Operation Peter Pan: how the USA transferred 14 thousand children out of Cuba under false pretenses

submitted by weavilsatemyface from self.DownTheMemoryHole

Using a disinformation campaign run by the CIA with the collaboration of the Catolic Church, that falsely claimed that Fidel Castro was going to steal children between the ages of 5 and 18 from their parents, the US government and various Catholic organizations arranged to send the unaccompanied children to the US and Spain instead.

More than 14,000 children were transferred (Wikipedia says 19,000). The secret programme had been running for three years before the story broke. Many of the children were "accidentally" mischaracterised as "juvenile delinquents" by American authorities and sent to homes for delinquent boys. Many of these children were never reunited with their parents.

Wikipedia says "It operated covertly out of fear that it would be viewed as an anti-Castro political enterprise" because of course it was an openly anti-Castro political enterprise.

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[–]BigO 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

That’s a pretty negative take on the whole thing. Most of the parents doing it were middle class and most of the kids were teens, over 90% reunited with parents too. These weren’t families supporting Batista, that group already left.

You’re framing it like it was some evil thing, when in the end most people who did it did it because they saw terrible events occurring and some to occur(some of which were false, but not all).

Only people who wouldn’t think it was a success would be commies, because it points out how scary their country was.

Oh look at that, your first link is stupid biased and prides itself as “anti-imperialist” and “for the class” based in Venezuela, yea, I wonder why they would twist it that way.

[–]weavilsatemyface[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

You’re framing it like it was some evil thing

Well duh. What else would you call it when a church and an enemy government deliberately invents propaganda which they knew was not true, in order to destabilize another country, terrifying thousands of families into sending away their children under completely false pretenses?

These children were then put into abusive "homes for delinquent boys" (de facto juvenile prisons) and dysfunctional orphanages, or shunted around from foster home to foster home, for no good reason at all. Every single part of this operation was 100% based on a lie, and the USA knew it was a lie. It was done not because the USA wanted to "save the children" (save them from what?) but because this was another way to destabilize Cuba and get hold of thousands of Cuban boys who could be indoctrinated.

Of course it is evil.

The fact that "most" of the children eventually after many years, or decades, were re-united with their parents does not excuse this.

[–]BigO 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

No, you’re literally lying in your post and comment. The church didn’t make up anything, they were told things or believed it would go a certain way due to what the Cuban government was implying and saying. Most of the propaganda was put forth by Cuban people afraid of communism, the American government only started doing it after other people brought it up to them.

They weren’t false pretenses, certain things did not occur, other things did occur. The government was taking over schools, businesses, and cracking down on religion, all true.

Once again, that’s not true. Most boys did not go to that, most boys met up with their contacts within the expected time, over 90% were reunited in the expected time(which wasn’t months). You’re literally lying and relying on one or two dudes who had a bad time when the vast majority didn’t do that.

You’re just a hateful dude that sees one stupid biased news article and thinks that’s the truth. What a sad person you are.

[–]weavilsatemyface[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

The church didn’t make up anything

Of course they did. The Cuban government never said, or implied, or suggested, or hinted, that they would steal children from families. This was a 100% dishonest scare-story that was completely invented as propaganda by the US, Spain and the Church.

"Woooaaaa, Evil Commies are COMING TO STEAL YOUR KIDS!!!"

They weren’t false pretenses

Even the pro-US, anti-Castro sources have to admit the basic facts that children were sent away from their families for no good reason. That many thousands of them were sent to juvenile homes, bounced from family to family, and had a terrible time. And that's the sources that support the operation.