When
Christopher Columbus landed in Cuba on October 24, 1492 he described
it as the "fairest island human eyes have yet beheld." However,
the Spanish had not come for the scenery. When gold was discovered
soon afterwards King Ferdinand of Spain sent an army to take control
of the island. Led by Chief Hatuey the local Indians put up a brave
struggle but the Cubans were soon defeated by the superior weapons
of the Spanish.
Twenty-five years later,
the population of over 1,000,000 Indians had been reduced to only
2,000. Many were murdered, others died of starvation or disease, committed
suicide or had died from the consequences of being forced to work
long hours in the gold-mines.
The Spanish replaced the
Indians with slaves from Africa. When the gold mines were exhausted
the Spanish used slaves to produce cash crops, especially sugar and
tobacco. There were several slave revolts in Cuba but they were defeated
by the descendants of the original Spanish settlers who became known
as Creoles.
The Creoles were forced
to sell their produce for low prices to Spain. They objected to this
system and became involved in a war to obtain their independence.
By 1898 the Cubans were on the verge of defeating the Spanish when
troops from the United States arrived to quell the revolt.
The United States had
originally tried to buy the island from Spain in 1853 for $130 million.
After putting down the
Cuban revolt, the United States was in a position to force Cuba to
sell their sugar and tobacco to them instead of to Spain. As the Spanish
had done previously, the United States forced the Cubans to sell raw
materials for low prices. They also made sure that Cuba bought their
manufactured goods, and by 1914 an estimated 74 per cent of all imports
came from the United States. Much of Cuban industry was now owned
by United States companies including the railways, telephones and
tobacco plantations, as was two-thirds of all arable land. The United
States also took control of Guantanamo Bay. As well as providing an
important base for the US Navy, Guantanamo also had two airstrips
and a Marine Garrison.
The Cubans were also forced
to sign what became known as the Platt Agreement. This agreement gave
the United States the right to send troops to the island if they disagreed
with the way that the country was being run. This meant that no Cuban
government could be elected unless they were willing to implement
policies favourable to the United States. In return for their cooperation,
government ministers in Cuba received payments from United States
businessmen. Elections in Cuba were usually rigged and the victors
were rarely popular with the Cuban people.
Just ninety miles off
the Florida coast, Cuba became a holiday island for rich Americans.
It was a place where they could enjoy pleasures that were illegal
in many states in North America. These included drinking, gambling
and prostitution. Large profits could be made from these activities
and it was not long before they were under the control of the Mafia.
In 1947 Fidel
Castro joined
the Cuban People's Party. He was attracted to this new party's campaign
against corruption, injustice, poverty, unemployment and low wages.
The Cuban People's Party accused government ministers of taking bribes
and running the country for the benefit of the large United
States corporations that had factories and offices in Cuba.
In 1952 Castro became
a candidate for Congress for the Cuban People's Party. He was a superb
public speaker and soon built up a strong following amongst the young
members of the party. The Cuban People's Party was expected to win
the election but during the campaign. General Fulgencio
Batista, with the support of the armed forces, took control of
the country.
Castro came to the conclusion
that revolution was the only way that the Cuban People's Party would
gain power. In 1953, Castro, with an armed group of 123 men and women,
attacked the Moncada army barracks. The plan to overthrow Batista
ended in disaster and although only eight were killed in the fighting,
another eighty were murdered by the army after they were captured.
Castro was lucky that the lieutenant who arrested him ignored orders
to have him executed and instead delivered him to the nearest civilian
prison.
Castro also came close
to death in prison. Captain Pelletier was instructed to put poison
in Castro's food. The man refused and instead revealed his orders
to the Cuban people. Pelletier was court-martialed but, concerned
about world opinion, Batista decided not to have Castro killed.
Fidel
Castro was put
on trial charged with organising an armed uprising. He used this opportunity
to make a speech about the problems of Cuba
and how they could be solved. His speech later became a book entitled
History Will Absolve Me. Castro
was found guilty and sentenced to fifteen years in prison. The trial
and the publication of the book made Castro famous in Cuba. His attempted
revolution had considerable support in the country. After all, the
party he represented would probably have won the election in 1952
had it been allowed to take place. Following considerable pressure
from the Cuban population, Batista decided to release Castro after
he had served only two years of his sentence. Batista also promised
elections but when it became clear that they would not take place,
Castro left for Mexico where he began to plan another attempt to overthrow
the Cuban government.
After building up a stock
of guns and ammunition, Fidel
Castro, Che
Guevara
and eighty other rebels arrived in Cuba in 1956. This group became
known as the July 26 Movement (the date that Castro had attacked the
Moncada barracks). Their plan was to set up their base in the Sierra
Maestra mountains. On the way to the mountains they were attacked
by government troops. By the time they reached the Sierra Maestra
there were only sixteen men left with twelve weapons between them.
For the next few months Castro's guerrilla army raided isolated army
garrisons and were gradually able to build-up their stock of weapons.
When Castro's guerrillas
took control of territory they redistributed the land amongst the
peasants. In return, the peasants helped the guerrillas against Batista's
soldiers. In some cases the peasants also joined Castro's army, as
did students from the cities and occasionally Catholic priests.
In an effort to find out
information about Castro's army people were pulled in for questioning.
Many innocent people were tortured. Suspects, including children,
were publicly executed and then left hanging in the streets for several
days as a warning to others who were considering joining Castro. The
behaviour of Batista's forces increased support for the guerrillas.
In 1958 forty-five organizations signed an open letter supporting
the July 26 Movement. National bodies representing lawyers, architects,
dentists, accountants and social workers were amongst those who signed.
Castro, who had originally relied on the support of the poor, was
now gaining the backing of the influential middle classes.
Fulgencio
Batista responded to this by sending more troops to the Sierra
Maestra. He now had 10,000 men hunting for Castro and his 300-strong
army. Although outnumbered, Castro's guerrillas were able to inflict
defeat after defeat on the government's troops. In the summer of 1958
over a thousand of Batista's soldiers were killed or wounded and many
more were captured.
Unlike Batista's soldiers, Castro's troops had developed a reputation
for behaving well towards prisoners. This encouraged Batista's troops
to surrender to Castro when things went badly in battle. Complete
military units began to join the guerrillas.
The United States supplied
Batista with planes, ships and tanks, but the advantage of using the
latest technology such as napalm failed
to win them victory against the guerrillas. In March 1958, the United
States government, disillusioned with Batista's performance, suggested
he held elections. This he did, but the people showed their dissatisfaction
with his government by refusing to vote. Over 75 per cent of the voters
in the capital Havana boycotted the polls. In some areas, such as
Santiago, it was as high as 98 per cent.
Castro was now confident
he could beat Batista in a head-on battle. Leaving the Sierra Maestra
mountains, Castro's troops began to march on the main towns. After
consultations with the United States government, Batista decided to
flee Cuba. Senior Generals left behind attempted to set up another
military government. Castro's reaction was to call for a general strike.
The workers came out on strike and the military were forced to accept
the people's desire for change. Castro marched into Havana on January
9,1959, and became Cuba's new leader.
In its first hundred days
in office Castro's government passed several new laws. Rents were
cut by up to 50 per cent for low wage earners; property owned by Batista
and his ministers was confiscated; the telephone company was nationalized
and the rates were reduced by 50 per cent; land was redistributed
amongst the peasants (including the land owned by the Castro family);
separate facilities for blacks and whites (swimming pools, beaches,
hotels, cemeteries etc.) were abolished.
Castro had strong views
on morality. He considered that alcohol, drugs, gambling, homosexuality
and prostitution were major evils. He saw the casinos and night-clubs
as sources of temptation and corruption and he passed laws closing
them down. Members of the Mafia, who had been heavily involved in
running these places, were forced to leave the country.
Castro believed strongly
in education. Before the revolution 23.6 per cent of the Cuban population
were illiterate. In rural areas over half the population could not
read or write and 61 per cent of the children did not go to school.
Castro asked young students in the cities to travel to the countryside
and teach the people to read and write. Cuba adopted the slogan: "If
you don't know, learn. If you know, teach." Eventually free education
was made available to all citizens and illiteracy in Cuba became a
thing of the past.
The new Cuban government
also set about the problem of health care. Before the revolution Cuba
had 6,000 doctors. Of these, 64 per cent worked in Havana where most
of the rich people lived. When Castro ordered that doctors had to
be redistributed throughout the country, over half decided to leave
Cuba. To replace them Cuba built three new training schools for doctors.
The death of young children
from disease was a major problem in Cuba. Infant mortality was 60
per 1,000 live births in 1959. To help deal with this Cuba introduced
a free health-service and started a massive inoculation program. By
1980 infant mortality had fallen to 15 per 1,000. This figure is now
the best in the developing world and is in fact better than many areas
of the United States.
It has been estimated that
in his seven-year reign, Batista's regime had murdered over 20,000
Cubans. Those involved in the murders had not expected to lose power
and had kept records, including photographs of the people they had
tortured and murdered. Castro established public tribunals to try
the people responsible and an estimated 600 people were executed.
Although this pleased the relatives of the people murdered by Batista's
government, these executions shocked world opinion.
Some of Castro's new laws
also upset the United States. Much of the land given to the peasants
was owned by corporations in the United States. So also was the telephone
company that was nationalized. The United States government responded
by telling Castro they would no longer be willing to supply the technology
and technicians needed to run Cuba's economy. When this failed to
change Castro's policies they reduced their orders for Cuban sugar.
Castro refused to be intimidated
by the United States and adopted even more aggressive policies towards
them. In the summer of 1960 Castro nationalised United States property
worth $850 million. He also negotiated a deal where by the Soviet
Union and other communist countries in Eastern Europe agreed to
purchase the sugar that the United States had refused to take. The
Soviet Union also agreed to supply the weapons, technicians and machinery
denied to Cuba by the United States.
President Dwight
Eisenhower was
in a difficult situation. The more he attempted to punish Fidel
Castro the closer
he became to the Soviet Union. His main fear was that Cuba could eventually
become a Soviet military base. To change course and attempt to win
Castro's friendship with favourable trade deals was likely to be interpreted
as a humiliating defeat for the United States. Instead Eisenhower
announced that he would not buy any more sugar from Cuba. In 1960
Eisenhower retired and the problem of dealing with Castro was passed
on to the new president, John
F. Kennedy.
In the three years that
followed the revolution, 250,000 Cubans out of a population of six
million left the country. Most of these were from the upper and middle-classes
who were financially worse off as a result of Castro's policies.
Of those who stayed, 90
per cent of the population, according to public opinion polls, supported
Castro. However, Castro did not keep his promise of holding free elections.
Castro claimed the national unity that had been created would be destroyed
by the competing political parties in an election.
Castro was also becoming
less tolerant towards people who disagreed with him. Ministers who
questioned the wisdom of his policies were sacked and replaced by
people who had proved their loyalty to him. These people were often
young, inexperienced politicians who had fought with him in the Sierra
Maestra.
Politicians who publicly
disagreed with him faced the possibility of being arrested. Writers
who expressed dissenting views and people he considered deviants such
as homosexuals were also imprisoned.
In March I960, President
Dwight
Eisenhower of
the United States approved a CIA plan to
overthrow Castro. The plan involved a budget of $13 million to train
"a paramilitary force outside Cuba for guerrilla action."
Over 400 CIA officers were employed full-time to carry out what became
known as Operation Mongoose.
The CIA Technical Services
Division was asked to come up with proposals that would undermine
Castro's popularity with the Cuban people. Plans included a scheme
to spray a television studio in which he was about to appear with
an
hallucinogenic drug and contaminating his shoes with thallium which
they believed would cause the hair in his beard to fall out.
These schemes were rejected
and instead the CIA decided to arrange the assassination of Castro.
It is claimed that there were twenty ClA-sponsered attempts on his
life. Later, the CIA offered the Mafia $150,000 plus expenses to kill
Castro. The Mafia, who had experience of this kind of work and who
were keen to restore their profitable gambling and prostitution operations
in Cuba, accepted the offer but, like the CIA, they failed in their
attempts to kill Castro.
When John
F. Kennedy replaced
Dwight
Eisenhower as
president of the United States he was told about
the CIA plan to invade Cuba. Kennedy had doubts about the venture
but he was afraid he would be seen as soft on communism if he refused
permission for it to go ahead. Kennedy's advisers convinced him that
Castro was an unpopular leader and that once the invasion started
the Cuban people would support the ClA-trained forces.
