New York Times
June 2, 1957
Batista Government Accuses the Citizens of Santiago of Aiding Rebels
By R. Hart Phillips
Special to The New York
Times
HAVANA, June 1 – The Government rejected today a protest by civil, educational, patriotic, and religious associations of Santiago de Cuba against what they called a “reign of terror” by military forces.
Santiago Rey, Minister of the Interior, told signers of the protest that they were responsible for conditions in that city.
The associations had protested to President Fulgencio Batista over the harsh treatment of the public by the military forces. They also complained about the slaying of four youths after their arrest by men who identified themselves as members of the security corps.
“The signers of the protest should consult their own consciences to see if some of them are free of the responsibility of having contributed to the atmosphere of violence that Santiago has been suffering for some time as a natural consequence of violence in other regions of that province,” the Interior Minister said in a statement.
He accused the people of Santiago of remaining silent when members of the armed forces were killed by revolutionists and of failing to protest numerous bombings by youthful rebels there. He also charged they had aided insurrectionists and participated in the guerilla warfare plan of Fidel Castro, a rebel leader who is now operating in the Sierra Maestra, on the south coast of Oriente Province, about fifty miles from Santiago.
Orente Province long has been a hotbed of opposition to President Batista’s regime. Many times during the past months, public civil resistance campaigns in Santiago have paralyzed the city life for twenty-four-hour periods.
Recently, the Government sent Col. José Maria Salas Canizares from Havana to act as supervisor of the police in Santiago in an attempt to suppress insurrectionist activities there.
Meanwhile, the army announced that nine rebels had been killed and four wounded in an encounter with army forces this morning in the vicinity of Pico Turquino, Cuba’s highest mountain.
The announcement said that arms, munitions and a portable radio station were captured. Pico Turquino is near the south coast of Oriente Province.
The battle was the first reported between rebels and army troops since the Government declared total war against the rebels.
A locomotive and six railway cars were derailed at Bejucal, near Havana, by the explosion of a bomb that had been placed on the track. No casualties were reported.
Gen. Francisco Tabernilla, Army Chief of Staff, said tonight that forty persons had been evacuated from the Pico Turquino district in accordance with the plan.
The families have been lodged in a warehouse on the docks in Santiago. Other families will be taken out of the zone within the next few days.
A plant for making incendiary bombs was discovered in Compostela Street in the downtown section of Havana this morning. Authorities said forty bombs had been made there and materials for many more were on hand.