JACKSONVILLE, Fla., Jan. 2, 1959 (UPI) - The decision of my father to leave Cuba came suddenly.
We still had a lot of troops fighting and they were fighting well. But a lot of people were getting killed on both sides and my father felt that this had to stop.
He made up his mind early Thursday to resign in hopes that it would pacify the people and end the bloodshed. He said he only wanted peace for the Cuban people.
I had little time to talk with him at the airport because it was a very sudden affair - a quick decision. We didn't have time to gather anything except the barest personal possessions. We (top government officials and their families) all boarded the planes quickly at the military airport outside of Havana. My plane took off less than a minute after my father's.
I think the people of Cuba are going through a very traumatic and confusing period. I merely wish the end as soon as possible. I think they will face a period in the near future that will be characterized by violence and anarchy.
I think there are some revolutionaries who have good intentions. But there also is a large number of fortune-seekers and the very dangerous Communist influence.
Several of (Fidel) Castro's lieutenants are active members of the Communist Party. This is why I think Cuba faces this period of confusion. It is a proven fact that the rebels have strong Communist backing. Perhaps they (the Communists) are a minority in the revolutionary movement, but they are the best organized minority and they have influenced greatly the promise the revolutionaries have made such as the partition of private land, nationalization of industry and other measures of socialistic tendencies.
I hope some day to return to my homeland. I don't think that I should stay in the U.S. indefinitely. I love this country but I am a Cuban above all and I plan to go home if and when the time comes that there is no longer any danger to my family.
I don't know where we will live in the meantime. I have many friends in the U.S., including those with whom I studied at school and I will have to do a lot of looking around before deciding what we will do.
But you can be sure I will not sit around with folded arms and do nothing.
I wish the junta which has taken over all the luck and success in its efforts to pacify the people and to bring about a cease-fire.
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(Fulgencio Ruben Batista, 25-year-old son of the ousted Cuban president, was one of 53 Cuban refugees who arrived in Jacksonville. Young Batista is a graduate of Princeton University).
