Cuba honors American who made Castro a legend

[Mika]

Cuba honors American who made Castro a legend
Sun Feb 18, 2007 8:11 AM
http://in.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2007-02-18T030633Z_01_NOOTR_RTRJONC_0_India-288163-2.xml&archived=False

HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba unveiled a marble plaque on Saturday commemorating the interview 50 years ago by New York Times reporter Herbert Matthews that helped build the legend of Fidel Castro, the state news agency Prensa Latina reported.
The plaque was placed on the spot where Matthews met with Castro at his hideout in the Sierra Maestra mountains of south eastern Cuba.

Castro had taken to the hills two months earlier with a handful of men who survived a disastrous landing from Mexico to launch a guerrilla movement against U.S.-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista.
The government had claimed Castro was dead. Matthews's article, published by The New York Times on Feb 24, 1957, showed Castro was still alive and fighting. It immediately made the 30-year-old firebrand an international figure.

In that glowing article Matthews wrote: "The personality of the man (Castro) is overpowering. It was easy to see that his men adored him and also to see why he has caught the imagination of the youth of Cuba all over the island. Here was an educated, dedicated fanatic, a man of ideals, of courage and of remarkable qualities of leadership."

-

Less than two years after the interview, Castro and his revolutionary companion Ernesto "Che" Guevara swept down from the hills and overthrew the Batista government in a leftist revolution that steered Cuba toward communism.

[JVS]

1. yay!

[brentspeak]

2. I'm sure all of Castro and Che Guevera's dead victims would be thrilled to hear of this

:sarcasm:

[AnOhioan]

3. Batista had his victims as well...

[Judi Lynn]

13. He also had death squads, and a torture center, and he also BOMBED

Cubans. He was desperate to please the Cuban elite, and serve his American Mafia friends, and the U.S. government. and the poor Cubans paid the price.

Some of the slowest people never even appear to wonder what brought on their revolution, as you've probably noticed. Propaganda seems to be all their brains need to survive.

[Mika]

5. As well as the millions who thrive now w/good education & health care.

Cuba had a high infant mortality rate prior to the health care programs created after the revolution.

Cuba now has one of the lowest infant mortality rates in the world.

Think of the many babies that survived to become part of the well educated and healthy populace that wouldn't have survived without the post 1959 Revolution's gains.

_______________________

Before the 1959 revolution

75% of rural dwellings were huts made from palm trees.

More than 50% had no toilets of any kind.

85% had no inside running water.

91% had no electricity.

There was only 1 doctor per 2,000 people in rural areas.

More than one-third of the rural population had intestinal parasites.

Only 4% of Cuban peasants ate meat regularly; only 1% ate fish, less than 2% eggs, 3% bread, 11% milk; none ate green vegetables.

The average annual income among peasants was $91 (1956), less than 1/3 of the national income per person.

45% of the rural population was illiterate; 44% had never attended a school.

25% of the labor force was chronically unemployed.

1 million people were illiterate ( in a population of about 5.5 million).

27% of urban children, not to speak of 61% of rural children, were not attending school.

Racial discrimination was widespread.

The public school system had deteriorated badly.

Corruption was endemic; anyone could be bought, from a Supreme Court judge to a cop.

Police brutality and torture were common.

___

After the 1959 revolution

“It is in some sense almost an anti-model,” according to Eric Swanson, the programme manager for the Bank’s Development Data Group, which compiled the WDI, a tome of almost 400 pages covering scores of economic, social, and environmental indicators.

Indeed, Cuba is living proof in many ways that the Bank’s dictum that economic growth is a pre-condition for improving the lives of the poor is over-stated, if not, downright wrong.

-

It has reduced its infant mortality rate from 11 per 1,000 births in 1990 to seven in 1999, which places it firmly in the ranks of the western industrialised nations. It now stands at six, according to Jo Ritzen, the Bank’s Vice President for Development Policy, who visited Cuba privately several months ago to see for himself.

