Editing Operation Peter Pan (section)

=== Parental fears ===
{{See also|Cuban Literacy Campaign}}
By 1960, the Cuban government began reforming education strategies. School children were taught military drills, how to bear arms, and anti-American songs.<ref name=natgeo>{{Cite news|title = Cuba's 'Peter Pans' Remember Childhood Exodus|url = https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/08/150814-cuba-operation-peter-pan-embassy-reopening-Castro/ |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190802115136/https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/08/150814-cuba-operation-peter-pan-embassy-reopening-Castro/ |url-status = dead |archive-date = 2 August 2019 |publisher = National Geographic |access-date = 3 August 2019 | date= 15 August 2015}}</ref> By 1961, the Cuban government would seize control of all private schools.

As a result of the new social order, rumors began to swirl, originating from both inside the United States and other anti-Castro media. Various outlets, including the ''[[Miami Herald]]'' and [[Time (magazine)|''Time Magazine'']], reported that Castro and his followers intended to terminate parental rights, assume custody of all Cuban children, prohibit religion and indoctrinate them into communism.<ref name="Patria">{{cite book |last1=Shnookal |first1=Deborah |chapter=The Patria Potestad Hoax |pages=105–126 |jstor=j.ctv12sdxzr.9 |doi=10.2307/j.ctv12sdxzr.9 |title=Operation Pedro Pan and the Exodus of Cuba's Children |date=2020 |publisher=University of Florida Press |isbn=978-1-68340-155-1 |s2cid=240848874 }}</ref> The CIA-backed [[Radio Swan]] station asserted that the Cuban government was planning to remove children from their parents and send them to the [[Soviet Union]]. These claims lacked evidence, but denials fell on deaf ears.<ref name="Patria"/>

These rumors, combined with the pre-existing worry instilled by the [[Spanish Civil War]] (during which [[Evacuation of children in the Spanish Civil War|children were evacuated to other countries]]), made the ''patria potestad'' hoax impossible to contain. It had already reached the Catholic church and the general public, and opponents of the now openly communist regime who did not migrate during the first wave of the exodus began sending their children off to perceived safety.{{cn|date=May 2023}}