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- WORLD, Page 37World NotesCUBAStanding Firm By Itself
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- As the only communist dictator still in power outside Asia,
- Fidel Castro is showing signs of desperation. Last week,
- ignoring all pleas for mercy from around the globe, he gave the
- go-ahead to the execution of a Cuban exile and stepped up his
- campaign against disaffected citizens.
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- Eduardo Diaz Betancourt, 38, who lived in Miami, was shot
- to death by a firing squad. He and two other Cuban-born exiles
- had been captured with arms and explosives after their
- inflatable boat landed on the island at the end of December. His
- companions were also condemned to death for terrorism, but their
- sentences were commuted to 30 years in prison.
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- Castro's Council of State made it clear that it hoped to
- scare off opponents, foreign and domestic. At least 60
- human-rights activists have been arrested on the island in the
- six months since the August coup precipitated the breakup of the
- Soviet Union, Cuba's principal backer. "The idea," said the
- council in a statement, "is to stop such loathsome actions from
- being repeated."
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