CIA:
CUBA
ACCUSES
[This document is from a
newspaper
printed
in Cuba in 1978 in English. It brought some new
words into the
English
language as the reader will see. The text was copied
as it
appeared,
spelling, grammar, and vocabulary --- as written.]
CIA: CUBA ACCUSES
Printed by the Cuban National Preparatory Committee of the
XI World
Festival
of Youth and Students, 1978.
Composition "emplane" and impression: Polygraphic
Enterprise
Alfredo
Lopez" from Cultural Minister, Habana, July 1978
HOW HAS THE CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY OBSCURED AND
TWISTED
INFORMATION CONCERNING THE ASSASSINATIONS OF POLITICAL
LEADERS AND THE
DEATH
OF JOHN F. KENNEDY?
_____________________________ The plot to involve Cuba in
the
assassination
of Kennedy
_____________________________ CUBA REVEALS!
CIA: CUBA ACCUSES
The tenebrous forces that planned, financed and ordered the
assassination
of the President of the United states have tried to deceive
the US
public
and world opinion about the real causes and the real
culprits of the
Dallas
crime, to affect the growing prestige of the Cuban
Revolution and to
fabricate
a pretext for an aggression against Cuba.
Lee Harvey Oswald was an agent of the United States Central
Intelligence
Agency.
There are many obscure areas of the investigations carried
out so far
in
the United States.
US intelligence bodies have deliberately and systematically
lied and
withheld
the information necessary to definitively clarify those
responsible for
an
implicated in the events of November 22, 1963
In a subtle way, doubts are created and elements are
fabricated to
confuse
and to divert attention, to maintain the view and the
possibility that
the
Cuban Revolution had something to do with the assassination
of Kennedy.
THE PLOT TO INVOLVE CUBA IN THE ASSASSINATION OF
JOHN F. KENNEDY
September 27, 1963. A man who claims to be Lee Harvey
Oswald, a
US
citizen, comes to the Cuban Consulate in Mexico City.
He
ostentatiously
carries a book by Lenin under his arm. He requests a
visa to stay
in
Cuba for one or two weeks on route to the Soviet Union and
presents a
document
to accredit him as a member of the Communist Party of the
United States
and
of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee.
Less than two months afterwards, Lee Harvey Oswald's name
made the
front
page in newspapers all over the world. He was arrested
on
November
22, accused of being directly responsible for the
assassination of John
F.
Kennedy, President of the United States.
The clash of interests in the high ruling circles of US
society led to
the
assassination of the main executive figure. But the
tenebrous
forces
that planned, financed, directed and ordered the Dallas
crime, as a way
to
solve the internal contradictions of Yankee imperialism for
the benefit
of
the most reactionary sections of the "turbulent and brutal
North" add a
further,
insidious, and craven element: a conspiracy to involve
the Cuban
Revolution
in the assassination of Kennedy and to deceive US and world
opinion
about
the real causes and the real culprits of the Dallas crime,
to try to
diminish
Cuba's growing prestige and fabricate a pretext to activate
certain
plans
to overthrow the Revolutionary Government by force.
Oswald, who
was
a cog in the wheel, was at the same time, the first effort
of those
imperialist
sections to involve Cuba in the Dallas crime.
After the events of November 22, 1963, assassination set the
propaganda
machinery
into motion to try to label Oswald a Marxist and an active
sympathizer
of
the Cuban Revolution...Later on, it would become clear that
the plan
also
involved fabricating an alleged relationship between Oswald
and Cuban
officials,
whereby Oswald was following orders from Cuba when he shot
the
President
of the United States.
But, actually, who was this man named Oswald?
Lee Harvey Oswald became a CIA agent in the late '50.
On October 24, 1956, he enlisted in the Marine Corps as a
private and
was
sent to Japan, where he was trained as a radio and telegraph
operator.
Between 1957 and 1958, he was recruited by the United States
Central
Intelligence
Agency.
This has been publicly confirmed by former CIA official
James D.
Wilcott,
who worked in the Finance Section of the Tokyo CIA
Station.
Oswald
was trained at the Atsugi Naval Air Station, an operation
base used for
the
special activities of the United States Central Intelligence
Agency
center
in Japan.
Oswald was recruited to be infiltrated as a spy in the
Soviet
Union.
He arrived there on October 16, 1959 and stayed until June
1, 1962.
On June 26, 1962, after his return to the United States,
Oswald was
asked
by FBI agents John W. Fain and Thomas Carter to infiltrate
into various
political
groups, especially the Young Socialist Alliance, the
Socialist Workers'
Party,
and in the Communist Party newspaper The Worker, to give the
FBI
information
on the members of the Slavic immigrants' community at Fort
Worth, to
which
his wife Marina Prusakova, belonged.
In August, 1962, Oswald subscribed to The Worker, and
offered his
services
as a photographer. Around October and November of that
year he
came
into contact with the Socialist Labor Party and subscribed
to the
Socialist
Workers' Party publication The Militant. During all
that winter
he
corresponded with those groups.
In April, 1963, he went to New Orleans to penetrate the
groups there
that
sympathized with the Cuban Revolution. During his stay
in New
Orleans
he set up a fake branch of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee
and
distributed
printed material in favor of the Cuban revolutionary process
to gain
the
Committee's approval.
On August 9, he got involved in a riot with Cuban counter
revolutionaries
who were holding a meeting; this was filmed and shown on
TV.
Carlos
Bringuier, a delegate of the counterrevolutionary
organization who was
arrested
with Oswald, stated that the latter tried to
infiltrate an
anti-Castro
group. The scheme continued and, less than two weeks
later,
Oswald
appeared on a radio program on Cuba. On August 21,
through the
microphones
of the WDSU radio station, Oswald, said: "I am a
Marxist."
All these steps were directed toward creating an image of
him, of
making
Oswald a figure known as a fervent sympathizer of the Cuban
Revolution.
That would make it easy to relate him, at a given moment,
with the
revolutionary
government.
In August, 1963, Oswald began to make arrangements to go to
the USSR
again.
This was also part of the plan. The first arrangements
were made
by
his wife Marina, the later ones he made himself. He
had already
told
the Soviet Embassy in June that he wanted a separate visa
for his
return.
___(photograph of John F. Kennedy)
with caption: Another step towards completion of the
fabricated
assassination
of Kennedy--a true copy of a letter (now in the hands of
Cuban
authorities)
through which an attempt was made to implicate Cuba in the
assassination
of the President of the United States
___(photograph)
with caption: John F. Kennedy surrounded by leaders of
the
Pentagon
___document (letter to Lee Harvey Oswald from Jorge)
La Havana
November 14, 1963
Lee Harvey Oswald
Miami, Fla
My friend Lee:
I am writing to you to ask how are you things in the
Florida.
Here
we have not to much to tell. I would like to tell you
that the
thing
that you talked to me last time we were in Mexico, would be
a perfect
plan
that would weak the political "fanfarron" of Kennedy, even
though you
need
a lot of "prudencia"(care) because you know how are moving
the
counterrevolutionary
friends that work for the CIA. Well, Lee, remember to
send me via
Mexico
the thing that you told me and as soon
as________________________ go to
Houston
to see your
family___________________________________________________________
______________________________________________and
in relation to the
other
thing I hope everything will come out perfect.
Hugs and say Hi
Jorge
Write me to the usual address. Margaret the blond from
Flager,
is living with a rebel official that put an apartment for
her. I
will
send you the spanish books the next.
"Patria o Muerte"
We will conquer
"Viva la Revolucion"
"Abajo el imperialismo"
_________________________________________________________________
On September 25, according to the Warren Commission, he left
for Mexico
City.
On the 27th an alleged Lee Harvey Oswald went to the Cuban
Consulate
and
requested a visa to stay in Cuba for one or two weeks on
route to the
USSR.
But the alleged Oswald could not obtain the visa to
travel to
Cuba,
so that part of the plan fell through. Otherwise, the
instigators
would
have had new arguments for the conspiracy against
Cuba. On
October
2, he returned to Dallas and got a city job at the Texas
Book deposit
warehouse,
through Mrs. Ruth Paine, also linked to the CIA and at whose
house
Oswald
was staying.
On November 22 ( Oswald was arrested an charged with
Kennedy's
assassination.
Immediately, the great campaign to get Cuba involved in the
Dallas
crime
began to be orchestrated. The man who had killed
Kennedy was
supposedly
linked to Cuban revolutionaries; they had tried to build up
that
image.
To prevent the truth from coming out, to prevent discovery
of the plot
being
framed against Cuba, they had to quickly eliminate Oswald,
who must
have
naively believed that the masterminds in this crime would
keep their
promises
and that he would have no problems.
There had to be two possibilities for eliminating Oswald in
case the
first
one failed. On November 22, after the assassination of
Kennedy,
an
obscure confrontation between policeman J.P. Tippit and
Oswald took
place
and Tippit was killed. This caused Oswald's arrest and
the
possibility
that he would meet newsmen, investigators and other people.
