Talk of Growing Unrest

Miami's Cuban exile community lives on hope--and stories from home. For six months the rumors have swirled around the mysterious disappearance of Che Guevara, 37, long the most important figure next to Castro in Cuba's Communist hierarchy (TIME, June 25). Last week the Che story receded into the background before a whole new crop of tales whispering of sabotage and assassination attempts inside Cuba. Some were open to question; others were at least partly based on fact. Either way, they all hinted at growing unrest on Castro's troubled island.

Ramiro Valdes, Castro's Minister of Interior, suggested as much in a brief radio speech last week. "We must fight," he told Cubans, "against internal espionage, sabotage, acts of terrorism and attempted assassinations." A few weeks ago, according to one report, saboteurs put the torch to two Cuban PT boats in Santiago harbor. Another report tells of a Cuban antiaircraft battery that gunned down a Cuban army transport in the belief that Castro was aboard.

A Cuban plane was indeed shot down last June, but it was an '"accident," according to Havana Radio.

Still other reports tell of an unsuccessful ambush of a Castro motor caravan in Pinar del Rio province, and a bomb planted at a Cuban power plant where Castro was scheduled to talk.

Last week's most widely circulated rumor originated in Miami with the Student Revolutionary Directorate, which claims wide underground contact inside Havana. On July 27, goes the story, Castro was returning from Santa Clara in a motorcade, and had just reached Havana when a group of "workmen" along the road whipped out guns and began firing away, killing a guard and a chauffeur. In some versions, Castro was wounded; other versions say no.

All this may explain why Castro ordered citizens to turn in their weapons by Sept. 1 and began purging all but the staunchest Castroites from his government. "When it is possible to have a technician who is a revolutionary, so much the better," said Castro over the radio. "But when there is no revolutionary technician to take the post, let it be filled by a revolutionary cadre member, even though he is not a technician. It is necessary to have a revolutionary attitude toward problems."

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