CUBA: Invasion Base

What everyone had long known about Cuba was confirmed in detail last week: Fidel Castro has turned his country into an invasion base. The proof came in Manhattan, when a group of disillusioned young Americans of Puerto Rican descent returned home after going to Cuba to participate in the recent invasion of the Dominican Republic. Propelled by dreams of glory, plus promises of hard cash by anti-Trujillo exiles, the young men, ranging in age from 17 to 29 and most of them unemployed, got tickets to Havana and what they thought to be a chance at high adventure. Said Pablo Vélez. 23, “We were going to make a lot of money and shoot down Trujillo.”

The recruits were transported to a camp in Pinar del Rio in Cuban army trucks, got Cuban uniforms and Cuban weapons. As the weeks became months, some of the mercenaries tried to escape, were caught by Cuban army patrols. One boy, David Chervony. the 17-year-old, went on the abortive invasion of June 14, and was probably killed. The others refused to go —and were clapped into prison. They were freed after a two-day hunger strike, told to leave Cuba and keep their mouths shut. Last week the U.S. Justice Department was quietly gathering evidence to present to a grand jury. The U.S. could do nothing about what happens in Cuba. But it could halt the illegal recruiting of U.S. citizens to fight Castro’s wars in the Caribbean.