European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - June 23, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Constant rhetoric Cubas aging revolution Byjah Debussey United press International Twenty six years after Fidel Castro took the cuban revolution has aged like its Gray bearded Leader but shows Little sign of los ing its the charismatic Leader still embodies the 1959 revolution to any conversation invariably touches on the revolution and the nearly 25year old Trade embargo in that at a May Day Parade presided Over by Castro who saluted and peered through his binoculars at the marching workers chants of Long live Fidel were stronger than those of Long live after More than a Quarter Century in some of the cuban leaders revolutionary tone has but it has not lost its defiant when the government began beaming radio Marti to Cuba he immediately halted an Immi Gration agreement and cancelled flights Between Miami and Havana for cuban the embargo imposed in i960 serves As the continuing Symbol of cuban strength and Defi the partial isolation it enforced served to coalesce the giving cubans a sense of when an aggressive act is taken against a the people of that country Deputy foreign min ister Jose Raul Viera said in a recent meeting with for eign we really did live through some very Tough said a Driver of one of the inter taxis that Only carry he asked to be identified Only by his first my when they the americans were kicking we  think about taking care of a said cuban historian Leandro staring at a lot in old Havana left vacant by the collapse of a stately colonial building in the despite the constant revolutionary cuban life has its lighter the current hits Are Stevie wonders just called to say i love you and we Are the world by for and for Many in finding space at the popular Paradero Beach resort is More of a concern than finding Money to to foreign cuban officials tick off a string of glowing statistics Many impossible to verify aimed at proving the Success of the but 26 years after the a tour of the country shows most cubans Are healthy and welled too in complain health officials trying to encourage cubans to eat More vegetables to shed excess the housing shortage remains a serious problem and observers say Cuba lacks Industry to employ its increasingly educated work cubans spend Only 26 percent of their income on rationed according to government the they goes to extra food and appliances in the 700 state run stores that sell merchandise at unregulated there Are students in higher education its infant mortality rate is the lowest of developing coun and the average life expectancy is 70 slightly below the United states but Well above other latin health education and baseball games Are free Only 10 percent of the family breadwinners salary is taken up by starting in cubans will be Able to buy their Homes from the government in inter est free monthly at a government a 77yearold hero with 13 medals for High productivity decorating his Chest was full of Praise for the a farm worker at the time of Batistas he i became a Plant agronomist after the revolt he said his three children All have higher Educa but not All cubans Are enthusiastic about the system some have and others voice Dissat Isaac this is a police said one cuban who would not give his if i am seen talking to you my House could be i could be picked up for inter when asked Why he risked talking to foreign Jour he after a while you dont care he was echoed by Jim political officer at the interest Section of the Swiss embassy in Washington has no formal diplomatic ties with i think the most glaring deficiency in the cuban system is simply Cuba is still a police state Todd some government pressure is artists and intellectuals whose work reflects revolutionary themes receive official backing and incentives rebels Are out in the Cuba is a country where official support is crucial for recognition and making a As for the next which will eventually have to carry on without one Western Diplomat said the government is fearful they have not conveyed to the Young enough commitment to the revolt cuban leaders disagree with that anyone who has dreams that it Cuba is going to change will see their dreams converted into night said Jose Enrique editor of the communist party the youth is possibly More each generation has to be More said who operated a rebel radio station from the Sierra Mae Stra mountains during the revolt against dictator Fulgencio a member of the party Central commit Fidel is not concerned about the future of the in Cuba there is a communist party and a communist it is a great ideological by Joseph new York times few cubans want to admit they listen to radio the new broadcasting service to Cuba that the United states started about two weeks fewer still want to discuss but those cubans who will talk about the broadcast besides government who have strongly criticized it Are not giving it rave the response is the same from Many foreign diplomats and other no cubans who have been studying the some listeners in Havana Call it radio or the they say it is old fashioned and out of step with modern cuban Many also Call it disappointingly but less stridently propagandist in than they had but its like something out of the the the said a woman in her late 30s who Man Ages an office and who said she was not a particularly Strong supporter of the cuban people were expecting something new in radio technique from radio its so funny listening to their soap operas after living in revolutionary Cuba for the last 26 she they sound so Richard the acting program director of radio said in a Telephone interview from Washington that he suspected the criticism was cuban government propaganda to try to discredit the he said that despite the difficulties of creating a station without being Able to fully study the potential radio Marti was a Good product to Start off he added that there May be some changes As time goes on and we get in the evenings the radio plays two hours of internationally popular Many cubans said they liked but that they heard the same music on cuban on recent mornings the new station has featured the romantic ballads of Celia Cruz and Olga two cubans who were favourites before the revolution in 1959 and who left the country Long some cubans mentioned these who radio Marti officials in Washington say remain popular throughout latin but Are banned in As evidence that the station is out of touch with modern Over dinner one Miguel a novelist who until recently was out of political said i dont think radio Marti is very aggressive against but its very its not Good its very the stations failure