Evening star., 1934-07-08
CUBAN ARMS EMBARGO
SEEN AID TO MENDIETA
United States Continues Policy of TAX
ing Sides in Internal Row in
Island, Observer Says.

peat what was said in this column
when the Mendieta recognition was
being hailed as the blessed cure for
Cuba's internal turmoil.
The opposition elements are aligned
in various groups, ranging from the
moderate radicals who held power
under Grau San Martin and the
Directorio Estudiantil to the extreme
radicals and Communists, who have
made inroads in the farming popula-
ton, the intellectual youth and GER
tain sectors of the army and navy.
The various A B. c. sectors and the
followers of GuiteraS and the 48-hour
President Hevia occupy middle posi-
ton between these two.
Thrown into the opposition camp,
and left alone in it, all these radical
groups are going to be encouraged
into merging their forces and present.
ing united front, unless unexpected
developments change the present out
look. And the possibilities OF such
merger should not be underesti-
mated. Certainly these groups are al
ready much closer to the heart of the
Cuban masses than the conservatives
and "old-timers."
Discomfort Widespread.
The events which have been taking
place in Cuba since last August give
indication that there is among the
Cuban people widespread movement
of discomfort, not only against par
ticular political leaders, but against
the whole order of things as they
stand today. There is a movement
for reform-quick reform, radical re-
form.
This is only natural after an eight
year dictatorship in which the Cubans
had an opportunity to get acquainted
with all the evils of the present sys-
tenn. 1t is even more so after three
decades of so-called self-govenment
under which the Cubans have seen
one bad government succeeded by
another-or by a worse one-while
they were being constantly exploited
by the "moneyed" classes, national
and foreign.
/, Who knows but that this movement
might not develop into something like
the Mexican revolution. which started
in 1910 with the fall of Porflrio DiaZ
and is still incomplete?
Mexican-Like Setting.
The elements for re-enactmert of
the Mexican drama are certainly
there. The scenario, the plot, the
characters are there, even though the
leading actors have not as yet -ap-
peared on the stage.
Those who attempt to force an i'm
mediate solution to the Cuban crisis
should bear this in mind: Nothing
can be judged with certainty from
this distance, but they may be trying
to drown q genuinely popular move
ment, a regenerating movement, when
they rally too soon and too earnestly
behind the first conservative who
promises them eventual order and
continuance of the existing order.
This being the case. it is obviously
evident that the arms embargo just
passed can have no greater effect
upon the re-establishment Of Cuban
internal peace than the Mendieta
recognition had. At its best, the en-
barge is only new recourse to help
the Mendieta regime maintain itself
in power. Aside from failing to pro-
vide peace, it increases, then, the al
ready evident partiality of the United
States for one of the factions in
volved in the Cuban political crisis.
And that destroys the second claim
of the embargo to be classed as an
expression of the "good-neighbor"
policy. The good neighbor can hardly
be the one who takes sides in his
neighbors' domestic quarrels.
(Copyrisht. 1934.l