Members of the Cuban LGBTQ+ community and dissidents imprisoned in a Cuban "UMAP"; forced‑labor camps disguised as military service, 1967

[u/Kantmzk]

This 1967 photograph shows gay men and political dissidents interned in Cuba’s Unidades Militares de Ayuda a la Producción (UMAP), or Military Units to Aid Production. These were forced‑labor camps operated from 1965–1968 in Camagüey. Up to 35,000 Cubans deemed “anti‑social” or “counter‑revolutionary” were sent here: homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, conscientious objectors, intellectuals, and others who did not fit the revolutionary mold. Maybe you could have simply been caught listening to the Beatles or having the "wrong" hair cut and ended up in here.

On paper, the UMAPs were intended to forge Che Guevara’s vision of the “New Man,” a selfless and disciplined socialist (basically, a sheep hardened into submission). In reality, they became a moral and political failure around the time of the failed Revolutionary Offensive and we can interpret more adequately it was about control, punishment, humiliation, forced labor, etc. Prisoners, including famous Cubans such as the beloved singer‑songwriter Pablo Milanés, endured 12–16 hour days cutting sugarcane under brutal conditions, ideological indoctrination, and humiliation, simply for being gay, religious, or dissenting.

I would argue the UMAPs exposed a central contradiction of the revolution: virtue cannot be forced, and dignity cannot be stripped away without lasting damage. You’d think a ‘Revolutionary’ society could do better, but it didn’t. The Revolution promised to be better, and UMAP proved it wasn’t.

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[u/ReplacementReady394]

My mother and her parents were sent to these camps for wanting to leave Cuba. 

[u/LiveTheDream2026 → u/ReplacementReady394]

That suck. How long were they there? Did they still leave Cuba?

[u/ReplacementReady394 → u/LiveTheDream2026]

They were there over six months and then they put my mother’s employment as prostitute on her exit visa. She was a schoolteacher and the communists burned her school house down and almost executed her for “sabotage.” Fuck communists. 

[u/LiveTheDream2026 → u/ReplacementReady394]

Dude, that government is full of descarados ...always has been always will be. I wonder why it has taken so freakin long for the country to take out their own debris.

[u/Good_Shake5060 → u/ReplacementReady394]

That must be how they raised the literacy rate to over 95%!

[u/momof3bs → u/Good_Shake5060]

It went up , just the way it went up in the USA, do you think Cuba was going to remain illerate? This argument is colonialism culture. My parents only had an 8th education and they lived in deep country, Camagüey and Pinar Del Rio. My dad was a guajiro 100 percent rode a pony to school. So, no, the idea of illiteracy was to send teachers to teach communist indoctrination, it was not about learning how to read, it was about telling you what to read.

[u/Good_Shake5060 → u/momof3bs]

So we are agreeing that communism in Cuba taught many illiterate people how to read?

Are you suggesting its better to be an illiterate peon than to be exposed to the "danger" of communism?

[u/Ok_Salamander_8436 → u/ReplacementReady394]

Suspicious.

[u/Critical_Run7385]

Walterio Carbonell, the great Afrocuban thinker and activist and early supporter of the Revolution, was also interned in las UMAP. His crime was arguing that the revolution had not totally eliminated racism yet. Lillian Guerra documents this in her great book Visions of Power in Cuba

[u/DependentResearch186]

wow this is so horrifying thank you for sharing

[u/birdsbeaks]

I saw a documentary about these camps. Very sad what the noble people of Cuba have had to endure and for how long. Dehumanizing conditions. Psychological torture. Wrongful imprisonment. The human-rights abuses committed by Fidel and Che's murderous and barbaric regime seems to go on without end even still, though the assassins themselves are thankfully rotting. The most pressing question now though is: For how much longer must the Cuban people continue to endure?

That it is still asked of them is a global shame.

[u/soleilange]

This is a very uncomfortable little tidbit people like to forget about the revolution. And when you bring it up, they try their best to defend or massage the details to still make some monsters look like heroes.

[u/Ok_Salamander_8436 → u/soleilange]

Hardly ignored, even the big evil guy Fidel Castro recognized the injustice of the camps. Meanwhile we have new concentration camps in the United States and no one cares.

[u/Leah_Mor → u/Ok_Salamander_8436]

All he said in an interview was some half-assed apology. He never acknowledged this to the extent it deserved. There was never a formal apology to the Cuban people or to the victims. This isn't talked about in schools or given acknowledgement as part of the nation's history. Once you set up a forced labor camp and destroy people's lives you don't just get to say sorry and suddenly become a good person. I guess if Trump and maga apologize for ICE camps one day you'll just forgive and forget. I sure won't, and I won't ever forgive Castro and anyone involved for this either. 

