Hecce, it is a great post. It is an informative post. I enjoy reading your post. Very interesting information from someone that knows!
during those 30 long years
You correctly posted that during the 90's there was some change in the JW situation in Cuba. At Bethel, during that time, information was revealed about conditions in Cuba, such information to be held strictly confidential, some of that information was about the horrible torture of Cuban JW.
Specially in the US, since 1914, the wt had been triumphant in Court decisions, etc There was every reason to expect victory everywhere and Armageddon too-it did not turn out that way at that time but in the US the wt enjoyed victory after victory after victory. The US Supreme Court cases involving WT is proof. I can imagine what JW and others went through in Cuba but I am not convinced that WT error was the cause of JW suffering. I am not saying that it was not, I am saying that I do not know if that was the case.
A couple of years after the success of the Cuban revolution, FC, closed the doors of Cuba, some people managed to get out with only the clothes on their back since the government made it a crime to take out any money or currency out of the country yet others stayed, convinced that the FC government would not last. AS it turned out, those that decided to stay got stuck with no hope of getting out unless they had relatives in the US for example, in such case the US relative could petition for the Cuban relative, any blood relative would qualify, uncle, etc.. It usually took about 5 years. After the BOP invasion where JFK abandoned the soldiers that went to Cuba not backing them up with the air support he promised, they were captured put in concentration camps, etc but JFK passed a law giving asylum to all Cubans.
As you know Hecce, under Batista, Cuba was the "corrupt little Island of the Caribbean"-Howard Cosel -at least in Havana- but that description did not apply to the Guajiro peasants who were iliiterate, gullible but noble hearted people.Cuba at that time was high in illiterate people. Poverty and hunger was shameful, not to mention the corrupt government (I am talking about prior to FC.) Anyway, FC deployed methods to change all that and kicked the US out too, but after the Cuban ban by the US, "hasta banana" for the Cuban economy. Everyone kept hoping that the Fidel Castro government would fall even after JFK promised Nikita Khrushchev never to invade Cuba , Cubans should have seen that that was the nail on the coffin.
Anyway, aren't Cubans very Catholic and superstitious? How did the JW movement do at that time, were the Cubans buying the message?