Cuban Rebel Trial Starts

Brownsville Herald, May 18, 1958 (front page)

Cuban Rebel Trial Starts Here Monday

The trial in Federal District Court here of 15 Cubans charged with conspiring to violate U.S. neutrality laws is slated to being Monday.
The group under the leadership of Arnaldo Goenaga Barron was captured off Padre Island last March while en route to join the revolutionary forces of Fidel Castro in his fight against the regime of President Fulgencio Batista of Cuba.

After a hunger strike the rebel group was freed on bond, and many of them have stayed in Brownsville pending their trial. Barron returned from New York Friday.
Coincidentally with Barron’s return the rebels launched a wave of handbill propaganda, apparently to drum up popular support for their position.
The rebels’ newest “manifesto” asks that “the people of Brownsville be present at Federal Court when we stand accused of fighting for liberty and democracy in our country.”
The manifesto charges “the bestial assassin of Cuba” with the death of “more than 5,000 persons, especially among the youth.”

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