Fidel Castro's New Phase
CARRERA, ANTONIO DE LA
AFTER CHE GUEVARA'S DEPARTURE Fidel Castro's New Phase By Antonio de la Carrera It is in the nature of dictatorships to confine all visible political life to the pronouncements of the leader, and...
...If the proffered exodus is, as it seems, conceived primarily as an escape valve, the regime also stands to gain certain minor benefits from its successful implementation: 1. It will save the enormous cost of patroling the Cuban coastline to prevent escapes...
...The Socialist countries have the moral duty to put an end to their tacit collusion with the exploiters of the West (My italics-A...
...In the first speech he accused the U. S. of being itself responsible for stopping flights to Miami, and declared that "it is not we who are opposed to the departure of those who want to go, but the imperialists...
...Against sabotage...
...Aragon was in Cuba in April and May...
...Perhaps he had really begun to believe that his was the conscience of Revolutionary Cuba...
...Thus, the last obstacle to Guevara's position as chief ideologist of the regime seemed to be removed...
...The first visible consequence of this Party reorganization was the dissolution of both Hoy, the newspaper of the old Communist party, and Revolucion, the newspaper begun, underground, by the 26th of July Movement...
...Ramiro Valdes, Castro's Interior Minister, issued this warning in a speech last week: "We must fight against internal differences...
...The belief in some quarters that the offer of exodus reflects a desire on the part of the regime to provide an escape valve for mounting tensions in the island itself seems to be borne out by Castro's September 28 speech...
...His presumed presence anywhere would inspire fear in government circles and raise the morale of Communist forces...
...On April 13 Revolucion reprinted an article written by Guevara for the Uruguayan weekly Marcha...
...Moreover, Castro himself-even apart from the financial angle-scarcely encouraged any exodus prior to his latest move...
...In many quarters his was beginning to sound like the voice of the Cuban Revolution, and that is something that Castro could never allow...
...Evidently Castro himself has been greatly agitated by this state of affairs, for in his October 3 speech he referred, derisively, to the "ahogaditos' (the drowned ones-an epithet reminiscent of Batista's habit of calling those killed in demonstrations "muertecitos"), In any event, the safe departure of those who want to leave was cited by Castro as the official reason for his decision...
...After his appearance before the United Nations, Guevara flew to Algiers, visited numerous African countries and travelled as far as China...
...To these remarks should be added his long article in the Uruguayan magazine Marcha, for under the title "Socialism and Man in Cuba" Guevara gave the world a brilliant exposition of his basic beliefs...
...So far as anyone knows, this National Directorate never met, not even to rubber-stamp Castro's decisions...
...That Che's position irritated Castro became evident on July 24 when, at a meeting of sugar workers in Santa Clara, he addressed himself to Che's favorite topic of revolutionary morality to justify the award of "material incentives" to 5,000 sugar laborers for their work in the 1965 harvest...
...Speaking on October 3 in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty-a setting that Castro himself might have envied-the President took the occasion of the signing of the new Immigration Bill to announce that he had "given instructions to the Departments of State, Justice, and Health, Education, and Welfare to make the necessary arrangements to enable those who seek freedom in Cuba to enter the United States in an orderly manner...
...Then he proceeded to exercise his now unchallenged position as ideological spokesman for the regime...
...In any case, the sessions with Guevara after his return must have gone from bad to worse...
...Castro's account of why flights to Miami were stopped was, to be sure, a vast simplification...
...In introducing the subject, Castro himself was obviously aware of the implications of the event and of the worldwide assumption that the truth would be difficult to come by...
...on another, 19 Protestant refugees who made it to Anguila Cay in the Bahamas were abducted by a Cuban coastal patrol and brought back to the island...
...Nothing legal binds me to Cuba, only ties of another kind, which cannot be broken like appointments...
...To try to press Marxism into a type of catechism is anti-Marxist...
...And no one will have to tell us how we must continue to carry it out, and we will carry it out...
...Guevara pointedly blamed bad advice from the Soviet Union for Cuba's making what he called the mistake of taking Czechoslovakia as an economic example to be followed...
...There Are many who doubt the letter's authenticity...
...But almost everything else connected with Guevara's mysterious exit from Cuban affairs, and the manner in which that exit was announced to the world, remains open to speculation...
...The noteworthy aspect of this reorganization is not only the reduction in the number of old-time Communist functionaries, but the relative unimportance of the positions the old Communists have been assigned...
...And that will certainly be one of the results of Guevara's letter whether he is dead or not...
...3.It will halt the system of bribery which has apparently played an increasing role in the clandestine business of shuttling refugees to the U.S...
...Thus, the exodus would allow a consolidation of the regime from within as well as relieve the pressure of overt antiregime activities, To Cuban exiles already installed in Miami, however, Castro's intentitons looked quite different: They were immediately convinced that the real motive behind the offer of free exit was to force the US into direct negotiations with the Havana government -negotiations which, they fear, would lead to a resumption of commercial and diplomatic ties, For this reason the Cuban exile groups promptly raised a variety of objections to Castro's offer, demanding guarantees which were clearly directed not to implement the exodus but to help thwart it...
