Economist resignations and overhaul Shortly after Hubert Matos' detention various other disillusioned economists would send in their resignations.
Felipe Pazos would resign as head of the National Bank and be replaced within a month by
Che Guevara. Cabinet members
Manuel Ray and Faustino Perez also resigned. Along with becoming the new head of the National Bank, Guevara also acquired the position of Minister of Finance. In 1960, Guevara began promoting an idea of rapidly industrializing Cuba, and diversifying Cuba's agriculture. In 1961, Guevara proposed a four year plan for rapid industrialization and agricultural diversification. On February 23, 1961, the Council of Ministers created the new Ministry of Industries for Che Guevara to head, and execute his new industrialization plan. This appointment, combined with other positions, placed Guevara at the zenith of his power at total command of the Cuban economy.
Resignation and defection of Artime Shortly after Matos' arrest, the prime minister and
Che Guevara made a speech to members of the INRA that Cuba would continue to turn in a socialist direction.
Manuel Artime viewed the arrest of Matos and affirmation of socialism in Cuba as precedent for him to resign. On 7 November 1959 his resignation letter from INRA and the revolutionary army was published on the front page of
Avance newspaper, one of the last newspapers not controlled by the government. Artime then entered an underground organization run by Jesuits in Cuba to hide fugitives, it is unclear what exactly made Artime immediately turn to hiding and later defect. While in a Havana safehouse Artime would form the
Movement for Revolutionary Recovery with other dissidents. Artime then contacted the American embassy in Havana, and on 14 December 1959, the CIA arranged for him to travel to the US on a Honduran freighter ship. He became closely involved with
Gerry Droller (alias
Frank Bender, alias "Mr B") of the CIA in recruiting and organizing Cuban exiles in Miami for future actions against the Cuban government. Artime's organization MRR thus grew to become the principal counter-revolutionary movement inside Cuba, with supporting members in Miami, Mexico, Venezuela etc. Involved were
Tony Varona,
José Miró Cardona,
Rafael Quintero, Aureliano Arango. Infiltration into Cuba, arms drops, etc. were arranged by the CIA. Cienfuegos' disappearance remains unexplained. There is some debate in regard to Cienfuegos' death, although Cuban historians do not believe that there was any foul play by the government. There is speculation that Fidel was responsible, which Matos believes is the case. Despite the fact of Cienfuegos' evidently exceptional loyalty to Castro, he hesitantly supported the arrest of his friend Matos only days earlier. Che Guevara, who was close to Cienfuegos and named his son Camilo in his honor, dismissed the notion of Castro's involvement. Others offer the possibility that a Cuban air force fighter plane mistook Cienfuegos' plane for a hostile intruder and shot it down. In the words of U.S. Ambassador
Philip Bonsal, Cienfuegos enjoyed Havana's nightlife and he "may have had a penchant for friendships and associations deemed undesirable by some of his more austere revolutionary comrades". There has also been speculation that Cienfuegos faked his death and fled to the US, as some speculate it may have been to
Ybor City in
Tampa.
Trial Five captains and eleven lieutenants who had protested his arrest were tried with him. On the first day of the trial, 11 December, Matos testified that he had discussed the appointment of communists to the government with officers who shared his anti-communist sentiments, but had engaged in no conspiracy against the government. On 13 December,
Raúl Castro testified that Matos was trying to foster disunity by raising "the phantom of communism". Testifying the next day, Castro delivered a seven-hour speech accusing Matos and the others of campaigning against the revolution and "indirectly" promoting the interests of the United States, large landowners, and supporters of Batista and the dictatorship in the Dominican Republic. The prosecution asked for the death sentence. On 15 December, the court found Matos guilty of counter-revolutionary activity and sentenced him to twenty years in prison. He served the first six and a half years of his sentence at the
Isla de la Juventud prison, where Castro had been imprisoned in 1953, and the remainder in Havana's
La Cabaña Prison. According to Matos: Print unions also began demanding that newspapers put tag-lines ("coletillas") after articles they disagreed with. Soon after this implementation, printers unions would outright seize newspapers, and allow them to be nationalized. ==References==