CUBA
SIN, GIN and
SOVIETISM
[REF:
Focus, August 1952, Vol. 2, No. 8, pages 5-8]
Page 5
CUBA: SIN, GIN and
SOVIETISM
[To see a full size photo, right click and VIEW IMAGE]
[caption] ... Where rhumba
is king – and Batista is boss.
When chesty Gen. Fulgencio Batista marched into Havana with
tanks and
armored cars last March 10, deposed President Carlos Prio
sped off to
Florida. Cuba's honest citizens hoped that he carried
with him
Page 6
all the graft and corruption that had made his regime the
worst in
Cuba's sinful political history. Their hopes were in
vain: This
rich land of sugar cane and rhumba has jumped straight from
Prio's
frying pan into Batista's fire.
For, as one cynical Cuban-in-the-know put it "Sin and graft
is official
policy in Cuba–no matter who is in power." The great
fear is that
Batista may add new, dangerous wrinkles to fabric of Cuban
corruption.
Cynical Citizens of
Sugarland Are So Used
to Government Of, By,
ForGraft-RichPolitos
That They May Never
See The New Menace
Until It's Too Late
[To see a full size photo, right click and VIEW IMAGE]
[caption] Batista and
family: from fleshpots of Florida to fleshier pots of
Havana.
Since taking office as "friendly dictator" Batista has put
on a good
clean-up show. He has just recently announced the
smashing of an
international drug ring, which transported vast amounts of
cocaine into
the U.S. under the immunity of Cuba's diplomatic seal.
Said
Batista, "Some of the highest officers of previous
governments were
known users of and traffickers in cocaine." Batista
even claimed
to have found a store of cocaine in Prio's desk.
(Significantly,
however, Batista hasn't laid a finger on Prio's 3
million-dollar
Page 7
estate -- thus returning courtesy which Prio extended to him
when
Batista was out of power – and in spite of fact that Prio
built his
showplace while his official earnings only totaled modest
$25,000 a
year!)
But Batista's lip service to reform couldn't conceal these
grim facts:
(1) Right after reassuming power, Batista handed control of
the
National lottery to the same lieutenant who had milked it
dry in
Batista's earlier regime; (2) Regulation of Customs –
another rich
source of graft – was given to the army, branch of
government most
notorious for boodling; (3) Government costs – so
outrageously padded
during Prio presidency – show no sign that Batista will put
end to
political profiteering, bribery, outright theft of public
funds; (4)
Batista's newly-formed, 700-member Consultative Council
would appear to
be a new and ingenious method of "taking care of the boys"
at public
expense; (5) Two former chiefs of big U.S. gambling
syndicate, driven
out of States by gambling tax, have just set up shop in
Havana's Casino
Nacional – making the fourth such establishment to be taken
over by
U.S. gambling kingpins (most ominous fact: these men
apparently came to
Cuba by official invitation).
[To see a full size photo, right click and VIEW IMAGE]
[caption] The national lottery: Man in the street takes
chance on the big prize, but for Cuba's politicians, it's
a sure thing.
Darkest prospect of all in Batista regime: the new Dictator
has started
reaction which may throw Cuba (vital bastion in Caribbean)
into
Communist hands.
Page 8
Cause of this concern: Severance of diplomatic relations
with Batista
by Soviet Union–coupled with Batista's head-on attack on
Socialista
Popular (Cuban Communist party). If, as is rumored,
Batista
drives Socialista completely underground, Cuba is in for
trouble that
will make past seven years' corruption look like Sunday
School
picnic. Headed by party President Juan Marinello, they
may lure
vast numbers of non-Communists to their side by pointing at
Batista's
dictatorial suppression of traditional Cuban freedoms.
[To see a full size photo, right click and VIEW IMAGE]
[caption] Communist
May Day rioter being carried away: a bloody warning to
Fulgencio Batista?
If Communist party can play upon this sort of popular
resentment long
enough, it may come to a boil, bring a revolution that will
sweep Reds
into power.
Focus warns Dictator Batista to reform before it's too
late–to give his
good people more democracy, less corruption and vice.
Otherwise,
all his sins will come back to haunt him, and their color
will be red –
the red of communism and the red of blood.
End of Page
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1998-2014 Cuban Information Archives. All Rights
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