...Correct...
...While it is true that the U. S. called off these flights, the reasons were more financial than political...
...AFTER CHE GUEVARA'S DEPARTURE Fidel Castro's New Phase By Antonio de la Carrera It is in the nature of dictatorships to confine all visible political life to the pronouncements of the leader, and in this respect, as in others, the regime of Fidel Castro conforms to a familiar pattern...
...The article itself was written during Guevara's African trip...
...Other lands of the world demand the aid of my modest efforts...
...I feel that I have done my duty, which tied me to the Cuban Revolution in its territory, and I take leave of you, of the comrades, of your country, which is already mine...
...Thus, in affirming the independent nature of Communism in Cuba, Castro refused to take sides in the struggle between the USSR and China...
...My italics-A...
...Whether he is dead or alive, Guevara-the fabled guerrilla fighter and author-must now also enter the lists of fabled victims of intra-party purges...
...My italics-A.C...
...it is a genuine product of this country...
...More than once he hinted that his offer would place the U. S. in an embarrassing position...
...He ended his speech with a reaffirmation of the indigenous origin of the Cuban revolution by saying: "This Revolution was not imported from any place...
...In a speech on July 26, in Santa Clara, he announced that "2,005 guerrillas" had been killed or captured in action since 1960a figure that is perhaps 20 times greater than the number of casualties suffered by the rebel army in its struggle against Batista...
...The man who represented Cuba at the United Nations in December 1964, and then travelled widely as Cuba's representative to Africa and Asia, gave every appearance of being at the height of his influence in the hierarchy of the Cuban Revolution...
...Similar pressures in the past may have been resisted by Castro, but on this occasion, the collapse of sugar prices in the world market had left him in a very vulnerable position...
...I would have many things to tell you and our people, but I feel they are unnecessary...
...Such words were hardly an invitation to reopen normal relations with Havana, nor was Castro's response to them-delivered with obvious anger only six hours later-an encouragement of any future detente...
...Moreover, none of the men closely associated with Guevara appear in the roster of the Central Committee of the new Communist party of Cuba...
...One day they came to ask who should be informed in case of death, and the real possibility of the fact was a blow to all of us...
...On the one hand he adopted most of China's ideological tenets...
...The requisites which the regime had set up for leaving the island were such that many who wished to leave did not dare apply for proper authorization...
...If we can trust Aragon's word, Che was seen cutting cane a few weeks after April...
...of Cuba's sole political party, the United Party of the Socialist Revolution (PURS), he would read a document from Ernesto "Che" Guevara "which will explain his absence during these past months...
...By this time, Guevara had already been ostracized, of course...
...In ideological matters it will be the Party which will say what must be said...
...Let it be well understood: Our Party, no other party but our Party and its Central Committee...
...In the new fields of battles, I will carry the faith you instilled in me, the revolutionary spirit of my country, the sensation of complying with the most sacred of duties: to struggle against imperialism wherever it may be...
...We are going to see what they do or say...
...Unfortunately not all that he said or wrote is easily available, but enough is known to suggest that his outspoken statements might well have been the cause of his downfall...
...Borba, the official organ of the Communist party of Yugoslavia, attacked him in a strongly worded editorial published on June 21, 1965...
...His position was, in more than one respect, identical with that of the Chinese...
...Boca de Jaruco-30 miles east of Havana...
...Soon he'll be reported at work in every Latin American country...
...And Castro's own eagerness for this solution apparently increased, for two days after his original announcement-which included only relatives of Cubans already abroad-he extended the offer to "all of those who want to leave...
...If American embarrassment was Castro's intention, President Johnson's prompt and affirmative response must have come as a disappointment...
...It is a revolutionary and dialectical doctrine, not a philosophical doctrine...
...Speculation on Guevara's whereabouts mounted...
...Guevara returned to Havana on March 14, 1965, apparently triumphant...
...The death toll among these refugees has also figured in the adverse propaganda, prompting the press to refer to the Florida straits as "el cor-redor de la muerte"-the corridor of death...
...Castro admitted the possibility of disagreements within the Communist world, but he stated that "we will know how to maintain any disagreement within the norms of decency...
...Emphasizing every word and exaggerating the pronounciation of every consonant, even to hissing the s's, Castro defined the future role of the Party, declaring: "Our Party will educate the masses...
...And then Castro announced that at the next meeting, five days later...
...If on October 3 Castro was still so angry over Guevara's departures from orthodoxy that he could not help making these remarks, one can easily assume what had taken place between them in the preceding months...
...And last week Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko, before heading home from the General Assembly, session in New York, made an unexpected visit to Havana...
...C.) In this section of the speech there are some remarks that were unquestionably directed to Guevara and that, more than anything else, suggest the nature of the struggle and Guevara's fate...
...Since then, though the National Directorate and the PURS continued to exist in form, they were completely devoid of substance...
...which was, again, more than the total losses sustained by the rebel army in the anti-Batista campaign...
...I do not require anything for them, for the State will give them enough with which to live and be educated...