The tenebrous plot of the most reactionary forces in the
United States
was
in jeopardy. If Oswald talked, all was lost.
Oswald could
not
be permitted to confess. On November 24, less than 48
hours after
the
arrest of the man who had supposedly killed Kennedy, Oswald
was shot
down
in the cellar of the police station, right before his
guards. The
new
link in the chain became Jack Ruby, the owner of the
Carrousel night
club
in Dallas, a man with Mafia connections. No one knows
how he got
permission
to enter the police station.
The image fabricated for Oswald was weak and, despite the
steps taken
and
the campaign to relate him with Cuba, the truth made way
right from the
beginning
and the scheme crumbled.
V.T. Lee, then President of the Fair Play for Cuba National
Committee,
said
there was no branch of that organization in New Orleans and
that there
was
no Lee Harvey Oswald that had belonged to the Committee.
The Communist Party of the United States has also said that
Oswald
never
belonged to that organization.
When the Johnson administration created the Warren
Commission to
investigate
the assassination of Kennedy in 1963, the CIA submitted a
photograph to
prove
that Oswald had visited the Cuban consulate in Mexico.
The
picture,
which was widely publicized, showed the alleged Oswald when
he visited
the
Cuban offices.
But the person in the photograph was not Oswald.
Pressed by
public
scandal, the CIA admitted this...but the whole affair has
been covered.
This presented new contradictions, because the CIA had the
means to
prove
whether or not it was Oswald who went to the Cuban consulate
in
Mexico.
All that time the CIA had a secret espionage center set up
to
photograph
and keep constant surveillance over the persons who visited
the Cuban
consulate
and embassy in Mexico, to engage in electronic espionage and
monitor
the
bugging devices installed by the CIA in the Cuban
offices. The
CIA
center was it 149-1 Francisco Marquez Street, Colonia
Condesa, Mexico,
D.F.
across the street from the Cuban embassy.
At the same address there was a point for liaison and
communication
with
the surveillance team the CIA kept near the Cuban embassy
and the Cuban
consulate,
to follow persons of interest and to establish a system to
watch over
and
harass visitors.
The person in charge of this CIA center was Alberto Cesar
Augusto
Rodriguez
Gallego, of cuban origin, who pretended to be Colombian and
who now
lives
in Spain and works at the Berlitz Language School at 80 Jose
Antonio
Street,
Madrid.
If those mechanisms existed, why does the photograph
submitted to the
Warren
Commission show someone else and not the real Oswald?
The CIA can
produce
from its files the negatives of all the persons that visited
the Cuban
consulate
on September 27, 1963. Agent Rodriguez Gallego can
provide
details
on this.
It can be added that in her statement before the Warren
Commission,
Mrs.
Silvia Odio said that on September 26, 1963, Lee Harvey
Oswald an two
other
persons visited her house in New Orleans. This
contradicts the
other
results of the investigation which gave Oswald as traveling
by bus from
New
Orleans to Mexico City that day.
THE VERY SAME WHO PLOTTED AND CARRIED OUT KENNEDY'S
ASSASSINATION ARE
ORGANIZING
THE CAMPAIGN TO INVOLVE CUBA IN HIS DEATH AT DALLAS
Why was Mrs. Odio's statement ignored? The Warren
Commission was
also
reported that the Nicaraguan Gilberto Alvarado Ugarte had
reported to
the
United States Embassy in Mexico that he had heard some
Cuban
officials
discussing the assassination of Kennedy and that they had
said that
Oswald
had received a sum of money from Cuba.
This information was given to the Chief of the CIA Station
in Mexico,
who
in turn transmitted it to headquarters in the United
States. It
was
all a gross slander. Shortly after, the Warren
Commission under
Johnson's
administration, decided it was a fabrication and rejected
it.
But, who made up this preposterous lie? Silvia Duran,
a Mexican
employee
of the Cuban consulate in Mexico City was arrested and they
tried to
force
her to sign a statement to back up Alvarado Ugarte's
version. She
refused
to back that lie.
The campaign by Yankee imperialism to try to link Oswald to
Cuba
reached
scandalous and unprecedented levels in the world reactionary
press.
The high point of the fabrication was British newspaper
Comers Clark's
article
published on July 15, 1967, in which he invents a statement
supposedly
made
by Fidel Castro admitting that he knew Oswald was planning
to kill
President
Kennedy.
Cuba's Commander in Chief never granted an interview to Mr.
Comer
Clark,
who claims to be a journalist and, from the lies he tells,
must surely
be
serving the lowest interests.
In what proved to be a carefully planned campaign, the
reactionary
press,
joined the plot against Cuba; the news agencies of the
United States
and
other Western centers launched a series of lies and
distortions.
The latest proofs that there was a carefully prepared plot
to involve
Cuba
in the assassination of Kennedy through Oswald, a CIA agent,
are three
letters
that pretend on the eve of the Dallas events; there these
officials
presumably
gave him instructions on a future action in which he would
take part
and
for which he would receive pay. These documents were
supposedly
written
in Havana. Two of them got to the FBI files and were
recently
declassified.
The other letter was to be sent from Cuba; Cuban authorities
have the
original
document.
These letters were evidently forged, there is close relation
between
them,
they are in consonance with the essence of the campaign to
involve Cuba
in
the assassination of Kennedy and - had there not been
obstacles to the
plan
that had Oswald as its main figure -they would surely have
played an
important
role in creating a climate favorable for taking violent
measures
against
the Cuban Revolution.
James D. Wilcott has said that several agents, including
himself, often
discussed
the Oswald case. "One of CIA's plans for the Bay of
Pigs attack",
he
has said, "was to try in some way to make Castro believe
that the
attack
was coming from Guantanamo and have him counterattack.
So it
seems
probable that the original plan to assassinate Kennedy was
to have
Oswald
kill him and then be indicted. As he would be closely
linked to
Castro,
there would be a pretext for another attempt at invading
Cuba".
___document (Consulate of Cuba, Mexico, D.F.)
with caption: The escalation to throw the blame on Cuba for
the Dallas
events
in 1963 continued. Oswald asked for a visa to travel
to Havana.
___document (Consul of Cuba in Mexico)
with caption: On October 15th, 1961, the Cuban foreign
Office
refused
Lee Harvey Oswald's request for a visa.
The Warren Commission finished its work in 1964 with an
obscure thesis
on
a "single killer" but it could not or would not face the
pressures of
certain
political and intelligence interests in the United States
and it
purposely
did not clarify any alleged Cuban participation in the
crime.
It is significant that the CIA and the FBI immediately
reached the
public
conclusion that Oswald was the only killer. As a
consequence of
US
public pressure--which led to the appointment of the Senate
Select
Committee
to Study government Operations with respect to Intelligence
Activities--the
Kennedy case was reopened in the United States and the
affair was
reviewed
in Congress for the first time.
In its report of April 14, 1976, the above mentioned
committee, which
worked
basically on reviewing statements intended to relate Cuba
with the
Dallas
crime, a number of contradictions and distortions in the
process and
admitted.
Among other things, it points out that the Warren Commission
did not
receive
all the information necessary for its report and that the
CIA and the
FBI
concealed some things from the members of the
Commission. It also
states
that the US intelligence bodies did not fulfill their
responsibility in
establishing
the causes of the assassination.
In its report, the Committee states that "after President
Kennedy's
death
the inquiries in the FBI and the CIA files proved that Lee
Harvey
Oswald
was no stranger to the intelligence bodies."
Why hasn't the CIA admitted that Lee Harvey Oswald worked
for the
Central
Intelligence Agency from 1957-58 on? Why hasn't the
CIA admitted
that
Oswald carried out missions against USSR?
When they were unable to attain their goal on the basis of
CIA
fabricated
evidence on the Cuban participation in the Kennedy
assassination, the
real
culprits tried to keep the image and the suspicion of such
preposterous
relations.
Once the maneuver of trying to show Oswald as someone close
to Cuba was
destroyed
by the truth and the weakness of the campaign, new elements
were
fabricated,
each time the Kennedy case was investigated in the United
States.
These
elements were subtly expressed, tending to confuse and to
maintain the
image
that the Cuban Revolution had something to do with the
Dallas
crime.
the aim has been to leave matters obscure and to thus
influence the US
and
world public.
They have even intended to establish links between the Cuban
Revolution
and
the Mafia, which was deeply involved in the assassination of
Kennedy.
Such gross lies crumble at the slightest analysis. The
Mafia is
an
open enemy of the Cuban Revolution. The Cuban
revolutionary
process,
from its very beginning, attacked the interests the Mafia
had in Cuba
in
connivance with the Batista tyranny. Men from
the
underworld
have been used by the CIA in their attempts to kill Fidel
Castro.