On April 14, 1961, B-26
planes began bombing Cuba's airfields. After the raids Cuba was left
with only eight planes
and seven pilots. Two days later five merchant ships carrying 1,400
Cuban exiles arrived at the Bay
of Pigs. The attack was a total failure. Two of the ships
were sunk, including the ship that was carrying most of the supplies.
Two of the planes that were attempting to give air-cover were also
shot down. Within seventy-two hours all the invading troops had been
killed, wounded or had surrendered.
At the beginning of September
1962, U-2 spy planes discovered that the Soviet Union was building
surface-to-air missile (SAM) launch sites. There was also an increase
in the number of Soviet ships arriving in Cuba
which the United States government feared were carrying new supplies
of weapons. President Kennedy complained to the Soviet Union about
these developments and warned them that the United States would not
accept offensive weapons (SAMs were considered to be defensive) in
Cuba.
As the Cubans now had
SAM installations they were in a position to shoot down U-2 spy-planes.
Kennedy was in a difficult situation. Elections were to take place
for the United States Congress in two month's time. The public opinion
polls showed that his own ratings had fallen to their lowest point
since he became president.
In his first two years
of office a combination of Republicans and conservative southern Democrats
in Congress had blocked much of Kennedy's proposed legislation. The
polls suggested that after the elections he would have even less support
in Congress. Kennedy feared that any trouble over Cuba would lose
the Democratic
Party even more votes,
as it would remind voters
of the Bay
of Pigs disaster.
One poll showed that over 62 per cent of the population were unhappy
with his policies on Cuba. Understandably, the Republicans
attempted to make Cuba the main issue in the campaign.
This was probably in Kennedy's
mind when he decided to restrict the flights of the U-2 planes over
Cuba . Pilots were also told to avoid flying
the whole length of the island. Kennedy hoped this would ensure that
a U-2 plane would not be shot down, and would prevent Cuba becoming
a major issue during the election campaign.
On 27th September, a CIA
agent in Cuba overheard Castro's personal pilot tell another man in
a bar that Cuba now had nuclear weapons. U-2 spy-plane photographs
also showed that unusual activity was taking place at San Cristobal.
However, it was not until the 15th October that photographs were taken
that revealed that the Soviet Union was
placing long range missiles in Cuba.
President Kennedy's first
reaction to the information about the missiles
in Cuba was to call a meeting to discuss what should be
done. Fourteen men attended the meeting and included military
leaders, experts on Latin America, representatives of the
CIA, cabinet ministers and personal friends whose advice Kennedy
valued. This group became known as the Executive Committee
of the National Security Council. Over the next few days
they were to meet several times.
At the first meeting of
the Executive Committee of the National Security Council, the CIA
and other military advisers explained the situation. After hearing
what they had to say, the general feeling of the meeting was for an
air-attack on the missile sites. Remembering the poor advice the CIA
had provided before the Bay
of Pigs invasion, John
F. Kennedy decided
to wait and instead called for another meeting to take place that
evening. By this time several of the men were having doubts about
the wisdom of a bombing raid, fearing that it would lead to a nuclear
war with the Soviet Union. The committee was now so divided that a
firm decision could not be made.
The Executive Committee
of the National Security Council argued amongst themselves for the
next two days. The CIA and the military were still in favour of a
bombing raid and/or an invasion. However, the majority of the committee
gradually began to favour a naval blockade of Cuba.
Kennedy accepted their
decision and instructed Theodore Sorensen, a member of the committee,
to write a speech in which Kennedy would explain to the world why
it was necessary to impose a naval blockade of Cuba.
As well as imposing a naval
blockade, Kennedy also told the air-force to prepare for attacks on
Cuba and the Soviet Union. The army positioned 125,000 men in Florida
and was told to wait for orders to invade Cuba. If the Soviet ships
carrying weapons for Cuba did not turn back or refused to be searched,
a war was likely to begin. Kennedy also promised his military advisers
that if one of the U-2 spy planes were fired upon he would give orders
for an attack on the Cuban SAM missile sites.
The world waited anxiously.
A public opinion poll in the United States revealed that three out
of five people expected fighting to break out between the two sides.
There were angry demonstrations outside the American Embassy in London
as people protested about the possibility of nuclear war. Demonstrations
also took place in other cities in Europe. However, in the United
States, polls suggested that the vast majority supported Kennedy's
action.
