US Hostility Toward the Island was Never Really About the Cold War: America’s Cuba

[Mika]

9. When a Cuba discussion comes up, we never hear about the brutal abuses that led to it.

We never hear about the Batista era death squads.
We never hear about the Batista era rape squads.
We never hear about the Batista era police routinely beating and murdering minorities, and union organizers.
We never hear about the Batista era slave labor sugar plantations, and all related slave cruelty & murder.
We never hear about the Batista era impoverishment of the majority of Cubans (we only hear about how great it was for one percenters, Batista lackeys, mobsters, and tourists).
There's lots more cruelties and atrocities we never hear about the Batista regime.

The Movimiento 26 de Julio was vastly popular. The Batistanos couldn't murder enough of them to stop them.
Each murder and rape by the Batistanos fortified the resolve and numbers of 26 de Julio.