LATIN AMERICA: 8. PLANS FOR CUBAN MAY DAY RALLY; AND 9. BRAZILIAN OPINION SHIFTING TOWARD POSITIVE VIEW OF CUBA

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 00134264
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 28, 2022
• Document Release Date: January 31, 2017
• Case Number: F-2015-02757
• Publication Date: April 18, 1960

Approved for Release: 2017/01/24 C00134264
LATIN AMERICA
8 Plans for Cuban May Day Rally: Fidel Castro seems de-
termined to make the May Day rally in Havana a demonstration
of strong support for his regime not only by the Cuban masses
but also by public sentiment throughout the hemisphere and by
the Sino-Soviet bloc.
A parade by the armed forces and militia units is
planned to show Cuba's capacity to repel the foreign in-
vasion Castro officials insist is being plotted by "im-
perialism." Previous plans for a march of a million work-
ers are rumored to have been abandoned because of a bitter
fight within the Cuban Labor Confederation (CTC) over the
government's endorsement of efforts to purge non-Communist
leaders. The Cuban Communist party has taken advantage of
this situation to usurp CTC responsibility for organizing
the May Day celebration, hoping thus to strengthen its in-
fluence with Castro and within the CTC.
r._ Delegations invited from other Latin American countries
C7) include liberal leaders--many of them widely respected--who
recently signed a "statement of solidarity with the Cuban
y-4 revolution." Their presence would be used to demonstrate
support by nonofficial hemisphere groups and to offset the
coolness of most Latin American governments toward Castro
and their concern over his rejection of the Rio de Janeiro
Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance.
.
The Cuban Government reportedly is paying transporta-
tion and lodging costs for 18 Chinese Communists who will
participate in the May Day rally. Along with 73 Soviet
visitors and other bloc delegations, the Chinese will prob-
ably be given a prominent place in the demonstration.
The American Embassy in Favana is convinced the rally
will have a strong anti-US and Communist-line flavor
Brazilian Opinion Shifting Toward Positive View of
Cuba: Since 5 April, when opposition presidential candi-
date Janio Quadros returned from his highly publicized
visit to Cuba, there has been a shift in articulate unoffi-
cial opinion in Brazil away from almost universal condemna-
tion of Cuba's Castro regime toward an essentially favorable
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"reappraisal," according to the American Embassy in Rio de
Janeiro. The chairman of the Senate foreign relations com-
mittee, a member of the opposition Democratic National Union
party who accompanied Quadros to Havana, made a speech on 13
April in which he praised the "authenticity" of the Castro
revolution, minimized Communist influence in the regime, and
declared that the situation in Cuba is "historically justifi-
able if not inevitable." On 12 April the important opposition
newspaper Jornal do Brasil, formerly critical of Castro, stated
that journalists iiSo accompanied Quadros had brought back in-
formation so impressive as to suggest that the international
wire services have presented a distorted and unfair picture of
the Castro regime.
It seems likely that these new public attitudes result
from a conscious effort by the pro-Quadros forces to justify
the Cuban trip. Quadros' lieutenants have stated privately
that the trip was intended to rid Quadros of the "Wall Street
lackey" label he acquired in accepting nomination by the social-
ly correct National Democratic Union party; the decision to ac-
cept Castro's invitation alienated many conservative backers,
however, and also certain labor leaders who viewed it as "one
more example of emotional instability." The government's pres-
idential candidate, former War Minister Lott, refused a similar
invitation.
A continued press campaign to justify Quadros' trip by
justifying the Castro regime could build up pressure on the
government to reverse its negative stand on Cuba's proposed
"hungry nations" conference. Brazil has been Latin America's
strongest holdout against the conference and has apparently
persuaded several other governments to refuse.
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