Continued Aid to Batista Queried in View of Sister’s Fate

To The Editor of The New York Times

The American press reported a few days ago, the death of two Cuban young ladies. The version offered by Batista’s repressive police was to the effect that they died during a shooting affray between policemen and some revolutionaries who were hiding in the victims’ home.

Reports reaching me from Cuba have permitted me to learn, in all its shocking details, the truth concerning this, most repugnant of acts, the mainfold crimes perpetrated by Batista’s tyrannical government.

Maria Cristina and Lourdes Giral Andreu, respectable young ladies from the city of Cienfuegos, one 15 and the other 20 years of age, who were sisters, were working at Concretera Nacional in Havana. On June 13 they left for home so as to be with their physician father on Father’s Day. During their absence, policemen broke into their Havana home, forcing the door with bullets they searched the place and destroyed furniture and other belongings.

When the Giralt sisters returned to the capital they were detained and taken to the police station under Commandant Alvarez del Real. There they were subjected to the worst tortures, sexually attacked, and later riddled with bullets. Subsequently they were brought to the Havana morgue by “unknown persons.” No autopsy was permitted.

How is it possible that citizens of the United States of America, a democratic nation that has fought valiantly for freedom and respect for human dignity, even after learning of such hideous conduct on the part of Batista, still insist on helping the tyrant responsible for those crimes? And how is it possible that some leaders in Congress show themselves in favor of continuing military aid to that bloodthirsty dictator?

Manuel Antonio de Varona
President, Partido Revolucionario Cubano, Autentico, and Former Cuban Prime Minister.
Miami, Fla., July 3, 1958