...But these remarks were not the only evidence at hand to support a belief that an active opposition was causing Castro some concern...
...No doubt that control involves a certain balancing act: While reducing the number of old-time Communists in the new Party, he took pains to single out and praise four members of the Central Committee who had been militants of the old party-one of them, Fabio Grobart, actually a Russian who was a founder of the old Cuban party and for many years its eminence grise: Moscow's man in Havana, But nothing indicates any willingness on Castro's part to share his authority with the old Communist militants...
...Asserting that it was deemed necessary to concentrate all the resources of paper, machinery, and personnel "to make a new morning newspaper of a political nature," Castro announced that in the future there would be only one such paper, to be known as Granma, the name of the yacht in which he came to Cuba from Mexico in December 1956 and which he described as "the symbol of our Revolutionary concept and of our way...
...Later we learned that it was true, that in a revolution one triumphs or dies if it is a real one...
...but it does not rule out the immoral character of the exchange...
...identified with your way of thinking, seeing, and of estimating dangers and principles...
...But it was around this period that a big drive for "volunteer" sugar cane cutters commenced...
...Revolucion, last February 25, carried the speech which Guevara made to the Second Economic Seminar of Afro-Asian Solidarity in Algiers the day before...
...Reviewing my past life, I believe I have worked with sufficient honesty and dedication to consolidate the revolutionary triumph...
...The next day Gumma hit the stands...
...Given the importance he places on his own public image, the official explanation cannot be completely discounted...
...However, such speculations are less important than the one overriding fact: that Guevara is out...
...The correspondent of the London Economist, in one of the few extensive articles written about Che's disappearance, also believed him safe in Cuba...
...4.At the same time it will relieve the regime of its embarrassment over the repeated escapes which have made Castro's enforcement agencies look ridiculously ineffective...
...The Purs, the party that has now been displaced, was organized on March 9, 1962, and consisted chiefly of a National Directorate of 25 members, about 10 of whom were old Communists...
...Given this circumstance, the speech Castro chose to deliver on September 28-now a Cuban national holiday commemorating the establishment, five years ago, of the socalled Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, i, e., informers' committees-would have been of interest to observers of the Havana regime no matter what its content...
...There appeared to be no conflict between this pro-Chinese position and the place he enjoyed in the Cuban Revolutionary hierarchy...
...In other parts of this address, he attacked the non-aligned countries...
...Yet his speeches of September 28 and October 3 both point to other reasons too...
...In the Secretariat, Roca and Rodriguez were given specifically circumscribed tasks...
...It is the word that symbolizes the aspirations of a large part of humanity, and hundreds and hundreds of millions of human beings are concretely working for it today...
...The same question applies to the letter to "other comrades...
...In the Central Committee the old-timers can exert little influence...
...But it is very risky to deny the veracity of the letter...
...He foresaw "permanent relations between parties and revolutionary peoples," and he vowed to continue the "fight against imperialism...
...on the other, he chastized the Chinese for their intemperate attitude and unjust accusations...
...Against acts of terrorism"'there are fewer every day, practically all the organizations have been dismantled, a good part of them with the help of the Committees [for the Defense of the Revolution...
...Peking and its followers must resent the elimination of Guevara and may not be mollified by Castro's adoption of many of the points that they support...
...Among them was said to be a letter to Guevara's children...
...In his speech that day, Castro declared: "If we are not willing, if we do not want, if we just do not feel like letting the differences that divide the Socialist camp divide us, no one will impose such a thing on us," That was not the only passage of his speech which may be considered a reference to Guevara...
...At first, Castro may have relied upon his charm and persuasive powers, but this time Che was hurt and uncompromising...
...This is no small consideration for dollarhungry Cuba: A single ticket to Spain costs over $300, and there are several thousand who have deposited that amount...
...He warned them that "you cannot expect to win the confidence of the Socialist countries by playing the game of balancing capitalism against Socialism with the idea of deriving advantages from both.' Guevara was in Egypt from March 2-12...
...As a matter of fact, two incidents may indicate the beginning of a distinct cooling period in the relations between China and Cuba: 1) in the list of congratulatory messages on the anniversary of the Chinese Communist party read over Peking radio, Cuba's was placed at the bottom of the list, between those of "revisionists" Hungary and Poland...
...Words cannot express what I would like to say, and it is not worthwhile to fill pages...
...Another factor cannot be disregarded: Guevara had been talking too much and too openly in a sensitive area of the world...
...That was the last time that he was seen in public...
...My italics -A...
...That wounds a part of my spirit...
...The "explanation," when it came on October 3, did little to clarify the mystery of Guevara's disappearance...
...Wherever I am, I will feel the responsibility of being a Cuban Revolutionary and I will act as such...
...While he was away, another old Communist, Carlos Rafael Rodriguez, with whom Guevara had been feuding for a· long time over the economic orientation of the regime, was ousted as President of the Agrarian Reform Institute (INRA...
...Still, Castro insisted on the myth of "imperialist" responsibility for the "ahogaditos," "Now it will be seen," he said, "if it is we who do not wish [them to go], or if it is the imperialists...
