Beyond / Retrieval

The CIA Trained Fulgencio Batista’s Torturers in Cuba

The Bureau for the Repression of Communist Activities, known for its blood-spattered record of torture and political killings, was backed by the CIA.

by Ramona Wadi via Jacobin on August 14, 2025

...groups are major Communist objectives. Although the Communists have lost much of their former strength, they have maintained some influence in sugar, tobacco, and maritime unions, in education, youth and women’s organizations, and in the entertainment field, especially radio and broadcasting.

The history of US involvement with Cuba’s security services preceded the formation of BRAC by many years. In 1942, during his first term as Cuban president, Batista established the Enemy Activities Investigation Services (SIAE). The SIAE operated under the command of Captain Mariano Faget Diaz, who had been educated in the United States. SIAE officers, including Faget himself, received training from the US intelligence services in counterespionage.

After World War II ended, the focus shifted from the Axis powers to the Soviet Union and the international communist movement. Faget became the director of BRAC when it was established in 1955. One Cuban revolutionary, Carlos Franqui, described him as a “technician of torture” who was capable of inflicting “continuous blows on the head, leaving no marks, but producing tremendous pain and tension.”

In July 1955, CIA director Allen Dulles wrote to Batista, approving the dictator’s decision to allow the CIA to train BRAC agents:

The creation by the Cuban government of the Bureau for the Suppression of Communist Activities is a great step forward in the cause of freedom. I am honored that your government has agreed to allow this Agency to assist in the training of some of the officers of this important organization.

Dulles went on to suggest that BRAC’s General Martin Diaz Tamayo should travel to Washington to discuss “some of the techniques used [by the CIA] to combat the activities of International communism.”

“Too Enthusiastic”

Since Batista’s 1952 coup, the military had already been dumping bullet-riddled corpses on the streets of Havana. BRAC institutionalized the repressive violence, working in close collaboration with the Military Intelligence Services (SIM). SIM officers were tasked with the surveillance of people known to have communist sympathies or allegiances. Informers infiltrated unions and other movements in an attempt to rein in opposition to Batista’s regime.

Detainees were interrogated in three stages, starting with persuasive talk, before moving on to psychological and then physical torture. CIA agent Lyman Kirkpatrick euphemistically reported that “BRAC might be too enthusiastic in some of its interrogations.” Kirkpatrick recalled one instance where a doctor took photos of the torture wounds that BRAC agents inflicted upon a female schoolteacher after she was detained on suspicion of plotting against Batista. According to Kirkpatrick, he was initially skeptical before seeing the photographic proof: