From 50 Years Ago: Batista Is Out.

Dr Fidel Castro has won his long-drawn battle for power in the little Caribbean island of Cuba. And President Fulgencio Batista, his omnipotent regime over, has thrown in the sponge. Whether the Castro regime will be any better than his predecessor’s remains largely to be seen. There are indications, however, that some of the hardships of the Batista administration will be alleviated, if not removed. An end of censorship has been announced and the freedom of the press has been “guaranteed” though the proof of the sincerity of the new government will not be evident for some more time. The provisional President Senor Manuel Urutria has also announced that his government would not allow gambling, which under General Batista had grown into a multi-million dollar business, carried on in Havana largely by American interests, but from which a substantial cut must undoubtedly have gone into the former dictator’s private pockets. And general elections have been promised within two years.

Naturally, the new administration is intending to take action against Batista’s supporters some of whom have already fled the country; the rest will probably take the knocks coming to them and bide their time. Dictators in Latin America have come and gone and the patient and the wily have survived .