14ymedio, Havana, August 12, 2024 — “Rub out all mannerisms and antisocial behavior” was the first commandment of the Military Units to Aid Production (UMAP), founded in Cuba in the 60s as forced labor camps for “homosexuals, the religious and the social lumpen.” The phrase is fixed, like a mantra, in several documents of the time rescued this Monday on social networks that expose the methods of indoctrination of those schools of “rehabilitation” in the time of Fidel Castro.
The documents – six in total – “were delivered by a source that asked for their publication and only had two conditions: anonymity and open access,” journalist José Raúl Gallego, a resident of Mexico, who disseminated the documents, said on Facebook.
The first two documents, dated in the mid-1960s, are perhaps the most shocking. First of all, they “study” the presence of homosexuals in the country and propose for their “reform” the creation of a Model Center, where military doctrine will lead them to become “useful” for the Revolution. However, not all the “deviants” would go to the camps. The revolutionary class, children of families committed to the process and those who had “real possibilities” of integrating into society would be separated.
These, the “privileged,” would become part of a group A. Groups B and C were the “counter-revolutionaries” who wanted to stay on the Island and those who wanted to leave, respectively. As for the latter, they were to be subjected to “very rigid” methods until they eventually left the country and the unit was dissolved. Or, which is the same, until the Revolution had shaken out the last “antisocial” element.
’Rub out all mannerisms of antisocial behavior’ was the mantra among the ranks of the UMAP
For company B, the objective was, if possible, more macabre: “Among counter-revolutionary homosexuals who for various reasons do not want to leave the country and are part of company B, the principle of detecting who among them can change political opinions and therefore opinions about their duties to society and rehabilitation will be followed. They will be gradually sent to company A and some of them later to the Model Center,” the document dictates.
For Groups A and B, the objectives changed: “to erase the mannerisms,” “anti-social behavior” and “any manifestation of hostility to the Revolution.”
The second document describes similar plans for those who – in the UMAP or the Compulsory Military Service – have presented homosexual behavior. “Prevention” is the key word here. It proposes the formation of Pre-Military Schools in which the boys lead the lifestyle of a recruit. It is accompanied by a Marxist psychological analysis of the ways of treating young people to achieve the desired result.
The proposal begins with a statement that, although it simulates an academic approach, would horrify any modern defender of human rights: “The scientific ignorance of the causes and remedies for homosexuality makes it impossible for us to find a definitive solution to this problem,” the report explains, but the “motivation” is enough to carry out the plan.
The segregation methods proposed in the document are similar to those in the first one. Recruits are to be separated by political affiliation a