CUBA: Siege of Atares

The Havana tourist hotels last week were forced to revise their room rates. Balcony suites went begging; everyone wanted quiet inside rooms with no exposure. The precarious peace that has ruled Havana for the last six weeks ended with a prolonged and bloody explosion.

Last September Capt. Juan Blas Hernandez, a bowlegged old bushwhacker who fought Tyrant Machado for years and had started a lively little campaign against the Grau Government, suddenly appeared in Havana, publicly embracing not only President Grau but also swart “Emperor” Fulgencio Batista, the onetime Sergeant who led the Army’s revolt against its officers, and to the world’s surprise has maintained control of the Army ever since.

Last week unstable Hernandez struck again. In Atares Fortress, in the San Ambrosio and Dragones military posts, sections of the Army in sympathy with the ABC opposition rebelled in an effort to restore the brief conservative government of Carlos Manuel de Cespedes. Leading the Atares rebels was bowlegged old Hernandez, quickly joined by the men from the other posts, for Atares Fortress, built in 1767 with walls of masonry over six feet thick, was reputedly proof against modern shell fire.

To the rebels’ dismay most of the Army and all the Navy stayed loyal to President Grau and Emperor Batista. Four field guns were unlimbered, trained on the fort. The first few shells were completely wild, either kicking up dirt harmlessly below the fort or shrieking off into Havana’s residential district thousands of yards beyond with most embarrassing results. But soon they dropped shell after shell into the fort. With cannon, anti-aircraft and machine guns the rebels replied, scored their greatest success by smashing a field gun on Burro Hill, mile and a half away, with two shots from a little one-pounder.

In Havana Harbor Cuba’s two cruisers Cuba and Patria, went into action hiding behind the Ward Liner Morro Castle for protection and popping shells over her smokestacks. Dozens of machine gun bullets splattered the liner’s deck, but miraculously no one was hit, not even a porthole smashed.

Meanwhile in Havana the ABC set civilian sharpshooters sniping at soldiers from the rooftops. Atares Fortress was a bloody shambles. In the midst of the siege a wild-eyed messenger burst into the Presidential palace shouting that Rebel Hernandez had been killed. It was true, and so had over 150 others. Atares surrendered.

The revolt died. Prominent Government partisans attempted to distract the populace by blaming the entire affair on U. S. Ambassador Sumner Welles, who like most foreign observers has been admittedly friendly to ex-President de Cespedes.