Word: batista
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Death to Strikers. Castro hopes to turn this stalemate into victory by a general strike. Last week Batista served notice of just how bloody a strike would be. Using his emergency powers to govern by decree, he ruled that strikers would be fired, that employers who close shop would be jailed, and that loyal workers could carry arms. There would be no punishment, he decreed, for wounding or killing strikers. To make certain he has enough arms to pass around, Batista flew in 3,500 rifles from fellow Dictator Rafael Trujillo's Dominican Republic. The "Cristobal" rifles, manufactured...
...harsh antistrike measures were announced, Rebel Faustino Perez, Castro's underground chief in Havana, rechecked his strength. The strike call, widely predicted for last week, did not come. "Wouldn't you think a long time?" asked one Cuban worker. "Batista's men will be shooting to kill." Habaneros hoarded food, staged a jittery run on the banks...
...have assumed the responsibility of throwing out Batista's dictatorship and re-establishing the constitutional rights and freedoms of the people," Castro says. "Our first fight is for political rights-and after that for social rights." At Havana University ten years ago, Castro hotheadedly espoused a series of student-radical notions, e.g., nationalization of Cuba's U.S.-owned power and telephone companies. Now he says: "I am still the same revolutionary, but I have had time to study the political and economic factors. I understand that some ideas I used to have would not be good for Cuba...
...advocates amplified social security, along with speeded-up industrialization, to fight Cuba's chronic joblessness. In answer to Batista's charge that Castro's movement is "proSoviet and pro-Communist," friends of Castro point to the character of his army. Almost to a man, they are Roman Catholics, who wear religious medals on their caps or on strings around their necks. For the sake of getting on with the war, Castro says, he avoids fruitless political discussions with his one outrightly pro-Red captain...
Though he is often Olympian in his thunderbolt pronunciamentos, calling for ''total, implacable war," face to face Castro is strictly realistic. Questioned about the possibility that Batista might crush the rebels' proposed general strike, he said: "If Batista loses, he loses for good; if I lose, I will just start over again." If he wins, Castro says, he proposes freer labor unions, a crackdown on corruption and punishment for government "criminals"-including bringing Batista to book. These measures imply a great deal of control over Cuba's future by Fidel Castro. He denies all presidential...