Telegram from Polish Embassy in Havana (Jeleń), 14 April 1962

Ciphergram No. 5389

Dispatched from Havana on 04.14.1962 at 10:00 and received on 04.15.1962 at 13:55

Came to the Decoding Department at 04.15.1962 at 17:00

To: [Aleksander] KRAJEWSKI¹

From: [Ambassador Bolessaw] JELEN²

Your cable no. 4047 must have missed our cable no. 124 [see Ciphergram 4864]. Based on more information we obtained [regarding the Escalante affair], one can conclude that there are no rifts between the members of the former PSP [Popular Socialist Party] and the members of the former “26th of July Movement.” Due to the [condemnation of] the methods adopted by Escalante, there was some danger that some members of the former leadership of the PSP may be suspected for having anti-Castro tendencies. The issue, however, boiled down to [assessing] the principles of the party life as well as the methods of work adopted by E. himself. Old communists from the current leadership think that E. had dogmatic tendencies. Their mistakes, [they are saying], were: [1] they did not draw appropriate conclusions from his activities before they began to work on the organizational unification [PSP and “the 26th of July Movement]; [2] their inability to combat internal conservatism; [3] and their underestimation of the actual role of the “26th of July Movement” in the revolutionary process and the qualities of the new generation of communists. At the same time, it seems that these issues have not met with an understanding of a certain part of the old party apparatus of the former PSP which would fully overlap with the former leadership.

The summary of the personnel changes [within the Cuban leadership]: the position of the old communists has weakened within the central leadership of the ORI (see our Claris 101). The reorganization of three provincial committees has already taken place. In two of the provinces, the positions of first secretaries were taken by the activists from the former PSP (but not [its] sympathizers – see our cable no. 124 [actually Ciphergram 4864]). There are two old activists from the former PSP ([Carlos Rafael] Rodriguez [Minister – President of] INRA [Instituto Nacional de Reforma Agraria de Cuba] and [Manuel] Luzardo [Minister of] Domestic Trade). Within the overall changes that have taken place until now, there are no signs of removing [old] communists; however, there is an overall trend of rejuvenating the party cadres in order to increase the work effectiveness. The process of personnel changes has not yet ended.

[1] Official in the Polish Foreign Ministry. In 1950-1951, he served as the vice-chair of the Administrative and Budgetary Committee of the UN General Assembly. In 1965-1970, he served as Poland’s ambassador to Brazil.

[2] Poland’s ambassador to Cuba (1961-1965).