Revolutionary communications in Cuba: Ignoring new world orders

Abstract

One of the changes brought by the 1959 Cuban Revolution (July 26th Movement) against the Batista dictatorship was the reorganization and reconstitution of the country's communication and information infrastructure. Facing an almost immediate siege from the efforts of the Eisenhower and Kennedy governments, the CIA and Cuban exiles to overthrow the new government, the revolution was propelled on the basis of a permanent threat from the United States. The threat perception helped legitimate a socialist, internationalist, and populist agenda, leading to a politics of command in the treatment of mass media and other communication functions. This analysis looks at current structures of Cuban communications in the context of the social programs attempted by the Castro regime and the historical and continuing legacies of American interventionism.