New York Times
April 19, 1961.  p. 12.

Havana Normal, Broadcasts Say
But Radio Indicates People Live in Eerie Atmosphere

Special to The New York Times

        MIAMI, Fla., April 18--The people of Havana, isolated since the rebel landings in Cuba yesterday, seem to be living in an eerie, warlike atmosphere in which great pretense is made that everything is normal.
        At dawn yesterday the Government interrupted all telephone and cable communications ot foreign countries and all airline flights were suspended.
        Foreign correspondents in Havana could no longer communicate with the outside and, suddenly, Cuba became an island of mystery to the world anxiously watching events there.
        Most of what is known of developments in Cuba since 4 A.M. yesterday is what the Government-controlled radio stations are allowed to broadcast and what can be heard here of the regime's internal radio communications.
A Strange Combination
        The impression received here from Havana broadcasts adds up to a strange combination of the real and the poignantly unreal.
        Cubans know that the island was attacked yesterday by a rebel force because proclamations issued in the name of Premier Fidel Castro have told them so.
        Late last night a special communiqué spoke tersely of the Government's troop fighting the enemy heroically. But that was the last thing Cubans were told of the attack and its progress.
        The rest of the time, the anxious listeners were treated to patriotic marches incongruously mixed with guarachas and cha-cha-chas and to appeals for blood donations alternating with recorded invitations to spend the evening at the famous La Tropicana nightclub ("now operated by the Revolutionary Government") and the weekend in Havana ("to get acquainted with your capital").
        Today all the Cubans heard about the campaign against the attackers was that the Soviet Union had protested the attack and offered Cuba aid in repulsing it.
        Monotonously Havana radio stations kept repeating in the excited tones of the announcers the texts of the Soviet note on the attack and Premier Khrushchev's message to president Kennedy on the subject.
        The impression given by the Havana radio was that the Soviet Union was poised to come immediately and massively to the aid of Premier Castro.
        Radio Station CMQ, the anchor of the national network of stations that are called to join together several times a day for special programs, devoted this afternoon to usual sequences of soap-opera episodes.
        On and off, Havana radio stations broadcast news items, provided by Dr. Castro's press agency Presna Latina, describing acts of support for Cuba in Latin-American capitals.
        What Cubans actually could see or hear of what is happening in their island was kept away from the outside world. But occasional transmissions by the Government's microwave network, monitored here, conveyed a sense of drama and urgency.
        Operators in Havana and multiple points of Cuba exchanged urgent messages and relayed instructions on movements of tank units, trucks, soldiers and ambulances.
        And, dramatically and suddenly, symbolizing the strife hidden from the world, a woman's voice broke into the Government network three times this afternoon to shout "Down with Fidel Castro! . . . Cuba yes, Russia no!"
        Another feminine voice shot back: "Long live Fidel! . . . Cuba yes, Yankees no!"

Cuba Flier and Family Flee

        KINGSTON, Jamaica, April 18 (AP)--A light plane landed at Montego Bay yesterday with two men, a woman and a child who said they were refugees from Cuba.  The pilot said he was captain in the Cuban Air Force scheduled for duty yesterday who changed his mind, picked up his family and flew to Jamaica. The four had United States visas.