Radio Marti Stories Prompt Reports of Cuban AIDS Cases

Stories about AIDS carried by U.S.-run Radio Marti has led to the disclosure of a higher incidence of the disease in Cuba than the Castro regime has officially admitted, the radio’s director said Tuesday.

Ernesto Betancourt said that interviews with refugees also have revealed a growing fear among Cubans about AIDS exposure of troops serving in Africa over the past decade and that the Castro regime may be less willing now to take on further missions there.

For the first time, he said in a speech here, Cuban troops in Angola have been given AIDS warnings and blood supplies are no longer being taken from African donors.

But Angel Pino, spokesman for the Cuban Interests Section here, denied that AIDS has become a serious problem in Cuba. He said that only one death has been reported, that of a civil servant assigned to the Cuban mission to the United Nations in New York.

“An insignificant number of cases of persons with AIDS antibodies have been discovered but it is not considered a threat by health officials,” Pino said.

Betancourt said that Radio Marti, which broadcasts U.S. programming to Cuba, carried a detailed report on AIDS in September, 1985.

While the immediate reaction from the Cuban press was a flurry of articles labeling AIDS an American disease that did not exist in Cuba, Betancourt said that the Cubans subsequently formed a study team in the Cuban public health ministry that documented a serious AIDS threat in the country.