ABSTRACT
Castro’s long arm reached to Grenada in the southern Caribbean and Suriname on the northeast coast of South America. The Cuban ambassadors to these countries—both America Department agents—helped steer them into the Cuban orbit. Mallin visited both countries and wrote the following article for a national magazine. It was not published, however, because on 25 October 1983 American forces invaded Grenada and began its liberation. Mallin flew on the first U.S. Air Force plane that took in journalists. In Suriname, Desi Bouterse, heeding events in Grenada and under pressure from neighboring Brazil, rapidly moved away from his Cuban connection. The Castro empire had begun to crumble. Later would follow the reduction in number and final withdrawal of Cuban troops from Ethiopia and Angola, and then, eventually, the defeat of the Sandinistas at the polls in Nicaragua.