to meet expectations has led some to Call it la or the the name of a 1950s song about a Chacha dancer who used palsies and padded hips to make herself attract Araujo said the broadcasts were not intended to be nostalgic or to hark Back to pre revolutionary were trying to reach the cubans of he not the cubans of but Araujo acknowledged that radio Marti featured a soap opera that was produced in Miami 10 years ago and a daily 20minute taped comedy show so old that most of the artists have he said radio Marti used that material partly be cause the which was created by Congress nearly two years went on the air while it was still hiring a staff and was unable to produce enough original he added the station management Felt this was Clas sic comedy that a generation of cubans had not heard and that a Good classic never he said the comedies were the latin american equivalents of the honeymooners and the Lucy Many european and latin american diplomats said Fidel castros government overreacted when it responded to the Start of radio Marti with a thunderous denunciation and the suspension of a major immigration agreement with the United but cuban government officials said the Content of the programs was not As important As the principle of intrusion in cuban affairs and the Gross insult of Nam ing the station after Jose one of Cubas most revered government officials said Castro was furious about radio Marti because he had believed that his efforts to improve relations with the United states were succeed ing and that the broadcasts were a slap in the the cuban government has said it might retaliate further among other a cuban version of radio Marti that would broadcast in English to the United several knowledgeable cubans said such a station had been organized and that a special staff had been at work on programming for several government officials would not confirm for the voice of America programs prepared for latin America were widely listened to in Cuba on the same 1180 am frequency now used by the Watt radio the voice of America can now be heard Only on shortwave and Many cubans say this is a the legislation creating radio Marti stipulated that it was to function As a Branch of the voice of America and was to adhere to the same standards of but for Many cubans the new stations credibility has been tainted by its close association with antics Tro cubans in on the voice of one woman the speakers were not cuban and you believed in it More than radio Araujo said radio Marti was striving for an inter National although the majority of the Nair voices were some cubans say that while the radio Marti news reports seem fairly there is sometimes slanting in the Choice of Many said they Felt a commentary on Grenada unfairly represented the cuban Gulf Guantanamo naval base air bases Navy stations and facilities reagans radio Marti like out of the 1950s base at Guantanamo cuban president Fidel Castro meeting archbishop Bernard Law of Boston in the presidential Palace at where Castro received a delegation of the National conference of Catholic Bishops last a photo nestled in Deepwater Guantanamo Bay in Southeastern the Only military base in a communist ruled country is an unwelcome Caiman Era the first anti imperialist Trench in billboard reads on the approach to the Small town just outside the naval bases perimeter of barbed wire and watch the Silver Globe of a sophisticated radar station can be seen for inside the oldest naval base on foreign Are several thousand military personnel who undergo naval training in the shimmering Blue Caribbean outside the 17mile cubans Are literally on the frontline of the cold in the City of 12 Miles North of the base that was willed in perpetuity to the United states in agreements in 1903 and All males older than 16 train weekly to prepare for a feared attack from the it Doest matter How Many american soldiers we will beat one resident president Fidel Castro rejects the Validity of both trea charging they were signed by puppet governments under pressure and insisting the 45squaremile base be Luis Delfin Perez director of the International press Center at the ministry of foreign called the yearly payment of for the base some thing he noted the cuban government annually returns the Check the cuban people will never agree to loan or cede a single Inch of our land to a foreign said Jose solar commander of the Border Bri Gade that guards the no mans land around the from a cuban Lookout Point about two thirds of a mile from the foreign journalists on a tour of Cuba could see american military in watch towers and patrolling in although solar Hernan said the cubans did not know the strength of the forces at the in 1981 Guantanamo military population aver aged Navy and Marine personnel and civil including civil service school teachers and jamaican contract Page 14 the stars and stripes Jine cuban and soviet War vessels steer Clear of the but merchant ships regularly pass the american base to reach an inner cuban Harbor and fleets fish in the Depths of the americans on the base Are strictly forbidden to leave but 60 aging cuban workers from Caiman Era pass through the Barrier each Day to go to they go on the Highway in cuban said Armando a local communist party official in on the Western Edge of the base and 500 Miles Southeast of despite the official cubans feel no resent ment for those who work on the Lopez it is a cuban he nearby towns can watch american television from Guantanamo base a practice frowned on by workers receive regular salaries through a cuban but Lopez said there is no renewal of the work Force at the retirement of each All of whom Are Over 60 and have carried out maintain Ance and other tasks since before Cubas 1959 on the cuban where two infantry battalions Are visiting journalists were kept Clear of every thing but a military museum and a Border Lookout in the War the angriest language was re served for the ways american soldiers offend cuban since its beginning until the Yankee base in Guantanamo was a stimulus for delinquency and Many other social one exhibit the television from the base is still the source of Glim mers of american culture cuban officials obviously would prefer to keep the population in ignorance in schoolchildren were eager to talk with foreign visitors about such american influences As break dancing and pop music Stevie Michael Lionel Richie were All familiar As was the Best we Are the their knowledge obviously came from but when a cuban official approached the the oldest girl looked Down and abruptly changed her i really dont watch american i dont like United press International the stars and stripes Page 15