Telegram from the Brazilian Embassy in Havana (Bastian Pinto), 9:30 a.m., Tuesday

SECRETARY OF STATE FOR EXTERNAL RELATIONS

TELEGRAM

RECEIVED

13848

FROM THE EMBASSY IN HAVANA

ON/20/21/XI/62

SECRET—URGENT

DAC/DAS/DEA/DOr/DNU/600.(24h)

Question of Cuba.

394 – TUESDAY – 930hs – My arrival here, in December of last year, coincided with the preparations for the meeting of Punta del Este and it was constant, then, emphasis of the Cuban government to prod Brazil and obtain our support on the international plane. After Punta del Este, perhaps because it was already excluded from the Inter-American system and coinciding with the beginning of a new phase in its relations with the USSR, the Cuban attitude in relation to Brazil shifted. Since then, the Cuban Government always manifested its recognition to Brazil and its confidence in that we would not alter our policy favorable to Cuban autonomy. It requested, at times, support for questions of less importance; treated me, personally, with exceptional amiability, but, in truth it was that this Government has not demanded or solicited our support or intervention in that it referred to great international questions, on which depended its very survival. In the present crisis this attitude became, still, more evident.

Twice on 23 and 27 of October, the gravest moments of the crisis, and, according to the instructions of Your Excellency, I requested this Government, in order to transmit to it the suggestion and even appeal of the Brazilian government that, if heeded, without doubt would have altered the course of events. My appeal was received with attention and deference, but with total refusal. I do not refer to the Mission of General Albino Silva, which had an exceptional character and about which the General himself informed Your Excellency, but I call attention to the [fact that the] Havana press has not made, practically, any mention of this special mission and, still more, that the Cuban censorship has cut, totally, the telegrams sent from here, in this respect, by foreign correspondents. I consider very strange that, in the present circumstance, the Cuban government has not taken advantage of the opportunities Brazil offered to it and our evident sincerity to help it on the path to a solution acceptable for Cuba. I judge that I should bring to the knowledge of Your Excellency these observations, which I believe will be useful. In the following telegram I transmit some impressions about the probable causes of this attitude.

LUIZ LEITAS BASTIAN PINTO