Before Fidel Castro seized full power in Cuba, his movement promised freedom and democracy, and many Cubans supported it in the hope of ending the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. In this interview, a Cuban counterrevolutionary explains a step that came before the open consolidation of communist rule: the taking of guns from ordinary people. He describes how weapons that had once been held by citizens, and by those who had fought against Batista, were collected, registered, and then removed, leaving the population unable to resist what came next.
The speaker argues that disarmament was not an afterthought, but a deliberate part of the revolution’s plan. A government that intends to control every part of life, he says, cannot allow its people to remain armed, because an armed citizenry can say no. Once the guns were gone, the regime could impose collectivisation, censorship, and political repression without fear of armed opposition, and those who had once fought for change found themselves defenceless against the new rulers.
For viewers in the United States and elsewhere, this account is a warning about the link between the right to bear arms and the ability to defend freedom. It is also a first-hand history of Cuba, told by someone who lived through the loss of both.