By comparison, the infant mortality rate for Argentina stood at 18 in 1999;

Chile’s was down to ten; and Costa Rica, at 12. For the entire Latin American and Caribbean region as a whole, the average was 30 in 1999.

Similarly, the mortality rate for children under the age of five in Cuba has fallen from 13 to eight per thousand over the decade. That figure is 50% lower than the rate in Chile, the Latin American country closest to Cuba’s achievement. For the region as a whole, the average was 38 in 1999.

“Six for every 1,000 in infant mortality - the same level as Spain - is just unbelievable,” according to Ritzen, a former education minister in the Netherlands. “You observe it, and so you see that Cuba has done exceedingly well in the human development area.”

Indeed, in Ritzen’s own field, the figures tell much the same story. Net primary enrolment for both girls and boys reached 100% in 1997, up from 92% in 1990. That was as high as most developed nations - higher even than the US rate and well above 80-90% rates achieved by the most advanced Latin American countries.

“Even in education performance, Cuba’s is very much in tune with the developed world, and much higher than schools in, say, Argentina, Brazil, or Chile.”

It is no wonder, in some ways. Public spending on education in Cuba amounts to about 6.7% of gross national income, twice the proportion in other Latin American and Caribbean countries and even Singapore.

There were 12 primary school pupils for every Cuban teacher in 1997, a ratio that ranked with Sweden, rather than any other developing country. The Latin American and East Asian average was twice as high at 25 to one.

The average youth (age 15-24) illiteracy rate in Latin America and the Caribbean stands at 7%. In Cuba, the rate is zero. In Latin America, where the average is 7%, only Uruguay approaches that achievement, with one percent youth illiteracy.

“Cuba managed to reduce illiteracy from 40% to zero within ten years,” said Ritzen. “If Cuba shows that it is possible, it shifts the burden of proof to those who say it’s not possible.”

Similarly, Cuba devoted 9.1% of its gross domestic product (GDP) during the 1990s to health care, roughly equivalent to Canada’s rate. Its ratio of 5.3 doctors per 1,000 people was the highest in the world.

[AngryAmish]

6. The most telling statistic is the millions waiting to get to Cuba

Cuba is known throughout the world for their low infant mortality and free health care. Refugees from throughout the world flee to Cuba at the slightest opportunity. Millions attempt the perilous voyage every year. It is well known that many nations ships will not stop at Havana because their crews will jump ship and their will be nobody left to bring the ship home.

[Flanker]

8. That is rightwing propaganda and you should know better

Migration is an issue of borders, and economic differences, not an issue of healthcare.

[IndianaGreen]

10. Why doesn't the US grant them visas to come to America?

A dirty little secret is that the United States has purposely limited the number of visas they grant to Cubans wanting to emigrate. There is a waiting list of several years. This delay is not caused by the Cuban government, who will be happy to get rid of anyone that doesn't want to stay in the island, but because the US thinks that by using the harsh economic conditions caused by the embargo, together with undue delays of approving visas, they can cause enough unhappiness to bring about the fall of the Cuban government. The problem with this neat theory is that it has failed for over 40 years. There are more Cubans happy with Cuba, than there are those who are seduced by promises of easy life in Florida.

During the Cold War we pumped millions to make Berlin appear like a glorious paradise beckoning those living in the East. Years later, those that lived in the East are now wondering what happening to the social net they used to enjoy under socialism.

[AngryAmish]

11. Cubans don't want to leave

They have great healthcare. And literacy and infant mortality.

[IndianaGreen]

14. Quite a few of them do want to come to America

They have relatives here, and they are seduced by stories of easy money. The bottleneck is on the American side, for decades we have restricted visas to a few hundred a year.

A clear majority of Cubans have no intentions of leaving the island.

The only solution is for the US to end the embargo and all other acts of aggression towards Cuba. Normal relations between the two countries, based on mutual respect and by an American commitment to respect Cuban sovereignty is a must.

The first step to normalizing relations is to end the embargo and to close the US Naval base at Guantanamo and return the stolen land to Cuba.

