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By noon 70 prisoners had died. The Santiago rebels also sentenced ten men to ten-year jail terms and acquitted 47. In Camagŭey 19 prisoners were shot, in Matanzas twelve, in Santa Clara 30, in Cienfuegos eight. Almost all were followed by a coup de grace—two .45 slugs fired into the head of a man already dead. Havana jails held 800 accused men; the government estimated that, in all, 2,000 would stand trial.
Misgivings. The world looked on, tried to understand the provocation, boggled at the bloodshed. Uruguay's U.N. delegate, Argentina's Cuban ambassador, liberal U.S. Senator Wayne Morse, all protested. Puerto Rico's Governor Luis Munoz Marin was "perturbed." Castro's answer: "We have given orders to shoot every last one of those murderers, and if we have to oppose world opinion to carry out justice, we are ready to do it." He added a few irresponsible crowd pleasers: "If the Americans do not like what is happening, they can send in the Marines; then there will be 200,000 gringos dead. We will make trenches in the streets." Although the U.S. had done nothing more than recognize his regime swiftly, he denounced "cannon diplomacy" and called for a rally of 500,000 this week in Havana.
No Cuban voices rose in protest, though there were doubtless many private misgivings. Sticking up for calm justice might be misinterpreted as sticking up for the tyrant Batista—a dangerous practice in Cuba today. Overwhelming public opinion, especially among women, urged the firing squads on.
As he walked with his entourage through the lobby of the Havana Hilton last week, Castro stopped to talk with two old women, who blubbered a request that their murdered sons be avenged. "It is because of people like you." said Castro, hugging the pair, "that I am determined to show no mercy." All over Cuba, the justly aggrieved, the crackpot patriots and anyone who just wanted to square a minor account filled their black notebooks with the names of new candidates for rebel justice. Fidel Castro estimated that fewer than 450 would be shot; Raul Castro bragged that "a thousand may die."
A Special Moral Climate. The spectacle of Cuban killing Cuban and calling it justice was nothing new to history. Two of the country's rulers deservedly got the nickname "Butcher" (see box). Men still alive today saw the carnage of Spanish rule, and their sons died in the streets in the 1933 massacre. Capable of high idealism and warm generosity, Cubans are also endowed to the full with the Latin capacity for brooding revenge and blood purges. Two wrongs, in many Cuban minds, do make a right. They quote a Spanish proverb: "Have patience and you will see your enemy's funeral procession."
This set of mind fed, under Batista, on a rich diet of police terrorism, often starkly visible. Many of the Batista cops who faced the firing squads last week were proved killers whose twisted minds drew pleasure from pain. To extract secrets from captured rebels, they yanked out fingernails, carbonized hands and feet in red-hot vises. Castration was a major police weapon.