Following the line of subtly instilling doubt and confusion,
the latest
investigation
of the Kennedy assassination by the US Senate Select
Committee
discreetly
inserts, among numerous FBI documents, the alleged existence
of a
Cuban-American
who crossed the border from Texas to Mexico on November 23,
1963, and
took
a regular Cubana de Aviacion flight to Havana on November
27. The
FBI
told the Committee that person lives in Cuba. Although
it is not
expressed
as an accusation, the assertion is plainly
diversionist. It is
significant
that the FBI gave all the details of the "mysterious" trip
of the
alleged
Cuban-American without revealing the name of the "suspect."
Another CIA scheme tending to confuse and encourage
speculation on the
Cuban
Revolution's alleged implication and reprisal against
Kennedy, is the
kind
of statement made by high-level CIA officials- -and
reiterated before
the
Select Committee--on the possibility that someone working in
Cuba for
the
CIA in a plot to assassinate Fidel Castro might be a "double
agent."
The US Senate Select Committee's Report 94-755 of April,
1976, and the
documents
referring to plans to assassinate political leaders of other
countries,
published
in November 1975, refer to the above-mentioned CIA agent in
Cuba by the
code
AM/LASH.
Further investigations by Cuban State Security reveal that
the AM/LASH
referred
to in Committee documents and investigations is no other
than Rolando
Cubelas
Secades, tried in Havana in Cause 108, 1966 and condemned to
25 years
imprisonment
for his participation in a CIA plot to assassinate Fidel
Castro.
AM/LASH was a confessed CIA agent. The subtle scheme
of the
possibility
that he was a "double agent" and therefore a source of
information for
the
Cuban Revolution is a new element fabricated by the CIA to
divert
attention
and create confusion and doubt. But the CIA falls into
its own
trap.
The CIA has had to publicly admits its relation with
AM/LASH. The
CIA
did not inform the Warren Commission, in 1964, of the
existence of
operation
AM/LASH. No link was established then between their
agent and the
Kennedy
assassination. Officials high in the CIA at that time
recently
told
the Select Committee that there is no evidence of any
relation between
operation
AM/LASH and the Kennedy assassination.
It must be borne in mind that the President of the United
States was
assassinated
in 1963 and that, four years later, the CIA came up
with the
alleged
links between the Dallas crime and a CIA assassination
attempt against
Fidel
Castro's life.
Operation AM/LASH is, in any case, one more evidence of the
criminal
essence
of the CIA; of how the CIA deceived Congress and even high
government
officials.
If he had any relation with the assassination of Kennedy, it
is for the
CIA
to explain. There are very obscure matters in this
case which
have
yet not been made clear.
The Senate Select Committee report states that, on October
29, AM/LASH
met
in Paris with Desmond Fitzgerald, Chief of the SAS (then the
Group in
Charge
of Operations Against Cuba) in the CIA.
Significantly,
AM/LASH
was never mentioned by the CIA until November 22, 1963, the
day on
which
Kennedy was killed. That day, when the Dallas crime
was known,
the
CIA officer working with AM/LASH told him that he must
temporarily call
off
the operation and the contact was also temporarily called
off.
Only
the CIA can explain this strange coincidence.
In 1964 the CIA again established contact with AM/LASH
through its
agent
Manuel Artime Buesa, with a cover as head of a
counterrevolutionary
organization.
The CIA gave Artime the silencer to be used in the operation
against
Fidel
Castro's life. The CIA can explain why, after 1964,
the contacts
with
AM/LASH to discuss the operation were established by agent
Artime (B-1
according
to the code in the Senate Select Committee report).
The subtle maneuver to make AM/LASH appear as a "double
agent", to
pretend
that the revolutionary government would know, through that
source, of
the
plans of the CIA against Commander in Chief Fidel Castro and
that the
Cuban
Revolution in reprisal decided to assassinate Kennedy, is
part of the
conspiracy
to maintain the image of Cuba's possible implication in the
Dallas
crime.
"LEE HARVEY OSWALD WAS A CIA AGENT FROM THE LATE 1950"
The facts have proved that the shameless imperialist
campaign has
crashed
against an unquestionable truth: the clear conduct of
the
revolutionary
government of Cuba and of its main leaders, based on deep
moral
principles
and consistently and systematically expressed in its foreign
and
domestic
policy for almost twenty years.
It is also clear to any honest person that the real culprits
are being
deliberately
concealed for fear of the political repercussions if it were
to be
known
where the plan to assassinate Kennedy originated, who
plotted it and
pushed
it through . If all this were exposed, the powerful US
forces
that
represent a threat to world peace would be seriously
jeopardized.
___(photograph)
with caption: Photographs of the supposed Oswald which
appear in
the
Warren Commission Report, taken by a CIA spy center.
It is not by change that, since the tragic events of
November 22, 1963,
over
100 persons that in one way or another had some relation
with the
assassination
of Kennedy have died in obscure circumstances.
To assassinate the President of the United States, to
orchestrate and
finance
an extraordinarily broad campaign with the initial purpose
of
fabricating
a pretext, that would make it possible to take measures to
eliminate
the
first and only bulwark of socialism in America, to kill
approximately
100
persons linked to the Dallas crime, to prevent the various
investigations
carried out in the United States from reaching their logical
conclusions,
can only be managed by sectors with great power in the
United
States.
This is crystal clear.
These forces want to make sure that the crime remains
unpunished.
Nevertheless,
there are honest voices in the United States that fight so
the
investigations
are not called off, to clarify everything about the Dallas
crime and
the
chain of killings that followed it. Shocked at the
growing moral
decadence
of that society the US public demands that the matter be
thoroughly
investigated.
And together with them stand the peace-loving peoples and
world youth,
who
--for basic moral and political principles-- cannot accept
crime and
political
assassination as an alternative in today's world.
Among those
peoples
there is Cuba, which for many years has had to fight the
plots of the
US
Central Intelligence Agency against the life of the
Revolution's
principal
leaders and that is outraged at the attempts powerful US
forces to
involve
Cuba in the Dallas crime.
The web in this conspiracy must be untangled, we must demand
that the
US
intelligence services reveal the details of the Kennedy
assassination;
all
the obscure points in the investigations must be made clear,
the real
culprits
must be exposed...It will then be evident that the same
people who
planned,
financed and ordered the assassination of the US President
are the
organizers,
instigators and masterminds of the shameless campaign to try
to involve
the
Cuban Revolution in the Dallas crime; they are those who
pay, order an
fabricate
the lies and slanders they have tried to use to spread doubt
and
confusion.
THE "ZORRO" CASE
"Even after the United States Senate investigated and
publicly
acknowledged
the countless CIA plots to assassinate leaders of the Cuban
Revolution
and
its dedication to that end for a number of years, the United
States
government
has given the Cuban government no explanation of those
events nor has
it
in any way apologized."
"We suspect that the United States government has not given
up such
practices.
On October 9, only three days after the criminal sabotage in
Barbados,
a
message sent by the CIA to an agent in Havana was
intercepted.
That
message, transmitted from the CIA's central headquarters in
Langley,
Virginia,
says in part: Please inform at earliest opportunity
any data
concerning
Fidel's attendance at the ceremony for the first anniversary
of
Angola's
independence, November 11. If he's going, try to g et
complete
itinerary
for Fidel's visit to other countries on the same trip.
"Another order, dated earlier, says: What is the
official and
specific
reaction concerning bomb attacks against Cuban offices
abroad?
What
are they going to do to avoid them and prevent them?
Whom do they
suspect
is responsible? Will there be reprisals?
"We hope the United States government does not dare deny the
truth of
these
instructions from the CIA's main offices, and many others
sent to the
same
person, in flagrant acts of espionage. We have the
code, the
ciphers
and every proof of authenticity for these messages. In
this
particular
case, the presumed agent recruited by the CIA has kept the
Cuban
government
informed from the very beginning and for ten years of all
details of
every
contact he had with it, the equipment and instructions he
received.
The CIA thought the agent had succeeded in placing a modern
electronic
microtransmitter
given to him for that purpose in no less a place than the
office of
Comrade
Osmani Cienfuegos, Secretary of the Executive Committee of
the Council
of
Ministers. Hence the CIA's certainly in assuming it
would
receive,
in plenty of time, the pertinent information on any trip
abroad made by
the
Cuban Prime Minister.
"Those who believe the CIA has changed one iota because of
the
denunciations
its hair-raising actions have caused within United States
society
itself
are deeply mistaken. Its methods will simply become
more subtle
and
more perfidious.
"Why did the CIA want to know the exact itinerary of the
Prime
Minister's
possible trip to Angola and other African countries in honor
of
November
11? Why did it want to know what measures would
be taken to
avoid
and prevent terrorist acts?"
These sensational disclosures made by Commander in Chief
Fidel Castro
on
October 15, 1976, during the memorial meeting for the
victims of the
Cubana
de Aviacion plane destroyed in flight, meant sacrificing a
valuable
source
of information for the revolutionary state; but due to its
importance
and
the light it shed on the CIA's attitude and activities, the
advisability
of the revelation was weighed.
