The Press: Takeover in Havana

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Accompanied by armed militiamen, officers of Fidel Castro's government printing office last week in Havana seized the printing facilities of a Cuban publisher who printed two "Yankee imperialist" magazines: the Latin American editions of TIME and the Reader's Digest. Aware that such a move was imminent, TIME production managers had already made emergency printing arrangements with the Atlanta firm of W. R. Bean & Son (which was used to such emergencies: it printed TIME'S Latin American edition 24 times in 1958 when Cuban Dictator Fulgencio Batista shut down the Havana plant in displeasure at TIME coverage of his regime).

As Castro's men "intervened" (i.e., seized) the Havana facilities, the Atlanta plant was already running off the 85,000-copy Latin American edition. No delivery to any country in Latin America was more than 24 hours late.