Leaders In Profile CUBA’S DICTATOR FEARS THE ASSASSIN

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28536, 15 March 1958, Page 2

Leaders In Profile CUBA’S DICTATOR FEARS THE ASSASSIN

[By

SIMON KAVANAUGH}

LONDON. Fulgencio Batista y Zaldivar was an Army sergeant one tday—and virtual dictator of Cuba the next. '

, That was in 1933. Drop the word “virtual,” insert “frightened,” throw in a few hundred bul-let-torn corpses, and the situation is up-to-date. For Cuba’s President Batista, today a chubby, slick-haired 57, has used Very Important Corpses as stepping stones on his bloody path to absolute dictatorship. Batista—one-time tailor’s assistant, bartender, barber, cane-cut-ter, grocery clerk, and railroad mechanic —is so frightened bf assassination that even his best friends do not know his destination when he sets out from the Presidential Palace in Havana. He gives his chauffeur directions as they go along. His four-storey palace is a fortress, Troops and police armed with automatic rifles, grenades, and pistols, patrol the area. To get too close to any of the palace entrances means a challenge at gunpoint. Fulgencio Batista shares the “privelege,” with the Dominican Republic’s towering Rafael Leonida Trujillo, of being one of the last in, the long line of Latin America’s dictators.

Gone are Argentina’s get-rich-quick Juan Peron (exiled), Brazil’s Getulio Vargas (suicide), Nicaragua’s immensely rich Anastasio Somoza (assassinated), Haiti’s Paul E. Magloire (fled in 1956), Colombia’s violently repressive Gustavo Pinilla (exiled), Honduras’ Julio Lozano (exiled; died in Florida last year), Panama’s Jose Remon (assassinated), and Venezuela’s Perez Jimenez (ousted this year; now the guest of Dictator Trujillo). Batista may be the next to go. For, less than a day’s drive from Havana’s palm-lined boulevards, the Cuban Army is shooting it out with a growing band of rebels. , Fulgencio Batista was born of poor parents on September 12, 1899, in the dusty little town of Banes, across the island from Havana. Orphaned at 11 At 11, he was orphaned. He became a tailor’s assistant, then tried his hqnd at other trades until, at 20, he joined the Cuban Army. He was a private, and then a corporal. But he did t not waste his time. In an army in which almost all the “other ranks” were illiterate, Batista kept books under his bunk, learned shorthand, and soon could jot down 180 words a minute. After 12 years of service he was promoted to sergeant and assigned to courtsmartial. In this work Batista handled secret papers, met officers, and studied the network, of command. He travelled widely throughout the island and soon became well known.

Then —on August 12, 1933 —the army’s high command overthrew the corrupt tyranny of President Gerardo Machado.- The country teetered on the brink of anarchy. Sergeant Batista heard his call. He quietly contacted other noncommissioned officers and, with them, hatched a plot.

Less than a month after Machado’s defeat, the little Sergeant Batista, pistol in hand, stumped into army headquarters at Camp Columbia and calmly told officers of the high command that they were no longer in the army.

At the same moment, the sergeants of Cuba’s army took command. The troops willingly obeyed their orders. Batista, as the leader of the N.C.O.’s revolt, was now in control of Cuba—and He remained for 11 years, making and unmaking five puppet presidents. Political murders became commonplace. Honest Election In 1940, Batista himself became president. He served for four years, and then, in 1944, shocked his opponents by standing down while his hand-picked candidates fought an honest election. Surprise, surprise! The candidate was defeated. A leftist government took the reins. Batista hurried into exile in Florida.

Cuba was again wide open' to graft and mass-murder. Under the succeeding regimes of the constitutionaly elected Presidents Ramon Grau San Martin and Carlos Frio Socarras, rival gangs slaughtered some 100 political victims. Both regimes milked Cuba of millions in graft. One revolt sowed the seeds of another. Young officers were resentful because the army’s power was waning.

Meanwhile. Batista ran in absentia for senator from Las Villas province. He won. And returned to Cuba.

In 1952, the young army officers asked him to lead a new revolt. Batista obliged. On March 10, heading a group of 15 men, Batista repeated his “sergeant’s act.” Again he entered Camp Columbia, again he told the officers they were no longer in command. Again he seized power. President Carlos Prio Socarras fled the country. The cunning Batista tried a new approach. During his first regime he had us?d the mailed fist. It

came crashing down on antiBatista groups—killing, imprisoning, banishing, ruining. Now, jn 1952, the reformed Batista said: “I’m 20 years smarter. No-one will be persecuted. We ask only co-operation.” But he ■ did not get it —at least not from the increasingly dissident middle-class. Opposition groups sprang up. Their members were Rotarians, doctors, and lawyers. Everything was above board.

But talks with strong man Batista got them nowhere. They tried military action, but it was half-hearted, and Batista easily squashed it. Then they turned to a young Spanish graduate, Fidef Castro, who was active around Santiago. Castro had started a “Get rid of Batista” movement, been taken orisoner, and exiled to Mexico. But he did not stay there long. He soon gathered an “invasion force” of 81 men and set sail for Cuba in a 62ft yacht. But when they landed, all his soldiers were seasick and many were so ill they could not walk. They were an easy mark for Batista’s machine gunners. The survivors fled to the bramble and pine forests of the impenetrable Sierra Maestra range, where they lived on donations from political sympathisers. Then, in December last year —one year after his “invasion” —the bearded Castro and his new army of 600 rebels swept down from their hideout and fell upon pro-Batista townships. Today, that force has swollen into army-strength. The dictator who a year ago, last December, laughed in derision at the seasick “invaders” is no longer derisive. Two months ago, he wept as a guard of honour buried one of his top commanders, the former rebel. Colonel Fermin Cowley. Batista is used to uninterrupted and unchallenged power. He cannot put down the revolt. He has managed only to spur it on by clumsy counter-terror ism that has driven thousands of Cubans from apathy to deadly opposition.

Irresponsible policemen in Havana murdered Pelayo Cuervo Navarro, a highly respected and non-violent leader of the antiBatista Orthodox Party. A young boy, suspected of bomb-throwing, was mutilated by Batista’s policemen in Santiago He died.

The fury gathered as 80,000 mourning Cubans marched to the funeral of a young schoolteacher who had been shot dead by policemen. In February this year, Castro brought his battle spectacularly before the eyes of the world with his kidnapping of world champion racing driver Juan Fangio on the eve of the Cuban Grand Prix. Un typically, it was an ever-so-gentle affair, with the released Fangio, unharmed and harbouring no' resentment, refusing to describe his (kidnappers. But apart from this velvetglove manoeuvre, Castro is himself overstepping the mark. Many Cubans are already tiring of his unremitting violence.

They have an unhappy choice. On the one hand, DictatorPresident Batista says he, and no one else, is ruling Cuba. On the other, Fidel Castro says that he, and no one else, will rule Cuba when Batista falls. One thing is certain in all this. For Batista, it is too late for halfmeasures.