Between Emotion and Calculation: Press Coverage of Operation Truth (1959)

ESPECHE GILARDONI XIMENA

Radical History

Duke University Press

Lugar: Durham; Año: 2020 vol. 2020 p. 129 - 141

0163-6545

The Operación Verdad (Operation Truth) was a global press intervention. On January 21-22, the revolutionary government invited journalists and politicians from various countries around the world to attend the trials and executions of individuals accused of committing human rights abuses during the Fulgencio Batista dictatorship. This essay argues that the coverage of Operation Truth was an information battle waged to define the legitimacy of emotion and/or calculation as a way of supporting political action in Cuba. Characterizing the revolutionaries as bearers of a "true masculinity" and positively or negatively judging their "Latin" identity, was how the Operation Truth coverage granted or denied something "extra" namely, the ability to order and control the emotions unleashed by the revolution and, consequently, the revolutionaries´ suitability as calculating government officials.