[Mika]

17. The US offers Cubans over 20,000 immigration visas per year. Not all are applied for.

Now, imagine if the US offered such an immigration policy (with all of the special percs mentioned in post #16) to.. say.. Mexico?.. Jamaica?.. Honduras?.. Brazil?.. hell, Iraq?.. Iran?.. Etc.

Do you think that they would apply in numbers of 20,000 per year?

[hack89]

19. So they are free to immigrate to other countries though?

how many immigrate to Europe for example? I am correct in assuming that there are no restrictions on their travels, right?

[Judi Lynn]

24. You're going to have to start reading a whole lot more.

If you wait for U.S. propaganda to tell you everything you need to know, you're going to have a long wait.

You don't seem to realize that WHAT YOU KNOW about Cuba is what has been blocked, not Cubans. Once you get that straight, you're going to start reading and trying to fill in the blanks for yourself.

By the way, there are posters here who live in Miami who have seen Cubans come and go for years, coming to the states to do shopping, vacation, visit relatives, and return. This was much more possible before _{George W. Bush} seized the Presidency. Cuban "exiles" even have talked to each other about it on message boards, had you been one to read in places where they post. One old hag, Marianao, at the Elian Gonzales Path to Freedom message board, now defunct, told the other exiles her sister had returned to Cuba after a trip to see her, and it was treated in a very commonplace manner.

Miami posters here are accustomed to knowing Cuban Americans host their relatives, even joining them for trips to other places in the States, like New York City, on their excursions.

It's a shame to speak with authority on a subject when you have absolutely NO awareness of the facts. Sad.

[hack89]

25. I asked a question

you read a lot into it. Do Cubans routinely travel to other countries like Americans do? A simple question - why all the emotion?

[Judi Lynn]

12. Americans have discovered long ago they can't move to Cuba for retirement

as the U.S. will refuse to send them their own social security there. More people would go there, as any clown can grasp if the U.S. did not FORBID travel to Cuba under penalty of fines and prison.

Speaking of "refugees" attempting perilous trips, you conveniently ignore the hundreds and hundreds of people who die annually attempting the trip from other points in the Caribbean by boat, coming from as far away as 900 miles, only to be deported when they arrive, if discovered, or die attempting to cross from Mexico to the United States, from California to Texas.

All OTHER "refugees" are not offered a complete array of benefits from instant legal status, exemption from deportation the moment they arrive on dry land, to instant work visa, social security, food stamps, US taxpayer-funded Section 8 Housing, medical treatment, financial assistance for education, etc., etc. If the other immigrants were allowed to stay, were allowed free housing, food stamps, freedom from deportation, we'd have been overwhelmed with immigrants long, LONG ago, and you know it.

Cubans coming to the States, even in the corporate media, are referred to as immigrants these days, by the way, not "refugees."

[AngryAmish]

15. I think you misread my post

[Mika]

16. Here's your answer..

Cuba doesn't have an open immigration policy as yet. Resources would have become a serious problem if Cuba had absorbed millions of refugees from US sponsored Latin American dictatorships & death squads and IMF dictated poverty over the last 47 years.

Cuba does have a significant Haitian refugee community able to escape the (US sponsored) bloodshed and abject poverty in Haiti.

The US just deports Haitians right back to the docks of Port-au-Prince, while at the same time for any and all Cuban migrants who touch US shore (no matter how they get here - smugglers, etc) the US's Cuban Adjustment Act instantly allows instant entry, instant work visa, instant green card status, instant social security, instant access to welfare, instant access to section 8 assisted housing (with a $41,000 income exemption for Cuban expats only), instant food stamps, plus more. In other words.. extra special enhanced social programs designed to entice Cuban expatriation to the USA.

[Judi Lynn]

27. More on illegal/legal immigration:

America's favourite immigrants
01 November 2006

~snip~
Media and critics point to the “large” number of Cubans who have emigrated to the United States as evidence of the lack of legitimacy of the Cuban government. The international media carefully avoid detailed analysis of the 180 years of emigration statistics which exist since the facts would contradict this assertion and bring to light the deceitful and ideological nature behind their arguments.

