Escalante affair

[2] In the period immediately following the 1959 success of the Cuban revolution, Aníbal Escalante occupied a leading role in the Popular Socialist Party.

However, its Marxist orthodoxy and history of cooperation with the deposed government of Fulgencio Batista gave it a skeptical public reputation.

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.

"[9] 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.

"[10] 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:[11] 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.

[5] Timothy Naftali has contended that Escalante's dismissal was a motivating factor behind the Soviet decision to place nuclear missiles in Cuba in 1962.

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