By Dave Morley (Our Man in Havana)
For many years there have been stories floating about that Cubas President, Fidel Castro, is a proud Land Rover owner. Now Im not going to stand up here and try to tell you Fidel Castro is a good bloke.
But hes not all bad either because, like many of us, he is indeed a Land Rover owner. Many dedicated devotees of Solihulls finest will have spent an occasional sleepless night on the internet perusing anything remotely Land Rover and seen a list of famous Land Rover owners.
The list includes the likes of Sean Connery, Sylvester Stallone, Janet Jackson, Oprah Winfrey and, of course, Fidel Castro.
Partly motivated by the New Zealand band Dragons 1977 hit, Take Me to the April Sun in Cuba, and a desire to debunk the myth surrounding Castros Land Rover ownership, I recently travelled from sunny Australia, to even sunnier Cuba to begin the search for this mythical Land Rover.
The tour guides werent much help, so I went to the blokes who always know whats going on when no-one else does the local taxi drivers. This led to my being promptly deposited on the front steps of the Museum of the Revolution, located in the former offices of deposed President Batista.
The museum covers the period from 1895, when Cuban insurrectos unsuccessfully rose up against their Spanish rulers, through to the late 1980s, when 50,000 Cuban soldiers fought in Angola against the racist apartheid regime.
One interesting display features items from the Bay of Pigs invasion attempt in 1962, by puppets of the Imperialist Yankee Aggressors.
I struggled a bit with the terminology at first, but as the day wore on, Im pleased to say I started to get into it, Comrades!
All three floors are taken up with very well organised displays of blood-stained uniforms of the martyrs, weapons, photographs, newspaper clippings, wireless sets, flags and much more. Helpfully, everything is labelled in both Spanish and English.
Larger exhibits, such as vehicles, aircraft and a large motor launch, are found across a closed off laneway, at the rear of the museum, in a park area.
Exhibits here include: Parts of a B-26 bomber, shot down during the Bay of Pigs invasion; Parts of a U-2 spy plane shot down during the Cuban Missile Crisis; And the self-propelled, surface-to-air missile launcher that brought it down.
A red Ford delivery van, completely riddled by what appear to be .50 calibre machine gun bullets which indicate there were some contentious issues in Cuba, in the late 1950s.
In behind the red van, and in company with a post-war Jeep and an old Toyota Land Cruiser, I found a long-wheel-base Series I Land Rover; roofless, but bearing a badge on the back, labelling it as a Four Wheel Drive Station Wagon.
The sign in front of the Land Rover informed me the Land Rover was, in fact, used by President Castro as his personal command vehicle during the revolution, in the late 1950s.
Unfortunately, there was little further information available on the sign, and I was unable to find anything in the museum bookshop later, that would give me any details on this particular Land Rover.
The rear seats had been removed, as had the centre front seat. Writing in red paint on the front passenger door (right hand side) indicated this was indeed the Comandantes vehicle. It is painted in battleship grey, as are the two other four-wheel-drive vehicles nearby.
As the photographs show, a number of bullet holes, apparently in rifle calibre, can be seen in the Land Rover, and appear to have been fired from various directions.
I am pleased to report that the myth surrounding Fidel Castros Land Rover ownership has now been unmythed.
As Cuba is now becoming a popular tourist destination, I would highly recommend that visitors set aside a few hours to visit Havanas Museum of the Revolution..:
