Decatur Daily Democrat, Volume 61, Number 61, Decatur, Adams County, 13 March 1963 — Page 11

WEDNESDAY, MARCH tt, 106 t

Former Cuba Prison Inmate Tells Story

By EDDY SUAREZ KIVAS Written Fer UH MIAMI (UPI) — For me, the 1962 prison revolt on the Isle of Pines proved one thing that Miami’s huge—and divided-exile colony should heed: Unity can defeat the Fidel Castro regime. The 6,000 prisoners of varied political and cultural backgrounds on the island prison put their differences aside when they began a hunger strike for human conditions last May 21. On Tuesday morning, May 22, the second day of the strike, we asked the 400 men in the "rebabilitation” section to join us and thus paralyze all prison activities. These men were political prisoners who worked at such jobs as cooking, office work, painting and general maintenance. Had they complied, the prison would have been brought to a complete halt. Serve As Cooks Among other vital services, these men cooked all the food consumed by the garrison. Only about 25 of the 400 joined us. When news of their decision reached prison authorities guards were sent rushing into the two rectangular buildings in which they were quartered, beat them, threw them out and later brought them back, on the double, some completely nude and others clad only in under shorts, for transfer to No. 1 building. As they entered we sang, the Cuban national anthem and gave them a wild round of applause. On Wednesday (May 23) the rehabilitation groups had a visit scheduled from their families. It was to be held in the huge circu-lar-shaped dining room with a seating capacity for 6,000 persons. It was situated only some 15 yards from the cluster of prison buildings. Move Meeting Place Prison officials, in an effort to keep the strike a secret from the visitors, decided to transfer the meeting (dace to the administration building which is about 70 yards away. However, they underestimated the prisoners’ inventive capacities. As the visitors flowed into the prison compound they saw signs painted on sheets and odd pieces of cloth. There even was a hastily prepared Cuban Flag —painted with mercurochrome and throat medicine—hanging from cell Windows. The signs told of the strike and asked the Cuban people to protest the inhumane treatment in the prison. During the four-hour visiting period relays of prisoners yelled, yelled themselves hoarse with short speeches in a further effort to inform the visitors of our plight. Efforts Succeed We learned later that our efforts had been successful. In Havana. hundreds of women subsequently congregated before the presidential palace in> a protest against existing conditions at the prison. They were dispersed by militia units who doused them

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with water and roughed them up. By midday Wednesday many of ■ the older men, and those who ! were ill before the start of the . strike, began to collapse. Soon the . “Red Cross’* clinic was filled to . capacity. The water reserves ran out that ! morning and the situation was bei coming desperate. From that day on we decided to sing the Cuban national anthem in all four prison . buildings at the same time twice daily, at 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. On Thursday (Blay 24), the lack of water made life almost unbearable. Groups of prisoners were organized to give pep talks to others and to boost morale. They visited all the cells and explained the need to continue our resistance. Ferm Pipeline That night the men in No. 2 building tried to send us water through a thin, plastic pipe of the type used for electrical connecttans. The two buildings are 25 feet apart. A few lengths of the plastic pipe were taped together, tied to a rope, and the rope was thrown from one building to another until it reached us. The rope used had been made from loose, strands of gunnysacks by a group of 50 men working continuously during 48 hours. The pipe finally reached us and the water began to trickle in. j Then the pipe was suddenly* wrenched from the window. Maj. William Galvez, one of Castro's trusted military officials, had watched the whole operation from the shadows. Leading a group of militiamen he dashed to the prison wall, threw a rope with a hook on it to the pipe and pulled it down. Rate Falls On Friday (May 25), about 50 men were so weak they could not get onto their feet. Everybody badly needed food and water. That night, shortly after midnight, we were awakened by the soft patter of raindrops on the enormous zinc roof of the prison. Everyone who had the strength rushed to the windows only to find that their tin cups would not pass through the narrowly spaced, bars. This was torture. Water was coming down but we couldn’t get it. Many thrust their arms out into the rain and as the drofdetsran down their elbows they licked it off. like animals. Then someone shouted to put all available articles of clothing out the windows, They were hung out, and as soon as they became saturated with, water, were ( brought in and wrung out over buckets. This is how we replenished our water supply and thus were able to continue the strike. By Saturday (May 26), about 150 prisoners were like lifeless, wretched rag dolls, unable to move. On Sunday (May 27) this number increased to more than 200. Strike Eads That afternoon the prison director, a man named Tarrau, suddenly notified us that he waswilling to negotiate. Two prisoners

were chosen from each of the six floors in each «f the four fruifclings to fort® A oMnaa epmjbittab. As they were eseprted to the administration bulging they passed the anxious eyes df hundreds of men—■everyone who could get to a window. Six house later, .at 11:45 p.m. exactly, the strike ended after the Communists promised that all our demands would he met. It was a Communist promise and not ft very convincing one. But it was a great moral victory for us. Five hundred men had to be hospitalized and another 2,000 were left terribly weakened by' the ordeal. However, on one point the Communists did not yield: The dynamite is still there, under the prison, reedy to be exploded.

Growing Discontent Os Cubans Reported

By BTEMMB9 HENSLEY UnMed Press UnterantfoMl WASHINGTON fUPI) — Administration officials have begun to talk with cautious optimism about the possible overthrow from within of Fidel Castro’s Communist regime. Secretary of State Dean Rusk has mentioned “evidence of great and growing discontent” in Cuba and intelligence reports disclose increasingly severe shortages of the necessities of life. This comes at a time when Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev is pulling some of his military personnel out of the island, lessening the Kremlin’s ability to keep Castro in power against whatever opposition may be developing. There is divided opinion here as to whether the Kennedy administration actually sees more hope for home-grown trouble or seeks simply to justify the effectiveness of its policy of slow strangulation as opposed to more dangerous direct action such as an oil tdockade. The administration rejects the argument by some Republican leaders -that a selective blockade aimed only at stopping Soviet oil deliveries to the island would not rwn the risk of war in the Caribbean. Wil Fulfill Hedge Most officials believe now that Khrushchev will fulfill his pledge to pUH “several then sand’’rd.Mi estimated IT.teO military technicians and troops to Cuba out of the island by Friday. This is the promise he made to President Kennedy several weeks .ago. It was reaffirmed last weekend by Soviet ambassador to Washington Anatoly F. Dobrynin. However, only the Russians know what they mean by “several- thousand.” American officials are watching closely to see whether the Russians evacuated include the approximately 5,000 regular soldiers organized in four cdmbat battalions. These units, equipped with the latest battlefield weapons, have been regarded as capable ,of helping Castro’s government beat down any really serious threat of rebellion. If all of them have left or leave, Khrushchev gives up his most effective immediate means of controlling the situation in Cuba, ! U.S. officials, while pressing for evacuation of every last Russian, recognize that complete withdrawal might well the danger of an armed clash involving the United States and Cuba. This stems from toe fact that the Russians up to now have retained the control of the SAM-II anti - aircraft missiles capable of knocking down the high level U 2 planes which continue surveillance of the island to make certain no offensive weapons remain or are re-introduced. The Russians have held their fire, tacitly acknowledging toe U.S. right to continue reconnaissance flights after Khrushchev—because of Castro’s attitude—was unable to make good on his promise to permit on-site inspection to verify removal of offensive weap-

I • f navtl attache In Washington D.C., thanks Fleet Adm. Chester W. Nimjtx in his Berkeley, Calif„ home for help in -- preserving tte Japanese battfeship Mfl»N End the Admiral Togo shrine in Yokosuka, both monuments to the Russo- J « _ iWfBNi War WJfHfL --

«ae decaTOE baily MMocraT, decatur, Indiana

Khrushchev Out To Set Record Straight

LONDON (UPI) — Premier Nikita Khrushchev, under mounting fire from Red China, apparently is out to set his Marxist record straight. The Soviet leader’s latest -strategy emerged in a series of recent moves,, all pointing strongly to a calculated tightening of the Kremlin’s line over a wide field of Soviet activity. The most striking of moves has been his surprise weekend attempt to soft-pedal his attacks on Stalin and his notice to tighten

ons. Russians Training Cubans The Russians are rapidly training Cubans to handle toe 25-mile range Sams. And it is acknowledged if Castro’s trigger - happy forces get complete control of them, there is increased likelihood of an "incident.” Kennedy has warned there will be swift retaliation if any American plane is attacked. Employes Are Invited To Ask Refund * By LYLE C. WILSON United Press International WASHINGTON (UPI) — Nonoperating employes of the Southern Railway and affiliated lines have been invited to apply for refund of dues money misused by their unions for political purposes. The Southern is union shop. Miss Nancy M. Looper, a Southern employe, won a 1961 Supreme Court decision forbidding labor leaders to compel a union member to pay for political activity to which the member was opposed. Miss Looper seeks to alert Southern employes to their chance a refund. 4 The case, began in Bibb County Superior Court, Macon, Ga., in 1958. The Supreme. Court ended it, June 19, 1961. Jwgge OX. Long, Bibb Superior Court, now has invited to sek refundfc from their tmions 12,060 non-operating employes of these lines: Georgia Southern & Florida (Railway CoSouthern Railway 00,, Cincinnati, New Orleans and Texas Pacific Railway, Alabama Great Southern Railroad Co., New Orleans and Northeastern Railroad Co., Caroline and Northwestern Railway Co., New Orleans Terminal Co., Harriman and Northeastern Hailroad Co., and St John River Terminal Co. Judge Long’s circular to employes said: “The Supreme Court decided that dues, fees and assessments collected by a union under a union shop agreement may not be used by toe unions for political purposes over your objection. The, court will determine the extent to which such dues, fees and assessments are used for political, non-collective bargaining purposes and will establish a system of making refunds or reductions in dues for employes who give notice to the union that they object to the use of their money for purposes other than collective bargaining ” “The demand for a union shop,” Miss Looper told United Press International, “carries employe responsibility to regard and to respect the rights and ideas of minority groups. This presents a very serious problem to our nation when you consider that 64 per cent of AFL-CIO members are under a union shop. Ten cents per capita per month could swing a national election.

the reins in the sphere of ideological co-existence in the arts. The hardening of the Soviet line showed clearly at the current Geneva talks for a nuclear test ban and disarmament. Oh both issues Russia has been tougher than for some time past, with no apparent desire to negotiate at present. The Kremlin also has been dragging its feet on implementing its pledges for a withdrawal from Cuba. Tough talk has come from Khrushchev’s military chiefs, who have once again started calling for a Soviet belt-tightening in toe interest of a continued strong Russian military posture. Moscow has furthermore begun soft-pedalling on the supply of jet MIG fighters for India which it had promised earlier against Red Chinese protests. Four MIG 21s have been delivered, but latest reports suggest that the remaining eight which have been promised apparently will not be supplied for another 18 months. Khrushchev further has revived toe old demand for an immediate settlement of the German problem. This apparently is a shift of priorities, with disarmament coming second only after an East-West arrangement on Germany is reached. At the weekend Moscow released a Khrushchev speech, which surprisingly had some kind words to say about Stalin whose image he had sought to destroy with his de-Stalinization policy. He gave him the benefit of the doubt of being a good Communist after all and excused his crimes with the explanation that the dictator had been a “deeply sick person.” Khrushchev ostensibly with an eye to Peking and to setting his Marxist record straight added this significant warning: “The party will continue to oppose any ideological wavering of efforts to disturb toe way of life of our society.”

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BREACH IN DAM—Swans glide past breach in 20-foot earth dam which allowed flood waters to roar through a large area of Norwich, Conn. !»7 . . ——T— —J 4 » tz11 I fS .*!■ IhkSW?* ' • • uXtiTORNADO INVENTORY—Mrs. Pebble Taylor, bookkeeper, sets up business at her desk, scrounged from wreckage of the Nash Grain Co., in wake of a late-winter twister which hit Kaufrnaa, Tex. First job: taking inventory of what’s left of the firm. 9

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