...Among other things, Guevara said: "The development of the countries which begin now the road to liberation should be underwritten by the Socialist countries...
...I thank you for your teachings and your example and I will try to be loyal to you to the last consequences of my acts...
...The Dramatic spectacle of a mass exodus from the island, though it undoubtedly has important political and human implications, should not be allowed to deflect attention from the more significant ideological shake-up which has taken place simultaneously...
...And again: " nothing will swerve us from the dedication of all our energies to the fight against the enemy of humanity, which is imperialism, because we could never say that those who helped us defeat the imperialists are the agents of imperialists...
...It could be argued that the amount of trade with the underdeveloped countries represents a minimal part of the foreign trade of those countries...
...There was, first, the offer to allow the relatives of Cuban exiles to join their families abroad if they wished to do so...
...Interpolating as he went, Castro read: cc However, all indicated a growing unrest in Castro's afflicted island...
...C.) "There is no other definition of Socialism of any value to us than the abolition of the exploitation of man by man...
...The refugees would be welcome with the thought that some day they can return to their country to find it rid of terror and free from fear...
...But Castro's public acknowledgement of Guevara's departure (voluntary or otherwise) from the Revolutionary hierarchy, together with an announcement on October 2 of a major reorganization of the governing Party itself, signified the extent of the crisis which has overtaken the island...
...He then proceeded to say that the word "Communism" had been much "maligned through the centuries," but that now "the word 'Communism' is not an offense for us but an honor...
...Regrettably for Guevara, this missionary zeal was displayed abroad at a moment when not only most of the Eastern European countries, but the Soviet Union itself was already moving toward a policy of decentralization of production and liberalization of economic policy...
...Only Guevara's statements during his African junket offer a clue to his present predicament...
...Cuba was not a one-party state, but a one-man state, The creation of the Communist Party of Cuba to displace the PURS alters the machinery of power and brings some significant changes in emphasis, but in effect it solidifies Castro's grip even more firmly...
...In the midst of this reorganization at the top, Guevara's departure from the ranks of Cuban Revolutionary leaders is certainly the single most important development...
...In place of the old National Directorate, the Party will now be governed by a Central Committee composed of 104 members, of whom 71 are majors (still the highest rank) in the Army...
...This article, a lyrical exposition of the role and the character of man in a Communist revolution, was the last word by Guevara to be published in Cuba for nearly six months...
...Or perhaps Che had been swayed by the response he found in Africa and China...
...In the end, apparently, Castro felt that he could no longer trust Guevara, and decided to end his association with the Cuban revolution for good...
...A picture of Che driving a car in Havana was published as late as September by the Latin American Times, and the same story of Che in his car in Havana was told to a recent Western European visitor...
...In the future there will be but one voice, the voice of the Party, which is Castro's own...
...We say this without intent of blackmail or the desire to be spectacular there can be no Socialism if we don't effect a change of conscience that would promote a .new fraternal attitude towards mankind not only individually in the societies where Socialism is being built or is already built, but, universally, with regards to all the peoples who suffer imperialist oppression...
...They will be defeated and even replaced, because Marxism is not private property that can be recorded in a registry...
...Borba accused Che of "inventing Socialist laws, entirely new, based on outdated considerations that contradict the principles of scientific Socialism...
...These reports were also borne out by a decree, issued on August 13, ordering both civilians and members of the Armed Forces to surrender all weapons in their personal possession by the end of the month, and warning those who did not comply that they would be considered "criminally responsible" for any weapons found to be in their hands...
...5.The regime would become the beneficiary of all houses, automobiles, electrical appliances, furniture, and clothing left behind by the refugees...
...But even on October 3 he was not disposed to forget Che's position...
...Perhaps more important, shortly after October 3, Raul Castro went to Moscow, heading an important delegation...
...And all material of a political nature will only be able to reach the people through our Party at the time and on the occasion that our Party decides...
...I have always been identified with the foreign policy of our Revolution and I still am...
...Whatever his reasons for initiating this new Cuban exodus, they are undoubtedly linked to the general political instability the country is now suffering, and may well offer a clue to the larger issues...
...The executive functions of the Central Committee will be in the hands of a Political Bureau comprising eight members-Fidel and Raul Castro, Majors Sergio del Valle, Ramiro Valdes, Juan Almeida and Guillermo Garcia, President Osvaldo Dorticos and Armando Hart-and a Secretariat of six-Fidel and Raul Castro, Dorticos, Hart, BIas Roca and Carlos Rafael Rodriguez...
...These latter developments-the Guevara affair and the restructuring of the PURS into the newly named Communist party of Cuba-are certainly the more meaningful so far as any long-range assessment of the Castro regime is concerned...
...Because there is not a thief, there is not an exploiter, there is not a reactionary, there is not a criminal, for whom the United States does not keep its gates open...
...Specifically, he addressed his remarks to Time's comments on a recent speech by Castro's Minister of the Interior (Security), Ramiro Valdes...
...Since the letter was read, Guevara has been reported arrested in Argentina and Peru...
