Molotov

As the "October Crisis" finally comes to an end, with the arrival of Marc Carbonneau, Yves Langlois, Jacques Lanctôt, Jacques Cossette-Trudel and Louise Lanctôt in Havana, an eerie calm spreads in Canada . The five members of the Front de libération du Québec were flown in by a Canadian military aircraft, after Comrade Castro approved their request to seek refuge in the country in return for the release of British Trade Commissioner James Cross, held hostage for 62 days.

While the Québécois desire for national liberation from Anglophone hegemony is certainly sympathetic, the arrival of the kidnappers - who also requested asylum in Algeria and Vietnam - should not be interpreted for Cuban support for the FLQ. The official policy of the Republic is to follow the Soviet lead. The USSR has designated the FLQ a "terrorist separatist organization", which employs unacceptable methods in its struggle.

Following an international pressure campaign, the Bolivian government has released Régis Debray. Leaving the country on 23 December, the French citizen arrived in Santiago soon after, welcomed by the new Allende government. A vast number of foreign petitioners contributed to his release, among them the writer Jean-Paul Sartre, former French Minister for Cultural Affairs André Malraux, General Charles de Gaulle, and Pope Paul VI.

A former professor of philosophy at the University of Havana, Comrade Debray became a close friend of Che, and joined him in the Bolivian revolutionary struggle. Che was murdered by the CIA and the military regime on October 9th 1967, with Comrade Debray having been captured a few months earlier on April 20th. Following Che's death he was sentenced to thirty years in prison.

According to reports from Brazil, Ambassador Giovanni Enrico Bucher was taken hostage on the 7th of December by militants of the Popular Revolutionary Vanguard. A long-time diplomat, Bucher has served as the Swiss envoy to countries all over Europe, Asia and the Americas, serving as ambassador in Rio de Janeiro since 1965. He is said to have been kidnapped in the Flamengo neighborhood, with a man identified as Carlos Lamarca - a notorious Brazilian revolutionary and guerrilla fighter - gunning down a federal agent in the act.

The VPR has issued a list of demands for Bucher's freedom, among them the release of 70 named political prisoners and a ninety-day general price freeze for all commodities. The movement has been dealt a number of defeats earlier during the year, with several members arrested in April after a forest insurgent base was discovered by the military. Lamarca's wife Maria Pavan is allegedly currently in exile here in Havana, although no verification of this claim has been found.

Comrade Castro would like to take a moment to remind all good Cuban comrades that as of 1969, Christmas is officially banned.