Saint George, Andrew

Excerpts from an interview with Andrew George Fidel Castro in the Sierra Maestra in 1958

First, we must overthrow the dictatorship, forced on us by the military coup d'état in 1952 when Batista saw he would lose any free election. Next, we'll set up a provisional government, whose heads are to be elected by some 60 Cuban civic bodies, like the Lions, Rotarians, groups of lawyers and doctors, religious organizations. Within a year, this caretaker regime would hold a truly honest election. In a manifesto issued last July, we called for the temporary government to free immediately all political prisoners, restore freedom of the press, reestablish constitutional rights.