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I. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE CUBAN REVOLUTION

Castro's prolonged resistance against the Batista tyranny "has inflamed  the hearts not only of his own people, but of people all around the globe. Not since Sandino resisted the American Marines for six years in the Nicaraguan Mountains, has any Latin American figure so caught the imagination of the world as Fidel Castro," writes Carleton Beals in The Nation (Jan, 17, 1959).

The overthrow of the Batista dictatorship in January 1959 by Castro and the Cuban people's liberation forces is a tremendous victory for democracy, peace, and social progress for the peoples of the world. It was an uncompromising victory without the mediation or last-minute move by U. S. imperialism.
Occurring only ninety miles from Florida, on the very doorstep  of the United States, this historic event represents a profound defeat for American imperialism, which armed and supported the Batista dictatorship. On the other hand, it has aroused the admiration of the American people. The victory aids the struggle of the American people against the U.S. trusts, and will give a fresh impulse to the freedom struggles of the Negro people.

It is highly significant that U.S. Imperialism was not able to intervene to prevent the people's victory. It sent in marines at one stage in the struggle but it was forced by world public opinion to withdraw them. Little Cuba delivered a staggering defeat to the Imperialist Colossus. This indicates the power of the socialist, anti-imperialist and democratic forces on a world scale.

The events in Cuba and Venezuela show that under the new world conditions it is possible for the oppressed people of Latin America, when it is united and fights militantly, to win national liberation despite the power and nearness of U.S. imperialism.

The anti-colonial, national liberation struggle, which embraces Asia and Africa, is also in full swing in Latin America. The Cuban struggle stirred the Latin American people everywhere and the victory will heighten and broaden it still further.

National reaction and American imperialism may save a little longer the remaining dictatorships in Latin America, They may even save themselves for a while by demagogically making some concessions to their oppressed people, like the present Trujillo efforts to raise the very low basic wage of the Dominican worker with the blessing of the international Labor Office. But the strength of the liberation movement is shown by the destruction in Latin America of half a dozen dictators during the last four years.

On September 19, 1955, General Juan Domingo Peron had to abandon the presidency (read dictatorship) of Argentina.

On December 13, 1956, Paul G. Magliore, dictator of Haiti, was forced into exile.

On May 10, 1957, dictator Gustavo Rojas Pinillas of Colombia was thrown out of office.

On January 23, 1958, dictator Marcos Perez Jiminez of Venezuela was ousted and fled to Trujillo's Dominican Republic.

Four dictators still remain: Alfredo Stroessner who became dictator of Paraguay after forcing the duly elected president Frederico Chaves to resign in 1954. General Rafael Leonidas Trujillo y Medina has been dictator of the Dominican Republic for the last twenty-eight years. Francis Duvalier, who became president at a national election in 1957, has become for all intents and purposes Haiti's dictator, after the powers granted to him following the crushing of the last July rebellion. Then there is Luis Somoza who inherited the presidency of Nicaragua after his father Anastasio was assassinated in September 1956.

There is no doubt that as the Cubans continue their revolution and make efforts to take away the usurped rights and privileges of U.S. Imperialism in Cuba, the danger of intervention will grow. It is essential that the democratic freedom-loving forces in this country realize the danger and act to arouse public opinion in the United States.

II. THE BATISTA DICTATORSHIP AND U.S. IMPERIALISM
Batista established his dictatorship by a coup on March 10, 1952. He ruled by bloody terror, by torture, airplane bombings of peoples (with Napalm bombs), executions of workers' leaders, wholesale imprisonment and shootings of rebels. Twenty thousand patriots -- men, women, and children -- were killed. "I have seen reports of human fingernails and toenails yanked out of live victims and human eyes