APPENDIX 8 PREPARED STATEMENT BY DR. MANOLO REYES, FORMER LATIN TELEVISION NEWS DIRECTOR, PRESENTLY PUBLIC RELATIONS CONSULTANT, MIAMI, FLA. Since 1970 up to now I have testified twelve times before Committees & Sub-Committees of the Senate and the House of Representatives about the Cuban situation. For the most part, my testimony has been based on reports and information emanated from within Cuba. I have also given my own evaluation and analisis according to the issues and fact-pattern received from the Island. This testimony is based on the same premises. The Fidel Castro regime's involvement in Africa is more larger than it has been The actual number of Cuban mercenary troops in Africa range from said up to now. 66,000 to 70,000. Most of the soldiers that Castro sent to Africa, up to approximately the first 40,000, were reservists of his army. To achieve that goal he had to call those up to 45 years of age. He did not want to touch the three big armies that he has inside Cuba: The Western Army, The Eastern Army and The Central Army. Facing an increasing battleground in Africa, now Castro has begun to draw soldiers for the African Military Adventure from those three armies. Castro is sending the troops to Africa following the orders of the Soviet Union, which is supplying uniforms, weapons, ammunitions and several contigents of men for the frican Adventure through an international communist brigade. At the same time the Soviet Union is helping Castro to maintain the terror in uba. Since Castro is draining soldiers from his three big armies for Africa, the oviet Union in providing Russian soldiers to Cuba, on a basis of 4 to 1. Per each soldiers that Castro sends to Africa, Moscow sends 1 to Cuba. This has increased the number of Soviet soldiers on about 5,000 in the first uarter of this year. There are now, stationed inside Cuba, spread throughout the sland, some 30,000 Soviet troops. Fidel Castro and the Soviet Union want to re-edited the British Colonialism that once existed in Africa, and that ended when the British Government withdrew from that part of the world. There is a big unrest inside Cuba because the majority of the Cuban people is against the communist military adventure in Africa. The Cuban people claim that Castro condemned the American presence in Vietnam and now he has made a Vietnam in Africa. But above all, the majority of the Cuban people pointed out to specific reasons for their unrest. 1.- Cubans have nothing to do in Africa. It is not a war of the Cubans. 2. Thousands of Cuban families have been hit very hard due to the African There are three other strong reasons of friction between the Cuban people, Castro and the Soviet Union. 1. At the beginning of his regime, Castro said he was going to expell the United States from the Island because Cuba was for the Cubans. The reality shows that Castro expelled the Americans from Cuba and brought the Soviets into the Island, in a bigger number and broader authority. Today the final word in Cuba, whether it is the main decission of the Government or in a little town, the decission is made by a Russian official. 2.- Castro has been in power for almost 20 years and eventhough he has pledged innumerable times that Cuba was going to be a golden cup the Cuban people still have a Ration Card for everything. They have to make long lines under sun or rain for many hours to get small quantities of basic food or clothing. The Russians have special places and passes to buy whatever they want. Cubans are not allowed to get near those places. 3. The heavy authority excersised by the Russian officers upon the Cuban soldiers. Tension has been so great that Russian and Cuban soldiers have been separated throughout the Island in different military barracks. In special paragraph we point out the crucial situation that Castro is having with the new breed of Cubans. Castro is not a symbol anymore for the Cuban youth. The Batista ordeal happened 20 years ago and Castro now has nothing to offer to the Cuban youngsters, "Only a Ration Card and Africa." Castro continues the exportation of his so-called "Communist Revolution". To that effect he has inside Cuba more than 200 guerrilla training schools to instruct Red Agents from different parts of the world. Recently, in this month of April, CBS-TV confirmed in its 60 Minutes Sunday Show in a program entitled Terror International, that some of the most important international terrorists, responsible of killings and kidnappings throughout the world, were trained in Cuba. Also is logical to assume, that since the majority of terrorist acts have been committed lately in Europe, there is a growing possibility that those kind of acts would start to proliferate soon in America, including nuclear terrorism. Finally, there is another frustration for the Cuban people inside the Island, frustration brought about by the United States giving up the Panama Canal. Most of the Cuban people firmely believe that after the Panama Canal, now Washington will give up the Guantanamo Naval Base, the only military base of the United States inside a communist territory. And they are also fearful due to the sentence of the late Marshall Grechko, Minister of Defense of the Soviet Union, who once said: "He who domains the maritime passages of the world, will domain the world." |