Special to The New York Times
SANTIAGO DE CUBA, June 8 – Fidel Castro, the young rebel leader, is more than holding his own in his fight against the Government forces that vowed a week ago to liquidate him within a week.
He is stronger than ever, his prestige has risen throughout Cuban and he is today far and away the greatest figure in the nation-wide opposition to President Fulgencio Batista.
Fidel (no one ever calls him anything else) is worshiped here in Oriente Province at the eastern end of the island, where more than a third of Cuba’s population lives.
From poor farmers and workers to the highest levels of conservative, religious elements of society, business and the professions, Señor Castro has become the leader and symbol of the struggle against the dictatorship of General Batista.No figure has attained this stature in Cuba since the struggle for independence against Spain.
This writer, despite being under the glare of publicity here in Santiago de Cuba and under close surveillance of the authorities, has been able to get fresh, first-hand information from the Sierra Maestra, where Señor Castro is fighting.A courier he sent out three days ago gave this writer, among other things, an account of a rebel attack at Ubero, on the coast fifty miles west of Santiago.
The informant took part in the fight and, aside from being a member of a well-known Oriente family, is a serious youth whose name is now famous throughout Cuba.
It is now public knowledge that this attack, which started at 5:30 A.M. on May 30 and lasted three hours, was a decisive victory for the rebel forces.The attackers were led by Señor Castro with his customary dash and rash bravery, a bravery that frightens his followers, since it is felt that through rashness he could be killed.
Incidentally, Charles Ryan, a 20-year-old United States youth who stayed behind with the Castro forces when his two younger comrades left several weeks ago, got his baptism of fire in the fight.He fought bravely and well, the informant said, and now is accepted as a full-fledged soldier in the rebel forces.
There was a garrison of sixty Government soldiers at Ubero.Of these, eleven dead were counted, nineteen were wounded and eighteen or twenty taken prisoner.Only a handful escaped and there may have been several more dead.The rebels collected all the Government forces’ arms, clothing, food and other supplies which provided a notable addition to Señor Castro’s strength as a shortage of arms had been his greatest weakness.The Castro forces lost five dead and eight wounded, of whom one died later, and one captured.
This victory and the international publicity of Señor Castro has been getting are what led to President Batista to launch his present “campaign of extermination.”However, it is clear, not only from what the informant said but from others here who are in constant touch with Señor Castro, that his position has been greatly strengthened since this writer saw him on Feb. 17 in the Sierra Maestra.
Even before the Ubero attack, Señor Castro had received an important shipment of arms.He has accepted some new recruits and perhaps has as many as 400 men in his force.They know every inch of the Sierra Maestra by now, are hardened and trained for just this type of fighting and know they are fighting for their lives, since the Government takes prisoners but sometimes kills them afterward.That is what happened to sixteen of twenty-seven men who landed at Carbonico Bay, on the north shore of Oriente Province, a few weeks ago.
This writer flew over this terrain yesterday.Government soldiers are not trained for the sort of guerrilla fighting they must do in the Sierra Maestra and are fighting simply for their pay and through discipline.Despite reports, there has been no bombing of the Sierra Maestra, since such bombing would be ineffective in that type of jungle, mountainous terrain.
The campaign must be conducted on the ground.One of the Government’s efforts is to starve out the Castro forces by evacuating hundreds of farmers and farm laborers from the foothills and preventing food from getting in toward the Sierra.This is causing great distress and many bitter complaints, not least from coffee plantation owners and cattle breeders, who cannot feed their workers at this critical harvest time.
The Government is partly impelled to take this measure because the farmers are Castro sympathizers.
Enthusiasm for the rebel cause is widespread among the Cuban people.A graduate student who saw this writer here yesterday at the risk of his life said: “Fidel has lifted Cuba out of the inertia that was engulfing us as it has the people of the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua and Venezuela.He has given us heart and courage to fight and, even if he is killed now, this fight will go.”
HAVANA, June 8 – Newsreels of a demonstration by women in Santiago de Cuba last Sunday were seized by the secret police here last night.The women were asking for the removal of a newly appointed police supervisor in that city, Col. José Salas Cañizares.
Under a new ruling no newsreel films are permitted to leave Cuba unless they have been inspected and approved by the military intelligence service.
Reports from Santiago said the United States consul there, Oscar H. Guerra, had been arrested by an army patrol while Oscar H. Guerra, had been arrested by an army patrol while he was driving his automobile.He was taken to headquarters, but was released when he was identified.