...it is a guide for revolutionary action, not a dogma...
...He is stubborn, however, and it may well have taken Castro and the Party all of the "six months and two days" to get him to write or sign the letter...
...According to this view, Guevara was simply "liquidated,' Communist-style-"Camilized" as one Cuban wag put it, remembering the fate of Major Camilo Cienfuegos...
...At that same time, however November 1964-an old-line Communist, Joaquin Ordoqui, was placed under house arrest...
...There he attempted to openly refute such an interpretation of his offer, by reading from and ridiculing an article in Time magazine which took that view, but in the process of doing so he made certain admissions which, together with reports of recent visitors to the island, tend to confirm the "escape valve" theory...
...Nor was Guevara the only victim...
...And in the chief executive organ, the Politburo, they have no position at all...
...Ordoqui, like Anibal Escalante, represented the orthodox Moscow line of the old Communist party...
...It is less risky to suggest that the letter was actually delivered later than April 1. Writing in the New Republic of June 19, Leopoldo Aragon stated very forcefully that none of the reports about Guevara's disappearence was true because "I saw him cutting cane in Oriente Province...
...To a world accustomed to believing that there existed no active opposition to Castro within Cuba itself, such admissions must indeed have come as a revelation...
...In gauging internal opposition to the regime-and the role it played in prompting Castro to make his offer of free exit-one need not look only to hints of clandestine activities, If recent journalistic reports are to be trusted, the Cuban populace itself seems to be growing far more vocal in articulating its dissatisfaction with the progress of the Revolution, Criticism of the regime has increased, and Cubans no longer seem afraid to voice their disappointments and misgivings even to strangers...
...Today everything has a less dramatic tone because we are more mature, but the event repeats itself...
...All that is certain in the face of this reshuffling of staffs and committes is that Castro has decided to embrace Communism, lock, stock, and barrel, and that the regime remains, now more than ever, under his absolute control...
...A recent boatload of 94 refugees brought out people from every province in Cuba, an operation obviously requiring elaborate arrangements...
...As such he was known to resent and oppose Guevara's ideological prominence within the Castro regime...
...I formally resign from my posts in the leadership of the party, from my ministerial post, from my rank of major, from my condition as a Cuban...
...at the end he stated: "We may disagree with one party on one matter, on one point, or even on several points...
...The impression Castro conveyed was hardly reassuring-quite the contrary...
...In a totalitarian regime like Castro's, nothing of such far-reaching political importance is public ally mentioned without an ulterior purpose...
...To victory always, fatherland or death, I embrace you with all revolutionary fervor, "CHE" Castro's official version is, then, that Guevara, having finished his tour of duty in Cuba, had left for "other lands" where he can continue "the struggle against imperialism.' But can the truth be so simple...
...The monthly Egyptian magazine, al-Tali'ah then published a long interview with Guevara in which he attacked the liberalization of Socialist economies and accused Poland, Czechoslovakia and, particularly, Yugoslavia for their return to the "law of values...
...To compound the irony, the editor of the new Granmu is none other than Isidoro Malmierca, a founder of the Communist Youth organization and a trusted member of the old Communist party...
...The significance of these revelations may, however, reside as much in the fact that they were made at all than in the facts themselves...
...To the magazine Ahker-Saa he mentioned that Cuba had made grave mistakes in economic development," and seemed to be concerned that a Communist failure may bring about "a return of capitalism...
...We don't want to use high sounding words and speak of revisionism, neither do we want to accuse the Yugoslavs of being agents of imperialism, but we are resolutely opposed to their methods...
...During the heyday of the old Communists' influence in Cuba, Escalante and Ordoqui maintained Guevara in a secondary position -a situation that began to change as soon as Escalante was purged on March 26, 1962...
...He was especially virulent in his reference to Yugoslavia, of which he said: "We are completely opposed to the Yugoslavs...
...Of course, the offer to allow the free exit of Cubans is, superficially at least, the more dramatic, and has provoked the most intense speculation about Castro's motives...
...The new Cuban CP was invested by Castro in his speech of October 3-that is how institutions are created and dissolved in Castro's Cuba-with supreme power to lay down the law of the land...
...a man passionately committed to the strictest enforcement of revolutionary morality as the means of transforming man into a being capable of ushering in the Communist millenium...
...Guevara had long been known as an advocate of the Chinese line of promoting and supporting wars of liberation...
...He thereupon proceeded to "solve" the mystery by reading a typewritten copy of a letter from Guevara which had no date, he said, because it "was to be read at the moment we felt it most convenient, but keeping to strict reality, it was delivered on April 1 of this year, exact.y six months and two days ago...
...To make sure that his listeners, To or future readers of his speech, would not think he was referring only to the USSR, it was here that he asserted that "no one will impose .. on us" the differences that divide the Socialist camp...
...Those who make the right interpretations and apply themselves in a responsible manner will triumph...
...Let it be known that I do so with a mixture of happiness and pain...
