New York Times
June 11, 1957. pp. 1, 6.
By R. Hart Phillips
Special to The New York
Times
HAVANA, June 10 – Dr. Aureliano Sanchez Arango, one of the most active enemies of President Fulgencio Batista, has been captured in an attempt to land a rebel force on the north coast of Oriente Province, according to reports from Oriente.
The Norwegian ship Belgrano from Puerto Barrios, Guatamala, under Capt. Eric Bettersen, attempted to land Dr. Sanchez Arango and a group of insurgents on the coast about five miles from the port of Sagua de Tanamo, according to the reports. The place was named as Punta Gorda.
A combined forces unit of the Cuban Navy and Army seized the vessel and captured the rebels, the account said.
The Navy’s press chief, a Captain Mohedano, said the ship Belgrano, bound from Guatemala to New York, was in transit in Cuba taking on a cargo of sugar at Bahia Tanamo. He said the ship had not been seized by the Navy. The Belgrano, he went on, carried a considerable quantity of “old weapons” consigned to a company in New York for scrap.
The reports from Oriente said that 100 cases of rifles, eighty-seven small cannon and more than 500,000 rounds of ammunition had been seized in the ship.
Oriente, Cuba’s easternmost province, has been the scene of rebel efforts since December. Dr. Sanchez Arango was Minister of Education and Minister of State in 1948-51 under President Carlos Prio Socarras.
The reported point of disembarkation in the new rebel thrust is near the Nicaro nickel plant owned by the United States Government. It is seven miles from Carbonico bay, where two weeks ago the yacht Corinthia brought twenty-seven insurgents from Miami, Fla. Sixteen of those rebels were killed by the Army, two were captured, three disappeared and the rest escaped into the Sierra Cristal range.
Dr. Sanchez Arango has been considered a top leader of the revolutionary movement against President Batista. He has been reported as conspiring in foreign countries since 1952, when general Batista seized the Government by military coup and deposed President Prio Socarres.
Dr. Sanchez Arango has entered Cuba several times since 1952 and has taken political asylum in foreign embassies twice to avoid capture by the Government authorities.
Earlier today, broadcasting by Radio Reloj, the news and time station of the C.M.Q. network was suspended for twenty-four hours by Ramon Vasconcelos, Minister of Communications.
The Minister ordered the suspension because of a broadcast last week reporting a clash between Government troops and the forces of Fidel Castro, rebel leader, at Caña Brava in Oriente Province.
The report, sent in by one of the station’s reporters from Santiago de Cuba, was denied later by military authorities.
Although there is no legal censorship, the Communications Minister has ordered radio and television stations not to broadcast news of terrorism or violence until based on information from military authorities.
The newly reported resort to military force by political enemies of President Batista represents an extension of tactics on their part.
Previous invasions in recent months have been by revolutionaries and expatriates. The best known and most extensive of these was the landing and subsequent guerrilla warfare in Oriente Province undertaken by the revolutionary group under Fidel Castro. Intermittent fighting has been going on in the Sierra Maestra, and the Batista government has several times announced an “all-out campaign” to wipe out the Castro forces.
Last month Calixto Sanchez, a union leader who had fled Cuba when accused of complicity in an attack on the Presidential Palace in Havana on March 12, was killed with fifteen others who invaded the island May 24.
Political adversaries of the Batista regime had gained some successes in the form of concessions from the Government concerning the timing and rules under which a Presidential election is now scheduled for June 1, 1958.
Meanwhile, within Cuba, terrorist activity of various sorts has reportedly been met by official counter-terrorism.
Ten days ago on appeal by groups and individuals, including Archbishop Enrique Perez Serantes, Roman Catholic leader of the Diocese of Santiago de Cuba, in Oriente Province, urged the end of terror and the reestablishment of peace on the island.