Word: batista
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Five months ago many Cubans thought that Rebel Chief Fidel Castro was through. His much-touted "total war" against President Fulgencio Batista was a total failure; the general strike in Havana that started literally with a bang ended with a whimper as local leaders went into hiding, shrilly blaming one another for the fiasco. That was early April. Last week reports sifting through heavy censorship indicated that Castro had made a notable comeback. Despite the rebels' continued grandstanding and disorganization, the swelling tide of popular discontent had carried them back to a position of strength...
...marines took over, Castro's rebels protested. The marines, they said, were violating Cuban sovereignty, and by relieving Cuban sentries for antirebel combat duty, they were aiding Dictator Fulgencio Batista. Castro's complaints did not impress Washington, but the State Department was put out with the Navy for breaking the U.S. nonintervention policy. Another objection was that Dictator Batista might be gulling U.S. troops into combat with his enemies, the rebels. At week's end the State Department prevailed and the marines withdrew. Without comment, Batista sent his troops back to guard the pumps...
...dysentery from the uncertain diet. But they kept up military discipline and set their own order of release: married men first, then men with the lowest rank. As the last helicopter departed, the rebels turned their attention back to the business at hand: a rumored offensive by Dictator Fulgencio Batista...
...arms were live replacements for practice warheads that the U.S. shipped to Cuba's President Batista by mistake in 1957 under the mutual-security pact. They represented no change in the current U.S. embargo on arms to Batista. But the rebels, buffeted by combat and terrorism that have taken at least 3,000 Cuban lives, see the world more and more as either friend or enemy, with no middle ground...
Buildup. Castro has still not gained enough popular support to bounce Batista, but Reporter Mallin saw surprising military strength in the mountains. Ammunition, once scarce, is now plentiful enough to be wasted on potshots at coconuts. The armed, uniformed men in the Sierra del Cristal (where Raúl Castro holds out) and the neighboring Sierra Maestra (Fidel Castro's headquarters) total at least 2,000. The rebels have a pool of stolen trucks and jeeps, operate an airstrip into which arms are flown from some mysterious supplier...