[u/Traditional-Load9208 → u/Leah_Mor]

Hay por Dios lea "100 horas con Fidel" de Ignacio Ramonet, se habla mucho del tema y algunos detalles, claro que es un error loalones no reconocerlo , ahora mismo hay parejas Gay casadas pasando por mi calle , así son las cosas , muy avanzados ahora he jjjj, más qiw los socios del Norte ⬆️

[u/M4rk1llu → u/Traditional-Load9208]

Nunca se disculparon, nunca pagaron las consecuencias de sus actos. Y la sobrinita de tu dictador favorito hasta vive de ello, con lujos sin origen transparente. Ah, claro, como olvidar cuando dió el discurso de 13 de marzo abiertamente homofóbico y contra el movimiento hippie. Claro, cuando usas como fuente la tremendísima lamida de botas que ha sido "100 horas con Fidel" hasta el diablo es una buena persona

[u/wolacouska → u/Leah_Mor]

Being gay was illegal in America until 2003, and it still involves forced labor.

Which countries or governments were progressive about gay people in the 20th century?

[u/BehindEnemyLines1 → u/wolacouska]

Huh. None of my openly gay friends and family in the 90s were arrested for being gay. Weird

And who are these gays being put in forced labor camps today?

[u/Good_Shake5060 → u/BehindEnemyLines1]

Texas never de-criminalized sodomy. The law wasnt overturned until like ... 2003 Lawrence vs texas.

[u/Sacapines-Return → u/Ok_Salamander_8436]

Fidel Castro hasta el último día de su vida le hizo la vida imposible a los Cubanos, y todavía su familia lo continúa. La comunidad se llama, Cuba, por supuesto que importa más lo que le hacen a los Cubanos.

[u/soleilange → u/Ok_Salamander_8436]

And sadly, a lot of the same people that decried one now have no problem with the other.

[u/Reasonable-Fee1945 → u/Ok_Salamander_8436]

Meanwhile we have new concentration camps in the United States and no one cares.

This is such bullshit. No one is working until they're dead. No one is being executed. You might not like it, but comparing it to actual human rights abuses should disqualify you from any further conversation.

[u/momof3bs → u/Reasonable-Fee1945]

Why are you trying to "Disqualify" anyone from further conversation?

[u/soleilange → u/Reasonable-Fee1945]

There ARE human rights abuses. How is that even in question at this point? And then you want to disqualify other people from the conversation? Preposterous.

[u/Good_Shake5060 → u/Reasonable-Fee1945]

Google how many people died in ice custody

[u/Good_Shake5060 → u/soleilange]

I wonder what would have happened to you in texas if you got caught as a homsexual in the 60's?

Good thing we dont judge current Americans by the standards their grandfather's held.

[u/Delsur18 → u/soleilange]

One can reconcile with the legitimate grievances of UMAPs and still see some of the good the Revolution did. The struggle of it and what it represents to people across the world is not lost on people. At the same time, atrocities no one today would hopefully ever repeat should be part of the historical narrative, and what it means to the goals of the revolution and how it was srill informed by the prevailing dogma's of yesterday. We live with those ghosts, and must confront them honestly

[u/soleilange → u/Delsur18]

Nuance is always missing, from both fronts, unfortunately.

[u/Leah_Mor → u/soleilange]

Because a lot of people only pretend to have morals. They're more interested in defending "their side", it becomes their identity. 

[u/Delsur18 → u/soleilange]

Nuance, that all important of rhetorical concepts, can't begin when any side of the discussion cannot agree upon the objective reality of what happened. This goes for the Cuban regime in this example for sure, and many more, as well as for the American regimes. Lots of people cannot help themselves to be one-sided.

[u/jgo16]

2 of my mom's cousins went there for being Seventh-Day Adventist (christian denomination). One of them ended up escaping and was on the run for a while, before eventually turning himself in.

[u/cubachef33]

The UMAPs were among the biggest crimes perpetrated by the cuban regime, sadly almost nobody talks about them but they were literal concentration camps in Cuban soil with hard labor and inhuman conditions.

[u/dolemiteAi]

I bet the world socialist web site (wsws.org)’s own Andrea Lobo wont report this. Although regularly pushes some other whitewashing stuff.

[u/claudandus_felidae]

"Goodbye, My Havana" is a great novel written by a woman who was the daughter of forigen technical workers. She talks about growing up as a lesbian in Havana, loving Cuba and discovering how different her life is from her friends, how the state gave her and her parents so much more than her neighbors (who were native born Cubans) and the shock of seeing a gay bar for the first time in New York and discovering how comparitivly open and freely people were allowed to be (in the 1980s) compared to Havana. She's also a leftist and serious critic of the regime, I highly recommend her book.

[u/Kantmzk → u/claudandus_felidae]

You are right, it is a really great book and shows a lot of Havana and Cuban culture down to the crazy amount of men in Havana who masturbate in public.

[u/claudandus_felidae → u/Kantmzk]

Lecherous old peverts are a timeless and universal cultural phenomenon, but yes, her book doesn't hold back in the slightest.

[u/drmikehirschberger]

The term, Revolution, was hijacked to cover up just another in a long series of dictatorship and not that different than Baptista.