Before the overthrow of dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959, the flow of immigrants from Cuba to the United States was bigger than that of Central and South America together.

In 1993, the worst moment of the Special Period (when the fall of the Soviet bloc devastated the Cuban economy by removing its largest trading partner overnight) massive immigration into the United States would have been expected, given the geopolitical and economic situation that Cuba had to face. However, that was not the case. In effect, there were only 13,666 immigrants in 1993 compared to 17,156 from Canada, 17,241 from Jamaica, 26,818 from El Salvador – the double – 45,420 from the Dominican Republic – triple – and 126,561 from Mexico, that is, ten times more than from Cuba. That means that in 1993 Cuba occupied only the sixth place among Latin American countries as to immigration into the United States.

1994 was an important year due to the wave of “rafters”, the name given to the Cubans who tried to emigrate using rafts or improvised boats. Those events were widely spread and politicised by the international media to the extent that they were giving the impression that all Cubans were trying to leave the island. What was the reality?

In 1994,there were only 14,727 immigrants, behind Canada, Salvador, Dominican Republic and Mexico. Cuba placed fifth among Latin American countries as to immigration into the United States.

In 2003, there were only 9,304 illegal departures placing Cuba tenth in Latin America behind Peru, Canada, Haiti, Jamaica, Guatemala, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Salvador and Mexico.

Oddly enough, the other nations’ migration has never been given a political nature. For example, in 2003, El Salvador, a country of 5,75 million inhabitants – half the population of Cuba – had three times more immigrants into the United States than Cuba. However, nobody has ever used this element to accuse the Salvadoran government of being totalitarian. And in the case of the countries with more illegal migration than Cuba, there are not any US adjustment laws and that they are not suffering any economic sanctions. In spite of that, nobody has dared to use the argument of migration to describe the authorities of those countries as dictatorial regimes.

All this shows that the migratory argument is not valid in trying to present Cuba as a country whose people are trying to flee. In spite of everything, the western media continues to use it, thus showing that they only aim at ideologically stigmatizing the country.
(snip/...)

http://www.cuba-solidarity.org/cubasi_article.asp?ArticleID=68

[hack89]

20. Do Cubans have the right to unrestricted travel?

Do they have the right to immigrate to any country that would accept them? From your description of Cuba I can't imagine the government restricting such a fundamental right - do you have any stats on legal immigration from Cuba?

[Joe Chi Minh]

7. By 2004, the infant mortality rate had risen to 7/k, as compared to Cuba's 6/k.

I doubt if it's improved.

Education in schools in the UK would certainly never, ever, have been anything like as bad as it has become under Blair. It is apparently a real Blackboard Jungle. And I mean the primary schools, too.

[TomClash]

9. It is very hard for any American to criticize Castro or Che

given the amount of blood on the hands of Americans and their leaders, Democrats and Republicans, serving the cause of Empire for the last 65 years.

[UTUSN]

4. & thence Herbert MATTHEWS begat Judith MILLER...

(journalists sanctioned by a government, ANY government...)

[Judi Lynn]

18. Certain Miami "exiles" learned, quite late in the game, that Herbert Matthews had

followed the revolution in Cuba for the New York Times, and started raging against him with every atom of their beings, such as they are, years ago. It has been hilarious.

It appears that the conservative powers controlling corporate media have come to their assistance, too, and are attempting to rewrite history on their behalf.

Herbert Matthews wrote what he saw, and what he learned, just as any one must who is gathering information. What the right-wing reactionaries are trying to do now is to void the credibility of everything he wrote, which is a fool's errand. Intelligent people will make up their own minds, and who cares about the a-holes?

Here's one of many of his reports:

New York Times
March 14, 1957.p. 1.
Cuba Suppresses Youths’ Uprising; Forty Are Killed
Students Storming Batista’s Palace Routed as Tanks and Troops Attack
By R. Hart Phillips

Special to The New York Times

HAVANA, March 13—Forty youths were reported killed this afternoon in an apparently unsuccessful surprise attempt to overthrow the Batista regime. A number of soldiers and police men also were reported killed.

