Fastest Gun in Havana

Fidel Castro is plainly convinced that in the realm of definitive justice, nothing beats a firing squad--even if Cuba's constitution forbids capital punishment. Last week he announced that his government would draft a new law demanding firing-squad executions for embezzlers of government money.

He had a case in mind, Castro said. An official of his Ministry for the Recovery of Stolen Property--"someone that we know"--had accepted a bribe of $400,000 for unfreezing a frozen bank account of more than $900,000. "We are studying the case in order to execute him," said the Prime Minister. Next day one Rene Ray Rivero, an official of the Ministry for the Recovery of Stolen Property who was under suspicion, shot and killed himself at Havana's police headquarters. Waiting anxiously to hear their fate were hundreds of Ousted Dictator Fulgencio Batista's civilian government employees, now in jail on charges of stealing public funds or enriching themselves by "collaborating" with the Batista regime.

As for "war criminals," said Lawyer Castro, his military tribunals had been forced to sentence them to death on "moral conviction," because "legal proof" is impossible to obtain. Last week 31 more of the morally convicted died before the revolutionary firing squads, sending the overall total to 423.

Last week Castro also:

P: Pushed through a $5,442,000 public-works program to build highways, lay out public beaches and build 15 villages in Oriente province, where he started his rebellion against Batista.

P: Came out in favor of bullfights on grounds that it "would be better to have tourists coming down to see bullfights than to gamble and visit houses of prostitution."

P: Claimed "the Caribbean is ours." Answered Dominican Dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo: Cuba's "aggressors" had better stay out of the Dominican Republic "unless they want to see their beards and brains flying about like butterflies."

P: Pledged free elections, heard his supporters roar back, "No elections!" Replied the Prime Minister piously: "This shows to what extent politics have become discredited in Cuba."

P: Spelled out his theory of law: "We shall be respectful of the law, but of the revolutionary law; respectful of right, but of revolutionary right--not of the old right, but the new right that we are going to make. For old law, no respect; for new law, respect. Who has the right to modify the constitution? The majority. Who has the majority? The revolution!''

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