THE TRUE LIFE OF REBEL CASTRO
[GENTE Magazine, Vol. 1, Havana, January 5, 1958, No. 1, American Edition]
Page 34-A
THE TRUE LIFE OF REBEL CASTRO
PHOTO CAPTION - While
"Look" magazine proclaims the "justice" of Castro, who spends his time
murdering defenceless [defenseless] peasants it doesn't bother to
write-up cases like this, where medical personnel belonging to the
Cuban army looks after sick peasants and shows them how to live more
hygienically. While Castro's groups set fire to sugar cane, which
is private property, and burn schools where farm children get free
education, the Cuban army has organized messes for the Sierra peasants,
in the furthermost parts of the region, and keeps first aid hospitals
running to care for the families of the "guajiros" –as peasants are
called in Cuba–and has set up schools–protecting them from the attacks
of Castro's bandits –where the children of this remote part of the
country are being taught.
Page 34-B
PHOTO CAPTION - In
Cuban army jeeps, journalists representing all the Cuban newspapers and
magazines, set off for the heart of the Sierra Maestra. Under
regular army protection, the Cuban press was able to note the
difference between national troops and the bands of desperadoes led by
the declares pro-communist Fidel Castro. The Cuban press enjoys
complete freedom, and if Cuban newspapermen don't meet up with Fidel
Castro, it is because they fear the way the groups of bandits he leads
may act, living as they do outside any law, human or divine.
The eyes of Cuba have been focused on the Sierra Maestra for the past
14 months. But the Sierra region is still relatively unknown to
the majority of Cubans who know of its topography only from what little
they remember of Cuban geography.
The zone in which the band of Fidel Castro is playing hide-and-seek is
some 30 kilometers from north to south and some 80 kilometers from east
to west. Deep ravines, high ridges, impenetrable jungle, caves
every-where, sudden and torrential rains and a humid cold at night mud
and mosquitos. This is the small zone of operations. Not
even the Mambis found refuge there during the three wars of liberation.
When the Army General Staff, under the humane orders of President
Fulgencio Batista, called a truce to permit Fidel Castro's followers to
give themselves up, the troops called up for the operation were
withdrawn and returned to Havana.
Later, when the wave of terrorism continued troughout [throughout] the
island, the government, to guarantee the normality of the sugar harvest
which was without doubt the most important of recent years, sent new
troops to Oriente.
The Cuban Army received reports later substantiated of the association
of the Castro band with an organization similar to the
Mau-Mau. This organization was headed by a group of fugitives
under the command of Crescencio Perez, an old cattle thief who had
taken refuge in the Sierra and for years had become an outlaw, ruling
over several isolated village in which he maintained a series of harems.
These spots, far removed from civilization, are magnificent refuges for
fugitives from the law but, as can been seen by the GENTE photographs,
are only tiny villages without population, industries or
communication. In no way can they effect the stability of the
country or cause particular trouble for the Cuban government.
They have serve only as a surprise for "Look", "Life", "Time" and other
publications which, for purposes of journalistic speculation, have
swallowed the Communist bait and give publicity to rebel groups
supposedly nationalist or heroic in designation but which are really
following the instructions of Moscow.
Now it is known that rebel who crosses the wilds of the Sierra Maestra
in search of an avenue of escape from his pursuers maintains strong
bonds with the Communist Party which operates clandestinely on the
island.
Fidel Castro Ruiz is the last man to receive amnesty under a Law of
Pardon issued by Batista. He left his cell in the Isle of Pine's
Modelo prison to conspire in exile against constitutional power and to
organize the expedition of the "Gramma" and his flight through the
jungle to Pico Turquino in open cooperation with the known Reds of the
Communist Committee of the Caribbean.
His relations with the URRS [USSR] are not new nor were they forged in
the elegant nightclubs of the Aztec city. Nine years ago Fidel
Castro participated in the insurrectional revolt in Bogota by Caribbean
Communist elements as a member of the International Students' Union, a
affiliate of the World Federation of Democratic Youth, a Communist
youth unit with an international radius of operation and whose leader
in Cuba was Abelardo Adan.
