CUBA

Five months ago many Cubans thought that Rebel Chief Fidel Castro was through. His much-touted "total war'' against President Fulgencio Batista was a total failure; the general strike in Havana, that started literally with a bang ended with a whimper as local leaders went into hiding, shrilly blaming one another for the fiasco. That was early April. Last week reports sifting through heavy censorship indicated that Castro had made a notable comeback. Despite the rebels' continued grandstanding and disorganization, the swelling tide of popular discontent had carried them back to a position of strength.

One day last week the rebels halted a Havana-Santiago train, killed most of the armed guard aboard, rescued a rebel leader being transported for trial and, after waiting vainly to ambush the expected counterattack, retired in leisurely fashion. Two days later they severed the Santiago-Guantánamo highway, blocked traffic for three hours, again withdrew without interference. Nightly, the rebels sniped at the army garrison guarding the Yateras waterworks, which supplies the U.S. Naval Base at Guantánamo Bay.

The rebels held their best prisoner bag of the 21-month-long fight: one major, four captains, twelve lieutenants; they liberated almost 300 soldier prisoners through the International Red Cross. Their weapons position was improving. In the summer counterattack they took good booty--500 pieces, including five bazookas, an armored car, two flak guns.

This did not mean that Castro could now come down and engage in a stand-up fight. But he did hold the Oriente countryside, and he was strong enough to expand his guerrilla operations. This week rebels were fighting in four of Cuba's six provinces, and Castro reinforcements were scheduled for Camagüey and Las Villas provinces, Batista still held the big, fixed positions of power--the cities, the capital, the labor movement, the army--but their strength was ebbing.