The youths attacked the Presidential Palace with rifles, machine guns and hand grenades.

They rushed the Colon Street entrance, killed the sergeant on guard, and got inside the palace.

In all, five Government troops were killed in the Palace, according to an official estimate.

The palace guard mowed down some rebels in the patio and on the stairway as they tried to reach the upper floors. Others were killed outside the palace.

Ten Tanks Rushed to City
The army rushed ten tanks, numerous anti-aircraft guns and several thousand troops into the city from near-by Camp Columbia. The reserves were able to lift the siege of the beleaguered Palace garrison before the rebels could succeed in their apparent attempt to kill President Fulgencio Batista.
The attack continued for about two hours, during which firing was heard in many parts of the city. Then the Government announced that order had been restored and that the President and his family were safe.
Tonight the uprising appeared to be over, at least for the time being. However, firing was still reported in the outskirts of the city.

The attack appeared to have been made by student revolutionaries and adherents of former President Carlos Prio Socarros.

Batista Accuses Pro-Reds
Dr. Prio had been ousted in 1952 by the military coup that brought President Batista to power after an absence of several years. The ousted President now lives in Florida.
General Batista attributed today’s attack to a pro-Communist group.
“The people have responded as always in support of the Government to maintain order and peace,” he added.

He said the Cuban public had never supported and would not support pro-Communists.

During the fighting, a United States tourist, Peter Korinda of Clifton, N.J., was killed as he stepped out on the balcony of the Regis Hotel on Colon Street, about two blocks from the palace. He was struck in the neck by a bullet, and he died before he could be taken to a hospital.

Because of the uprising, all airline flights into and out of Cuba were canceled this afternoon. National flights in Cuba also were canceled.

Downtown Havana tonight looked like an armed camp. The streets were barred to civilians. All motion picture theatres and night clubs were closed.

Censorship was established by the Ministry of Communications on radio and television. The order barred the showing of any of the fighting. Only official announcements may be broadcast by radio and television.
(snip/...)

http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/cuban-rebels/NYT-3-14-57.htm

[ohio2007]

21. A plaque that salutes freedom of the press.

hmmmmm...

[Judi Lynn]

22. So many biased articles printed back then, eh? Here's another one:

New York Times

Jan. 4, 1957. p. 16.



Two Found Slain in Cuba
Special to The New York Times



HAVANA, Jan 3 – The bodies of a youth and a man, riddled with bullets, have been found just outside Santiago de Cuba. A total of about thirty bodies have been found in the last two weeks at roadsides and in the streets of Oriente Province.
(snip/)

http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/cuban-rebels/NYT-1-4-57.htm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

New York Times
Feb. 26, 1957


Censorship Ends Today, Cuba Says
Curbs on Press and Radio and Incoming Publications From U.S. Are Lifted


By R. Hart Phillips

Special to The New York Times


HAVANA, Feb. 25 – Censorship of the Cuban press and radio will be lifted tomorrow, according to an announcement today by Dr. Santiago Rey, Minister of Interior.

The curb was imposed Jay. 15, when constitutional guarantees were suspended throughout the island for forty-five days.The latter action was taken to give military authorities a free hand in combating terrorism and protecting the present sugar harvest, the Government said at that time.

The censorship of incoming United States publications will also cease tomorrow.Under this order the police have cut out or blacked out all articles in foreign publications arriving here that referred to revolutionary or terroristic activities in Cuba.The New York Times is among the publications that have been censored frequently.

The lifting of censorship prior to the expiration March 1 of the period for which constitutional guarantees were suspended “is evidence of the feelings and desires of the Chief of State {President Fulgencio Batista} and his sincere devotion to the liberty of the press and freedom of expression,” the statement of the Minister of Interior said.

An attempt to disturb the present sugar crop, create fear and alarm among the public and interrupt the flow of tourists to Cuba by terrorism and sabotage “has been frustrated by the energetic and efficient action of the armed forces,” Dr. Rey said.He termed as communistic the youthful revolutionary movement known as the 26th of July.