On October 24, President
John
F. Kennedy was
informed that Soviet ships had stopped just before they reached the
United States ships blockading Cuba. That evening Nikita
Khrushchev sent an angry note to Kennedy accusing him of
creating a crisis to help the Democratic
Party win the forthcoming election.
On October 26, Khrushchev
sent Kennedy another letter. In this he proposed that the Soviet Union
would be willing to
remove the missiles in exchange for a promise by the United States
that they would not invade Cuba. The next day a second letter from
Khrushchev arrived demanding that the United States remove their nuclear
bases in Turkey.
While the president and
his advisers were analyzing Khrushchev's two letters, news came through
that a U-2 plane had been shot down over Cuba. The leaders of the
military, reminding Kennedy of the promise he had made, argued that
he should now give orders for the bombing of Cuba. Kennedy refused
and instead sent a letter to Khrushchev accepting the terms of his
first letter.
Khrushchev agreed and
gave orders for the missiles to be dismantled. Eight days later the
elections for Congress took place. The Democrats increased their majority
and it was estimated that Kennedy would now have an extra twelve supporters
in Congress for his policies.
The Cuban
Missile Crisis was the first and only nuclear confrontation
between the United States and the Soviet Union. The event appeared
to frighten both sides and it marked a change in the development of
the Cold War.
Castro remained dependent
on the support of the Soviet Union. Nikita
Khrushchev was ousted from power on 15th October, 1964,
but his successors, including Leonid
Brezhnev, Yuri
Andropov, Konstantin Chernenko
and Mikhail
Gorbachev provided
aid to his government. However, after the fall of communism in the
Soviet Union in 1989 this economic help came to an end.
In 1991 Cuba
suffered an economic crisis. Its outdated and unrepaired equipment
meant that sugar and tobacco production fell. At the same time Cuba
could no longer rely on former countries in Eastern Europe to buy
its goods. Fidel
Castro suffered
great embarrassment when his own daughter sough asylum in the United
States in 1994.
Classroom
Activities
Cuban
Missile Crisis
(A1)
In 1977 the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party produced
a book on the history of Cuba.
US investment in Cuba, totalling 50 million dollars in 1896, went
up to 160 million in 1906, to 205 million in 1911, and 1.2 billion
in 1923, which included the ownership of three-quarters of the sugar
industry. The corrupt governments and the repeated Yankee interventions
in the first few decades of the neo-colonialised republic did their
job of handing over the country's wealth to foreign masters.
(A2)
David Detzer, an American journalist, visited Cuba in the 1950s.
Brothels flourished. A major industry grew up around them: Government
officials received bribes, policemen collected protection money. Prostitutes
could be seen standing in doorways, strolling the streets, or leaning
from windows... One report estimated that 11,500 of them worked their
trade in Havana... Beyond the outskirts of the capital, beyond the
slot machines, was one of the poorest - and most beautiful - countries
in the Western world.
(A3)
Senator William
Fulbright of Arkansas made a speech
in Congress on United States policy in Latin America.
Most Latin Americans have seen their neighbour to the north (the United
States) growing richer; they have seen the elite elements in their
own societies growing richer - but the man in the street or on the
land in Latin America today still lives the hand-to-mouth existence
of his great, great grandfather... They are less and less happy with
situations in which, to cite one example, 40 per cent of the land
is owned by 1 per cent of the people, and in which, typically, a very
thin upper crust lives in grandeur while most others live in squalor.
(A4)
Earl Smith was the American Ambassador in Cuba (1957-1959).
The United States... was so overwhelmingly influential in Cuba that...
the American Ambassador was the second most important man in Cuba;
sometimes even more important than the President (of Cuba).
(A5)
In 1953, Fidel Castro, a young politician, complained about Cuba's
economic relationship with the United States.
With the exception of a few food, lumber and textile industries, Cuba
continues to be a producer of raw materials. We export sugar to import
candy, we export hides to import shoes, we export iron to import ploughs.
(A6)
Arthur Schlesinger, was asked by the United States government to write
a report on Batista's Cuba.
The corruption of the Government, the brutality of the police, the
regime's indifference to the needs of the people for education, medical
care, housing, for social justice and economic justice... is an open
invitation to revolution.