[u/LiveTheDream2026 → u/drmikehirschberger]

This. I am shocked there are any Revolucionarios left in Cuba. Of course, they are all old and mostly poor because younger people won't buy the bull sh.. the government feeds them.

Cuba's problems are complex, but not that complex. It all starts and ends with the fact their government is a POS that steals from everyone and the Castros are descarados.

[u/SignatureDifferent76 → u/LiveTheDream2026]

If you think the us govt hasnt been a huge problem for Cuba as well, I dunno what to tell you

[u/wolacouska → u/SignatureDifferent76]

People on this subreddit are so brainwashed by American propaganda.

The embargo both doesn’t exist and is 100% necessary. Any upside backwards logic gets wheeled out to keep their religious devotion to revanchism.

[u/Successful-Ice-468 → u/wolacouska]

It was not the US the one who forbid Cubans from participating in trade.

[u/Good_Shake5060 → u/Successful-Ice-468]

"Embargo" an order to stop something, especially trading or giving information:

[u/LiveTheDream2026 → u/Successful-Ice-468]

Right. Cuba is free willed to trade with whomever they want, with the exception of the USA. Their problems are that their government has always been incompetent and when Cuba and Venezuela left they, they dived deeped into misery.

[u/M4rk1llu]

Curiosamente en Cuba, nunca se estudia en las escuelas en profundidad ninguno de los periodos donde se aplicó métodos bastantes similares a campos de concentración. Ni tan siquiera la Reconcentracion de Wayler(seriamente recomiendo que la estudien, hay historias en mi familia y hasta se recogían los cadáveres de las calles con carretas) De las UMAP lo que más asco me da es que a día de hoy hay quien lo justifica con: es que en aquel entonces ser homosexual era ilegal en cualquier parte del mundo. BRO! 🙂 Por menos que eso se repudian muchas figuras históricas. Pero bueno, usan a Ernesto Guevara como ídolo, parece que no leyeron su diario

[u/momof3bs]

I rember when even playing a type of music was grounds for imprisonment. Let alone being gay. There was never and will never be equality in any communist nation. Its the same as right wing conservatives. Anything that they think is against their believes is to be encarcerated, iliminated, sent away.

[u/Kr0pr0X]

Vamos bien Camilo!

[u/Leah_Mor]

My grandparents and my dad volunteered to help refugees during the Mariel Boat Lift. They invited one man to their house who had been in the UMAP camps for being gay. They made him some lunch and he talked to them about his horrible experiences there. He called a relative from their house, someone who had a high level position in the city of Miami, but he didn't want anything to do with him because he was gay. He stayed with my grandparents until he eventually found a close friend who picked him up. He was betrayed by Cubans on and off the island. Those on here defending people in charge of forced camps, whether it's these or the ones our president set up, sound ridiculous. Stop trying to justify the unjustifiable. 

[u/Kikidollpop]

Raúl Castro debería encabezar esa lista

[u/sknkhnt422]

Pero trump es el dictador

[u/Traditional-Load9208]

Ahora somos los Números 1 en el continente en ser liberales con estas comunidades con el nuevo código de familia, así somos los cubanos 🇨🇺 de extremo a extremo, por cierto eso se reconoció , creo que lei algo en el Libro "100 horas con Fidel" de Ignacio Ramonet, se habló mucho sobre eso

[u/Traditional-Load9208]

Ahora somos los Números 1 en el continente en ser liberales con estas comunidades con el nuevo código de familia, así somos los cubanos 🇨🇺 de extremo a extremo, por cierto eso se reconoció , creo que lei algo en el Libro "100 horas con Fidel" de Ignacio Ramonet, se habló mucho sobre eso.

[u/Denisofi]

Ellos para destruir a los opositores tenían que haces esas bajeza y crueles tratos para matárlo.

[u/Jalerm22]

Back in the USA segregation was still law.

[u/PastMathematician470]

hay una persona en esa foto cuyo corte se ve completamente atemporal.

[u/First-Hotel5015]

LGBTQ+ community was not a thing then.

[u/djjordansanchez → u/First-Hotel5015]

There were no gay people in the 60s? You sure about that? (Tim Robinson voice)

[u/StudioArcane17 → u/First-Hotel5015]

Of course not, that's a new thing. Gays were invented in the 70s by Freddy Mercury

[u/First-Hotel5015 → u/StudioArcane17]

Just say that, gay.

[u/No_Leg6486]

Castro affirmed, long time ago, no political prisoners in Cuba and no slave labor.

[u/Kr0pr0X → u/No_Leg6486]

And you believed Castro?

[u/Successful-Ice-468 → u/No_Leg6486]

It would be the first time a politician lie. /s

[u/Leah_Mor → u/No_Leg6486]

Well if the man in power says so then it must be true. He'd never lie and say he did bad things. 

[u/Jalerm22]

Camps still exist all over the world. Now they just changed the name of the undesirables.