The movement is led by Fidel Castro, who landed an expedition on the south coast of Oriente Province last December and is still fighting against Government troops in the Sierra Maestra there.

The continuing terroristic campaign became island-wide shortly after the suppression by Government troops of a short-lived rebellion in Santiago de Cuba and the landing of the Castro expedition.

Times Articles Censored
Among the news items cut by Cuban censors from United States newspapers arriving on the island were articles in The Times of Sunday and Monday about rebel activity and other opposition to the regime of President Fulgencio Batista.Among these were articles written by Herbert L. Matthews who visited Cuba for ten days and met leaders of the rebels.
(snip/)

http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/cuban-rebels/NYT-2-26-57.htm

Apparently the right-wing reactionaries have forgotten to smear journalist R. Hart Phillips, but that will be corrected, as well, by the right-wing history re-writers.

[Judi Lynn]

23. Interesting look at Fulgencio Batista, by a N.Y. Times unnamed reporter:

The New York Times
April 23, 1957.p. 18.


Batista Insistent He’s No Dictator
Cuba’s President Ridicules Opponents’ Charge, Saying the ‘People Embrace Me’
HAVANA, April 22 (AP)—President Fulgencio Batista laughed when told that his political opponents called him a “dictator.”

“Yes, I’ve often heard that,” he said, “but I think the only dictatorship around here is that which my beloved wife and four sons exert upon me.”

The stocky Cuban President, confident that his political enemies cannot succeed in overthrowing his Government by revolt, announced the restoration of full constitutional guarantees a week ago after a lapse of forty-five days.

In an interview with an Associated Press correspondent in the heavily guarded and sandbagged Presidential Palace, where a small band of revolutionaries attempted to kill him March 13, the President said the constitutional guarantees had been suspended to “protect the people against terrorism.”

Palace Strongly Guarded
Troops and police, armed with machine guns, pistols and automatic rifles, and men of the presidential escort, Cuba’s secret service, were everywhere around the entrances.The big palace covers almost a city square.
Getting in is not an easy job.But once in President Batista’s spacious office with its long French-style windows bordered with red and gold draperies, one finds a man who never hedges on a question.

Sitting behind a big mahogany desk, he talked easily in English.

“I would like to know,” he said “how I could be a dictator.Everywhere I go, people embrace me, and I know the people are happy and with me.”

“There has never been a military man in my Cabinet.There are no restrictions on freedom of speech, freedom of press, freedom of religion.There are no concentration camps in this country.The Congress can override any legislation I might veto, or refuse to pass what I want passed.

“There is no libel law in Cuba.Everybody says what they want.Is this what dictatorship means?”

The President estimated that Fidel Castro, 30-year-old former Havana university student who is attempting to wage guerrilla warfare in Oriente Province, had only “a handful” of supporters.The President said he doubted they were hiding out in the Sierra Maestra and suggested they had found concealment in villages.

“Castro is a natural criminal,” the President declared.“He is a Communist sympathizer and was involved in Communist student activities in Bogota in 1948.

“I do not understand why he can be compared to a Robin Hood, as he has been in some newspapers.”

President Batista said President Carlos Prio Socarras, now in Miami, Fla., had spent $5,000,000 to $6,000,000 in buying and shipping arms into Cuba to be used in revolutionary attempts.The President said Government employees had opened every box or package coming into the country to see if it contained arms while Constitutional guarantees were suspended.

“We have seized arms flowing into this country—from Prio sources—valued at more than $3,000,000 in the last two or three years,” he said.

Referring to the heavily guarded palace the interviewer asked President Batista if he kept a pistol in his desk.

“And, why not?”He laughed, reaching into a drawer and pulling out what looked like a small .25-caliber pistol.

The weapon spat fire as he pulled the trigger four times.An unarmed military aide charged into the room.

“Just practicing,” President Batista explained smilingly as he laid the top cap pistol upon his desk.
(snip/...)

http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/cuban-rebels/NYT-4-23-57.htm



http://www.historyofcuba.com/history/funfacts/batist.htm

[rcdean]

26. Thank you for posting these.

Anything from after Jan 1, 1959? (Wasn't that the day Batista fled?)