(A7)
Che
Guevara, The Cuban Economy,
International Affairs (October, 1964)
Sugar cane has been part
of the Cuban picture since the sixteenth century.
It was brought to the island only a few years after the discovery
of America; however, the slave system of exploitation kept cultivation
on a subsistence level. Only with the technological innovations
which converted the sugar mill into a factory, with the introduction
of the railway and the abolition of slavery, did the production
of sugar begin to show a considerable growth, and one which
assumed extraordinary proportions under Yankee auspices.
The natural advantages
of the cultivation of sugar in Cuba are obvious,
but the predominant fact is that Cuba was developed as a sugar
factory of the United States.
North American banks and
capitalists soon controlled the commercial exploitation of sugar and,
furthermore, a good share of the industrial output of the land. In
this way, a monopolistic control was established by U.S. interests
in all aspects of a sugar production, which soon became the predominant
factor in our foreign trade due to the rapidly developing monoproductive
characteristics of the country.
Cuba became the sugar-producing
and -exporting country par excellence; and if she did not develop
even further in this respect, the reason is to be found in the capitalist
contradictions which put a limit to a continuous expansion of the
Cuban sugar industry, which depended almost entirely on North American
capital.
The North American government
used the quota system on imports of Cuban sugar not only to protect
her own sugar industry, as demanded by her own producers, but also
to make possible the unrestricted introduction into our country of
North American manufactured goods. The preferential treaties of the
beginning of the century gave North American products imported into
Cuba a tariff advantage
of 20 percent over the most favored of the nations with whom
Cuba might sign trade agreements. Under these conditions of competition,
and in view of the proximity of the United States, it became
almost impossible for any foreign country to compete with North
American manufactured goods.
The US quota system meant
stagnation for our sugar production. During
the last years the Cuban productive capacity was rarely utilized
to the full, but the preferential treatment given to Cuban sugar
by the quota also meant that no other export crops could compete
with it on an economic basis.
Consequently, the only
two activities of our agriculture were cultivation of sugar cane and
the breeding of low-quality cattle on pastures which at the same time
served as reserve areas for the sugar plantation owners.
Unemployment became a
constant feature of life in rural areas, resulting in the migration
of agricultural workers to the cities. But industry did not develop
either, only some public service undertakings under Yankee auspices
(transportation, communications, electrical energy).
(A8)
Che
Guevara, speech (17th October, 1959)
Our universities produced
lawyers and doctors for the old social system, but did not create
enough agricultural extension teachers, agronomists, chemists, or
physicists. In fact, we do not even have mathematicians. Consequently
we have had to innovate.
In many cases our universities
do not even offer the required resources.
On a few occasions a very small number of students go into
such fields. We have found a technological vacuum because there was
no planning, no direction on the part of the state that considered
the needs of our society.
We believe that the state
is capable of understanding the needs of the nation; as such, then,
the state must participate in the administration and direction of
the university. Many people oppose this vehemently. Many consider
it a destruction of university autonomy.
This is a mistaken attitude.
The university cannot be an ivory tower, far away from the society,
removed from the practical accomplishments of the Revolution. If such
an attitude is maintained, the university will continue giving our
society lawyers that we do not need.
There are two possible
paths that the university can take. A number of students denounce
state intervention and the loss of university autonomy. This student
sector reflects its class background while forgetting its revolutionary
obligation. This sector has not realized that it has an obligation
to workers and peasants. Our workers and peasants died beside the
students in order to attain power.
It is dangerous to maintain
this attitude. The fact is that larger questions are involved here.
Great strategic links are being developed abroad to destroy our Revolution.
Those forces are trying to attract all those who have been hurt by
the Revolution. We do not refer to the embezzlers, criminals, or the
members of the old government; we are thinking of those who have remained
on the margin of this revolutionary process, those who have lost economically
but support the Revolution in a limited way.
All these people are dispersed
throughout different social classes. Today they can express their
discontent with freedom. National and international reactionaries
want to strengthen their forces by attracting these people and making
a front to bring economic depression, an invasion, or who knows what.
The issue of autonomy
which is being fought so furiously is creating the very conditions
that we should avoid. Those are the conditions that reactionaries
can use effectively against the Revolution. The university, vanguard
of our struggling people, cannot become a backward element, but it
would become so if the university did not incorporate itself into
the great plans of the Revolution.
