A CONTROVERSIAL PERSONALITY

It can be said of the Secretary General of the Movement for Revolutionary Recovery, Manuel Artime, that there is much to say, but never that he has lacked spirit to fight for the liberty of Cuba.

Combative and polemical, Artime today occupies a singular position in the fight against Castro in which he collects furious insults and almost fanatical proselytism in equal quantities. His early struggle against Batista's dictatorship and his activity in Sierra Maestra in Column One commanded by Fidel Castro, made him an outstanding figure in the Revolution. His break with Castro and his denunciation of the olive green treachery to the great romance of the Cuban people made him the target for all attacks and insults. In the spring of 1960 Artime went into exile. In Mexico he wrote a book denouncing Castro's apostasy. With other eminent democratic leaders he helped found the Revolutionary Front (later Committee) and exerted intense propaganda and political activity throughout the continent which culminated in the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion. This was one of the most critical points in Manuel Artime's civic career. His activity in it — personally heroic though it was — helped throw on him the shadow of new attacks and suspicions, but it also converted him into a leader of the first rank which the maturity of a prison term and his conspiratorial and revolutionary activities afterward only enhanced.