May 20, 1957.p. 8.
Castro, in Broadcast Here, Asks for Arms Embargo
of Batista Regime
Fidel Castro, Cuban rebel leader, has appealed to the United States to cease sending arms to President Fulgencio Batista “until the civil fighting that is going on has ended.”
Señor Castro’s appeal was made in a recording broadcast by radio last night by the Columbia Broadcasting System.The network also televised a filmed interview with him.
Robert Taber, C.B.S. reporter, commented that the 30-year-old revolutionary did not expect to overthrow President Batista by himself, but did hope to create a “climate of collapse” in which the regime would fall.
Meanwhile, more than 600 Cuban supporters of Señor Castro here staged a rally at Palm Garden, 306 West Fifty-second Street.They watched the telecast, heard vows to resist President Batista to the death and circulated calls for boycotting the Cuban Government, nonpayment of taxes and an eventual general strike.
Mr. Taber, who had been accompanied by Wendell Hoffman, C.B.S. cameraman, said he was with Señor Castro in his Sierra Maestra mountain and jungle hideout from April 21 to May 5.
The filmed interview, he said, took place on the summit of Cuba’s highest mountain, 6,560-foot Pico Turquino, which bears a statue of José Martí, Cuban liberator, and a Roman Catholic shrine.
Recalling his Feb. 17 interview with Herbert Matthews of The New York Times, Señor Castro told Mr. Taber that truth would always be known because of “brave reporters like you two that are willing to risk your lives for seeking it out.”
In his appeal for a United States arms embargo, Señor Castro said:
“If there is any hostility found by the Cuban people toward the Government of the United States, it may be blamed on that Government’s support of Batista.The arms that the United States Government sent to Batista for defense of the hemisphere are used by him against the democratic Cuban rebels in the Sierra Maestra.”
The rebel leader said all the Sierra Maestra people “are with us,” and “hundreds of men” watched and reported Government movements to the rebels.Thousands, he said, “would gladly join us, but at this time we cannot accept most of them because we lack arms.”
Mr. Taber commented: “The only group I can speak of with authority, the main headquarters, right now consists of 140 men.Undoubtedly other groups are scattered throughout the mountains.”
Ernesto F. Betancourt, a Cuban resident of Washington, directed the demonstration as the local delegate of the New York committee of the Orthodox party.He said the purpose of the anti-Batista display was to persuade the United States Government to refrain from giving arms to the Cuban Government and to withdraw diplomatic recognition from it.
HAVANA, May 19 – A bomb exploded early this morning in downtown Havana.This makes a total of four bombs exploded in the last twenty-four hours in a campaign against the Batista regime.