The Political End of "President" Urrutia

Fidel Castro, by Robert E. Quirk 1993

After returning from his trip on May 7. Fidel Castro's treatment of President Urrutia changed. He became disrespectful, interrupting the president's speeches and dominating every session. Unable to defend himself, Urrutia began to arrive late and leave early, saying nothing. And he instituted a campaign of passive resistance. He delayed signing decrees that had been voted in the cabinet. In turn Castro began to meet the ministers in his suite at the Hilton. The president ceased to play any part in the legislative process. Instead, Urrutia made speeches and gave interviews in which he expressed his concern that the communists had begun to infiltrate the government. The revolution was humanist, he stressed, not Marxist.

Elections

Castro blew hot and cold on the question of holding general elections. One day he would promise that within months - or within two or four years at the most - the country would be ready to go to the polls. At other times he would insist that the people did not want elections, that, in any event, they would vote for July 26 candidates. Fidel Castro did not want elections. He distrusted the people, as individuals, to make informed decisions. He saw the restoration of political democracy in 1959 as a return to the old discredited system, to parties that had been corrupted, that had cooperated with, or at least acquiesced in, the fraudulent balloting of the Batista era.

A reinstated congress and presidency, even with free elections, would have taken decision making out of his hands and brought back a regime of checks and balances. It would have curbed his freewheeling operations, short-circuited his charismatic ties to the masses. Economic freedoms would have dictated responsible action on the part of his government, acceptance of international rules of behavior, cost accounting, the inviolability of contracts, and efficiencies in operation. He would not accept that. He saw no need for elections.

Convenient Marxism

If Fidel Castro would not allow a Western-style democracy, with representative institutions freely chosen by the people, or an economic system characterized by private enterprise, competition, and profit incentives, there seemed to be no alternative but Marxism. It had become clear too that the communists, no democrats themselves, were perfectly willing to see Fidel Castro continue as Maximum Leader for the rest of his life. They praised him unconscionably. They never criticized or complained, and if the United States refused to aid the Cubans, the Soviets could provide both economic and military assistance. Before the end of 1959 Castro was willing to believe that the road map to Cuba's New Jerusalem might be found in the covers of Das Kapital.

Defection(s)

Major Pedro Luis Diaz Lanz

Once a pilot for Batista's air force, Diaz Lanz had flown weapons for Castro's guerrilla army from Costa Rica. Now he commanded the country's air force. During the first months of 1959 he had grown increasingly uneasy about what he identified as "communist elements" in the revolutionary government. On June 29 he expressed his fears to reporters and sent a letter to Urrutia in which he detailed his charges. "We all know, Mr. President," he said,"who they are." That night he left the country in a small sailboat, reaching the Florida coast without incident. Urrutia gave a statement to the press in which he branded Diaz Lanz a traitor. But at the same time he insisted that, as president, he "absolutely" rejected "communist ideology." Diaz Lanz was granted permanent-resident status.

Urrutia Condemns Diaz Lanz and Communists

In Havana, Manuel Urrutia went on television to criticize the United States for giving asylum to a deserter. He denied reports of friction between him and Fidel Castro. They were following the "same road," he said. Asked by the interviewer, Luis Conte Aguero, about his own views on communism, the president replied that he had not wanted to touch on "that subject. " But then he launched a vigorous attack on the leaders of the PSP. The communists, he said, were "doing irreparable harm to Cuba." Their newspaper Hoy promoted the interests of the Soviet Union. Anibal Escalante, in a recent article, had called the president disloyal. Disloyal to whom? he asked. He did not understand the charge. He, at least, had not sold himself to the Russians. Urrutia reminded Cubans that when he visited Washington in 1958 to ask the Americans to halt weapons shipments to Batista, "those same communist gentlemen were alleging the insurrectional policies [ of the July 26 movement] were wrong." If the Cuban people had heeded those words, he said, "we would still have Batista with us ... and all those other war criminals who are now running away." he reminded the Cubans that the PSP was the same party that had cheered and said "Well done!" when Hitler invaded Poland in 1939 and the Russians treacherously attacked that unfortunate country from the rear. And Juan Marinello had described the Western war efforts as a "dirty business." You may be sure, he said, that Fidel Castro was not one of those communists. Castro watched the interview in his suite at the Hilton. He told an associate: "All this criticism of communism makes me tired."

The Prime Minister "Resigns" & The President "Defects"

Castro resigns his position as Prime Minister. Carlos Franqui printed over 1 million copies of a special edition of Revolucion with large headlines. Castro counted on a groundswell of support across the island in his confrontation with the president. Franqui's editorial stated, "It is understood that very serious and justifiable reasons have led to this decision of one who has always been characterized by the resolution, firmness, and responsibility of his action . . . . Trusting in his intelligence, his integrity, and his position as undisputed and indisputable leader of our people, we await with anxiety, perhaps, but also with serenity, his always clarifying and always appropriate words."

At 8:20 in the evening of July 17 Cuba was immobilized, as Castro began to speak from the privacy of a television studio. He had no choice but to give up his position as prime minister. Because of their many and frequent disagreements, he found it impossible to work with Urrutia, disagreements that were both moral and civic.

He accused Urrutia of everything under the sun including treason. Cuba faced a grave international crisis threatened on one side by Trujillo, and betrayed on the other by Diaz Lanz. Yet Urrutia had chosen this moment of peril to accuse the goverment, "with no proof whatsoever," of being communist. This attitude "bordered on treason." "Like that traitor he had launched a campaign against the communists. "I am not communist," Castro said, "and neither is the revolutionary movement. But we do not have to say we are anti-communist, just to curry favor with foreign governments." what was a prime minister to do? Wait until the president of Cuba had committed treason? He was certain, he said, that Urrutia could find any number of "American agents" willing to serve in his cabinet.

Shortly before midnight, as Castro wound up his speech, Urrutia sent his resignation to the cabinet. He recognized the changes that had taken place in Cuba since the first of the year. Certain that he would be arrested, though he had committed no crimes, and perhaps charged with a capital offense, he donned a guayabera and left the building inconspicuously by way of a small backdoor. He sought asylum in the Venezuelan embassy. Castro did not rescind his resignation at once, explaining that he wanted to wait until July 26, the anniversary of the Moncada attack. He continued, in the meantime to govern the country, meeting his cabinet and enacting laws.

Castro replaced Urrutia with Osvaldo Dorticos, the minister of revolutionary laws, as president. A competent attorney from a wealthy family, who as a youth had flirted with Marxism, he proved willing, when the opportune winds blew in Cuba, to become a full- fledged communist.