Defeat for Castro

Christian Herter went to Costa Rica to make it unmistakably clear that international Communism is invading the Western Hemisphere through Cuba, and to get the American foreign ministers assembled there to join in warning Cuba. Raul Roa, Cuba's foreign minister, went to Costa Rica to persuade the foreign ministers not to approve such a warning, and thus to hand the U.S. a major diplomatic setback. The issue brought on a week of the most grueling round-the-clock negotiations in the history of the OAS. Many delegates were prepared to condemn Communism but not Cuba.

In the end the U.S. point of view prevailed. The foreign ministers disapproved "the acceptance" by any member nation (name not mentioned) of "intervention or threat of intervention of an extracontinental power in the affairs of the American republics." It denounced "the aspirations of the Sino-Soviet powers to exploit the political, economic or social situation of any American state."

Forgotten Freedoms. It was something new in U.S.-Latin American relations for the U.S. Secretary of State, with a crew of top negotiators, to spend a fortnight in the Caribbean while the Congo, Laos and other crises cried for attention. Herter put a careful case against Cuba. The history of the Red satellites of Eastern Europe, he said, proves that "installation of a Communist regime in any American republic would automatically involve the loss of the country's independence." It would then become "an operational base for infiltration, subversion and interference in the internal affairs of the Americas." As proof of growing Communist dominance in Cuba he pointed out that the Communist Party is the only party allowed to operate; that Castro has made anti-Communism equivalent to counterrevolution; that Castro warmly welcomed Nikita Khrushchev's threat to shoot rockets at the U.S. if it molested Cuba.

Two of Herter's strongest allies in making his case were not even in San Jose. From Venezuela, President Romulo Betancourt went over the head of his pro-Castro foreign minister, Ignacio Luis Arcaya, to cable the conference suggesting that the OAS should rule that "governments not elected by the people may not form part of the regional judicial community." Herter's second ally was Fidel Castro himself, who thumbed his nose at the assembled foreign ministers by proclaiming in Havana: "We are friends of the Soviet Union and of the Chinese People's Republic."

Exuberant Electrocutions. In his rebuttal to Herter, Cuba's Roa did little to ease the anger that Castro's words raised. Waving a yellow pencil like a conductor's baton. Roa rattled through two hours and 15 minutes of jingoistic slogans and attacks on the U.S. Cuba "reaffirms acceptance of Communist bloc aid," he cried. "The most pressing question our Americas face does not stem from a hypothetical extracontinental threat, but instead from the menace of continued acts of reprisal and aggression by the U.S. against Cuba." He railed disjointedly against the U.S. for "exuberantly electrocuting people for crimes of passion."

Even as Herter dryly rebutted that "never in modern history has there been a dictator who did not claim to represent the will of the people." committees of foreign ministers filled offstage workrooms of the rococo National Theater to write the final resolution. The initial division was between two groups. One group--including Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Uruguay, Paraguay, El Salvador and Colombia--was willing to go along with the U.S. in a specific denunciation of Russian and Communist Chinese intervention and of Cuba for inviting it. Other foreign ministers--from Bolivia, Venezuela, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Honduras and Ecuador--were moved by their own leftism, by fear of disappointing masses back home who hero-worship Castro or by fear of seeming subservient to the U.S. They favored a resolution mildly deploring outside intervention.

As the negotiations ground on day and night, some delegates complained they were tired and wanted to go home. But the U.S. let it be known that U.S. Ambassador Whiting Willauer's freezer was stocked with food for several weeks and that Secretary of State Herter was prepared to stay and consult as long as necessary. Little by little the soft-line advocates were stiffened by orders from home or by becoming convinced in Costa Rica that failure to act would do irreparable damage to the inter-American system. At last only Venezuela's Arcaya was left leading the crumbling opposition to the firm resolutions submitted by Brazil, Colombia, Uruguay and Mexico. The negotiators invited Roa to consult with them, but Roa highhandedly replied that he did not work at night. In the end the strong resolution went through, and Roa picked up his papers and walked out.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.