...With both the USSR and China in mind, he said: "It is impossible to expect that in a contemporary world so heterogeneous, under such diverse circumstances-a world made up of countries in the most dissimilar levels of material, technical and cultural development-that we conceive of Marxism as something like a Church, a religious doctrine with its Rome, its pope and its ecumenical council...
...In this meeting Castro said: "In the search of the way to build Socialism and Communism we have to meditate a great deal and do a lot of research yet about this question of moral incentives and material incentives...
...There is no question that the constant flow of Cuban refugees, willing to brave the rough Straits of Florida in flimsy vessels, has been a continuous source of propaganda against the Castro regime...
...We will be very jealous guardians of that right...
...This is self evident...
...Borba continued: "His opposition to basic economic laws, his criticism of Poland and Czechoslovakia, besides Yugoslavia, for returning to the law of values and his criticism of the followers of 'the new school in the Soviet Union,' must alarm Guevara and compel him to ask himself, together with the many other unnecessary questions which he asks himself, on what seas he is sailing and in what depths he is sinking (My italics-A...
...Few times has a statesman shined more brilliantly than on those days...
...2. It will gain the sizable sum of dollars deposited by exiles living abroad to get their relatives and friends off the island...
...A correspondent for the London Daily Telegraph reported that, according to "unusually reliable sources," Che had been purged for turning pro-Russian after his trip to Africa early this year-a curious interpretation-but the writer presumed Guevara to be in Cuba...
...Asserting that "you will never hear a lie from the lips of a Revolutionary," that "no serious Revolutionary needs to resort to lies, ever," and that, furthermore, the Revolutionary's weapon is "the truth"assertions belied by more than one revolution one could think of-Castro opened his promised explanation of Guevara's absence by observing that his adversaries "have been working incessantly to solve this mystery, whether Ernesto Guevara was purged, whether Ernesto Guevara was ill, whether Ernesto Guevara had differences, and other questions of the same ilk...
...I agree to that...
...Castro explained that this "is the name that, interpreting the development of our Party, the Revolutionary conscience of our members and the objects of our Revolution, our first Central Committee adopted yesterday, and it is quite proper...
...Disagreements when they are honest are bound to be temporary...
...And his position seemed vindicated, moreover, when the Communist parties of Latin America met in Havana in November 1964 and agreed to "actively support those who are subjected to intense repression such as the fighters of Venezuela, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, Paraguay and Haiti...
...The sensation was twofold...
...The connection between the nonexistent guerrillas and the round-up of weapons seemed obvious...
...Ironically, "Granma" used to be the by-line of an editorial column in the now defunct Revolucion which, in May 1959, started a systematic attack on Communism and its old representatives-a column which ridiculed Communist efforts to "steal the Revolution...
...Barnard Collier of the New York Herald Tribune wrote that he was last seen on April 19...
...Then he gave the casualty figures among his own forces: 295...
...No one told us how we must carry it out, and we have carried it out...
...Those who make mistakes or do not abide by revolutionary thinking will fail...
...There was thus a clear separation brewing between the "Russian" and "Chinese" factions within the Revolutionary hierarchy, and Guevara seemed to be its beneficiary...
...our Party will educate its militants...
...He revealed himself as an uncompromising fanatic...
...It was also a period when China was resuming its ideological offensive against the USSR...
...Castro berated the President as one who "would not be President of the United States, nor would he be a Yankee, if he did not use this proverbial phariseeism.' Of the U.S., Castro declared that it was the "inevitable asylum of all the henchmen, of all the embezzlers, of all the exploiters, of all the reactionaries of this Continent...
...Judging from the structure and composition of the new Party, it is clear that, if anything, it increases Castro's personal rule...
...But whatever it is, the removal of Guevara should bring a major improvement in the relations between the USSR and Cuba, and that alone gives his exit a considerable importance in gauging the future of the Castro regime...
...The speculations about Che's disappearance did not begin until he failed to appear at the anniversary celebration of the Ministry of Industries at the end of April, and they became pronounced after his absence at the May Day parade (an absence made more conspicuous by the presence of his wife in the front line of the reviewing stand...
...The Cuban government required that all twoway tickets be paid in American dollars, which went directly into the Cuban treasury, leaving worthless Cuban pesos, exchanged at par, in the hands of Pan-American Airways, the carrier...
...This visitor stated that what he thought the most reliable story about Che was that he was in Cuba, not under arrest, but certainly out of his prominent position...
...Armando Hart was appointed Secretary of Organization...
...There is ample reason, then, to believe that Castro, despite his sardonic denials, is seriously concerned to provide an outlet for a discontent that could easily breed an even wider resistance, passive or otherwise...
...Correct...
...I have lived magnificent days and I felt at your side the pride of belonging to our country during the luminous days of the Caribbean crisis...
...Finally, a confidential report from Washington indicated that Guevara had talked to his mother shortly before her death in early July...
...The purpose of the letter was thus not only a cover-up but an effort to turn Guevara into a new El Cid, the legendary hero of Spain who continued to win battles after his death...
...Guevara is no superman...
...In this period he was interviewed by two official publications of the UAR...
...If the guerrillas had been annihilated, why mention them at all...
