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LBJ Library, NSF, box 21, Country, Latin America, Cuba, Chronology > ? Research and Reference Service CHRONOLOGY OF CUBAN EVENTS, 1963 R-167-64 October 23, 1964 This is a research report, not a statement of Agency policy w . - . .- COPY LBJ UBRARY CHRONOLOGY OF CUBAN EVENTS, 1963 The following were selected as the more significant developments in Cuban affairs during 1963. January 1 The Soviet news agency Novosti established an office in Havana. In a speech on the fourth anniversary of the Revolution, Fidel Castro reiterated the D-t Cuban ~olicvthat holds UD the revolution as a model for the Hemisphere. "We ape examples for the brother peoples of Latin America.... If the workers and people of Latin America had weapons as our people do, we would see what would happen.... We have the great historic task of bringfng this revolution forward, of serving as an example for the revolutionaries of Latin America- and within the socialist camp, which is and always will be our family." 7 The first TU-114 (~eroflot)turboprop aircraft on the new Moscow-Havana schedule arrived in Havana. 8 The Castro Government, r;-k~;..~:L;cd 62 local medical insurance clinics, assigning them to the Ministry of Public Health and closed 38 others for "lack of adequatet1 facilities. 8 A top-level Soviet military mission departed after spending several days in Cuba. Prensa Latina reported that the mission inspected a number of Soviet installations and conferred with Russian military leaders sta- tioned on the island. 11 The Congress of Women of the Americas was inaugurated in Havana with approximately 500 participants from most Latin American countries and observers from ~o&unistbloc countries. 12 Cuba f or mall^ recomized East Germany, and the two countries raised their trade missions to the ambassadorial level. 14 Best Germsevered di~lomaticrelations with Cuba. 15 Fidel Castro urged Latin Americans to revolt against what he calleq "Western Hemisphere imperialism. l1 Addressing the closing session of the Congress of the Women of the Americas in Havana, he said: "It is the duty of revolutionarv leaders and oraanizations to make the masses march, to hurl the masses into battle. l1 16 CubanSoviet trade for 1962 totaled approximately 500 million rubles ($US 550 mfllion), Soviet First Deputy Foreign Trade Minister Sergei A. Borisov reported in an interview published in Vodny Trans~ort,a Soviet merchult marine newspaper. The 1962 Cuban-Soviet t~adegoal, according to official Soviet publications, had been $US 750 mi'llion. In 1961, Cuban-Soviet trade had totaled $US 580 million. L8, LIBRARY 16 A low term loan with "favorable terms was granted by the Government of the Soviet Unicn to the Cuban 5overriment." Ucder the terms of the agreement the Soviet Union agreed to supply Cuba with basic technical and construction materials. "It would send Cuba the required number of technicians....moreover, the Soviet Union would render assistance to the Republic of Cuba in the task of training national cadres in the drainage and reclamation of lands. 19 Soviet Deputy Foreign Minister Vasily Kuznetsov departed Cuba. 25 A total of 1,170 Cuban refugees arrived in Port Everglades, Florida aboard the US freighter Shirley L~kes. 28 In a speech, Industries Minister Ernesto (che) Guevara criticized Cuban youth for not demonstrating zeal in attaining ~roduction~oals. "The young people, who were always ready for the greatest sacrifice and heroism -- to maintain our revolution, to defend it with arms -- have in many cases not yet been able to rise to the same heights in daily work." February An article written by Industries Minister Guevara in Cuba Socialists, the Communist monthly theoretical journal, entitled "Against Bureaucracy" described the origin of this malignant administrative disease and its gprezd throuahout the ~overnment. He found three fundamental reasons for "the malignant development of the bureaucratic forcett: (1) lack of Itinternal motivation in individuals; (2) lack of organization and; (3) the lack of technical abilities and the kzowledge to make quick and proper decisions. " 8 Representatives of the Soviet and Cuban governments signed a new protocol for the exchange or" goods between the two cou~tries. 9 US press charges of aggressive Soviet military activity in Cuba were re.iected bv Khrushchev &ring a 2 1/2 hour interview in the Kremlin with Roy E. Thompson, Ezitisk newspaper publisher. 12 It was officially annourced in Havana that the first Iberia (spain) Airlines plane in almost four months had arrived at Rancho Boyeros Airport, resuming the regular weekly Madrid-I-.avana schedule which had been halted by the October crisis l~styepx. 13 The Cuben C-~vermentpronulgated Revolutioniw Law No. 1090 which provides that am state organization in Cuba may o~derthe com~ulsorvexpropriation of anv orivate business in the event its owner refuses to give it up voimtariiy or snare it with the government. 