Word: castros
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
WELCOME TO YOUR HOME: CHILE Said the cheery banners at Santiago's Pudahuel airport. From the start of his two-week visit, Cuba's Fidel Castro did not seem to be at home at all. A 21-gun salute boomed out as he walked down the ramp of his four-jet llyushin, but the speech that Castro had labored over on the long flight from Havana stayed in the pocket of his olive-green fatigues. Silenced by Chilean protocol, which allows only heads of state to deliver arrival addresses (as Cuba's Premier, Castro is technically only...
Evidently, Allende did just that. It was Castro's first appearance anywhere outside Cuba in seven years, and his first in South America in twelve.* But instead of playing to the grandstand, Castro kept pretty much to himself, which was apparently just what his host had prescribed. Castro spent two quick days laying wreaths and touring factories in Santiago, then set off on an extensive trip covering the spiny Andean country's entire 2,600-mile length. Everywhere he went, Castro ducked reporters, protesting that he was "under protocol...
There were occasional flashes of the familiar Fidel. Three hundred Cubans had been brought in to augment the Chilean security setup, so one newsman jestingly asked Castro if he was wearing a bulletproof vest, too. "Oye, it is as hot here as it is in Havana," he shot back. "I don't even wear an undershirt." But Castro plainly failed to arouse much excitement. When he arrived, a crowd of some 750,000 Chileans lined the streets of Santiago, chanting "Fidel, Fidel, give those Yankees hell!" Bigger and more enthusiastic crowds had turned out for Charles de Gaulle...
Still Wary. In Chile, as elsewhere in Latin America, Castro seems a trifle outmoded. His heavy dependence on the Russians has won him no admirers, and his Sierra Maestra style is considered anachronistic by those who follow the smooth urban guerrillas of Uruguay and the business-suited Marxists of Allende's Chile. Even so, he is gaining ground; Peru may soon become the second Latin American country to re-establish diplomatic relations with Cuba. Chile did so a year ago, Mexico has maintained relations with Havana all along, and Argentina and Venezuela may follow. The result could...
...moment, however, the main effect of Castro's trip has been to accentuate the political polarization in the region. Cuba is still considered a menace by many Latin American governments, notably Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil, Bolivia and Guatemala. They take his Chilean junket as the signal for a general broadening of a Communist wedge in Latin America...