A Captive in Church

Even in a country where man hunts are not uncommon, it was the biggest in recent history. From one end of Castro's Cuba to the other, the police, the armed forces, the secret security, Castro's network of neighborhood spies and "the entire organized populace" searched for more than two weeks. Their quarry: Angel Betancourt Cueto, the flight engineer who tried to hijack a Cubana Airlines plane March 27th and ended up killing the pilot and a guard before leaping from the plane and escaping (TIME, April 8). Last week Castro finally found his man--and with him an excuse to discredit what little remains of religion in Cuba.

Porous Security. After escaping, Betancourt made his way by foot, train and car or truck to two towns outside Havana, seeking refuge at several farms. Some peasants took him in; others went to the police. After his brother Luis went into Havana to seek a hiding place for the escapee, a bone-weary Betancourt finally slipped back into the city and took refuge in the San Francisco church and convent. There two Franciscan friars agreed, the government charged later, "to hide him, in order later to take him clandestinely out of the country." But government snoopers had got word that Betancourt might try to hide in a Havana church. They set up watches and, in a search of churches, found his hiding place.

In all, the government arrested 15 accomplices, including Franciscan Friars Miguel Loredo and Luis Serafin Ajuria, Betancourt's brother, two Cubans who had hidden Betancourt on a farm, five contacts and--in the government's first admission that Betancourt had not acted alone--five plane passengers who had "paid various sums of money to Betancourt so that he would include them on the trip." Fidel Castro blamed the whole unhappy incident on "Yankee imperialist policy that constantly stimulates and pays deserters," but he was clearly even madder that Betancourt had eluded Cuba's porous security system for so long.

Holy Pictures. THE PEOPLE ASK THE WALL, headlined the newspaper Juventud Rebelde. Employees at Havana's airport demanded that the execution be carried out there, and the purser of the hijacked plane asked to be a member of the firing squad. Betancourt will almost certainly be executed, and his accomplices sent to jail for long terms, at best. As for the two priests, they may escape with exile--after Castro has milked dry their participation in the plot. The government put great emphasis on the role of the priests and the church in Betancourt's escape, and newspapers ran pictures of the captured Betancourt with the two friars, together with shots of his hiding place, with its prominently displayed crucifix and holy pictures. Many Cubans believe that this means a new anti-church campaign against the few Catholic priests still remaining in Cuba. Since taking power in 1959, Castro has whittled their numbers from 600 to 220. As if to confirm fears of a further crack down, the government announced that forthwith priests and seminarians will be called up for military service.

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