"Elections Are a Myth"

In a typical wee-hour outpouring of words and schemes one day last week, Fidel Castro sat from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. with a Brazilian newsman and delivered a broadside of dictates. On democracy: "It never functioned in Latin America. Elections are a myth. The parliamentary system in Cuba reflected the old system, which we are now destroying. Elections now would be a step backward, with time and effort wasted in sterile discussions and theoretical considerations." On the economy: "Our aim is total direction."

In Castro's Cuba, disagreement with such doctrine has come to mean treason; so also does antiCommunism. Last week the rate of treason thus defined climbed dramatically:

P:With two aides, Lieut. Commander Jaime Varela Canosa stepped out as Cuban naval attache in Mexico City and headed for asylum in the U.S., "where I will be able to breathe in an atmosphere of democratic and Christian liberty." P: Rioting kept TV Commentator Luis Conte Aguero, a college classmate and close friend of Castro until he recently grew apprehensive of Red infiltration in Cuba, from going before TV cameras for a swan-song denunciation of Communist influence in the government. P:Captain Jorge Enrique Sotus Romero, one of Castro's first military commanders during the revolution, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for conspiracy after he criticized Communist infiltration of the army and resigned. P: Two armymen, Captain Aquiles Chinea and Lieut. Rodriguez de la Torre, sought asylum in the Brazilian embassy in Havana after they were reported to be leaders of a military Movement of Revolutionary Recovery to oust Communist influence from the government. P:The number of political prisoners stood somewhere between 4,000 and 8,000.

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