“The man of the two Havana’s”, referring to the Cuban capital and Miami’s “Little Havana” where he resides, is today director of Radio Miami.ġ1 In these conversations, Max Lesnik talks about the history of Cuba, his personal trajectory, his ties with Fidel Castro and the Cuba of today.ġ3 ML: I met Fidel Castro at the University of Havana, at the then Plaza Cadenas, in front of the Law School. His magazine did not survive the intolerance and the last issue came out in 1990, after the abandonment of the main advertising sponsors, also threatened by the viol ent exiles from Florida.ġ0 Max Lesnik was also involved in the rapprochement between the Catholic Church and the Cuban Revolution and in the origin of Pope John Paul II’s historic visit to Cuba in 1998. ![]() In all, he was the target of eleven similar attacks. ![]() Max Lesnik was the victim of a first bomb attack in 1979. The rapprochement with Havana was not to the liking of Miami extremists. He returned to Cuba and saw his friend Fidel Castro again after 17 years. This professional adventure allowed him to acquire great notoriety in the Cuban and Latino community in the United States, as well as a certain economic tranquility.ĩ In the late 1970s, Max Lesnik played an essential role in establishing a dialogue between the Cuban community in the United States and the authorities in Havana. Max Lesnik refused and saved his life thanks to hesitation on the part of the assailants who decided to leave the studio without carrying out their threat.Ĩ In the mid-1960s, Max Lesnik decided to found the tabloid newspaper Réplica, which would become a magazine a few years later with weekly print runs that reached up to 100,000 copies. The next day, he was visited by several armed individuals who coerced him into making a live apology to the audience. When he heard the news, Fidel Castro tried to convince Max Lesnik to return to Cuba through their mutual friend Alfredo Guevara, in vain.ħ In Miami, Lesnik created his radio program in which he denounced the Bay of Pigs invasion of Apand accused the participants of being mercenaries in the pay of a foreign power. But he did not join the ranks of the supporters of the old regime, nor did he accept the perks of the CIA, which sought to recruit political figures from exile in order to organize a movement aimed at overthrowing the Cuban Revolution. In a word, total sovereignty.Ħ In 1961, the situation was critical and Max Lesnik was forced to go into exile in the United States. According to him, Cuba should be independent from Washington and also from Moscow. He opposed the alliance with the Soviet Union. With the installation of the new power, Max Lesnik resumed his work as a journalist, publishing chronicles in Bohemia magazine and hosting a daily program on the National Radio Station.ĥ But Lesnik began to criticize the hegemony of the communists in power. Fidel Castro was also a member of the Orthodoxo Party and even presented his candidacy in the 1952 elections for the Congress of the Republic before Fulgencio Batista’s coup d’état put an end to constitutional legality.ģ Lesnik, like many young Cubans, revolted against the military dictatorship of Batista, supported by the United States and was part of the leadership of the Second Front of the Escambray, led by Eloy Gutiérrez Menoyo in the activity of ideological, political and propaganda work.Ĥ At the triumph of the Revolution, on January 1, 1959, Lesnik was the first revolutionary leader to be interviewed on television by journalist Carlos Lechuga. He frequented the ranks of the Orthodoxo Party founded by Eduardo Chibás, a symbol of the struggle against government corruption, and quickly became the national secretary of the Orthodoxo Youth in the 1950s.Ģ Max Lesnik acquired fame throughout the country and became friends with Fidel Castro, whom he met at the University of Havana. 1 Born in 1930 in Cuba, in the small town of Vueltas, to a Polish Jewish father who fled the anti-Semitic persecution of his country and a Cuban mother, Max Lesnik became involved early, at the age of 15, in political militancy.
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