Rebels Execute 71 Batista Followers

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28793, 14 January 1959, Page 11

Rebels Execute 71 Batista Followers

SANTIAGO (Cuba), January 12. Seventy-one Cubans, including police officials, soldiers, spies and informers, all said to be working for the fallen Batista regime, were executed today by rebels in Santiago, the American Associated Press reported. They were shot in a field used for target practice about a mile outside the city. Rebels showed the Associated Press correspondent the mass where they were buried. Rebel officers said those executed included four sentenced to death by a military tribunal at dawn today. The rebels said the prisoners were brought to the field in lorries, lined up along a 10ft wide, 10ft deep trench dug by a bulldozer and shot with rifles and semi-automatic weapons. Three priests jvere present. The executions started before dawn and continued for seven hours; As each group was shot, officers passed along the trench firing a “coup de grace” shot into the head of each prisoner executed One prisoner made a break for freedom, but was captured and shot dead in a wooded area about a half mile away.

Three hours after the executions, the trench had been filled in with a heap of nqw earth. The only signs of the executions were lorry tracks and a few cartridge cases 20 yards from the 40-yard long trench. Rebel officers said some prisoners smoked while awaiting execution, while others protested that they were actually members of the rebel movement.

Most stood stiff ,to attention,* not blindfolded, with arms straight at their sides, while awaiting the firing squad.