Page 34-C
PHOTO CAPTION - During
the conference of the American States, held in Bogota, Colombia, in
1948, the Communists attempted to create chaos with the explicit
purpose of frustrating the policy of the panamerican union sponsored by
the U.S. State Department. They did this through the murder of
the Colombian leader Jorge Eliecer Gaytan and pillaging of the
city. Among the Communist who took part in the revolt was Fidel
Castro (shown by arrow in the photo) who, accompanied by others, was in
the city to help Communist students gets behind the Iron Curtain for
the first "Youth Festival" which were sponsored by the Kremlin.
The ISU held a meeting that year in Prague. To prepare the
meeting and to collect they money for the trips of the student
communists to the congress, the FEU named a number of students to work
with students of other national groups to send delegates to various
Latin American universities.
There object was: During the ninth meeting of the American States, the Mexican student meeting would.
Fidel Castro left in a group which included Rafael del Pino, who is
today in the pay of Carlos Prio, and Alfredo Guevara. By express
instructions of the National Committee of Socialist Youth, to which he
secretly belonged, he passed for an Orthodox in the university and had
listed on his passport several trips behind the Iron Curtain.
Fidel Castro's role in Colombia in those days of revolt is well
expressed in the United Press story as published in Havana newspapers
on April 20, 1948, and which is reproduced here under the title of "Two
Cubans Were Distributing Weapons". By Lacides Orozco, U.P.
correspondent;
"I was in t he Hotel Claridge, where I stay in Bogota, that day.
While I was seated in the hallway two detectives arrived and asked me
for the manager. When they were recesived [received] in his
office they said they were looking for two Cubans, Fidel Castro and
Rafael del Pino, who had stayed in the hotel and had left on Friday,
April 16, taking their baggage with them.
"The detectives took the Cubans' correspondence which they opened in
the presence of this correspondent and which showed that Castro and del
Pino had been directing the pillaging of April 9, shortly after the
assassination of the liberal leader Jorge Eliecer Gaitan.
"The correspondence has shown that both Cubans belonged to the
Communist Party and the letters were dated in Havana April 9 mentioned
the events in Bogota.
"A letter directed to Castro on white paper –it was supposed to have
been written in invisible ink– was taken to a laboratory and deciphered
after first being chemically treated.
"The two Cubans arrived at the Hotel Claridge on March 31 an told the
manager that they belonged to a student group which was to attend the
ninth conference of the American States. Neither of them visited
the Cuban Embassy.
"The first accounts report that Castro an del Pino were seen that Friday armed with rifles".
The "Intelligence Digest" also makes the following statements.
"Fidel Castro is presented as the leader of the democratic forces in
Cuba. But he and his whole general staff have strong Communist
affiliations. His general staff is made up of Candido Gonzalez
Morales, Santiago Diaz Gonzalez, Ernesto Guevara Senra, Alberto Bayo
Giroud and Victor Trapote.
"Gonzalez Morales is the head of Castro's propaganda service and has
been am ember of the Cuban Communist Party. He has shown some
skill in public relations work for his union movement, which is
infiltrated by Communists.
"Diaz Gonzalez also is a young man, supervises the indoctrination of
the rebel forces. He is a member of the youth section of the
Cuban Communist Party.
Page 34-D
PHOTO CAPTION - Bewhiskered
Fidel Castro who on his own hook dispenses "justice" in the mountains,
is the same man who started out pillaging in Bogota on the orders of
the Communist Party. He now continues his work as a Red agent
creating problems, murdering and robbing in the Sierra Maestra of
Cuba. All his acts are directed by confessed Communists, among
whom is the international Communist agent "Che" Guevara, an Argentine.
"Victor Trapote is a veteran of the Spanish Civil War and claims to be
an artist. He is the international liaison man in the Castro
forces and has had considerable experience in this type of work with
various Communist groups. He is a mysterious figure and some
suspect that he is the real political chief of the rebel movement.
