When Fear Became a Force in Cuba

Introduction

They must not be treated as interchangeable. The witchcraft scares involved persecution and criminal trials. Operation Pedro Pan grew from a false document but also from real revolutionary upheaval. Havana syndrome concerns people with serious symptoms whose common cause remains unresolved. In each case, the most useful question is not whether Cubans suddenly became irrational, but how fear gained credibility, who amplified it and what institutions did once the story took hold.

The witchcraft panic behind the murder of Zoila Díaz

The clearest Cuban witch panic erupted after the disappearance and killing of Zoila Díaz, a 20-month-old white girl, near Havana in November 1904. Newspapers quickly circulated rumours that Black religious practitioners had killed children to obtain organs or blood for charms and healing. At the time those claims first appeared, investigators had produced no concrete evidence that Zoila’s disappearance was connected to such a ritual. Yet the rumour supplied a ready-made explanation and directed suspicion towards practitioners of African-derived religions.[Semantic Scholar]pdfs.semanticscholar.orgSemantic Scholar

This was not simply fear of an unknown murderer. It drew upon the racial order inherited from slavery and colonial rule. The young Cuban republic officially promised religious liberty, but many officials, journalists and educated reformers continued to classify African-derived worship as backward superstition or criminal “witchcraft”. Practices that would now be distinguished as different religious and healing traditions were often collapsed into one hostile category. Police raids, newspaper descriptions of religious objects and expert claims about “primitive” belief could therefore make ordinary practitioners appear connected to extraordinary crimes.[semanticscholar.org]pdfs.semanticscholar.orgSemantic ScholarSemantic Scholar

Domingo Bocourt and Víctor Molina were convicted and executed in January 1906 for allegedly murdering Zoila for ritual purposes. Other defendants received prison sentences, while seven Afro-Cuban defendants were acquitted. That mixed outcome is important. The proceedings were deeply shaped by racial prejudice and sensational reporting, but the courts did not formally declare Afro-Cuban religion itself illegal or automatically convict everyone identified as a practitioner. The case instead shows how prejudice could structure an investigation, define what counted as suspicious and make religious identity appear to be evidence of motive.[Semantic Scholar]pdfs.semanticscholar.orgSemantic Scholar

The panic also outgrew the individual trial. Historian Stephan Palmié describes the Zoila case as the centre of a wider outburst of racial fear in which Black practitioners were imagined as secret child-killers and enemies of modern Cuban civilisation. Similar accusations persisted into the following decades, at times producing arrests, prosecution and mob violence. A broader Caribbean history mattered too: scholars have traced the early twentieth-century image of ritual child murder through transnational newspaper reporting rather than treating it as a straightforward survival of an ancient African custom.[researchgate.net]researchgate.netSorcery in the Black AtlanticSorcery in the Black AtlanticNovember 12, 2012 — example, in Cuba, in the postemancipation era, several cases of child death…Published: November 12, 2012

Religion, crime and hostile labelling

Modern readers should be cautious with the word “cult” here. Cuban traditions such as Santería developed through the interaction of Yoruba-derived worship, Catholicism, spirit mediumship and local practice. They include organised priesthoods, initiation, divination, healing and household devotion. Calling all of this “witchcraft” reproduces the language of hostile newspapers and officials rather than neutrally describing the religions involved.[OpenEdition Journals]journals.openedition.orgOpenEdition JournalsEthnography and Religious Anthropology of CubaThis moment also coincided with the death of Fernando Ortiz (1881-1969)…

That does not mean every defendant was necessarily innocent of every criminal allegation, or that religious freedom should shield acts of violence. The historical problem is different: authorities often allowed rumours about Black religion to do evidential work that should have been done by forensic investigation. The surviving legal record includes acquittals as well as convictions, revealing that some judges rejected accusations when proof was inadequate. Religious freedom therefore operated unevenly, often as an accidental result of evidential failure rather than as a clear judicial defence of Afro-Cuban worship.[Semantic Scholar]pdfs.semanticscholar.orgSemantic Scholar

The Zoila Díaz affair remains culturally important because it helped fix a durable stereotype: the idea that Afro-Cuban ritual necessarily concealed savagery, human sacrifice or criminal conspiracy. That stereotype later travelled beyond Cuba and repeatedly resurfaced in sensational coverage of African-diaspora religions. The case is therefore best understood as both a murder investigation and a racialised moral panic, not as proof that a murderous religious movement operated across the island.

