World Notes CUBA

It was the equivalent of arresting Dwight Eisenhower in the wake of the Normandy invasion. Last week Cuba announced that Army General Arnaldo Ochoa Sanchez, a hero of the revolution and former top commander of Cuban forces in Ethiopia and Angola, had been arrested for drug trafficking and corruption. Ochoa, said the Communist Party paper Granma, had "reached agreements" with drug smugglers "near our territory." In addition, six other military officers were similarly arrested.

What was going on? Some observers believed that President Fidel Castro was conducting one of his periodic political purges, weeding out officers suspected of disloyalty. Others thought he was finally acknowledging what the U.S. has long charged: that high-ranking members of Castro's government are up to their necks in allowing Cuba to become a transshipment point for U.S.-bound cocaine.