Nearly a million persons, gathered in Revolution Square,
listened to
the
details of the CIA's direct participation in the criminal
sabotage of
Cubana's
plane at Barbados and learned about the alleged enemy agent.
The US government, of course, couldn't deny the accuracy of
Fidel
Castro's
disclosures. Once again the CIA was exposed to world
opinion.
But who was the alleged CIA agent Fidel mentioned? How
did he
entered
the United States' Central Intelligence Agency? Was he
a Cuban
Security
agent? What was his purpose in joining the CIA?
When did he
do
so? What tasks did the sinister US intelligence agency
give
him?
For the first time since Fidel Castro made those important
disclosures,
the
story is told, in all its details.
Like all our Cuban State Security men, Nicolas Sirgado Ros
is a simple
modest,
calm person. You would find it hard to believe that he
was the
alleged
CIA agent mentioned by the leader of the Cuban Revolution on
October
15,
1976.
This officer of Cuba's Security organization, infiltrated in
the ranks
of
the United States Central Intelligence Agency for ten years,
kept the
revolutionary
government minutely informed about CIA and US governmental
plans and
intentions
concerning Cuba, its Revolution and its leaders.
In this interview with the Cuban press, Sirgado Ros explains
to our
people
and the world, the background and most important aspects of
the
self-sacrificing
and anonymous work he did for a decade.
When and how did your work for Cuban State Security begin,
and how were
you
able to infiltrate the CIA?
I started working with the state security bodies at the
beginning of
the
Revolution. It was my task during that period to
associate with
counterrevolutionary
organizations and individuals that have since left the
country.
In 1962, while I was carrying out these tasks, I was or
ordered to
start
infiltrating the Central Intelligence Agency itself because
of what
Cuban
Security already knew about CIA plots to assassinate the
Commander in
Chief.
It was necessary to know what the enemy would do at that
time--not only
the
counterrevolutionary organizations that might ultimately be
the
executors,
but the CIA itself, from within that main center of
direction of all
the
infamous "dirty tricks"...how, who, what and when had to be
answered
with
respect to the plot to assassinate Fidel. And that
became the
object
of my mission from the end of 1962 on. The actual
direct contact
with
the CIA was achieved at the end of 1966, after years of
patient
preparatory
work, as you can understand.
When the CIA recruited me in London in 1966, my cover work
in Cuba was
as
general director of supplies for the Ministry of
Construction headed at
that
time by Comrade Osmani Cienfuegos.
So the question of infiltrating the CIA was a meticulous,
careful
long-term
concept right from the beginning, based on known information
about
plans
for aggression against our country and concrete CIA plots to
assassinate
Commander in Chief Fidel Castro and, of course, on the Cuban
Revolution's
need to protect the people, their leaders and socialism
How were you recruited in London?
While I was on a trip to London for the Ministry of
Construction at the
end
of 1966, I received a call from the alleged executive of a
business
firm
we traded with asking for an interview with me to discuss
"trade
questions."
The interview took place in a London hotel. A
man who
called
himself Harold Bensen met me, said he was passing through
London and
that
he was an Army Colonel who was in the CIA. Shortly
after the
conversation
began, he showed me a photo of my children, to prove that he
had
contacts
with individuals I knew who were connected with
counterrevolutionary
organizations
in Cuba.
We had a long conversation and he openly and specifically
asked me to
collaborate
with the CIA in the work it was doing against the
Revolution. He
offered
me a salary to be paid in dollars and deposited in a
checking account
in
the Chase Manhattan Bank in New York. He also assured
me that,
after
a reasonable period of working for the CIA, I would have
"the chance"
to
move to the United States.
Several others interviews followed this first one in
London. In
addition
to outlining the intelligence interests they wanted me to
undertake in
my
work for them, these interviews were used to train me in
various
aspects
and techniques of espionage work.
___(Photograph) Kissinger
with caption: "Frank arrived and said a summary of the
information
I had sent him would go straight to Kissinger's desk".
___(Photograph) Nicolas Sirgado Ros
Can you elaborate on the training you got from the CIA?
First they trained me in secret writing, a method the
CIA at
times
considered to be safer than radio transmissions. That
method
includes
the use of a white paper, similar to a sheet of regular
bond, but
chemically
treated. It acts like carbon paper in the sense that
it retains
the
letters written on it. The techniques involves writing
a regular
letter,
such as you might send to a friend or relative, as what they
call the
open
text. On top of that letter or open text, you write
the secret
message
using the chemically treated paper I mentioned. This
message, is,
of
course, invisible. It can only be read when developed
by special
chemicals
that are used for this type of paper.
During these training sessions, I was given instructions in
how to use
a
camera to photograph documents, maps, plans and places and
objectives
that
might be of interest to the CIA because of the installations
they had.
The training included preparing microfilm to send these
photos abroad
and
much more advanced photographic espionage method known as
microdots
whereby
the photo is reduced to almost nothing so it can be hidden
under the
dot
of an i in the text of a letter or post card sent through
the regular
mail,
or in any king of technical publications that might easily
be sent from
abroad.
I also received training in radio reception, in order to be
able to
receive
and decode messages. In the first stage, music that
had been
predetermined
with the agent was used to identify the real message.
In this
case
I remember the song was, "You are Always in My Heart."
When there
was
no real message, they immediately played "Pomp and
Circumstance."
That training continued throughout the years in various
meetings with
CIA
officials and I also given instructions in other more
complex
techniques.
I was taught how to collect information, how to provide the
characteristics
of the leaders of the Revolution, surveillance and
countersurveillance...
Did they ever use a lie detector on you?
Yes, they used a lot of security measures. They used
the lie
detector
three times. Sometimes there were lie detector
sessions that were
more
than two and a half hours long.
Clearly, the CIA's aim in using this method is not so much
to find out
whether
or not you're lying as to break you down, humiliate you,
impose machine
over
mind. Whether or not it's effective, the method really
seeks to
humiliate
and denigrate. It's a reflection of this espionage
organization,
built
upon mistrust and of the lack of moral values to support its
activities.
They offered me a salary to be paid in dollars and deposited
in
New
York bank.
I passed every test. Instead of humiliating me they
only
succeeded
in increasing my scorn for their methods.
They also used surveillance techniques in my hotel rooms
abroad:
constant
surveillance that we easily detected, and some other
measures as well.
I believe that both my training and the fact that I
successfully passed
their
surveillance--thus destroying the CIA's "super-
techniques"--helped
lengthen
and protect the CIA infiltration for ten years, at the same
time that
it
strengthened their confidence in the alleged agent.
What intelligence interests did the CIA raise with you?
The enemy always proposed concrete tasks in terms of its
information
interests.
Because of the importance the enemy attached to it, my task
with
respect
to Commander in Chief Fidel Castro can be considered of
primary
significance.
The CIA was interested in all the particulars concerning the
First
Secretary
of our Party: his health and the doctors responsible
for it, his
state
of mind, the moves he made and the routes he took, what
worries he
might
have, where and when he might be traveling, etc. The
whole
question
was made clear in the last message from the CIA read by
Fidel in
Revolution
Square on October 15, 1976.
Enemy intelligence interests included constant requests for
information
on
revolutionary leaders, particularly those I had access to,
such as
Comrade
Osmani Cienfuegos. There were also frequent requests
for
information
about Dorticos, Almeida, Hart, Carlos Rafael, Montane and a
growing
list
of comrades who are leaders of our Revolution. There
was great
interest
in Comrade Osmani Cienfuegos, because of his
responsibilities as
Secretary
of the Executive Committee of the Council of Ministers and,
therefore,
his
inside knowledge of important government questions.
Such was the
interest
that, on one occasion Mike Ackerman, a US CIA officer I
sometimes
worked
for, told me that if I managed to get closer to Osmani
Cienfuegos I'd
get
a pay raise that would accordingly swell the bank account
the CIA had
opened
for me abroad.
Another highly important intelligence interest involved
information on
Cuba's
relation with Central American, South American and Caribbean
countries.
They were very concerned with what they called "exporting
the
Revolution,"
and sought, by every means possible, to prove that Cubans
directly and
materially
promote subversion in this continent. They asked about
the
general
opinion among revolutionary leaders concerning other heads
of
government
in Latin America and the Caribbean. I remember when
General Omar
Torrijos'
visit to Cuba was announced that they wanted to find out
what the
leaders
of the Revolution thought about him
CIA intelligence interests with regard to Latin America and
the
Caribbean
have been extremely diverse during these ten years.
The CIA is doing everything possible to eliminate Cuba's
participation
in
the Movement of Non-aligned Countries
For instance, they showed special interest in the Chilean
process,
Cuba's
links with Allende, aid to Chilean refugees; and they wanted
to know
whether
it was possible to determine or at least assume that Chilean
refugees
were
being trained for infiltration into Chile.
