A Break for the Boss

Fidel Castro, 31, the bearded leader of Cuba's 13-month guerrilla rebellion against Dictator Fulgencio Batista, served sharp notice last week that he, and no one else, will be running Cuba when Batista falls. In an angry letter from his mountain hideout in Oriente province, he cut connections between his 26th of July Movement and six other organizations that got together in Miami last October to set up an anti-Batista joint council and draw up a pact. "While the leaders of the organizations that subscribe to this pact are abroad fighting an imaginary revolution," Castro charged, "the leaders of the 26th of July Movement are in Cuba fighting a real revolution."

Castro heaped special scorn on the council's plan to set up a post-Batista military junta. "The 26th of July Movement." he announced, "claims for itself the function of maintaining public order and reorganizing the armed forces of the republic." For Miami's No. 1 candidate for post-revolution Provisional President, Economist Felipe Pazos, Castro had a one-two punch. He denied ever authorizing Pazos or anyone else to represent him on the joint council, then nominated his own candidate, longtime (31 years) Oriente province Judge Manuel Urrutia Lleo, 56. now in exile in the U.S.

As Batista's Miami foes scurried about trying to find some means of closing the breach, the dictator could relax a bit for the first time in recent months. Bombs were still exploding in Havana and Pinar del Rio; tobacco sheds went up in flames. Even the fact that the pro-Batista vice president of the important maritime union was assassinated in Santiago faded in importance alongside the rebel split. With more assurance than ever. Batista could cut ground from beneath the feet of his divided foes by repeating his promise to hold free elections June 1. step down from the presidency in February 1959.

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