Word: roca
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...State Department ban on travel to Cuba, the 58 had to fly expensively roundabout courses to London, Paris, Amsterdam and Prague before winging on to Havana on Czechoslovak Airlines. They were lionized by President Osvaldo Dorticós, Armed Forces Chief Raúl Castro, Communist Boss Blas Roca and, of course, Fidel himself, who skindived with them near the Bay of Pigs and played pingpong with them at Varadero. ("I give up," California Student Eric Johnson gasped. "What you are doing to me is another Bay of Pigs.") They visited shipyards, collective farms and schools, squeezed in glowing television...
Szulc's article also noted that Blas Roca, the Communist party leader, has been out of the country during the crisis, that a "Cuba first" tone has characterized recent public speeches in Havana, and that "the predominant impression (in Washington) is that Premier Castro has adopted an intransigent 'hard line' in his dealings with the Soviet Union as well as in his attitude toward the United States...
...blunders and the hardships that have resulted have undoubtedly tarnished his hero's image. But he alone still has the charismatic name, the voice, the face, the popular appeal. For their part, the professional Reds have the organizational techniques, the indoctrination textbooks, and a more patient spirit (Roca wanted Castro to lay off the Catholic Church longer, and not to alienate prematurely the technicians needed for the first round of the takeover). Communists are more practical planners, even if they manage to botch up agriculture wherever they are. Mother Russia now controls Cuba's imports, and its purse...
...other, but it is a precarious equilibrium, and neither can leave it at that. "If I were plotting a fever chart I'd give Fidel's line a short spurt upward, but surely the trend must point down," says a foreign diplomat in Havana. Working in Roca's favor, say the experts, is the massive indoctrination that has brought 60,000 young Cubans from the countryside to fill expropriated Havana mansions. By day, they learn a trade; by night they learn a Roca brand of Communist discipline. "One day," says a diplomat, "Fidel will have to face...
Perhaps they are not yet prepared to inherit the mess. But another realignment of leadership seems inevitable, and much of the betting favors increased power for Bias Roca, Rodriguez & Co. For Cuba, the melancholy prospect is of continued hardship and little hope of freedom or improvement. In which case, men of cunning and mettle have the best chance of survival. Bias Roca, the Rock, figures on being firmly in place...