Money from Moscow

The United Nations' Economic Commission for Latin America last week issued an interesting little report on how much economic aid Fidel Castro has been getting from the Soviet Union and his other Red-bloc friends. Between 1959 and 1963, according to ECLA, Cuba got $700 million in grants, credits and other aid. The report did not include military assistance, which comes to almost $1 billion. When that is added in, it is enough to make Cuba the hemisphere's biggest recipient of foreign aid at $23 per capita over the five-year period. By contrast, Chile, which boasts the most per capita U.S. aid, got only $17 per person during the same period.

The Communists, of course, are helping only Cuba, while the U.S. is committed to 19 Latin American nations. And so far Moscow has very little to show for its dole; Castro has used most of the money hand-to-mouth for the food and other basic goods needed to keep Cuba's fractured economy barely alive. Nevertheless, ECLA thinks that the massive infusion of money, assuming it continues, will begin to show results in the next two years. For 1965-66, the report predicted "important increases" " in Cuban industrial and agricultural production, noted Castro's plans to raise exports, encourage more light consumer goods manufacturing and diversify farming.

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