Word: fidel
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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When Rebel Fidel Castro's men called the strike, it turned out to be a classic of disorganization. Batista easily quelled it with units of the crack, 7,000-man National Police alone, and the cops went on to a brutal and exemplary mop-up. The effect was to cripple, perhaps for a long time, the general-strike psychology-the emotional willingness of soft-hooded amateurs to go up against the hardhanded professionals...
Batista is wary of heavy casualties in moving against these raiders in their mountain fortress, so far plans a "longterm" campaign to keep them surrounded and wear them down when they come into the open. He has also offered $100,000 for the "head of Fidel Castro." But though he must face a nagging stalemate, in winning last week's round Batista cost the rebels heavily in dynamism and morale. A new general-strike attempt will be harder to mount than the foiled try-particularly bucking the prosperity of Cuba's current $2 billion-a-year national income...
...Fidel Castro's "total war" against Cuban strongman Fulgencio Batista has been, to date, a total failure. The general strike called for last Wednesday did not materialize as planned, and indications are clearer than ever that Castro does not enjoy widespread support among the Cuban people...
...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 (or dictatorial) ambitions: "I can do more for my country giving an example of disinterestedness." But he insists that "our movement has the right to appoint the Provisional President." For that job, his present choice is a respectable but unknown lower-court judge named Manuel Urrutia...
High Morale. Nothing about the appearance of Fidel's force would lead me to think it could fight, but so far this motley army has not been subdued by Batista's 29,000 men. Part of the reason, says Castro ironically, is that the government's "soldiers are not convinced of the justice of their work." More seriously, he goes on to say: "If they had been fighting for an ideal, they could have beaten us 30 times. But no man is supposed to die for $35 a month...