They also asked for economic information. For
instance, what
contracts,
what agreements, what relationships had been established or
were
being
planned for the future. I remember that when the Latin
American
Economic
System (SELA) and the Caribbean Multinational Shipping
Company
(NAMUCAR)
were set up they were constantly inquiring about the role of
Cuba and
other
countries.
During a 1976 work session with a number of CIA officers, I
told them
that
my duties as a Cuban government official would probably take
me to a
number
of Latin-American and Caribbean countries. They
assured me that
was
no problem, that the CIA would help me during the trip,
since it had
stations
in some of those countries that could maintain contact with
me.
Evidently, Latin America has always been high on the enemy's
list of
intelligence
priorities and they hoped to use me in that work. They
were also
interested
in our role in Africa, particularly in the internationalist
aid that
had
been given to Angola, and in Cuba's participation in the
Movement of
Non-Aligned
Countries, and what kinds of secret agreements, if any, Cuba
had made
within
that body. Without the slightest respect, these
gentlemen
referred
to the "subversive" nature of this organization. They
also showed
special
interest in Cuba's relations with the African countries
members of the
UAO,
within the framework of the Movement of Non- Aligned
Countries.
They
wanted information on bilateral and other agreements, and
technical or
military
assistance the Cuban government might be offering. As
early as
1961
and 1970, the CIA asked its alleged agent for first-hand
information
that
they said would be used to formulate a US policy on Africa
designed to
frustrate
any revolutionary or even progressive movement.
They were also interested in knowing whether some leaders or
popular
sectors
were attracted to the political line followed by the ruling
Chinese
clique.
From the continuous interest the CIA showed in this matter
from the
very
beginning of the decade it is clear that, even then, they
were planning
to
play Peking Off against socialism, the Soviet Union, our
country and
even
such African countries as Angola and Ethiopia that have
attained their
independence.
They have shown a similar interest in obtaining information
about our
internal
affairs: development, domestic policy, social
problems,
etc.
They constantly asked for data on economic plans, short and
medium term
investments,
agreements, participation in the CMEA and a number of
specific economic
questions.
They were particularly interested in information about both
sugar an
nickel--anything
that could be obtained on those two items. The area
planted,
investments
in the sugar-cane industry and agriculture, total volume of
harvests,
destination
of exports, sugar prices subject to specific agreements...I
remember
very
well that Mike, the CIA officer I mentioned before, once
said that the
US
government had to exert its influence on the sugar market,
to make
prices
drop. Realizing the importance of sugar in our
economy, they
thought
a price decrease would be another blow to the Cuban
Revolution.
According
to Mike this was another form of fighting communism,
especially Castro
communism.
There were constantly all kinds of questions about nickel:
development
plans,
organizational measures, investments aimed at increasing
production and
exports,
markets, concrete projects for the mining area of northern
Oriente, in
short...
many different aspects.
There was persistent interest in the organization of the
Cuban
Communist
Party, the process and development of the Party Congress,
agreements
adopted,
opinions on the feasibility of the agreements being
fulfilled and other
questions.
They asked for details on state organization, the process of
institutionalization,
the creation of enterprises, the new system of economic
management, the
organization
of People's Power, elections...
From the time I was recruited in London up to end of 1976,
the CIA
showed
persistent interest in obtaining military information,
especially about
our
missile strength.
When Fidel unveiled your work as an alleged CIA agent, he
specifically
mentioned
the task the US intelligence services had given you to place
a
micro-transmitter
in Comrade Osmani Cienfuegos' office. Could you
explain in detail
how
that mission was accomplished?
It was clearly in the 1974, in Italy during a CAI work
session, that I
was
assigned the task of installing a highly sophisticated
microtransmitter
in
Comrade Osmani Cienfuegos' office. I was told how
important and
significant
that mission was for the US government, the CIA, especially
for the CIA
officers
working with me at that time: in short, that this
mission was of
special
significance for the organization and direction of US policy
toward
Cuba.
___(photograph)
with caption: Mr. Allan G. Morrill Jr.
My instructions were simply to check out Osmani Cienfuegos'
office in
order
to decide where I thought this microtransmitter should be
placed and
let
them know.
After my return to Cuba, we made a careful study of the
building where
these
offices were located and of the surrounding buildings,
including a
description
of height and existing equipment in the neighborhood that
might
interfere
with the microtransmitter broadcast. We made draft
drawings of
the
furniture in Comrade Osmani's office, and provided a
description of the
wood
it was made of and the color...: an exact
microlocation of the
office,
with each door and window indicated and, of course, also the
spot where
I
recommended installing the microtransmitter, and the
direction in which
it
should be oriented.
I remember that it was also necessary to draw a smell-scale
map of the
area
around Comrade Osmani's office indicating the streets,
avenues and
nearest
government buildings. Above all, the CIA asked me to
indicate
what
embassies were located near where the microtransmitter would
be placed.
After all these drafts and plans had been drawn up in Cuba,
according
to
CIA specifics, I handed them over to US Central Intelligence
Agency
officials.
Later, at a meeting with some of the CIA officers I had been
working
with
for several years, I was introduced to one named Dick who
had been
especially
assigned to this mission to build the
microtransmitter. It was
Dick
who directed all the training I was given at that time in
how to use.
and
later install the microtransmitter in Comrade Osmani's
offices.
Dick remained with me and other CIA officers until he
thought I was
ready
to undertake the mission. I remember that when we were
going over
some
of the details of the operation I told Dick -on purpose-
that I could
never
enter Cuba with that equipment and that I also thought it
would be
pretty
hard for them to get it to me in Havana. Then Dick
said something
so
arrogant I'll never forget it: He said, "Don't
worry. In
the
CIA we have a slogan: the difficult we do right away;
the
impossible
takes a little longer!" They couldn't imagine how that
operation
would
wind up.
He shoed me a rock in which the microtransmitter would be
hidden to be
sent
to me in Cuba, and told me they'd let me know by radio
exactly where it
would
be left.
___(photograph)
with caption: A CIA officer, Allan G. Morrill, Jr.,
walking the
streets
of Madrid.
Shortly after my return to Havana following that meeting
with the CIA
officers,
I received a message containing a detailed description of
the exact
spot
where the rock containing the microtransmitter had been
left, along
with
instructions to go to Cacahual, outside Havana, where it had
been
placed.
I was to pick it up as soon as possible and set it up in
Comrade
Osmani's
office, as planned.
Did you make any late trips abroad that allowed you to make
contact
with
the CIA?
In 1976 I had one final meeting with the CIA officers I had
been in
contact
with during my ten years of work in the Central Intelligence
Agency.
That was when I was introduced another Army Colonel Frank, a
high CIA
official
who, I was told had come from Washington especially for this
interview.
Colonel Frank is a Chicano who lost his right eye --as he
will proudly
tell
you-- in the US war against the Vietnamese people. He
told me
genially
not to call him Colonel Frank, that he preferred to be
called
Francisco,
or Pancho since he was Latin too.
When he began to talk, the other officers kept quiet.
He stood up
and,
in a very conceited manner, explained that he had come to
meet me and
personally
congratulate me. He conveyed the compliments of CIA
headquarters
in
Virginia for the work I had done and the risks I had taken
through all
these
years and, above all, for the contribution I had made to
preserving the
so-called
"free world". He also brought a personal letter from
Mr. Henry
Kissinger
congratulating me for my ten years of work on behalf of the
United
States.
Kissinger's letter said that, in his opinion, the
information that had
been
provided to the United States for its policy against our
country, and
even
against other countries, had been very valuable.
After delivering Kissinger's message, Colonel Frank ordered
several
bottles
opened and ceremoniously offered toasts to the success that
had been
achieved
and the future of our work. In that atmosphere of
expectation,
Frank
presented me with a box containing a Rolex watch which he
said was a
personal
gift from Henry Kissinger and the CIA leadership for the
work I had
done
over so many years.
Was the equipment actually used for broadcasts to the CIA?
I shouldn't reveal details about technical matters that
might show our
hand.
I can tell you that shortly after I informed the enemy that
the
microtransmitter
was installed, I made a final trip abroad, which was when
that meeting
with
the CIA officers and the interview with Colonel Frank took
place and I
was
congratulated for my work and presented with a watch from
Kissinger.
That makes it perfectly clear that what our Cuban State
Security
planned
and carried out was just what was needed to pull the rug out
from under
the
US intelligence services.
Did the microtransmitter require some auxiliary equipment in
order to
work?
My mission for the CIA consisted in making the studies I
mentioned,
selecting
the spot where the microtransmitter was to be installed and,
finally,
placing
it there.
Since they never told me, I don't know whether the
microtransmitter
required some kind of auxiliary equipment to activate it.
