LATIN AMERICA: 21. PROSPECTIVE CUBAN AMBASSADOR TO WASHINGTON

Created: 5/6/1960

OCR scan of the original document, errors are possible

LATIN AMERICA

Cuban Ambassador to "agblngtoo: Jos? Miro

Cardona , lor wbom tbe Cuban Government bas requested agre-ment as Its ambassador to Washington, seems unsure oftbe real oature of bis mission. ay hesually reliable source that,eporter Informed him of tbe request, be bad beard nothing about tbe assignment since Itossibility wltb President Dortlcos soon after Mlro's recall as ambassador to Spain in January, He said be would accept the post only if convinced that Castrodesires to solve what Mlro considers significantIn Cuban-OS relations. Mlro said he would break with the regime if Castro empowered hio toeal

OAj^iP RELEASE AS SANITIZED

improvement In relations and then showed a lack of good faith which caused the mission to fail.

Hiro Cardooaespected lawyer and political mod-orate who opposed Batista and was prime minister for the first six weeks after Batista's ouster. He resigned on amicable terms with Castro after Insisting that, as tbe real locus of power, the revolutionary leader should assumo the prime ministry. As ambassador to Spain, Miro was not close to the ruling coterie in Cuba during the period of its most significant political and economic actions and apparently has seen Castro only once casually since his return from Uadrid. Thus it is difficult to believe that Hiro would actuallytbe strong mandate he says he requires in order to go to Washington.

circumstances of Hire's appointment mayrowing dichotomy In foreign policy between Cuban officials who feel some modus Vivendi with the US Is necessary and those extremists led by Che Guevara and Raul Castro who vould consider any diminution of the Cuban Government's viciously anti-OSapitulation to Washington. Since Cuba has been becoming Increasingly Isolated from other Latin American governments, the choice of Hirolsoaneuver to impress henisnhp.rfl oninlon.