(A9)
Alistair
Cooke, Castro
in Control of Cuba, Manchester Guardian
(3rd January, 1959)
All of Cuba to-day was
under the precarious control of Fidel Castro, the 31-year-old rebel
whom the Batista Government pictured to its graceless end as a ragamuffin
hiding in the scrub hills of Oriente Province.
Castro to-day chose his
birthplace, Santiago de Cuba, as provisional capital until such time
as he could safely install in the Presidential palace at Havana the
man he has proclaimed provisional President. He is Manuel Urrutia
Lleo, a 58-year-old judge unknown to fame until, after 31 years on
the bench, he faced last year 150 youths charged with inciting to
revolt. He set them free on the brave principle that the Batista Government
had left Cubans no other means to defend their constitutional rights.
He became a revolutionary hero and today he has his reward. His first
act was to declare a general strike so as to curb the rioting and
to demonstrate, through the patrols of the revolutionary militia,
that Castro is indeed the Government in fact.
The Batista Government
and most of its lackeys are already in the United States or in one
of several Caribbean havens. A plane load of 92 of them landed at
Idlewild last night and a Cuban merchant ship sailed for the Dominican
Republic, where Batista is safe in the embrace of his former ward
and enemy, the dictator Trujillo.
The last act of Batista's
abortive junta was to tell the Government troops to lay down their
arms. They appear to have done so, but Castro broadcast to-day an
order to his forces everywhere to go armed and fire on sight at all
looters, agitators, and pockets of resistance.
Most Cubans, and certainly
the onlooking dictators of Nicaragua, Paraguay, Haiti and the Dominican
Republic, find it hard to believe that Batista's domain could be conquered
by an angry, though wealthy young man, whose first putsch against
the island on December 1, 1956, left him with only twelve of the original
force of 93 men.
Castro may doubt it too,
but he is taking no chances. The mob, which yesterday tooted and rejoiced
through the streets, betrayed him in an outbreak of pillage and rioting.
This morning the streets of Havana were reported to be empty, except
for the Castro patrols, cruising in the cars that were chasing them
only two days ago.
But by midday a radio dispatch
said that the city was taking on again "a dangerously lively
air." Units of rebel militia were ordered to the Manzana de Gomez
block of buildings, where groups of followers of Senator Rolando Masferrer,
a leading Batista supporter, were hiding. Fighting went on for two
hours, watched by crowds of spectators.
To-day in Ciudad Trujillo,
Batista admitted the absurdity of his rout by an amateur but said
that the first men sent to wipe out the rebels were "soldiers
of the rural guard who were not prepared for guerrilla warfare. When
the rebels extended their operations and met the army in open battle
they were well armed and their weapons were superior to ours."
The last excuse is doubted
by Latin American experts and business men who say that up to the
end Batista was receiving planes and arms from Big Powers. What doomed
him, they agree, was the treachery of his own leaders, widespread
desertions in the Army, and the final dash for safety of men bound
to him only by bribery.
Late this afternoon one
of Castro's lieutenants took over the Havana remnants of this faithless
army and passed the cue to Castro to begin his triumphal entry into
the capital city. If he subdues it without much bloodshed he must
quickly repair the heavy damage to the railroads, highways, and sugar
farms in three provinces, set the economy flowing again, and keep
the people quiet until he can arrange free elections.
Then he must answer the
question that confronts all resting heroes who have raised their flags
in the capital and put the tyrants to flight: how free dare the elections
be? Castro has advertised an elaborate and drastic Socialist programme.
He proposes to nationalise all utilities; to give their working land
to tenant farmers, who make up 85 per cent of the farming population;
to distribute to the employees of every business in Cuba 30 per cent
of the profits; to confiscate all the property of "corrupt"
(i.e. former) Government officials; to modernise the island's industries
and begin a huge rural housing and electrification project.
In a country where Army
officers on the winning side instantly inherit palaces, where there
is little experience of parliamentary government, and where the idea
of a loyal Opposition is tantamount to treason, Castro may, like others
before him, come to demand a rubber stamp and permit only token opposition.
At the moment, though,
all is joy and glory. The liberals among the South Americans in the
United Nations are toasting the great day and calculating the present
arithmetic of tyranny in Latin America. The present score seems to
be, as one man put it, "four down and four to go."
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