THE CHURCH BECOMES A FIFTH COLUMN

Two years after the triumph of the Cuban revolution, the majority of the church which still had not understood the true aspirations and convictions of the people continued to confront the new government and its leaders.

With the imminent threat of an invasion of Cuba by the "exile groups" trained and financed by Washington, the church began to support and organizes a Fifth Column within the island.  They were focused on helping an invasion.  Some examples of the support include:

- January 27 1961 , the formation of the Democratic Revolutionary Front (DRF).  This organization was created by Rogelio González, a CIA agent and national director of the underground subversive group MRR.  He was also a Catholic militant.  It should be added that in wake of the invasion, the DRF was the first attempt by the CIA in unifying the counter revolutionary organizations.  

-March 13 Humberto Marín infiltrates Cuba with a sizeable quantity of arms and explosives all given by the CIA.  Beside his mission of sabotage was the aim of unifying all the internal counterrevolutionary groups under one organization:  The United Revolutionary Front.  All of this was supported by the church.   

Some churches and convents were used to hide arms and explosives; they were also used to shelter counterrevolutionaries, hide anti-government propaganda; the churches offered facilities in which meetings by subversive groups were held.  In addition to giving shelter to counterrevolutionaries they helped some of in leaving the country.

In spite of the complex situation on the political and military front the new revolutionary government continued to develop its social agenda.  In 1961 adhering to its social agenda the new government declared the year as the "year of education". 

As the campesinos and those in the country side had been neglected for decades, a literacy campaign aimed at teaching the rural population how to read and write was started.  To achieve the goals of literacy young students both at the university and high school levels were sent to the country side.

What was the churches response to this noble project?

Although participation in the literacy campaign was voluntary and had to be with the consent of the parents a dirty propaganda campaign was initiated by the church and the counterrevolutionary groups.  Both groups started to circulate the false rumors that the young literacy workers were going to the country side to be ideologically indoctrinated.  This propaganda was in such a huge scale that some parents decided to send their children out of Cuba .

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