History repeats itself, as the old saying goes, but the campaigns of lies orchestrated in the United States against Cuba since before the triumph of the Revolution in 1959 are not just repeating themselves; they have never ceased and are intensifying today, despite the global rejection of these unfounded calumnies.
Operation Truth was the name given to the massive press conference convened on January 22, 1959, in Havana, with the support of the main existing national journalistic institutions, the College of Journalists and the Association of Reporters, to dismantle the campaign of lies against the Revolution regarding the trials and executions of notorious torturers and murderers of the Batista dictatorship.
Just two weeks after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, on January 15, a group of US congressmen declared their opposition to the prosecution of Batista's war criminals and requested the State Department's intervention in the matter. In an insolent act, Republican Representative Wayne Hays called for economic sanctions against Cuba, such as reducing the sugar quota, imposing a trade embargo, and, if necessary, considering an invasion with the deployment of troops.
This campaign was amplified by the major news agencies that dominated the international media landscape. United Press International (UPI) and the Associated Press (AP) alone, combined, had 261 bureaus in the United States and 167 abroad at that time, as well as thousands of reporters, especially in Latin America, according to UNESCO.
“Everything was organized in less than 48 hours. The Cuban embassies and the airline Cubana de Aviación facilitated the travel of 380 journalists from across the continent to Havana. Most stayed in the 240 rooms of the Havana Riviera Hotel, located on Paseo and Malecón, where facilities were set up for transmitting information, transportation, and providing interpreters,” recalled the prominent, now deceased, journalist Juan Marrero.
On January 22, Commander Fidel Castro convened a press conference at the Copa Room Cabaret of the Havana Riviera Hotel, inviting 380 journalists from the United States and Latin America to show them the truth about the Revolution and the decisive nature of the mass struggle in Cuba.
The invited journalists were able to witness firsthand the reality of what was happening in Cuba, a reality distorted by the trials and convictions of nearly 400 officers of the Batista dictatorship's army, who committed brutal murders and tortured hundreds of detainees, while the U.S. press and government remained silent about these crimes.
The day before, on January 21, with the presence of these 380 invited journalists from across the continent, members of the Diplomatic Corps, and before nearly a million Cubans gathered in front of the north terrace of the Presidential Palace (now the Museum of the Revolution), Operation Truth was launched. On that occasion, Fidel expressed the unwavering determination of the Cuban people to defend their own destiny at all costs, without foreign interference.
"I don't have to answer to any member of the United States Congress or any foreign government," he stated, adding, "I answer to the people, first and foremost to my own people."
This US media campaign against Cuba began in 1957, after the Granma yacht landing and the ambush at Alegría de Pío, when the main US news agencies assured the world that leader Fidel Castro had died. To debunk this false report, several international journalists were secretly taken to the Sierra Maestra mountains and interviewed Fidel. The first, in 1957, was reporter Herbert Matthews of The New York Times, followed later by journalists Jorge Ricardo Masetti, from Argentina, and Carlos María Gutiérrez, from Uruguay.
Days after Operation Truth, Fidel Castro spoke for the first time about the need to create a Latin American news agency in the Aula Magna of the University of Caracas, during his visit to Venezuela on January 24, 1959. According to Fidel, there was a need to counter the disinformation campaigns of the enemies of Latin American progressive movements and to disseminate the truth about these struggles to the world.
Thus, five months later, on June 16, 1959, the Latin American news agency Prensa Latina was founded, spearheaded by Fidel himself and Commander Ernesto "Che" Guevara. Its purpose was to introduce into international news flows a worldview based on truth, different from the manipulations of the media monopolies of the time, despite its disadvantage in financial and technological resources compared to its adversaries, but with the support of prominent journalists from across the region.
In these 67 years of the Cuban Revolution, and especially in recent years with the intensification of the economic, commercial, and financial blockade that has lasted for more than six decades, and whose intensification they timed to coincide with the Covid-19 pandemic and the second term of President Donald Trump, has the declared purpose of suffocating the people, increasing shortages, and confusing public opinion in an attempt to undermine support for the government.
It is evident how much importance the centers of power in Washington place on manipulating news about events on the island to provoke unrest, incite protests, and foster internal disorder. Latin America is full of examples of the use of right-wing-controlled media, funded by U.S. entities, to overthrow progressive governments, fabricate fraud, and instigate coups.
For all these reasons, the need for Operation Truth remains more relevant than ever, now that their perennial enemy controls social media and the internet from the United States, international news agencies, and exerts its influence on important right-wing media outlets worldwide.But, little by little, the truth prevails, the people are becoming aware of the manipulations, and the battle continues until the truth is finally revealed.