The Bureau for the Repression of Communist Activities (Spanish; Castilian: 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 (Spanish; Castilian: Oficina de Investigación de Actividades Enemigas), 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.