Operation Pedro Pan and the fear of losing one’s children

Between December 1960 and October 1962, more than 14,000 unaccompanied Cuban minors travelled to the United States through the programme commonly known as Operation Pedro Pan. Many parents believed that the revolutionary government intended to abolish their legal authority over their children, take control of their upbringing and subject them to communist indoctrination. A fabricated law circulated in Cuba claiming that parental authority would be transferred to the state. No such law was enacted.[miami.edu]ctda.library.miami.eduOpen source on miami.edu.

The story spread because it attached itself to real and alarming changes. The revolutionary government nationalised private schools, expanded political education, mobilised young people through literacy and agricultural programmes and sent some students to Soviet-bloc countries. Relations with the Catholic hierarchy deteriorated sharply, while arrests, political violence, the failed Bay of Pigs invasion and the departure or expulsion of clergy heightened the sense that family life was being pulled into a national struggle. For parents already considering exile, the false document looked plausible because parts of the surrounding world were genuinely changing at great speed.[miami.edu]ctda.library.miami.eduOpen source on miami.edu.

Underground opponents of the government distributed leaflets warning of the supposed law, and anti-Castro broadcasting reinforced stories that children would be removed, sent away or ideologically remade. Catholic networks in Cuba and the United States helped parents arrange travel, while the US government provided immigration waivers and financial support. The result was not merely a rumour but an institutionally enabled migration system capable of turning fear into immediate action.[miami.edu]ctda.library.miami.eduOpen source on miami.edu.

Calling this episode a simple hoax, however, can flatten the experience of the families. Parents were not reacting to a fictional political setting. They faced a revolutionary state restructuring schools and civic life, an escalating confrontation with the United States and uncertainty over whether normal travel would remain possible. Some believed separation would last only months. The suspension of direct flights during the Cuban missile crisis instead left many children apart from their parents for years, while others entered foster care, orphanages or group homes.[miami.edu]ctda.library.miami.eduOpen source on miami.edu.

Operation Pedro Pan is therefore a powerful example of a rumour panic whose central claim was false but whose consequences were entirely real. It also illustrates why fact-checking alone rarely stops a fear once it has become emotionally and politically useful. The fabricated law confirmed existing anxieties about communism, religion, education and parental control. Sending a child abroad could then appear not as an extreme response, but as the only responsible act left.

Memory of the episode remains divided. Some former participants remember rescue from political indoctrination and credit their parents with foresight. Others emphasise abandonment, institutional hardship or the lasting trauma of separation. Cuban government accounts often present the operation primarily as US psychological warfare, while exile narratives may minimise the importance of the fabricated law or the harm caused by prolonged separation. A fair account must hold both realities together: revolutionary policy created authentic fear, and organised misinformation sharpened that fear into a specific claim that was untrue.

Havana syndrome: illness, threat perception and uncertainty

In late 2016, US personnel stationed in Havana began reporting sudden and disturbing symptoms, often associated with an unusual sound or a sensation of pressure. Reported problems included head pain, tinnitus, dizziness, visual disturbance, vertigo and cognitive difficulties. Similar reports later emerged in other countries and were officially grouped under the term “anomalous health incidents”. The symptoms experienced by affected people were real; the unresolved question is whether they shared a single cause.[GAO]gao.govgao 24 106593gao 24 106593

Initial public discussion frequently assumed an attack, first described in terms of sound and later linked to theories involving pulsed radiofrequency energy. The setting made such interpretations persuasive. American and Cuban intelligence services had operated against each other for decades, embassy personnel were working in a high-security environment, and the normal secrecy surrounding intelligence investigations meant that rumours could not easily be tested in public. Reports of additional cases then encouraged officials elsewhere to reinterpret headaches, sounds and other unusual experiences through the same threat framework.[The Guardian]theguardian.comThe Guardian Havana syndrome: 'directed' radio frequency likely cause of illnessThe Guardian Havana syndrome: 'directed' radio frequency likely cause of illness

Several researchers have argued that at least some cases are consistent with mass psychogenic illness, in which stress, expectation and social communication produce genuine physical symptoms across a connected group. This explanation does not mean that sufferers invented their illnesses. Psychological and social processes can cause severe bodily symptoms without conscious fabrication. Advocates of this interpretation note the variation among cases, the spread of reports after warnings were circulated and the absence of a consistently demonstrated weapon or exposure.[PMC]pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.govOpen source on nih.gov.

Other specialists object that a purely psychogenic label was applied too quickly and may not account for every patient or clinical finding. Some people reportedly became ill before knowing of other cases, while proposed neurological abnormalities and the abrupt onset described by some patients have continued to prompt investigation into physical causes. Reviews have therefore warned against forcing all reports into a choice between “secret weapon” and “mass hysteria”, since the category may contain several unrelated conditions or a mixture of injury, ordinary illness, environmental factors and expectation.[Scientific American]scientificamerican.comScientific American We Don't Need to Choose between Brain Injury and 'MassScientific American We Don't Need to Choose between Brain Injury and 'Mass

The most recent public US intelligence assessment, released in January 2025, stated that most intelligence agencies still considered it very unlikely that a foreign adversary caused the reported incidents. Their judgement rested on the lack of intelligence linking an adversary to the events, investigation of key cases and doubts about a common weapon or pattern of injury. However, two components altered their positions slightly: one judged there was roughly an even chance that a foreign actor had used a novel device in a small, undetermined subset of cases, while another judged there was a roughly even chance that such a capability had been developed. Both judgements carried low confidence.[Director of National Intelligence]dni.govDirector of National Intelligence

This leaves Havana syndrome neither solved nor validated as a single hostile campaign. It is better understood as a contested medical and security category. The label grouped together people with overlapping symptoms before a common cause had been demonstrated. Once the category acquired an evocative name and an implied enemy, it shaped clinical reporting, diplomatic policy, press coverage and personal expectations.

The practical harm extended beyond the debate over causation. The United States reduced its embassy presence in Havana, issued travel warnings and devoted substantial resources to investigation and medical care. Patients also reported difficulty obtaining consistent treatment and navigating government systems, prompting the US Government Accountability Office to call for clearer communication and better monitoring of care arrangements. Whatever ultimately caused individual cases, institutional uncertainty compounded the distress of those affected.[GAO]gao.govgao 24 106593gao 24 106593

How fear became credible in Cuba

These three episodes arose in different periods and involved different populations, but they share several mechanisms.

A frightening claim fitted an existing conflict. Stories of ritual murder drew power from racism and fear of African-derived religion. The parental-authority rumour fitted the visible revolutionary takeover of education. The attack theory surrounding anomalous health incidents fitted the long history of US–Cuban espionage.

Institutions amplified rather than merely observed the fear. Newspapers spread unverified claims about religious practitioners; underground political networks and radio broadcasts circulated the false parental law; government briefings and media reports transformed a small cluster of unexplained illnesses into an international security category.

Ambiguity favoured dramatic explanations. A missing child, a rapidly changing legal order or an illness without a clear diagnosis creates an uncomfortable gap. Stories involving secret ritualists, communist seizure of children or invisible weapons offer a definite agent and motive. Their emotional clarity can make them more persuasive than a cautious statement that the evidence remains incomplete.

Real harms did not require the central story to be true. Afro-Cuban practitioners were arrested and stigmatised. Children were separated from parents. Diplomats and their families suffered disabling symptoms and disrupted careers. Calling an episode a moral panic, rumour panic or possible psychogenic outbreak should never be used to dismiss those consequences.

What Cuba’s panic history does not prove

Cuba should not be portrayed as unusually susceptible to superstition or collective irrationality. Comparable stories of ritual murder, communist child seizure and mysterious enemy weapons have circulated across many societies. Cuba’s significance lies in the unusually sharp intersections of race, religion, revolution, migration and international confrontation.

Nor should every Cuban religious movement be squeezed into the category of a “cult”. Afro-Cuban religions survived slavery, official discrimination and periods of revolutionary hostility; they are broad, internally diverse traditions rather than secret criminal organisations. Cuba’s government moved from officially atheist policies towards a formally secular constitutional position in 1992, and public religious life has since become more visible, although independent religious activity can still face political and administrative restrictions.[harvard.edu]dash.harvard.eduOpen source on harvard.edu.

The larger lesson is that collective fear seldom begins from nothing. It grows where genuine uncertainty meets a story already prepared by history. In Cuba, accusations of Black “witchcraft” drew on slavery and racial hierarchy; the Pedro Pan rumour drew on revolutionary upheaval and Cold War propaganda; Havana syndrome drew on espionage, illness and institutional secrecy. Understanding those pressures does not excuse misinformation or erase individual responsibility. It explains why particular claims travelled so far, why official denials struggled to contain them and why their consequences endured long after the original moment of panic.

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