Fidel Castro Accepts Blame for Persecution of Gays During Cuban Revolution

Former Cuban President Fidel Castro said for the first time that the Cuban revolution persecuted gays in its early years.

Castro, Cuba’s leader from 1959 until he handed power to his brother Raul after falling ill in 2008, said in an interview published in the Mexican newspaper La Jornada that he regretted the treatment of gays who were marginalized or sent to agrarian reform camps as punishment.

“It was us that did it, us,” he said. “I am trying to work out to what extent my responsibility extends because, since then, personally, I don’t have that sort of prejudice.”

Castro said he was too busy fighting “the war with the Yankees” and foiling attempts on his life to put a stop to homophobic attitudes within his communist regime that he said predated the revolution.

To contact the reporter on this story: Charlie Devereux in Caracas at cdevereux3@bloomberg.net.

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