But Methods He Uses Have Cost Him Support of Friends in U.S.

By Herbert L. Matthews

 A vast majority of Americans must have been surprised, shocked and angered this week at the news from Cuba. The surprise came because the most rigid censorship in Cuban history had for months clamped a curtain of silence over what was happening in the island, which is only 100 miles from our Florida shore.
 The Havana Government blandly gave out army communiques about minor skirmishes in the eastern third of the island where, it was stated, Fidel Castro and his rebels were starved, hunted and being hounded to an imminent death. The army announced one more great and "final"drive in May.
 Suddenly the veil has been torn from this fiction-but in a way that has aroused American opinion against the rebel leader Fidel Castro, who until now has considerable sympathy in this country. On Thursday, June 26, a band of 200 rebels under Fidel’s brother, Raul, and other lieutenants invaded the $76,000,000 mining establishment of the Freeport Sulphur Company at Moa Bay on the island, seized a lot of supplies and took away ten American and two Canadian engineers as hostages.

Provocative Campaign

 On the next night, in an even more daring raid, twenty-eight American sailors and three Cubans, riding in a bus outside the large American naval base at Guantanamo Bay on the southern shore, disappeared and it was obvious that they, too, had been abducted. More incident occurred Sunday, Monday and Tuesday until forty-five Americans and three Canadians were prisoners of Fidel Castro and his 26th of July Movement. Obviously, here was a deliberate and provocative campaign against Americans taken as symbols of the United States Government. It was clear that Fidel (as he is universally known in Cuba) was doing three things. He was registering a protest against American policies which he felt favored the military dictator, President Fulgencio Batista. He was showing that he and his followers were masters in the eastern third of Cuba, the most fertile area with a population of 6,400,000. Finally, he was calling attention to himself and his cause in a spectacular way.

Effect in U.S.

How much he gained and how much he lost by his sensational show of strength and determination is yet to be ascertained. Certainly, he aroused considerable anger in the United States where it was pointed out that the victims of his raids were completely innocent of the making of American policy. There was a sense of outrage that these men should have been exposed to danger and discomfort for something they did not do. Moreover, those who knew the facts could point out that the United States was not furnishing General Batista’s army with arms and munitions nor his air force with planes and fuel. In fact, the United States had placed an embargo on arms to Cuba in March.
 There was not only anger, but a sense of bafflement and helplessness. What could the United States do? In calling angrily on Tuesday for a 48-hour ultimatum to Fidel Castro after which the United States would furnish General Batista with a lot of arms, Senator William F. Knowland of California was merely betraying his lack of familiarity with the Cuban situation.
 Fidel Castro’s stronghold is in the jungle fastness of the Sierra Maestra. It would have taken forty-eight hours to climb and deliver the ultimatum to Castro. Moreover, President Batista has more than enough arms if he were able to use them effectively. When the United States stopped sending arms, General Batista’s fellow dictator and neighbor, Generalissimo Rafael L. Trujillo of the Dominican Republic, sent him arms and he was able to buy more in other places.
 American officials could not turn to General Batista or appeal to him for help and they did not even try. Not only have all is efforts to crush the rebel movement in the last year and a half failed, but the rebels are apparently stronger than ever. As they proved this week, they dominate the eastern third of the island except for the towns where General Batista has his garrisons. In effect, there is a civil war in Cuba and a military stalemate. However, President Batista’s position has been and still looks impregnable. This is because he holds the capital of Havana with a complete dominations, and whoever holds Havana holds Cuba, so as far as Government and finances are concerned.

On Batista’s Side

 The armed forces are still loyal to General Batista. He has purged the upper brackets thoroughly, favored and enriched those who stood by him, and coddled the rank and file. The police force is also loyal. Moreover, President Batista has organized the labor movement exactly as President Juan Peron did in Argentina. All the leaders of the powerful Cuban Confederation of Workers are Batista’s appointees, enriched by him.
 The Batista regime therefor is still very strong, as it proved on April 9 when it easily crushed an attempted general strike. However the opposition is also strong. Latest information places rebel strength in Oriente at 20,000. There is also a small but active group in Las Villas Province in the center of the island, run by the Directorio Revolucionario.

 Opposition Is Treason
 
 President Batista has imposed the most rigid oppression ever known to Cuban history. Not only is there no freedom of any kind-press, speech, meeting, habeas corpus, right to trial and similar civic rights- but every worker in the Government, in the utilities and certain professions has been drafted into the armed forces, so that, a strike or opposition is treason. Judges have been ordered to carry out government commands or lose their posts, as many have.
 What General Batista did was clamp a lid down on violent, courageous, fighting people who have proved they want liberty. Thanks to the censorship, it seemed to the outside world that president Batista was sitting calmly and successfully on this lid. Now Fidel Castro has blown it sky-high, unfortunately using a lot of innocent Americans to make his point.