Since the 1959 Revolution, Cuba has been used as a political pawn to promote radical ideologies.
This political game has only endured due to the ignorance of the country’s history and disregard by major media outlets to cover most of the nation’s events.
During the 2021 Cuban Protests, unjust police brutality and suppression of free speech were largely discussed. However, most outlets failed to mention the death of a 36-year-old man and the hundreds of others who went missing.
Even in Florida, Cuba’s history is mostly neglected except for the Bay of Pigs Invasion, the 1962 Missile Crisis and rudimentary facts about Castro’s Revolution.
Additionally, those excluded from the Cuban exile community lack awareness of the country’s history. An issue that is exacerbated in other states that have no ties to the Caribbean island.
That ignorance results in the country being used in political commentary as either a cautionary tale of liberal policies or a socialist paradise.
Turning Point USA is a conservative non-profit organization that provides media coverage about Cuba.
Though they give valuable insight into the government’s structure and public opinion, the organization manipulates Cuba’s status as an abusive and failing state to denounce liberal policies.
Their belief? That all liberal policies—moderate or otherwise—will always lead to totalitarian communism.
On the other hand, extreme leftist groups praise Cuba as an example of functional socialism despite the country’s clear shortcomings.
Senator Bernie Sanders and Hasan Piker, a twitch-streamer and popular left-wing commentator, have praised Cuba’s high literacy rate.
Others have touted the island’s medical advancements, free education and humanitarian aid while ignoring first-hand accounts of human rights violations.
Using Cuba as a political tool does nothing to help political debate or the eleven million people living under totalitarian rule.
Instead, it spreads misinformation by manipulating facts. That dehumanizes the Cuban people and dismisses the nation as a one-dimensional talking point.
