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Secret police force in 1950s Cuba under Fulgencio Batista From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Bureau for the Repression of Communist Activities (Spanish: Buró para Represión de las Actividades Comunistas, BRAC) was the secret police agency that Cuban President Fulgencio Batista maintained in the 1950s, which gained a reputation for brutality in its fight against the 26th of July Movement.[1][2][3][4][5]
The bureau was headed by Mariano Faget, who had first gained fame as a Nazi hunter during Batista's first turn at power, from 1940 to 1944, when he was chief of the Office of Investigation of Enemy Activities (Oficina de Investigación de Actividades Enemigas),[lower-alpha 1] a counter-espionage unit that targeted Nazi and Fascist agents.
On Dec. 7, 1955, BRAC agents fired upon an anti-Batista demonstration held by the Federation of University of Students in Havana. Several demonstrators, including Camilo Cienfuegos, were wounded when the police opened fire on the crowd.[6]
The development of BRAC was aided and encouraged by the CIA starting in 1956.