Castro Assails Traitors on Revolt Anniversary

In a speech commemorating the start of the 1953 revolution that brought him to power, Cuban leader Fidel Castro on Sunday lashed out at “traitors” who spread “slander” about conditions in Cuba.

“What can they gain with their repugnant slander? Who can they fool?” Castro asked rhetorically in his open-air address to a crowd of 100,000 gathered for the Cuban president’s annual July 26 speech.

The address marks the attack on a military garrison by Castro and a guerrilla band that began the revolutionary movement. The raid at Moncada barracks in the city of Santiago kicked off the insurgency that resulted in a Communist regime in Cuba.

Although the Cuban leader used no names, some of his remarks seemed to refer to a high-ranking Cuban military officer who recently defected to the United States.

Flight to Florida

Air Force Brig. Gen. Rafael del Pino flew a light plane to Florida in May and turned himself over to U.S. authorities. Since then, Del Pino has criticized Castro and his policies in broadcasts to Cuba over a U.S. government-run radio station.

“There have always been rats that abandon the ship when there is a little turbulence,” Castro said in his speech.

The Castro government was apparently very embarrassed by the defection of Del Pino, a hero of the Cuban military’s battle against U.S.-backed exile invaders at the Bay of Pigs in 1961.

Del Pino’s broadcasts on Radio Marti, a Reagan Administration project whose programs can be heard in Cuba on AM radio, have dealt with corruption, military dissatisfaction and failed government economic programs. It is also widely believed that Del Pino has provided valuable intelligence information on the Cuban military to the U.S. government.

There also have been sketchy reports of a second defection--this one by a Cuban intelligence agent in Eastern Europe.

Castro appeared to try to play down the impact of such defections by boasting that they are aberrations.

“For each traitor,” Castro said, banging on the podium, “there are a thousand firm, invincible sailors and captains who can take the ship of the revolution forward in any storm.”

The bearded Cuban leader made no direct mention of the United States during the two-hour, 15-minute-long address. Instead, he used the euphemism “imperialism” to refer to the United States, and then mainly in relation to the alleged “traitors.”

“Imperialism can take encouragement,” he said, when cases of “miserable and repugnant” traitors occur.

Nor did Castro make mention of the recent bitter give-and-take between Cuba and the United States over alleged spying by the CIA in Cuba. Charges of espionage were aired in a recent series of television programs in Cuba. The Cubans charged that the CIA was both planning to kill Castro and lay the groundwork for an invasion of the island.

During the speech, Castro also called on Cubans to step up volunteer work to solve severe housing shortages in the capital of Havana and in eastern provinces of the country.

‘Difficult Times’

To generate enthusiasm for volunteer work, Castro recounted the sacrifice of members of his guerrilla band during the seven-year revolt against the government of Fulgencio Batista.

“These are difficult times, but there were more difficult times in the past,” Castro said, recalling the deaths of many of his early comrades.

Artemisa, a town of about 35,000 about 35 miles southeast of Havana, formed a convenient backdrop for the recollection because several rebels who died in the failed attack on the Moncada barracks came from the town.

At his appearance in Artemisa, the graying Cuban leader wore his customary olive-green fatigues. In contrast to rumors circulating among Cuban exiles in Miami about possible illness, Castro appeared robust, although he cleared his throat on occasion and sipped tea to keep his voice from breaking.

As is also customary, Castro opened his talk with a long, glowing report of economic, educational and health-care progress. He contrasted present-day life in Cuba with conditions before he took power, when he said life was dominated by misery, gambling and prostitution, among other ills.