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"The
Soviet Coup" It could have been one of the happiest days in Fidel Castro's life. Not even the most optimistic of his aides had expected the series of extraordinary events that unfolded on Sunday evening, August 18, 1991. It was the closing day of Castro's much-trumpeted XIth Pan American Games in Havana. The thirty-nine-country sports event had kept Cuba transfixed for three weeks, and was coming to a glorious grand finale. Just before 4 P.M., Cuban heavyweight boxer Felix Savon whipped a U.S. challenger with a demolishing right-hand hook before an audience of Fidel Castro and ten thousand cheering fans, and minutes later the loudspeakers at the Havana Sports City Arena announced that Cuba had won the games with an unprecedented 140 gold medals1. It was the first time in forty years that a Latin American country had defeated the United States in the Pan American Games. An overjoyed Castro, moved to the brink of tears, threw up his hands. The band kicked in. The crowd exploded in cheers. "Cuba! Cuba! Cuba!" Then, "Fee-del! Fee-del! Fee-del!" The sports fiesta had been a major public relations coup for Castro. A record thirteen hundred foreign journalists had come to the island for the event. At first, the Comandante appeared only to make a one-minute speech opening the games. But as days went by and Cuban teams began winning one competition after another, a delighted Castro placed himself at the center of an ongoing national celebration. Suddenly, the Comandante was everywhere: giving medals, kissing spectators, joking with foreign journalists and posing for photographers with Cuban and visiting athletes. He had not been seen in such a good mood in years. The Cuban victory gave the island a much-needed morale boost. Government press releases emphasized that Cuba could only have achieved more gold medals than the United States because the revolution had done so much to improve the country's health standards. Foreign sportswriters were flooded with Cuban government statistics about the island's growing life expectancy, declining child mortality rates and important scientific discoveries. Latin American reporters were given computerized charts comparing Cuba's health statistics with those of their own countries. It was a vindication of Cuba's age-old claim: the island nation could vie with any world power in terms of medical care and education. Castro's big gamble in opening Cuba's doors to foreign journalists had also paid off in a big way. Not only had there been no demonstrations by dissidents-the regime had organized the civilian Rapid Response Brigades and placed them in the sports stadiums to deter any possible protests-but the visiting journalists had generally written positive stories. ABC Sports carried images of Cuban beaches and luxury hotels to millions of American homes, and CNN-whose owner Ted Turner attended the games with Jane Fonda --was unusually kind to the regime in its coverage. Most U.S. reporters seemed genuinely impressed by the crowds cheering Fidel in the stadiums. At the American office of Cuba's Foreign Relations Ministry, whose staff monitored the American press coverage, the consensus was that Cuba had scored big. Latin American leaders sent congratulations to Castro for Cuba's victory in the games. The warm messages were coming on the heels of July's twenty-three-country summit of Latin American, Spanish and Portuguese leaders in Guadalajara, Mexico, where Castro had been received with respect, and where two countries-Colombia and Chile-had announced they would resume consular and trade relations with Cuba. At long last, in its darkest hour, the Castro revolution seemed to have spotted a ray of sunshine. Then, at about 11:30 P.M., as Castro was celebrating the end of the games at the Siboney suburb protocol house of Mario Vazquez Raña, the Mexican businessman who presided over the Pan American Sports Organization, the Comandante would get even more heartening news.
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