Hero's Trial

The Cuban revolution turned on one of its own fighting heroes last week. Major Huber Matos, former commander of Camagueey Province, stood accused before a rebel tribunal of what Armed Forces Chief Raul Castro called "the dirty business of anti-Communism." But Matos, who was jailed after he quit the army charging Red infiltration, managed to turn the force of the trial against Fidel Castro's leftist dictatorship.

Castro knew that he was on shaky ground. When Matos arrived for the trial at a movie theater at Havana's Camp Liberty, a crowd of rebel soldiers sent up an impromptu cheer--and were seized and hauled off to have their beards shaved for their impertinence. On the witness stand for a seven-hour harangue,* Castro produced not one fact to support the charge of treason. "I do not deny the merits of Huber Matos," said Castro, explaining that his crime was trying to "confound" the revolution by resigning. When Matos tried to interrupt, Prime Minister Castro snarled: "You'll get your turn, Mr. Morality of the Century."

Through it all, Matos spoke with the helpless clarity of a sane man trapped in a lunatic asylum. "I have always fought Communists," he said, "and I had proof that there are Communists in the army's Cultural [indoctrination] Corps. There has been no treason, no desertion nor anything shameful in my conduct." Matos got 20 years in prison--a verdict that Castro called "most generous. I am happy because I feel that revolutionary tribunals should be generous whenever possible."

Less generously, the rebels shot two Cuban "counterrevolutionaries" one dawn last week in the first executions since June by the firing squads that have put 557 Cubans to death this year.

* Which, with two TV speeches, built his tirade time for the week to 15^ hours.

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