CUBAN STAND ON BOUMEDIENNE'S COUP D'ETAT
The reaction of the Cuban revolutionists to Boumediennets coup d'état is of special significance in view of the close ties of sympathy between the vanguard in Algeria and Cuba.
The Algerian revolution began some sixteen months after the defeat of Castro's forces at the Moncada barracks in July 1953, During the most difficult years of the Cuban struggle, the heroic per-
sistence:of the Algerian revolutionists inspired the Cubans. The refusal of the freedom fighters in Algeria's underground to bow to- French imperialism became legendary among the Cuban guerrilla forces, Algeria was taken as an almost perfect. example of the capacity of a determined.-people to hold out against.the powerful forces of an =. occupying imperialist army. When Castro's forces finally marched. ~ victoriously into Havana they gave full credit to the inspiration ‘° provided by the Algerian example. Revolutionary Cuba's stand on Boumedienne's coup d'état was thus awaited with keen interest,
- On June 27 Fidel Castro stated the position of the Cuban revolutionists. In a radio speech in which it was quite clear that the Cuban prime minister knew he was risking a rupture in diplomatic relations with Algiers, Castro came to'the defense of Ben Bella. He singled out Abdelaziz Bouteflika, Boumedienne's minister of foreign affairs, who is widely regarded as the main architect of the coup d'état, as "a man of the right, an enemy of socialism and the Algerian revolution, a reactionary. .
Castro was less severe with Boumedienne. ‘tHe is a very secretive man," he said. "History will judge him for what he has done. "
The Cuban prime minister revealed that Cuba had sent men and arms to help Algeria when it was attacked in 1963 by Morocco. "We regret," he said, "that these arms might be used today ina fratricidal combat. against the Algerian people." :
The full text of Castro's speech is not yet available in Paris. However, the press. reported him as. exhorting the Algerian military leaders to resume their posts. “Our attitude will be determined by the facts and we hope that they will realize the mistake they have committed.
tthe military pronunciamento of Algiers is not a revolutionary movement and no one can characterize it as revolutionary. It is a question of a sad conflict within the Algerian revolution.
"If Ben Bella had been more wily and less kind, he would not have been driven from power...
"But political repression cannot succeed against a people that has just gained independence. Against the French, thousands of Algerians learned to handle arms and to fight against an army stronger and better equipped than. that of Colonel Boumedienne...
"Military despotism and counterrevolution cannot be installed | in Algeria, a country that gained its freedom arms in hand..."
As for a possible rupture in diplomatic relations, Castro said: "If the organizers of the coup d'état show through their policles their attachment to the Algerian revolution, then we will not
refuse them our support. But if the new Algerian leaders want to break with Cuba, they will not be the first..."
Castro's forthright speech evidently touched some raw nerves. On June 50 Boumedienne's men ordered Prensa Latina, the Cuban press service, to close its doors in Algiers and to hand the key to the police,
The Algerian government information service, by way of excuse, issued a communiqué the same day accusing Prensa Latina of having reproduced in its Bulletin No. 547, "the complete text of a particularly slanderous speech with regard to the Algerian revolution,"
The comminiqué further accused Prensa Latina of "not having stopped at this unfriendly and hostile gesture," but of having proceeded instead to distribute "this bulletin widely in the public thoroughfares, thus deliberately violating the established rules banning foreign agencies from any direct distributions: in the public thoroughfares. rt
‘This, said the anonymous author of the communiqué, showed clearly that the services of "this agency sought to sow confusion and to disturb the public order," —
Still worse, "the services of this agency printed in their” . headquarters -= and the proof has been formally established -- subversive leaflets that were distributed in the public thoroughfares, "
- All this was considered to be “inadmissible interference in the internal affairs of Algeria" of a kind to "disturb the public order" and to “injure the safety of the state,"
The communiqué ended with a declaration that “these acts of outright subversion against the Algerian revolution and this hostile and unthinking attitude against socialist and revolutionary Algeria" have nevertheless” not affected "the links uniting the Algerian and Cuban people" which remain "solid and fraternal,"
The police order, cutting off Cuba's press service in Algiers, was no doubt the theme for a happy telegram from the American. embassy to the State Department.
- On the other hand, the vigorous stand of the Cubans came as a. heartening development for the revolutionary socialists in Algeria, who must now defend the Algerian revolution against one of the most dangerous turns since the struggle for freedom began in 1954,
GEN, KY SAYS HE HAS "ONE HERO" --