Aníbal Escalante

An early leader within the Popular Socialist Party (PSP), he briefly held national office in Cuba following the Cuban revolution but was purged due, in part, to his "old-line" Marxist orthodoxy.

Juanita Castro noted that, during this period, "his picture ran in the papers more frequently than Fidel's and more Escalante people were finding their way into positions of power.

"[6] In a 1966 interview with an Egyptian magazine, meanwhile, Che Guevara said that Escalante had used his office to fill party positions with friends and colleagues who enjoyed "various privileges - beautiful secretaries, Cadillac cars, air-conditioning.

"[7] A cable from the Polish embassy in Havana to that nation's foreign ministry, meanwhile, gave the following account of Escalante's purge which it reported had been provided to it by Blas Roca Calderio:[8] motives [for the removal of Anibal Escalante were as follows]: as an organizational secretary of the ORI, A. E. used brutal and arbitrary methods of management, as well as intrigues aimed at concentrating control in his hands over the party and national apparatus.

According to Naftali, Soviet foreign policy planners were concerned Castro's break with Escalante foreshadowed a Cuban drift toward China and sought to solidify the Soviet-Cuban relationship through the missile basing program.

[10] The allegations involved officials from the Soviet embassy in Havana whom, Raúl Castro claimed, were conspiring with Escalante to orchestrate the overthrow of the Cuban government.

The purge of the "pro-Soviet" Escalante "microfaction" within the party was accompanied by the strong denouncement of the USSR by Fidel Castro before the Latin American Organization of Solidarity.