(The Tears of the Crocodile) from Alexander
Scott* Yesterday, from a small restaurant, I phoned a friend and said in Spanish "I am going to Camarioca!". A sudden silence enclosed the room, and it was clear that the Cubsn occupants thought that I was a Cuban running for a Yankee hand-out. A frail, 85 pound nervous wreck of a woman with agitated hands, aged between 25 and 50, walked past me and left the roome I learned later that she had seen her mother turned to death by Batista men. A grey-haired, motherly woman then told me of the day when the Batista police threw the bodies of two local youths onto the corner of her street. Their trousers had been torn down, exposing the mutilations they had suffered before death. She crossed the s ‘eet to avoid the sight, but they forcibly took her back and compelled her to look, asking "Is one of these your son, d’iwhore 7" Those bodies lay for three days decomposing in the tropic heat, before the relatives were allowed to collect them. Camarioca! A name suddenly world news, as the small boats ply back and forth over the few miles that separate it from the U.S.A. A profitable enterprise for the Florida boat-owmers, whose "humanitarian motivation" appears to be God's best friend the Dollar, for they have spent the last few years trying to throw Cubans out of Florida. The little port is really an extension of the beautiful Varadero beach, one-time rich man's paradise(American whites, of course. No black body dipped in those blue waters, or lazed on those soft sands). About twenty Amer%can motor launches and sports fishers bobbed gently on the sun-gilt waters, With’ the boats arrived about 100 Miami Cubans, and a group of American journalists. They are here without the permission of the U.S. Government, but they have Cuban permission and cooperation- an observation on the state of impotence of the greatest imperialist power when confronted by the will of the people. Viet Nam, et al. The hurriedly-put-together facilities of the little port are under the control of the Cuban Home Office, and include the normal services of an embarkation centre, with reception, sleeping accomodation, restaurant, medical services and boat-repair depot. The Cuban authorities even collect the outgoing families and relatives and transport them to the centre. All of this is well-organised, smoothly-running and completely without charge to the users of any part of its comprehenSive service. There are no violent dramatics here, despite the capitdist press. Nobody shouts for help to jumpsiinto the water. ‘he drama here is in the re wmion of families parted artificially by U.S. policy. Here lingers the shadow of the frightened giant of the north, compelled to watch his continental power-structure of military dictatorships crumbling before the onslaught of the Latin-American people, with Cuba at their head. It is one of the great triumphs of the revolution that these people are free to speak, free to ch-ose for themselves. They may come and go as they please. It was the imperialists that imposed restrictions on the Cubans' ability to leave, not socialist Cuba. It is the U.S. Government that is still illegally obstructing the constitutional rights of its om citizens to travel, Factory workers in Havana told me: "They leave for many reasons. Not all are ageinst the revolution, senor. Some, because they are joining relatives who were forced out by terror or unemployment during the dark years before the revolution. Some, because they are not strong enough
Cuba article cont'd,
to accept the terms of the strug,
Yet others, because they are not
were once exclusively theirs,"
te dent ae tists dictdorship, twenty-two thousand Cubans were tortured
jeans ce ad odies were piled on Dany streets. In the last fifteen
: 2 lundred thouSand Bolivians have met the same fate, The st
esharean see ee LatineAmerica. In Viet Nam, the most modern 5
S are used to exterminate the whol i “4
the U.S. eagle flies death ne ee ape a
; comes to the common people! i
during the course Of thers & fa ae
vents has Florida offered succour t+
offer te wa ee eee now, after Elizabeth's(a town in Florida)
2 0C ans, we may be permitted to e imi
— that could include the Watts district of Los iene
= tle Aden, Failing this, there is a danger that stantoious people
y reg it as a hypocritical attempt to discredit socialism, .
*Editorial note: this article was wri
written es y
correspondent who is working in Cuba, pecially for The Week by our