opponents before the revolution of 1959 put an end to their activities.
A declassified CIA document from the 1950s placed the formation of the BRAC in the context of a wider clampdown on communist political activity under Batista:
Government measures restricting Communist activity have included the suppression of Communist publications, rupture of diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union, outlawing of the Popular Socialist Party (PSP) (Communist), legislation against Communists in public service, and control of Communist travel and international communications.
The document noted the difficulties these measures had posed for Cuba’s communist movement but warned that Batista had been unable to strike a fatal blow:
The Party remains very well organized, however, although forced to operate as a semi-covert…
Auteur: Ramona Wadi
