CONTRASTING CASE OF TWO CUBANS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000100160036-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 21, 2000
• Sequence Number: 36
• Publication Date: October 23, 1963
• Content Type: NSPR

NEW 1'UP K U61 Zs OW
JOI;RNA ` Ar A0j1t6%?ed For Release 2001/07/26: CIA-R
THESE DAYS:
Contrasting Case
Of Two Cubans
By JOHN CHAMBERLAIN
T HERE is something fishy about our treatment.of
anti-Castro Cubans who have escaped to thin
country. Some of them have utmost freedom of
movement, and they travel between Florida and the
countries of Central America with no effort to put
fetters on them. But others, who have absolute proof
of their loyalty to the anti-Castro
cause, are shadowed and hectored,
and if they should ever leave the
U.S. and return again they would be
penalized with $5,000 fines or five
years in jail, or both.
Take the contrasting cases of
Pedro Luis Diaz Lanz and Manuel
Artime, for example. Diaz Lanz, who
was the first important figure in
the anti-Batista revolutionary
movement to suspect that Casi,ro
was a Communist, is virtually under CHAMBERLAIN
house arrest in this country.
Artime, on the other hand, is the fair-haired
boy of our State Department, the leader whom we
have blessed as the probable boss of the next invasion
of Cuba, if and when it happeui. As the chosen
general of next Summer's pr4leoted "expeditionary
force Artime can turn up tu t tragua, or Guate-
l
,>
g
ma
a
or anywhere he pleast
42
,
fine.
Thorp are Cubans who mutts
Lary ability Is questionable; they
joined forces with a rebel band!
Castro's stronghold in Cuba's Sit;
ject to ho $5,000
;bat Artime's mill-
It tell you that he
ret the fringes of
t Maestra at the
at he was made
a second lieutenant without tjhting experience.
They will also tell you that Arid?1E's defection from
the Castro cadres came late. 8q[~I Artime lad suffi-
A COMMERCIAL PILOT, Dias Lanz used his .i
skills under the Batista regime to ferry arms by air
.
"
"
.. 1 W26.
into the
Castro country
of the Sierra
landing on
pocket-size airstrips at great. risk to his
own life. He believed thoroughly in the "revolution"
until he had his ears opened to its secret Communist
orientation by the conversations he overheard while
transporting Castro and his friends around .the
country.
Appalled by what he had learned, he tried to k
warn anti-Communist members of Castro's,cabinet.
When they refused to listen, he fled Cuba.
Diaz Lanz ought to be a hero to a Washington
this "first defector" has sinned by continuing to be. S
$2,000 fine from him for having flown over Havana In =,? x . .
technical charge is that his pilot's license had lapsed.
Why are people like Dias Lana hindered In their
efforts to carry on a struggle against Castro' while
others, such as Artime, are favored?
There are Cubans who say it's all a quebtion of
political coloration. The State Depart ent has a
predilection for the Bosch-Betancourt tyype, of Latin
American politico who is loosely to be described as
Pig's invasion, and one cannot rtf Ike against courage. belonging to the "non-Communist Left."
The relevant question's ::q a3 `center not on Ar- Now, a Betancourt is preferable in Venezuela to
time's date of 'defection hips utro but on his a Castro or a Khrushchev or a Mao Tse-tung Coin-
abilit
ILr ~: ?-... ..
r
d
?
.~raa
- r monist- and it is the mirk of
to build the best N a
y
$
ible
p
u
ence
sal
his willingness to establish' .1p:Otect a post-Castro a Betancourt when he has achidvCd power by his own
regime that will be someth1 bette.,t than a Titoist efforts. But why connive to put the/"non-Communist
version of what exists in Cpl! ; "today. Left" in power when it is a matter of starting from
there seems to be no room lit
CIA-Artime coalition for daft
fended the Casper Milquetq
mature" raids on Castro's )~
the rebel air units in the as0
I the situation is that scratch? Why go out of our way to create Betan-
te state Department- courts?
;Cubans who ve of- One does not expect democratic capital to be
who frown o "pre- restored in Cuba overnight. But our state Depart.
mer?t could at least favor democratic capitalism an a
hen he commanded working direction, and not make it difficult for its
ilgn avainstr Batista. proponents to play their part in the anti-Castro
and he was equally bold whir
defector.
cient courage to serve as civil 14er of the Bay of
1lle became the tint., "i5-
Approved For Roe 2001/07/26 : CIA-RDP75-00149R000100160036-8