Cuba: The Petrified Forest

(See Cover) It was Fidel Castro's first major speech since the July 26 anniversary of his 1953 attack on the Moncada barracks that started the Cuban revolution. There he stood last week before a crowd of 50,000 in Havana's Plaza de la Revolución, meandering for hours about everything and nothing — poverty, classroom shortages, taxes, new houses, and the problem of bureaucrats who do "absolutely nothing." Then, amid the chatter, he dropped two electric statements that instantly set telephones jangling from Miami to Washington. Castro offhandedly promised to 1) let any Cuban...

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