18 Tne USSd inforined the US Government that "several thcusand1I of the Soviet Union's estimated 1'7,000 trooss in Cuba would be wi-chdrawn. A Soviet message delivered tc P;.ssident Kennedy by Soviet am bass ad?^ Dobrynin set March 15, 1963 as the deadline for the departure of the Soviet soldiers. ,. .- - COPY LBJ UBRARY 20 The US Defense Department reported that two Cuban-based Mias attacked the US shrimp boat with rockets in international waters 60 miles north of Cuba. 22 A Cuban Armed Forces communique "rejected and denied categorically" the US Government charge that Cuban planes had attacked the &. 22 An inter-American effort to combat subversion in the Western Hemisphere by isolating Cuba was recommended in a report by a special security committee of the Organization of American States. 22 Francisco Juliao, leader of the Peasant Leagues in northeast Brazil, arrived in Havana on an official visit and departed for Brazil on March 8, 23 In a speech celebrating the 45th anniversary of the Soviet Army, Defense Minister Raul Castro, after repeating Marshal Malinovskyts warning that a US attack on Cuba would trigger a nuclear war, warmly praised "the love with which the Soviet armed forces.and their officers are prepariw to . defend our country as if it were their own." 25 Brazilian Communist leader Luiz Carlos Prestes en route to Brazil from the USSR arrived in Havana, and departed for Rio de Janeiro on March 6. 26 The signing of a 1963-64 Cuban-Chinese Communist trade ameement was announced. T:; provided for the exchange of a wide range of goods and the granting t~,Cuba of a Chinese long-term interest loan. -March 8 The regime admitted that ghortanes of electric Power were being exper- ienced throughout Greater Havana and in areas of Havana and Camaguey Provinces. 13 Speaking at the University of Havana, Fidel Castro launched an attack on "anti-socialt1 elements in Cuba, In discussing the internal opposition, Castro turned to a group which, thus far, had been a showpiece of his regiine's attitude of religious tolerance: Protestant missionam sects. He singled out schools and missions of the Jehovah's Witnesses, Gideon Evangelists and the Pentecostal Church, charging that they were ttdirected not from Rome but by the CIA and the State Departmentft and that they used Itsubtle methodsv to work on superstitions of the gua.iiros (farmers). xt the same time Castro claimed that the revolution had no quarrel with the Roman Catholic Church and that the regime respected its right to religious beliefs and practices, lL+ Four a~ti-CastroCubans unsuccessfully sou~htrefuge in the Urwuavan hbassr in Havana by trying to drive a stolen army jeep through a wire fence surrounding the Embassy. CubanmXlitiamen o~enedfire, killed one of the men, wounded another and captured the other two. COPY LBJ UBRARY 17 Anti-Castro organizations, Alpha 66 and the Second Front of the Escambray, carried out a hit-and-run attack on Cuba's north coast, firing on the Soviet ship docked at Isabela de Sauga, Las Villas Province. 20 Manuel Cardinal Arteaga, Primate of the Catholic Church in Cuba, -died in Havana after a long illness. 21-22 Fidel Castro criticized Soviet Premier Khrushchevls stand in the Cuban missile crisis in a two-part fnterview published in the Paris newspaper Le Monde. 22 .Fidel Castro denied that he had given Le Monde an exclusive interview. But he acknowledged that he had held "informal talksu in Havana in January 1963 with Claude Julien, assistant foreign editor of Le Monde. 25 Manuel Urrutia Lleo, Cuba's first president after the Castro revolution, was allowed to depart Cuba for Mexico. He had been a political refugee in the Mexican Embassy in Havana since November 1961. Avr il 1 The Cuban regime inaumated the system of flSocialist emulation:' a self- criticism and comvetition .oromam designed to increase production. 3 The Cuban Government published an official avolo- for the incident which occurred when the US freighter Floridian was molested by two Cuban Mig jets. The communique stated that the strafing was "the result of con- fusion and not done intentionally." 4 Cuba's new "General Law of Pricesu went into effect. The law (No. 1099) "regulates the establishment and approval of all prices in Cuba." It controls not only the prices of products sold but also establishes *price and profit margin control in all buying and selling and in the delivery of merchandise. 9 Dr. Jose Mir6 Cardona resi~nedin Mia@ as President of the anti4astro Cuban Revolutionary Movement. 16 Havana radio stations and the Cuban press announced that, "invited by the Soviet Government, the Prime Minister of the Revolutionary Governnent, Commandant Fidel Castro. will visit the Soviet Union this year." 22 Twenty-seven Americans imprisoned in Cuba for the last 2-3 1/2 years were released following negotiations in Havana by New York attorney James B.