The history of the media war against the Cuban revolutionary process practically has its beginnings with the birth of the guerrilla led by Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz. In this way, lying is at the very roots of the opposition to the Revolution, and continues to be a daily practice to this day.
As early as 1957, the guerrilla leader was “annihilated”, according to reports in the press of the northern neighbor. The obvious fake news would be conveniently denied by the American journalist Herbert Matthews, from The New York Times, who interviewed Fidel in the Sierra Maestra.
From these first experiences, a means of communication specific to the 26-7 Movement would emerge, as an unavoidable political necessity: the now iconic radio station Radio Rebelde, which acquired a notable audience before the dictatorship had yet fallen.
From then until today, the objectives of the media aggression against the Revolution are the same: to discredit its leaders, promote states of opinion contrary to it and create the conditions, in the ideological field, for its destruction within the Cuban people.
Another even more global purpose, not always evident, has to do with the admitted purpose of power in the United States. uuu to confront, in the field of ideas and culture, left-wing thought that questions the very existence of the capitalist system.
It is a strategic error to believe that the media war against Cuba is a local matter, and that it is limited to sowing lies and half-truths about Cuban daily life. Based on the symbolism and international reach of the Revolution on the Island, distorting, distorting and destroying that legacy in the order of political subjectivity constitutes perhaps the main purpose of the enemies.
In the context of an economic war that is unfolding in parallel, through a sustained and prolonged blockade, the US authorities have implemented a communication strategy that has generous resources both of public origin, through numerous federal agencies, and more compartmentalized, which They overlap in NGOs and other institutions with apparent solidarity purposes and to help the Cuban people.
Based on the extraordinary expansion of digital social networks and the digital universe itself, media aggression acquired dimensions unsuspected 30 years ago.
The attacks from traditional media such as TV and radio, as well as the written press, were converted to the format of the new platforms, and the permanent message, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, was launched like a poisoned dart to millions of Cuban women. and Cubans, generating a new challenging picture in political and ideological matters.
It is relevant to insist on the integrality of the aggression. A kind of feedback is resorted to in terms of greater blockade, greater restrictions and more obstacles to sustainable development, which seeks to encourage dissatisfaction, uncertainty and, if everything goes well for the enemy, generalization of uncertainty and loss of confidence in a better future.
By 2024, as publicly expressed by the Biden administration, they have about $50 million to contribute to media hostility. With such resources, financial support is planned for no less than 30 platforms that operate as press media, as well as pages and profiles and a group of so-called influencers, among other forms of organization to commit crimes in communication matters.
The digital media have intellectuals and, in some cases, well-trained communicators, except perhaps in one thing: the sense of homeland. Influencers, well, influencers are frankly anything, and vulgarity, lack of culture and the most absolute mediocrity predominate in them, sharing the anti-values of the system that maintains them, without having to work on something useful.
Fighters against communism, champions of bourgeois liberal democracy and other nonsense predominate in this mini-army, which enlists according to the payment it receives; That is, mercenaries 2.0 who crossed all limits when, in unison, they called for a military invasion of Cuba on the occasion of the events of July 11, 2021. By then, the betrayal acquired a dimension from which they will not be able to return.
The desire for profit, however, is one of its main problems. Given that in social networks the competition has a volume almost as infinite as the Internet itself, the platforms or influencers compete with each other because it is necessary to monetize the publications, beyond the indication of the North American bosses, to generate permanent editorial lines or campaigns. coordinated.
Seen from a political perspective, the picture becomes delirious. The media war is then a modus vivendi managed by characters devoid of patriotic commitment and limited enlightenment, although in rare cases they waste general culture, fighting intimately with the rest of the group and without an authentic political proposal, subordinated to the interests of reconquest neocolonial of their employers.
Despite the above, it is necessary to pay moderate attention to this task. Aggressions should never be underestimated, no matter how ineffective they appear to be. Ultimately, no deep transformation process has a future if it is incapable of defending itself, no matter how fair and necessary it may be.
The Revolution, we already know, is a colossal work that changed the lives of millions of people, and with it generated a feeling, shared values that go beyond any type of ideological scheme, turning the Cuban before 1959 into another type. of Cuban.
Of course, things, dialectically, sometimes change suddenly, when aggression and economic vicissitudes can tear people’s patience. It is at that moment when the enemy intensifies its attack on him, when he believes that, finally, and by magic, the conditions have been created to defeat the revolutionaries.
This type of battle of ideas that transcends that of information, also imposes the tremendous challenge of knowing how to deal with our own differences, with the healthy exercise of criticism and self-criticism, and with the wisdom of not confusing the sinister attack from the hostile power, with the different opinion among the revolutionaries. If we get this wrong, the media war will have gotten an undeserved gift.
Hence the need to persist in the forms and contents of party and popular democracy, which involves something as comprehensive as it is simple: being clear about what principles we defend, permanent exchange with the people, transparency in information, creativity and intellectual honesty.
It can be said that the media war is doomed to failure, and not only because of the political inability of our enemies. Defeating it is imperative to sustain national sovereignty, it is fair, it is moral, it is being on the right side.
In favor of the Revolution there is also Cuban culture, which has nothing to envy of others, it has the educational level achieved, which makes it impossible for the majority of people to eat the first story they are told, no matter the expensive formats. that are used to turn them into a reality of the metaverse manipulated by algorithms, not the true reality.
The essential thing, in short, is to sustain political power. With that strength and with that guarantee we can design the best devices, the most competent ideological shields; experience and will exist in abundance.
We also have the imperishable work of José Martí and Fidel, both together could barely fit on a small island like Cuba, and represent a strength that few political processes have at their disposal.
In common, they left us the closed defense of the truth, the same one that the counterrevolution has never used, as has been said here, forgetting that, as José Martí will express, “truth and tenderness are not useless.” Along with him, Fidel told us, in his epic concept, that “Revolution is never lying or violating ethical principles.”
To the enemies, just remind them of what Raúl expressed at the time: «Cuba is not afraid of lies nor does it kneel before pressures, conditions or impositions, wherever they come from; “It defends itself with the truth, which always, sooner rather than later, ends up prevailing.”