[Judi Lynn]

28. It would seem logical to imagine the paper withdrew the special correspondents

they had sent specifically to cover the revolution.

The whole internet is available if you want to spend your time doing your research.

[Judi Lynn]

29. How about a look at one event through the eyes of a N.Y. Times reporter,

an American fighting WITH the rebels in Cuba, and a photograph?

First, the article published in the N. Y. Times:

New York Times

Aug. 1, 1957. p. 8.

Cuban Women Defy Jets of Fire Hoses To Attack Regime

Special to The New York Times

HAVANA, July 31 – About 200 women demonstrated against the Government at the City Hall of Santiago de Cuba this morning. The demonstration occurred while United States Ambassador Earl E. T. Smith received the keys to the city.

The demonstration was broken up by the police and soldiers. More than thirty women were arrested.

The women, many of them dressed in black, gathered in Cespedes Park in front of the City Hall shortly after the Ambassador entered the building. They began chanting “Freedom! Freedom!” When the police attempted to disperse them they shouted “assassins!” at the police. Soldiers were called out and a fire truck brought to the scene began drenching the women with water.

Some of the demonstrators fled but the majority knelt in the street and remained firm against the streams of water. They were cheered by several thousand persons who gathered on near-by sidewalks and balconies.

When the Ambassador emerged from the building the drenched women who were still waiting for him tried to reach his automobile but were kept back by the police and the soldiers.

Ambassador Smith deplored the “excessive action of the police” who dispersed the demonstration.

In a press conference this afternoon in Santiago he expressed his regret that his presence in Santiago “may have been the cause of a public demonstration which has brought on police retaliation.”

“Any sort of excessive police action is abhorrent to me,” he said.

The Santiago authorities had assured him that the women detained this morning had been released, he said.

Santiago de Cuba is the center of rebellious activity against the Government of President Fulgencio Batista. Seventy miles to the west of the city Fidel Castro, rebel leader, and his band of insurgents are operating in the Sierra Maestra.

Ambassador Smith, accompanied by Mrs. Smith and several embassy staff members in Havana, arrived in Santiago de Cuba this morning.

Meanwhile in Havana the police dispersed a demonstration of more than 100 lawyers in the Vedado residential section at noon by the use of clubs and shots fired into the air.

The lawyers had gathered to visit a television station near by to protest against the failure of the Government to remove Col. Ugalde Carillo, chief of the Isle of Pines prison, who is accused of having mistreated political prisoners.

About sixty young political prisoners in the Principe Fortress jail in Havana have been on a hunger strike for thirteen days in protest against Colonel Ugalde.
(snip/)

http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/cuban-rebels/NYT-8-1-57.htm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A personal account, from the Miami Herald, in the words of one of the young Yanqui Fidelistas (the three men were interviewed on a 60 Minutes show one time a few years ago, like around 1999 or 2000):

~snip~

Soldini was a Brooklyn street kid whose Italian dad was a Wobbly (a
member of the radical Workers of the World labor union)
and whose mom was an Irish nationalist, recovering at home after
being shot in the neck while fighting for Raul Castro's Second Front.

"In January 1957, I was a young kid looking for a cause," says
Soldini, who still talks with all the ardor of youth.

"If it had been 1938 I would have enlisted with the Abraham Lincoln
Brigade . I had hitchhiked around the
U.S., hanging out with beatniks. And then I ran into a Sgt. Baldazano
recruiting for the U.S. Army. After listening to me, he said, "I'm
surprised you didn't sign up with the guy who invaded Cuba.'

"Cuba? Cuba? I checked and sure as hell there was a guy called Fidel
Castro."

But how to get to Cuba? Soldini got a job as a pipe fitter at
Bethlehem Steel and saved his money. He got to Santiago de Cuba and
began trying to make contact with M-26 in bars. "I told them I had
military experience, which was bullsh--."

