The Political Education Of Rafael Cruz: From a pro-Castro student activist to anti-communist crusader.

Via Charlie

Long before his son would run for president, or he himself would become a popular political speaker, Rafael Cruz was something else for a brief period: a pro-Castro student activist. 

The story of Cruz’s departure from Cuba is an arduous story that the father of Sen. Ted Cruz, the newly-announced presidential candidate, tells often — a story his son referenced, at the beginning of his presidential announcement speech, as a tale of the “promise of America.”

As Rafael Cruz tells it: He was a teenager from Matanzas, Cuba, picked up by the secret police of the American-backed Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. He was jailed, then tortured for days. The regime released Cruz, but only after threatening him with execution, and ostensibly so that they could spy on him in the hopes of finding more young revolutionaries.

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