The Wise Men

Havana's government-operated television station CMQ presented an unusual Nativity scene for Cubans to ponder last week. Above the building's entrance was a painting of a peasant couple watching the newborn babe in the manger. Overhead, a light bulb screwed into his forehead, beamed the face of Jose Marti, Cuba's national hero. And out of the East strode the three Wise Men--Fidel Castro, Economic Czar Ernesto ("Che") Guevara and Army Chief Juan Almeida. The symbolism, in a way, was appropriate. On Christmas week,* the East was where Cuba found itself tied by every device of economics, technology and culture at the dictatorship's disposal.

Pass the Handout. Flying home from his eight-week trip to the Soviet bloc. Wise Man Che Guevara brought his present for the newborn Cuba: agreements that make Cuba's shattered economy dependent on Russian handouts. The Reds promised to import such Cuban goods as hides and sugar, unneeded in Russia; they promised to send to Cuba a $250 million aid program, including an oil refinery, a steel mill, power plants. Added the joint communique: in case the U.S. "carries out its threat of not buying more sugar from Cuba," Russia commits itself to purchase 2,700,000 tons at the barter equivalent of 4^ per lb., making 4,000,000 tons in all to the Communist world. The Russian pledges were hedged, e.g., "measures that are possible." Yet the outcome was indisputable: a Soviet commitment to keep Cuba's Communist regime alive, if on short rations.

Fidel Castro's gift last week was another shrill speech, in which he threatened the entire world with economic aggression if the U.S. does not buy Cuban sugar. If other suppliers fill the gap in the U.S., cried Castro, he will wreck the trade by dumping sugar. If he meant what he said, he would also wreck the economy of Cuba, the world's largest exporter.

For his own family, Cuba's No. 1 Wise Man had a questionable gift. At a meeting in Havana, a claque of well-rehearsed sugar growers voted to abolish the long-established Cuba Cane Growers' Association and to condemn one man who spoke out against the move. The man was Castro's older (36) brother, Sugar Grower Ramon Castro, who helped the revolution with funds but has been increasingly critical of its recent course. The meeting derided Ramon Castro for "utilizing the name of the Prime Minister." And it urged jail for members of the old association, presumably including Ramon Castro, delegate from Oriente Province.

* The season's hit song in Havana, sung to the tune of Jingle Bells: "Con Fidel, con Fidel, todos con Fidel."

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