Deepening Split with Russia

For three days and nights, while the Central Committee meeting dragged on in Havana, all Cuba buzzed with rumors. Was Castro stepping down or taking a new title? Was he planning to launch a new guerrilla offensive in Latin America? Would he announce some dramatic new economic program--one is certainly needed--for Cuba? Finally, in a special edition, Cuba's official party newspaper, Granma, announced the news: 43 "traitors to the revolution" had been arrested and would face trial for "intrigues" and "conspiratorial actions." That alone was not too surprising under Castro's oppressive regime, but Granma followed it up a day later with a real stunner: the plotters were in league with the Russians. Thus, as he might savor a slow-burning, pungent Havana cigar, Castro revealed to the world the scope of Cuba's steadily worsening relations with Moscow.

Secret Report. The charges grew out of a long-winded report delivered before the Central Committee by Raul Castro, Fidel's brother and the chief of Cuba's armed forces and internal security. Named as the conspiracy's ringleader was Anibal Escalante, 59, a onetime party chieftain who fell from favor in 1962 for his pro-Soviet views but was later allowed to return to Cuba after a two-year exile in Prague. This time, said Raul, Escalante had organized an anti-Castro movement that extended into several key government ministries, the University of Havana, the Academy of Sciences, several youth organizations and even the Central Committee itself. With his contacts, Escalante and his "micro-fraction" reportedly filched secret government documents and spread anti-Castro propaganda among both Cubans and foreign Communists, particularly the Russians.

Raul claimed that Escalante had tried to arrange a trip to Moscow with "Russian Journalist" Vadim Lestov--actually, an NKVD agent--"to put forth his opinions" on how the Kremlin could whip Castro into line. In a secret report to Lestov, which ended up in Raul's hands, Escalante criticized the government and warned that Fidel was planning to expand trade ties with France, thereby lessening Russian leverage.

Escalante and his lieutenants had similar meetings with a journalist of the Soviet news agency Novosti, the captain and first officer of a Soviet "fishing boat," and a Soviet adviser to Cuban intelligence. In one such meeting last year, Raul said, Rudolf P. Shliapnikov, second secretary of the Soviet embassy in Havana, assured the group that Russia could bring Castro to his knees by simply cutting off oil shipments. "Rodolfo made his observation," Raul noted dryly, "in the midst of laughter."

Call for Peace Talks. At week's end, none of the group was laughing. After a quick drumhead trial in Havana's La Cabana fortress, Escalante and 36 of his fellow conspirators were found guilty of treason and sentenced to prison terms ranging from one to 15 years (Escalante got the maximum). Though Fidel himself kept silent, he did not seem ready to split with Russia and lose his $1,000,000-a-day dole. Cuban Minister Without Portfolio Carlos Rafael Rodriguez, speaking for Castro, called for ideological peace talks with Moscow; after all, he noted, it was only realistic "that we should bring forward our criticisms of what we consider errors of its policy."

Russia is clearly feeling growing displeasure and frustration about its bothersome ally. The same day that Castro's court returned its conviction, Granma cut the size of its daily edition from eight pages to a mere four; the cut reflected a reduction in the supplies of newsprint that Russia sends to Cuba.

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