And then Frank Pais, an M-26 leader still mourned by the Cuban state,
was killed by Batista's police. He went to the funeral where fire
hoses were being used to disperse the mourners. "I got through the
lines and ran up to Smith and started
yelling at him about Batista. Next day the Army told me to get out."
(snip/...)

http://www.blythe.org/nytransfer-subs/Radical_Politics/America's_Yanqui_Fidelistas

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Photos:

Street protest in Santiago de Cuba in 1957.



Santiago rebel women demonstrate during Ambassador Earl Smith's visit to the city.



Santiago women welcome Ambassador
Earl Smith during his visit to the city.



Police hose disperses women
demonstrators in Santiago.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Another reference to the same event, with only a couple of details:

January 2. In Santiago, four youths are found dead in an empty building, including 14-year old William Soler. They had been arrested as suspects in revolutionary activities and tortured.

January 4. A procession of five-hundred women dressed in black, headed by William Soler's mother, moves slowly through the streets of Santiago. They carry a banner: "Stop the murders of our sons."
(snip)

http://www.antillania.com/Cuba_Before_the_Revolution.htm

[Judi Lynn]

30. Is this N.Y. Times article on events during the Cuban Revolution

more puffery to be laid at the feet of Herbert Matthews?

The New York Times

August 2, 1957. p. 1,5.

Batista Suspends Civil Guarantees
Decree of Cuban President Reimposes Censorship—New Violence Flares

By R. Hart Phillips

Special to The New York Times.

HAVANA, Aug. 1—Constitutional guarantees were suspended throughout Cuba today for forty-five days as violence flared against the Government.

Censorship of press and radio including foreign correspondents, went into effect immediately under a decree by President Fulgencio Batista. All publications entering Cuba from the United States and other countries were made subject to censorship.

Meanwhile, Santiago de Cuba was paralyzed by a general strike as anti-Government feeling mounted there.

At the same time, the displeasure of the Cuban Government with Ambassador Earl E. T. Smith of the United States was indicated by a communiqué from the Presidential Palace.

The statement quoted Senator José Gozales Suente, leader of President Batista’s National Progressive party in the Senate, as having said:

“In relation with events in Santiago de Cuba and statements by the American Ambassador, the Republic of Cuba rejects and repudiates any interference in matters of Cuban sovereignty and laments that under the protection of a situation created by criminal, terroristic and politically ambitious elements, the functions of a diplomatic representative in a country which enjoys full sovereignty may become confused.”

Reports circulated persistently that the Minister of State, Gonzalo Guell, had urgently requested Ambassador Smith to visit him in regard to statements made by the Ambassador in Santiago de Cuba. The Ambassador is now in Santiago de Cuba and expects to return here Saturday.

Mr. Smith in a press conference at Santiago de Cuba Wednesday deplored “excessive action of the police,” who dispersed a demonstration while he was receiving the keys to the city. About 200 women demonstrated against the Batista Government at the City Hall. The police and soldiers broke up the demonstration and arrested more than thirty women.

Rebels Hit Army Posts
The women, many dressed in black chanted “freedom! freedom!” They were drenched with fire hoses.

Santiago de Cuba is the center of rebellious activity against the Batista Government. Seventy miles west of the city Fidel Castro, rebel leader, and his band of insurgents are operating in the Sierra Maestra.
(snip/...)http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/cuban-rebels/NYT-8-2-57.htm

Obviously not, as it was written by ANOTHER N. Y. Times reporter. (Maybe Herbert Matthews made him do it!)

New York Times

Sept. 4, 1957. p. 3.

Batista Rejects Bid to End Press Curbs

HAVANA, Sept. 3 (AP) – President Fulgencio Batista has rejected an Inter-American Press Association appeal to lift Government censorship of Cuba’s press and radio. He told association representatives last night that censorship would be maintained “only as long as the Government deems it necessary.”

President Batista was asked by the association’s president, Gullermo Martinez Marquez and Jules Dubois, chairman of it’s freedom of expression committee, to abolish controls set up when the Government suspended constitutional guarantees Aug. 1.
(snip)

http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/cuban-rebels/NYT-9-4-57.htm