...My only shortcoming of some gravity is not having confided in you more from the first moments in the Sierra Maestra and not having realized with sufficient celerity your qualities as a leader and a revolutionary...
...Still, Fidel may have overplayed his hand...
...To us, the awards we grant the workers, are above all a matter of honor a great deal more valuable than the material award they are going to receive, and this material award is an expression of moral recognition...
...The Widespread belief that Castro's coastal patrols have grown more and more susceptible to such bribery has done great damage to the puritan image of the regime...
...His close collaborator, Salvador Vilaseca, was ousted in June as President of the National Bank of Cuba, a position he assumed when Guevara won his fight with Carlos Rafael Rodriguez...
...Unauthorized departures were illegal, and the prohibition zealously enforced: On one occasion two Florida fishermen were almost mistakenly shot to death by a strafing plane...
...I do not leave my children or my wife anything material, and I am not ashamed...
...C.) That was the only public reaction in the Communist world to Guevara's outspoken position, but it is not far fetched to presume that in private, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and, no less strenuously, the Soviet Union protested Che's attack on their policies and exerted maximum pressure to have him removed from his position in Communist Cuba...
...Those who consider it apocryphal underestimate the power of Castro and that of Party discipline...
...As it turned out, Castro's utterances on that occasion were nothing less than a sensation, and left no doubt that Cuba had been passing through a major internal crisis during a period when the foreign press was paying it relatively little attention...
...All these items are in chronically short supply in Cuba -a shortage that the low price of sugar is helpless to alter, as Castro himself admitted in his July 26 speech in Santa Clara, 6.Many desirable jobs left vacant by the refugees could be filled by newly trained (and presumably more loyal) cadres...
...One solid argument against the authenticity of the date of delivery can be found in the references which Castro made to "several other letters" from Guevara that were left with him...
...Most of those' seeking refuge in this fashion have belonged to the very classes that a Communist revolution is ostensibly designed to benefit...
...I am glad it is thus...
...2) to the reception held by the Charge d'Affaires of China in Cuba, the Cuban government sent two minor officials, Osmany Cienfuegos and Arnol Rodriguez...
...Castro's Communist world would be one "in which all nations will have equal rights a Communist world in which no nation will have the right to veto," one "that will never present the same picture of the bourgeois world torn by internal quarrels...
...He voiced a fear of the effects that the liberalization of economic policies might have on revolutionary morality and on the Communist man of the future whom he glorifies...
...The text is as follows: Havana Year of Agriculture Fidel: "At this moment I recall many things, of when I met you in the home of Marla Antonia, of when you proposed that I come, of all the tension in the preparations...
...I can do what is denied you by your responsibility as head of Cuba, and the time has come for us to separate...
...Many comrades fell along the road to victory...
...Here I leave the purest of my hopes as a builder and the dearest of my dear ones, and I leave the people who accepted me as a son...
...It is impossible to think of an authentic revolutionary who lacks this quality...
...It may be, however, that Castro's purpose derived from necessities more compelling than propaganda victories and diplomatic dueling...
...It apparently came into existence as the result of efforts by Anibal Escalante, an oldtime Communist leader, in what looked like an attempt to limit Castro's absolute powers...
...If we were to establish this type of relationship between these groups of nations, we must conclude that socialist countries are, in a certain manner, accomplices of imperial exploitation...
...Can one believe that such a letter would not have been handed by Castro to Guevara's wife at the date of the alleged delivery, and that he would wait six months and two days to do so...
...Secretary General, needless to say, is Castro himself...
...Escalante was purged shortly thereafter, and flown out of the country...
...What we will never do is to insult with one hand and ask with another...
...And for some days thereafter Havana Radio laid great emphasis on the embarrassing position in which Castro had placed the U. S.-an emphasis that suggests that Castro really counted on Washington to turn down the offer and thus provide him with a clear propaganda victory...
...We believe that in this spirit we must face the responsibility of aiding the dependent countries and that there should not be any more talks about developing a mutually advantageous trade based on the prices that the law of values and the international relations resulting from an uneven exchange inflict upon the backward countries...
...While the institutionalization of the Party came as no surprise, its new name did: The Communist Party of Cuba...
...if instead of reaching this stage, the task of suppressing the exploitation is hogged down or even reversed, it is not even proper to speak about the building of Socialism...
...It has been suggested, too, that Che did not show up because he was ashamed of the poor showing of his industrialization program...
...As he himself said, "the real revolutionary is motivated by great love...
...Neither the USSR nor the Eastern European countries affected could take Guevara's criticisms lightly...
...What it signified, first of all, was the unequivocal victory of the Soviet Union in its struggle with China to act as big brother to the Cuban Revolution: That much is clear...
...Belittling guerrilla activity, Castro assured his listeners that the guerrillas "were totally annihilated, and of the counterrevolutionaries there are only three left and not organized as bands but on the run...
...In so doing, he affirmed the independence of the Communist party of Cuba and endorsed the theory of the different paths of Communism...
