The Cold Shoulder

Cuba's President Osvaldo Dorticos on tour of South America last week, was getting a small hello in diplomatic circles everywhere. But Dorticos seemed willing to take the snubs for the chance to talk to crowds.

In Buenos Aires, his first stop, where he was ostensibly an honored guest at Argentina's 150th birthday celebration. Dorticos slipped away to confer secretly with chiefs of the anti-government Peronista Metal Workers Union.

In Uruguay, Dorticos was flatly warned that his plan to address a street rally would be regarded as interference in its internal affairs. Bolivia's government somehow delayed extending an invitation to Dorticos so long that it was too late for him to accept. Peru shifted Dorticos' arrival to a distant military airfield and barred welcomers. Chile refused to admit him. Venezuela's President Romulo Betancourt sent his Foreign Minister to intercept the Cuban President in Buenos Aires and persuade him to stay away because his trip "was not convenient." Dorticos rejoined that he would visit Caracas unless Betancourt publicly barred him. Betancourt then cut Dorticos' scheduled visit from five days to one.

Dorticos, the indefatigable tourist, was unmoved. Everywhere he went he got in a little anti-U.S. propaganda. This led to Washington's angriest note so far to Fidel Castro's Cuba. Citing Dorticos' public declaration in Montevideo that property of U.S. citizens had not been confiscated but was fairly paid for, the Department of State said: "To our knowledge not a single American property owner has been reimbursed." Washington listed eight other instances of Cuba's "intense official campaign of slander" against the U.S., among them Economic Czar "Che" Guevara's statement that the U.S.'s $150 million-a-year sugar subsidy to Cuba was actually a "form of slavery." Cuba rejected the U.S. protest.

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