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Fidel Castro takes ‘responsibility’ for persecution of Cuban gays

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Former Cuban President Fidel Castro called years of official persecution of homosexuals under his Communist regime an ‘injustice.’ In an interview published this week in a Mexican newspaper, he said he takes responsibility for the repression.

‘If someone is responsible, it is me,’ Castro told Carmen Lira, editor of the left-leaning daily La Jornada. Here’s the second part of the Castro’s interview in Spanish. La Plaza reported on the first part here.

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After the Cuban Revolution in 1959, the Communist government arrested gays and sent many to labor or ‘re-education’ camps. Homosexuality is no longer criminalized on the island nation and Castro’s niece, Mariela Castro (daughter of current President Raul Castro), is a prominent activist for expanding gay rights in Cuba.

Numerous books and films have depicted the period of persecution, including the novel Before Night Falls by Reinaldo Arenas, later adapted into a film. Here’s a video by the Guardian newspaper on the contemporary gay and transgender culture in Cuba.

In the interview, Castro said the repression against gays occurred in a tumultuous period while the Communist government was defending itself against ‘traitors’ and the CIA. ‘But in the end, after all, if someone must assume responsibility, I offer my own,’ Castro told Lira. ‘I cannot blame anyone else.’

— Daniel Hernandez in Mexico City

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