...If it is we, we are to blame for anyone drowning while trying to reach the Yankee paradise " Conversely, if the "Yankees" did not accept his offer, the responsibility would be theirs...
...He expressed a deep mistrust of peaceful coexistence because it may blunt the revolutionary drive in the underdeveloped countries...
...Among this group, only Blas Roca and Carlos Rafael Rodriguez came to prominence in the old Communist party...
...There is thus a solid majority of devoted fidelistas, former members of the 26th of July Movement and the Revolutionary Directorate along with Communists who owe their prominence to Castro and not to the old party...
...Castro himself dismissed the Guevara episode on October 3with or without "moving a muscle,' we don't know-by saying "and we feel that this explains everything...
...There are many cases of arrogant men who bowed down to the pressures of Party or Church and agreed to say and do what they were told...
...I am also proud of having followed you without hesitation...
...The Castro brothers, President Dorticos and even Carlos Rafael Rodriguez went to the airport to greet him...
...In his Santa Clara speech Castro also included a virulent attack on "bureaucratism," blaming it on the "petit bourgeois" elements that had been kept in certain positions after the Revolution took power simply because "they had experience and know-how," and added that now, seven years later, because "the masses have spawned thousands and thousands of cadres the Revolution does not have to make any concessions to the petit bourgeois spirit.' He then announced the formation of "committees to fight bureaucratism" which were said to be already "investigating one by one every position and every administrative department to prune it out...
...How can we consider it 'mutually advantageous' to sell at world market prices the raw materials produced at cost of great toil and suffering by the backward countries and then buy at world market prices the machinery manufactured in the great automated factories of the present day...
...The reasons given in the letter are scarcely adequate to so crucial a development: "I have done my duty which tied me to the Cuban Revolution in its territory" and "other lands of the world demand the aid of my modest efforts.' To answer the question, one must recall the events which immediately preceded Guevara's vanishing act...
...He agreed that "with the complexities of the present problem and the present world" it is not easy to maintain the independence he prescribed, but he pledged to do so...
...This heals and more than cures any laceration...
...Some observers could not help recalling with a shudder that the result of Raul's trip to Moscow in July 1962 was the establishment of IRBM missiles in Cuban territory...
...Such fears should have been allayed by the nature of President Johnson's October 3 response, After accepting Castro's offer, the President declared: "Once more this has revealed the mark of defeat of a regime...
...For the announcement of the new Party formation on October 2, together with Castro's curious "explanation" of Guevara's disappearance in his October 3 speech and his new statement of "Communist" principles, will determine the future course of the Revolution to a far greater extent than the free exit of discontented Cubans...
...When many of its citizens freely elect to leave the nation where they were born to go to a home of hope, the future harbors little hope for any government when the present doesn't permit hopes for its people...
...His remarks actually lent credence to the reports coming out of Cuba of mounting guerrilla activities...
...Now, fortunately, the prospect of a new missile crisis is very remote, although the outcome of the trip will probably be the announcement of new economic and military commitments by the Soviet Union...
...He added: "Now it is up to the imperialists...
...The question is: Why is he out...
...C.) After continuing in this vein, Guevara mentioned that the Soviet Union, for political reasons, has signed agreements which are very favorable to Cuba-but the harm was done...
...Internationally-that is, within the Communist world -Castro charted an open course...
...I say once again that I free Cuba from any responsibility save what stems from her example: that if the final hour comes to me under other skies, my last thought will be of this country, particularly of you...
...Until this is done we will be in the process of building a Socialist society and...
...Besides, in this case a much stronger pressure than usual may have been exerted by the Soviet Union...
...On March 21 he addressed a meeting of the Communist Youth, but said nothing of special significance...
...and the boat itself was made in, and departed from...
...Perhaps this may be one of the great dilemmas of the leader: He has to be both passionate and cold and be able to make painful decisions without moving a muscle.' In reaffirming the position taken on his African trip, Guevara inveighed not only against his Capitalist enemies, but against the dangers within the Communist movement...
...Within 100 years, there will be no greater honor nor will there be anything more natural and logical than to be called 'Communists.''' It remains to be seen how the new name will go down with those of Castro's followers for whom "Communism" is still not imbued with this historical grandeur, and with those abroad who still manage to condemn Communism while supporting Castro himself...
...Finally, the Russians were then ready, willing and able to trade Guevara for the old, worn out leaders of the old Communist party of Cuba, which had been a thorn in Castro's side for some time...
...Although President Dorticos was a member of that party in his youth, he owes his present position not to any previous Communist militancy but to the active role he played within the 26th of July Movement and to his service in Castro's government since 1959...
...Specifically, Castro said: "those who make the right interpretations will be able to call themselves revolutionaries...
...They point out that so arrogant a man as Che would not write that "my only shortcoming of some gravity is not having confided in you more from the first moments in the Sierra Maestra and not having realized with sufficient celerity your qualities as a leader and as a Revolutionary,': nor would he thank Castro "for his teachings.' These observers believe that Guevara is dead and that the first paragraph, which reads like a suicide note, is the only authentic one...
Vol. 48 • October 1965 • No. 21
