LATIN AMERICA - 6. VENEZUELAN-CUBAN RELATIONS CONTINUE TO DETERIORATE

Created: 8/3/1960

OCR scan of the original document, errors are possible

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Relations Continue to Dotorlorato: In

a speech ofuly, Ernesto "Cbe" Guevara, one ot Cuba'sleaders,umber of disparaging remarksPresident Betancourt which will probablydivision in Venezuela over the explosive issue ofthe Cuban Government and could eventually lead to anbetween the two countries. Referring to the recentby Caracas policero-Cuban propagandist, Guevara

_ w*ro-uuoan propagandist, theurder, and called Betancourt "simplyof his forces ofndegimeto be Guevara added that "whenever

decides to ask for helpister nation, Cuba is here to teach Venezuela some of the experience jt has gained ln the revolutionary field."

The pro-Castro Venezuelan foreign minister subsequently announced that an energetic formal protest agaiQSt Guevara's comments vould be presented to Cuba, and Botancourt'a Demo-cratic Action party, which has boon sympathetic toward the Cuban revolution, also condemned them.

Betancourt is known to be hostile toward Castro butsuperficially friendly if cool officialhis regime, apparently because of tbe strongin Venezuela, including many of the leaders ofRepublican Union whichember of the However, Guevara's remarks and tbeby pro-Castro groups in Caracas onarning from the President tbat theinvolved might beinfluence Betancourta firmer stand on the Cuban Issue ln both foreign' "