"Guevara Senra, the rebels' personnel chief, is an Argentine doctor who
left his country with Juan Jose Arevalo when the latter became
Communist dictator of Guatemala. Guevara Senra played an
important role in the Arbenz government and fled to Mexico after the
triumph of the revolution headed by Castillo Armas. He became a
prominent member of the Ruso-Mexican Cultural Institute. Besides
his activities in support of the Cuban rebels, he had helped the
Communist Forces in the Dominican Republic and in Panama, his name
having been associated with the murder of President Remon.
The preparation of the coup alone cost the Communists a lot of money, a
large part of which was put up by former President Carlos Prio. The
bulk of the economic aid comes from Russian and Chinese source, and is
channeled through secret groups in several Latin American nations
including Costa Rica, Chile and Argentina. From the start of the
revolt these funds have been brought into Cuba and are financing not
only the operations in Oriente Province but also subversive activities
in other parts of the island.
"Evidence exists that during the month of August Russian submarines
have on two occasions discharged munitions for the Castro forces on the
shores of Cuba".
The information contained in "Look" is so limited and supercial that it
appears to be the impression of an amateur or a tourist. Castro
is so well known in Cuba that now that the American newspapermen have
become tired of going up to visit him no Cuban publication has sent
representatives into the Sierra to interview him for its readers.
The photographs of Bogota and the cables show the man's early and
bloody background. The reports are not those of a government but
rather those of a news agency which daily submits its crude reports
against the Cuban government. Also the Intelligence Digest, is a
well-known monthly publication which is inspired by the security of the
West and which "from Havana" has made an objective and impartial report
with sufficient serious and first hand material.
Regardless of the fact in itself, he is harshly judged by the Cuban
citizenry which repudiates all bloody deeds. Look only gave
partial reports instead of investigating with more thoroughness.
Had it done so it would have reported that those who have remained in
the Sierra with Castro as his guides have been a group of rustlers
living outside the law and that the conditions of things represents for
them an escape from their roles as fugitives into a revolutionary
society.
Cuban justice has also criticized the cave-dwelling act of killing a
prisoner with a "coup de grace" in a nation where the death penalty
does not exist in accordance with old Latin tradition. For what
purpose are the courts of justice established if not to apply the
law. Who are the rebels to be both actors and judges of the Cuban
drama?
Page 34-E
PHOTO CAPTION - The
death of any persons at the hands of another, without the consent of
the lay courts or in self-defense, has only one name: murder. But
for "Look" magazine –or a least for its reporter– the shooting of these
two peasants, carried out by the bandits who follow Fidel Castro, is
"revolutionary justice". The death penalty does not exist in
Cuba, and in any case, except in self defense, homicide is punished by
imprisonment. Meanwhile, scot free in jungle style, guided by the
brigands he says he is persecuting, Fidel Castro is wallowing in an
orgy of murders just suited to the taste of his communist teachers in
the field of political agitation. The photo shows the tragic
death throes of two Cubans, victims of the criminal madness and
pro-communist agitation which are being played up by the irresponsible
reporters of some magazine and newspaper.
PHOTO CAPTION - Whit
[with] his "field cap", a Cuban murdered by Fidel Castro lies tied to a
post. This blood cries out for justice, but justice will only be
possible when Fidel Castro faces a Cuban law court. Deplorable
deeds of this kind are being lauded irresponsibly by reporters
belonging to publications that are substantially unacquainted with the
root of Cuban problems and the grim life-story of Fidel Castro, who,
while he says he is persecuting the bandits in this part of the
country, has appointed as "Captain" of his band Cresencio Perez, a
common highwayman that the regular Cuban police have been after for
several years.
PHOTO CAPTION - Liquidating
in the sinister style of the N.K.V.D. –a method he learned from his
Communist accomplices– is Fidel Castro's method of maintaining fear
among the people of the Sierra Maestra. Although the superficial
information of the "Look" magazine says the men assassinated by Castro
are delinquents, in Cuba we all know that although Castro may escape
the Cuban Rural Guard thanks to the aid of desperados who for years
have fled from Cuba justice and who know all the natural hidding
[hiding] places in the Sierra –how is he going to kill his accomplices?
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