In our prior post we noted pre-Bolshevik and early post-Bolshevik Communist activity in Cuba and Venezuela (here), concluding with the arrival of Fabio Grobart in Cuba in 1922 and his role, along with Venezuelan Communist Gustavo Machado, in organizing the Cuban Communist Party. Grobart was an excellent organizer, having set up multiple cells with astounding success in infiltrating government, academia, and business. He recruited Fidel when the latter was an adolescent and remained his advisor till his death in 1994.

Machado was from one of the richest families in Venezuela. He was born in 1898 and by 1914 was already agitating against the General Gómez regime, making stratospheric statements about liberty and democracy, all the while seeking a Communist totalitarianism for his country. He entered Harvard and then the Sorbornne in Paris, where he participated in the founding of the French Communist Party.

Grobart and Machado had met in New York at his brother’s wedding — his brother, Eduardo Machado, married the daughter of Elmer Allison, a founding member of the Communist Labor Party of America. Birds of a feather….

Upon Gustavo Machado’s graduation in Paris, he signed up with the Comintern and was summoned by Grobart to join him in Cuba. The tactic they used most successfully in recruiting impressionable young men was fomenting hatred against the United States and presenting Communism as the most effective competing worldview. The hatred was fomented most effectively by using the “racism card” — the gift that keeps on giving.

Fidel Castro was born in 1926 to Ángel Castro and Lina Ruz, the daughter of a family who worked in his hacienda. The elder Castro’s adultery was not amusing to Mrs. Castro, who threatened divorce, causing her husband to resort to chicanery to appear bankrupt, thereby blunting the damages his wronged wife could seek.

Fidel Castro’s mother, Lina Ruz, was steeped in santería and his father is remembered for cruelty, especially his skill with the whip, used against his laborers. “The image of Ángel Castro with a whip in his hands and a gun in his holster yelling orders to the black Haitians on his property … ” was well known. Also, the elder Castro was possessed of a passionate hatred against the Yanquis, for having destroyed the once-great Iberian empire. Nevertheless, working with the americanos, he became one of the wealthiest men in Cuba, owning a 30,000-acre hacienda, with its own railroad and train.

At the time of Fidel Castro’s birth, Grobart and Machado had emigrated to Mexico to avoid prosecution for subversion. From Mexico they continued their activities, with a special focus on Venezuela, on whose behalf they founded the Revolutionary Party of Venezuela, which later became the Communist Party of Venezuela.

In Nicaragua, Augusto Sandino (Prior post) was also active and the Comintern ordered Machado to travel there and offer support, which he promptly did with success. In Venezuela, Communist activity was also in fervent, as “The Generation of 1928”, a group of university students led by Rómulo Betancourt — who would later mature and become anti-Communist — attempted a coup against General Gómez.

Although Julio Mella was assassinated by a fellow Communist in Mexico (prior post), the deed provided the pretext for violent rioting and pillaging by University of Havana “students” which, ultimately, persuaded the United States administration to work against the then president, Gerardo Machado (no relation to Gustavo) and remove him from office in 1933. However, riots persisted until Fulgencio Batista intervened and vowed to work with all parties, including the Communists and the Americans. He evidenced his good intentions by legalizing the Communist Party of Cuba, thereby sealing his and his country’s doom less than two decades later. Few realize the role the Franklin Roosevelt administration played in facilitating the rise of Batista, however inadvertently. 

Meanwhile, in Venezuela, further ferment occurred with the failed Falke expedition in 1929, a Quixotic attempt to overthrow General Gómez by sea. Although almost comical, it produced bloodshed and wide destruction.

By 1934, with the Communists legalized in Cuba, Fabio Grabart and Gustavo Machado returned to continue their nefarious yet successful activities.

The above narrates chaotic, seemingly unconnected events. They are indeed chaotic, but they are not unconnected. The spirit of totalitarianism feeds on anarchy and seemingly meaningless death, mayhem, panic, and fear. Its promulgators foment such an environment because it prepares their road to power and control.