

In Cuba, the name of the game is full-on, unabashed, flagrant propaganda. Cuban television stations are mostly political. Apparently Castro used to go on television regularly and make 6 hour long speeches. According to our tour guide, Castro is in the Guinness Book of Record for the longest speech! I saw President Chavez of Venezuela doing the exact same thing on television while I was there. The museums are all very biased, telling how Castro single handily won battles etc.

The most interesting propaganda is, of course, about the United States. Around the US embassy they have erected big billboards. One says that Bush + an anti-Castro Cuban terrorist living in Miami = Hitler. Another shows an American trying to scare a Cuban and the Cuban laughing at him. There was a billboard for a fake movie called The Assassins starring a hilariously photoshopped George Bush and the same terrorist guy. The U.S. Embassy which was near my hotel was surrounded by police, we weren't even allowed to stand around outside for more than 30 seconds.

Not to be outdone, the U.S. is getting its own propaganda in. They have cheekily erected a scrolling text screen on the top of the embassy building which comes on at night. Apparently it tells 'the truth' about Castro, such as how he is making large investments in Venezuela while Cuba suffers.

Of course, Castro was not about to just sit by and let the Americans pollute the Cubans minds with this nonsense, so he erected a load of huge black flags on on enormous flagpoles which fly in front of the embassy and block the text screen when looking from a distance. As a result apparently many Cubans climb onto the rooftops of their buildings to read the screen.