However, the messages could be picked up by equipment other
than the
CIA
apparatus, but they couldn't be understood because they were
scrambled
and
required a special device to received it, reconvert it and
produce the
actual
message, as I explained earlier.
How was the equipment run?
The equipment was turned on and off by remote control from
outside.
What kind of technical equipment did the CIA give you during
those ten
years
to carry out your alleged espionage work against Cuba?
At first they gave a machine that was used at that time to
record
messages
from the CIA center and decode them later. Once they
gave me some
ordinary
loud speakers that are used with record players or
recorders, in which
they
had hidden Cuban money that I was to use in my espionage
activities in
Cuba.
They provided me with a microscope built by the CIA's
technical
services
department to read the microdots the Agency might decide to
send.
They
also gave me a high-frequency radio-recorder with four bands
on which I
could
receive and record messages simultaneously.
Earlier I explained that I was trained in photography.
The CIA
gave
me an Asahi Pentax camera with all attachments and some
Ansco color
film,
apparently ordinary film that can be purchased anywhere
abroad.
Actually,
only the first part of the roll was regular film, in order
to hide what
followed,
which was a special microdot microfilm worked up by
the CIA.
During the meetings with CIA officers abroad, they gave me
code pads
with
which to decipher the messages they sent.
The first time, in London, they gave me a Grundig
high-frequency
radio-receiver
made in the RFA with several bands. I used this
equipment at the
beginning
to receive radio messages.
And as I said, they also sent me the sophisticated
microtransmitter
equipment
that was placed in Comrade Osmani Cienfuegos' offices.
This apparatus included long-lasting remote control
batteries, the
microphone
and the broadcasting mechanism set up to mix signals that is
to receive
the
conversation, mix it and send it in such a way that it was
difficult or
impossible
for any radio listener who might be turned into that band to
understand
the
transmission. They called this method
scrambling. When the
message
was received on the CIA monitoring equipment, it reconverted
the
conversation
by unscrambling it.
Does the fact that certain equipment, such as the
sophisticated
microtransmitter,
has been smuggled into Cuba in special devices and placed in
certain
spots
by third persons mean that there are other CIA agents in
Cuba?
TO TAKE A STAND AGAINST THE CIA IS TO OPPOSE CRIME,
CORRUPTION AND
INJUSTICE.
It's very hard to imagine that a clandestine agent could be
used in
this
king of an operation in Cuba. It would have to be
either an agent
sent
in specifically for such an operation or a foreign
intelligence agent
based
in our country.
HOW MANY CIA OFFICERS DID YOU HAVE CONTACT WITH DURING THE
COURSE OF
COUNTER-INTELLIGENCE
WORK?
I worked with some 13 CIA officers, all US citizens, while I
was
infiltrated
in the Agency. Sometimes the relationship was quite
close,
sometimes
less so --as in the case of Colonel Frank, apparently an
important CIA
official
at that time. Other officers would see me directly and
systematically.
Some limited their relationship to training and technical
preparation
sessions.
The CIA officer I worked longest with and with whom I
established the
closest
relationship was Mike Ackerman, a US citizen of
Russian-Jewish
extraction,
ambitious, very reactionary, with Zionist tendencies, and an
expert in
security
measures. He was openly anti-Cuban and had very close
ties with
counter
revolutionaries in Miami.
Mike Ackerman was a CIA lieutenant colonel when we worked
together,
carried
out missions against the Soviet Union, against countries in
the Middle
East
and, especially, against Cuba. Now, he has apparently
been
dismissed
from the CIA. Toward the end, he was dabbling in US
politics and
working
in US colleges and universities, which we all know are
regular CIA
recruiting
sources; so we assume from this that he still maintains his
ties with
the
Central Intelligence Agency.
I also knew a CIA lieutenant colonel who called himself
David, and
substituted
for Mike when the latter, apparently, left the Agency.
David was
cunning,
crafty fellow, very revolting, who openly hated the Cuban
Revolution
and
our people. He was a specialist in Latin- American
affairs and
economic
matters.
My work in the CIA was also linked to Allan G. Morrill, Jr.,
one of the
heads
of the Agency's center in Spain. This gentleman, known
as an
expert
on Cuba, was born on January 2, 1930, and speaks
Spanish. We know
he
went to work for the State Department in 1966, was sent to
Caracas,
Venezuela,
with an R-5 rating (one of the classifications for US
diplomatic
officials)
and, in November of that year, he became a political officer
in the
Embassy.
In May, 1971 he was promoted to R-4 rank and returned to the
CIA in the
United
States. In December, 1973, he was sent to Spain, where
he
remained
till late 1976. It was he who promoted and organized
the meetings
I
had there with CIA officers.
During all these years, Allan Morrill has used his State
Department
cover
for implementing his action against Cuba. In Spain,
Morrill
headed
the anti-Cuba section of the CIA Station.
Francis Sherry III and Joseph Said Cybulski were among
Morrill's
underlings.
Sherry, who was born on May 7, 1927, speaks both French and
Spanish,
and
earlier worked for the FBI. He was an economic officer
in Saigon
between
1953 and 1960 when he became US Vice Council in the city
that now bears
the
name of the beloved Ho Chi Minh. He worked in the US
consular
office
in Mexico in 1966, in France in 1969, in Spain as attache to
the
Political
Section from 1973 to 1976; and from 1966 to 1976 he carried
on
intensive
work against Cuba.
We learned that Cybulski was in Madrid in 1961; in Mexico,
Argentina
and
Spain between 1962 and 1974; he worked in the Spanish
capital between
1975
and 1977, supposedly for the Salisport firm, on Lopez de
Hoyos
Street.
Cybulski last address in Madrid was 51, Avenida
Generalisimo; his phone
number:
456-1460
These, as we have said, are the most noteworthy.
What guarantee did the CIA offer you in case you were
detected by the
Cuban
State Security Department?
The CIA offered me no guarantee and I believe it is unable
to do so in
any
case. They trained me in certain self-protection
measures, but
beyond
that there was no guarantee whatsoever.
At one point you said Mr. Henry Kissinger sent a letter
through Colonel
Frank
indicating that the information you had provided would serve
to
formulate
anti Cuban policy...
Not only the supposedly true information I provided, but, in
general,
any
information gathered by US intelligence is used by
imperialism to work
out
its aggressive line against Cuba and other socialist
countries, and
even
against the progressive countries of the Non-Aligned
Movement.
However, in the case of the information I provided to the
enemy, this
was
done according to a perfectly worked out plan based on the
need to
misinform
the CIA and serve our own infiltration work as well.
But in every
case,
the information provided served the interests of the
Revolution and the
peoples
of Latin America and the world.
Frank even went so far as to tell me that the synopsis of
the
information
I sent went straight to Kissinger's desk. This is
explained by a
series
of coincidental circumstances in 1975 and 1976: Cuba's
internationalist
help to Angola, the possibility of Fidel's trip to Africa,
and so
on.
All were matters of the highest interest to Kissinger, who
was, at the
time,
Secretary of State, presidential adviser on national
security problems,
chairman
of the Forty Committee and head of the whole intelligence
community.
Within the strategy drawn up by Cuban counter-intelligence,
what was
the
significance of the last message you sent to the CIA?
Late in 1976, terrorist activity from abroad --led and
encouraged by
the
CIA-- had increased against our country. The CORU
counterrevolutionary
group had been formed. There was an attempt to blow up
a Cuban
plane
in Jamaica, pirate attacks, bombings against Cubana de
Aviacion offices
in
Colombia and Panama, against the Cuban diplomatic
mission in
Portugal
and the Cuban consulate in Mexico, the assassination of a
comrade from
the
fishing industry, in Merida, and the attempt to kidnap the
Cuban
Consul,
the kidnaping of two Cuban comrades in Argentina, who were
obviously
assassinated...
In the United States, a traditionally difficult stage was
coming to a
close:
the end of one presidential period and the beginning of
another.
Thus, when the last message arrived (precisely three days
after the
criminal
sabotage of a Cuban civilian plane in Barbados causing the
death of 73
persons
--Cubans, Guyanese and Koreans-- there was a clear
indication that a
new
plot was being hatched to assassinate the Commander in
Chief.
This
was corroborated by the next of the message itself.
They thought
Fidel
would visit Angola on November 11, so they asked for data in
relation
to
that.
In that context, in the midst of the criminal offensive
against Cuba,
what
was behind that request? What was the CIA's interest
in finding
out
the exact itinerary of Fidel's alleged trip?
The revelations made by Fidel to the Cuban people and world
public
opinion,
were a solid denunciation of the CIA's activities; they
ridiculed the
machinery
of US intelligence and enabled the fulfillment of very
important
objectives.
How do you feel after having infiltrated the CIA for ten
years>
I feel really satisfied to have carried out such a mission
for the
Revolution.
But we don't work for glory. None of us is an
exceptional hero;
we
just try to defend our homeland. While I felt honored
on hearing
our
beloved Commander in Chief himself mention the case
publicly. I
do
understand that it is essentially due to the circumstances
that made
the
revelation advisable. I think especially of the
working people,
those
who day by day carry out production feats, of the workers
and peasants,
the
militia and the Revolutionary Armed Forces, the
revolutionary vanguard,
all
those that constitute the unconquerable bulwark of the
Revolution.
With or without CIA penetration, they are the ones who have
made, are
making
or will make the imperialist enemy bite the dust.. I think
of the
combatants
of the Ministry of the Interior, the comrades who have done
much more
than
I have been able to do, men who have even fallen in the line
of duty
and
whose names, for reasons of security, cannot even be made
public yet; I
think
of the comrades who are carrying out their work in the midst
of the
enemy
itself, under the most difficult condition, and are
selflessly and
devotedly
serving in this anonymous task of defending our
people. I always
think
of that and of the modesty, the sense of doing our duty with
simplicity
which
is a condition in the training of the men in Security.
This interview will be made public at the 11th World
Festival of Youth
and
Students. Do you wish to add anything to the youth of
the world
who
will meet in Havana?
___(photograph)
with caption: Equipment and money remitted from the
United States
to
its supposed agent. Also seen is a watch given by
Henry Kissinger
in
recognition of ten years "valuable work".
Yes, something which is very important. Certain CIA
circles have
expressed
the belief --and have already sketched it out as a
philosophy-- that it
is
necessary to stress the work of penetrating the youth.
This is
because
of the fact that every young person is a potential
revolutionary and
should
therefore be detoured from youth's rightful path; and,
secondly,
because
today's youth is tomorrow's man, tomorrow's technician,
politician,
statesman.
The enemy's work methods have shifted. More subtle
methods have
been
introduced: diversionism, espionage, corruption,
especially among
youth.
Part of the imperialist enemy's main effort is directed
against
youth.
Every young person should be on the alert against this and
should build
a
solid moral and revolutionary barrier against which all the
efforts of
the
CIA and its western homologue will be smashed.
To be against the CIA is to oppose crime, moral corruption,
injustice;
it
is to struggle against the lack of decency and the absence
of human
dignity.
INFILTRATED IN MIAMI
The boat cut through the Straits of Florida toward
Cuba. On board
were
five members of ALPHA-66, a counterrevolutionary
organization, who were
to
fulfill a crucial mission: infiltrating two agents
whose task was
to
kill Commander in Chief, Fidel Castro. Hours later,
near the
Bahamas,
a mechanical failure frustrated the landing attempt.
This mishap,
however,
saved the two terrorists from being captured in Cuba
because, instead
of
a reception committee, Coast Guard troops ready for combat
were to
greet
them. Many thought that the Hope was carrying seven
counter
revolutionaries.
Really, there were only six. The seventh, the head of
the
infiltration
operation, was a revolutionary -- Jose Gregorio Fernandez
Santos, who
spent
seven years in the counter- revolutionary organization in
Miami.
From 1969 to 1976 Fernandez Santos carried out a thorough
investigation
of
activities directed against the Cuban Revolution, right in
the bosom of
the
insidious exile groups located in Miami, many of which had
been trained
by
the CIA and operated with impunity from US territory.
During this
period,
Fernandez Santos kept close ties with the main
counterrevolutionary
organizations
and became captain in charge of the ALPHA-66 "Navy", until
he returned
to
Cuba.
Thanks to the patient work of the Cuban forces, much as
accomplished
prior
to Fernandez Santos' departure for Miami, and many of his
activities
outside
Cuba were also facilitated. The sensational account of
counterrevolutionary
activities, backed up by documentary and photographic
evidence,
established
new information as to how numerous groups and bands of Cuban
emigres
become
instruments of the Agency that zealously tries to
destabilize the Cuban
Revolution
with its systematic campaign of aggression against our
people.
"Ever since I arrived in Miami, after secretly leaving Cuba,
my aim was
to
work among the CIA agents who formed part of the operation
unit against
our
country and had been working directly in numerous
counterrevolutionary
bands,
in some cases using other groups as covers for carrying out
clandestine
operations
against Cuba.
"Besides my supposed counterrevolutionary militancy, my
navigational
skills
and knowledge of the waters around Cuba helped me to
infiltrate.
At
first, the fact that I had a photo studio and a boat, both
of which I
was
supposedly contributing to the activities against Cuba,
helped.
This
way I was directly recruited by Andres Nazario Sargent, head
of
ALPHA-66,
and trained in the Everglades, near Miami, with weapons used
by the US
army
and with the implicit consent of the Florida authorities,
who knew the
nature
and objective of our activities.
"Soon after, I learned through CIA agent Juan B. Marquez
Hernandez,
that
many supposed fishing boats that sailed the Miami river were
really
going
to spy on Cuban fishing vessels in the waters near the
Bahamas."
"Marquez, who headed a group made up of Juan Manuel Perdomo,
alias El
Flaco
(Skinny); Nelson Lopez, alias El Nino (Kid); Jesus Torres
Gomez and
Reybaldo
Gonzalez Martin, told me of his participation in an
operation in
Baracoa
during which the Team, headed by counterrevolutionary
Vicente Mendez,
managed
to infiltrate. In April, 1970, that team was captured
while
landing
in Cuba.
"Marquez himself told me how 11 Cuban fishermen were
kidnaped in May,
1970,
and were then abandoned on a key south of Andros
island. This
operation
smacked of being a CIA operation, since it was attributed to
ALPHA-66,
although
that organization hadn't really hatched it.
Furthermore, the fact
that
the second-in-charge of this operation, Ramon Orozco Crespo,
was a
known
agent and not a member of any of the counterrevolutionary
organizations,
serves to bolster this theory.
"I found out that Francisco Guzman Pastrana, another
individual with
well-known
links who belonged to the so-called Torriente Plan, was
receiving
direct
instructions from Angel Moises Hernandez Rojo, the chief
agent,
entrusted
by the CIA to coordinate the individuals that the Agency
kept active in
the
Miami area. Hernandez Rojo had been recruited in 1959
in the US
where
he was sent to study by tyrant Batista's Navy. He held
a top post
in
the YMCA, a social and athletic organization, that he used
to cover up
his
directorship of operations in which his principal men in
Miami took
part.
He was in charge of supervising the delivery of combat
equipment to the
Torriente
Plan for its attack against Cuba, and he participated in the
preparation
of the Boca Sama attack, staged on October 12, 1971.
"In order to carry out this cowardly aggression that killed
two and
wounded
four --among them two young girls, Angela and Nancy Pavon--
Hernandez
Rojo
supplied the military task force of the Torriente Plan
with US
Army
weapons and two boats equipped with artillery and radar that
were tied
up
at a dock used by the CIA, at SW 12th Street, Miami,
Florida.
They
also had use a port in Haiti and a boat belonging to the
counterrevolutionary
Babun brothers which was used as the mother ship.
there is
another
interesting story surrounding these boats. An
individual known as
Papo,
who owned a repair shop on 34th Street and 7th Avenue SW and
whose
mechanical
skills were often used, told me that he had helped to finish
equipping
these
boats, and that they had been tested in combat in a fishing
village in
some
African country. This provide further proof that these
especially
built
boats, came from the CIA.
"About the Torriente Plan, which boasted a highly touted
unity among
Cuban
emigres of all sorts in Florida, I learned, through Guzman
Pastrana
himself,
that Jose E. de la Torriente was a fictitious character
invented and
backed
by the CIA in order to divert the Cuban people's attention
from the
efforts
they had been investing in the 1970 sugar harvest."
"By widening my contacts I met Juan Gonzalez, head of the
so-called
National
Liberation Front of Cuba (FLNC), a band that carried on a
lot of
terrorist
activity against interests, its offices abroad and against
Cuban
interests,
its offices abroad, and against Cuban fishing vessels in
international
waters.
Among the most notorious terrorist operations of the FLNC
was the
burning
of a fishing boat and the murder of one of its crew, Robert
Tornes, by
the
above- mentioned and well-known Ramon Orozco Crespo, who
acted as the
second-in-command
of the operation. The counterrevolutionary Gonzalez
reported that
Crespo
fired the automatic rifle on the defenseless Tornes when the
latter
affirmed
that he was a Communist.
___(Photograph)
with caption: Jose Gregorio Fernandez Santos who,
during seven
years
tunning, knew the inside of the count-revolutionary groups
of Cuban
origin
based in Miami and their dependence on the CIA. He is
seen here
together
with Nazario Sargent.
___(Photograph)
with caption: The counter-revolutionary Luis Lovaina
was one of
the
many who took part in the lucrative business of hiring wigs
to later
take
this photo outside Miami. Later, he showed it as proof
of his
"heroic
Stay" in Cuba as a fighter for the freedom of Cuba.
"Juan Gonzalez maintained close ties with members of the
Fascist
Chilean
Junta and especially with Julio Solorzano Gicelure, an
official of the
DINA
(the Chilean Intelligence Agency). Solorzano request
the support
of
counterrevolutionary groups for the Chilean Junta in
exchange for
supplying
them with materials for terrorist activities against
Cuba. While
in
Miami, Solorzano lived in Gonzalez own home. I myself
participated
in two meetings with this individual, representing the
Alpha-6
organization,
of which I was one of the leaders. I also had two
personal
conversations
with Solorzano, and came to know that his father, whose name
was the
same,
was colonel and a top official of the DINA.
"It is publicly known that the FLNC is one of the terrorist
bands that
later
formed the so-called United Revolutionary Organizations
Command (CORU),
head
by the notorious terrorist Orlando Bosch Avila, who is now
in jail in
Venezuela
for his participation in the plot that blew up the Cubana
passenger
plane
in Barbados.
"In mid-- 1974 the counter revolutionaries Luis Lobaina,
Aristides
Marquez
(a resident of 30 NE and 1st Avenue), and Jose Amparo Ortega
joined
Alpha-66.
The latter was known to have ties with the CIA and had
infiltrated in
the
area of Baracoa in an unsuccessful attempt to spark peasant
uprisings.
He used the Naval Base at Guantanamo as his escape route
from the
country.
These two, unconnected with Alpha-66, arranged with its
head, Andres
Nazario
Sargent, to use the organization's name the support of some
of its
members
to infiltrate Lobaina and Marquez through northern Oriente,
in another
attempt
to assassinate our Commander in Chief, Fidel Castro.
___(Photograph)
with caption: Jose Gregorio Fernandez Santos and the
counter
revolutionaries
Hugo Gascon and Ramon Cala during training in Florida.
"Ortega had the use of M-16 rifles, a 28 foot speedboat
called Hope
(fol.
FL. 9104FS) maps of the area, and information on maritime
movements in
former
Oriente province for the operations. Since at that
time I was
head
of what they called Alpha-66 "Navy," the chiefs of the
organization
entrusted
me to direct the infiltration operation as captain of the
boat.
"An engine failure caused the boat to hit land at Great
Inagua, in the
Bahamas,
where the authorities searched the boat and confiscated the
weapons.
Of course, once in jail, Lobaina and Marquez bemoaned their
bad luck at
having
been captured and thus prevented from fulfilling their
infiltration
objective.
I though they had been very lucky because they would have
been greeted
by
our Coast Guard in Cuba.
"Back in Miami, where we were secretly taken, we were met at
the
airport
by John F. Butcher, an FBI officer who, far from harassing
or
arresting
us for our activities, told us that we would not be brought
to trial
and
gave us new "parolee" cards (a document that is given to
Cubans who
lack
identification papers), just as if we had arrived for the
first time is
US
territory.
"These events took place in October, 1974, and in the
following months
Nazario
Sargent pushed the idea of using a secret farm in Mexico to
give
military
training to some of the members of the organization.
His
insistence
was in part due to my negative reaction to the proposal,
since it was
my
objective to remain infiltrated in the Alpha nucleus located
in Miami,
and
especially to keep an eye on Nazario Sargent.
"In April of the following year, when the arrest at Great
Inagua had
been
practically forgotten, a strange and unusual piece of news
reached us
about
the capture of six Cuban emigre's who were trying to
penetrate Cuban
territory.
Immediately, the FBI came to me house in order to take
me to
court
to be charged with the rest of those involved. Nazario
took
advantage
of this strange occurrence to insist that I be taken to
Mexico to avoid
being
sent to jail. He then gave me the necessary contacts
to make in
Mexico.
"I lived in Mexico for some time, keeping in touch with
various heads
of
counterrevolutionary groups located in Miami. Nazario
Sargent
told
me to seek the support of Patricio Sanchez, the Alpha- 66
representative
in Mexico. I also had long-distance conversations with
Julio
Solarzano
and his father in Chile. They offered me their house
to live in
and
told me to go to El Salvador and see the Chilean consul
there who would
have
precise instructions on how to get me to Chile. Even
Though I
went
to El Salvador and made the appropriate arrangements at the
Chilean
consulate,
I never went to Santiago de Chile because I had to
investigate some
signs
indicating that another attempt on the Commander in Chief's
life was in
the
works.
"It had become known that some counter revolutionaries in
Miami, headed
by
Antonio Calatayud Rivera, had asked Manuel Camargo, a
counterrevolutionary
and ex-mercenary member of Brigade 2506 who lived in Mexico,
to make a
thorough
study of the airport and other places of interest in Mexico
such as
Independence
Square on the grounds that Commander in Chief Fidel Castro
was supposed
to
visit that country.
"Consequently, weapons were transferred to Mexico
City. Once I
was
able to determine the real possibilities and objectives of
this plan I
was
told to return to Cuba.
"I have no doubt in my mind that counterrevolutionary
leaders received
both
the direct and indirect support of the CIA in the
unsuccessful attempts
to
assassinate our Commander in Chief. Already I had
learned from
Nazario
himself about the attempt made in Chile, when Fidel visited
that
country
at the invitation of the constitutionally elected government
of
Salvador
Allende. That attempt was made directly by Jesus
Dominguez
Benitez
and Marcos Rodriguez, under the leadership of Antonio
Veciana, a man
recruited
by the CIA and whom the US press the assassination of
President Kennedy.
"Today in our country, I have satisfaction of feeling that
all the
attempts
to destroy the Cuban Revolution, carried out by these
anti-patriotic
counter
revolutionaries with CIA support power of a steadfast and
brave people
that
unconditionally supports its Revolution."
CIA: CRIMES AND ASSAULTS
The veil that covers many of the unscrupulous operations
orchestrated
by
the CIA is lifting. Thus we know that plans or actual
attempts to
assassinate
political leaders, as in the case of the leaders of the
Cuban
Revolution
and other heads of State, represent one of the CIA's courses
of action.
Men such as Patrice Lumumba, Ben Barka, Rene Schneider and
Orlando
Letelier,
among others were struck down by the workings of this shady
organization.
The US Senate Select Committee, headed by Senator Frank
Church,
appointed
to investigate intelligence activities publicly recognized
the
innumerable
plans to assassinate political leaders of various
countries. But,
during
the course of the investigators, the CIA hid many of its
activities and
withheld
information from the Senate Committee, offering incomplete
and
falsified
information, deliberately lying in order to confuse the
American public
and
world opinion.
Nevertheless, in its conclusions, the Senate Committee
declared
that:"...it
has received evidence that high government officials
discussed and
perhaps
authorized the establishment within the CIA of an
assassination task
force."
And the report continued, "...the cases of Castro and
Lumumba are
examples
of the plot conceived by US officials to assassinate leaders
of other
countries."
(Vol.I, B-8; B-13, Spanish edition).
___(Photograph)
with caption: The place from which CIA agents planed
to shoot
Commander
Fidel Castro.
___(Photograph)
with caption: Arms which to be used to assault on
leaders of the
Cuban
Revolution while Fidel was speaking from the north wing of
the former
Presidential
Palace.
Lumumba must die
The murder of Patrice Lumumba, leader of the Congolese
people,
instigated
and inspired by the CIA, remains inscribed in the annals of
history as
a
flagrant violation of human rights. The CIA, with
supreme
cynicism,
confessed in the Senate Committee report its attempts to
eliminate the
Congolese
leader but denies having participated in the actual events
that took
his
life. However, the facts indicate otherwise.
The same Senate report admits that Lumumba "...was
considered a
threat
to US interests in the new African nations."
Bronson Tweedy, Chief of the Africa Division told the Senate
Committee
that
he had spoken with Richard Bissell, CIA deputy director in
charge of
planning
secret operations, and that Bissell told him that, Lumumba's
"...assassination
was included among the possible means of elimination."
Lumumba, deposed in a coup led by Joseph Kasavubu, sought
protection
from
the UN forces in the Congo. With this new development
the CIA
rechanneled
its assassination plans. this gave rise to plan
proposed by
Michael
Mulroney, as the Senate Committee was told, a plan to make
Lumumba
leave
the area where he was protected by UN troops. So he
could be
kidnaped
and handed over to Mobotu Sese Seko.
On November 27, 1960, Lumumba left the UN guard and on
December 1, he
was
arrested by Mobutu's troops. Two months later he was
murdered.
The imprisonment and murder of Lumumba coincides exactly
with the final
CIA
plan for eliminating him. Besides the CIA's shameless
behavior in
this
murder is a blatant example of intervention in the internal
affairs of
other
countries.
Eloquent example
After Allende's election in September 1970, sectors of the
CIA in
coordination
with the US transnational monopoly ITT thought that Allende
could still
be
prevented from taking office. But one of the main
obstacles in
this
was the Commander in Chief of the Army, Rene Schneider, who
refused to
permit
any intervention in the democratic and constitutional
process.
The Senate Committee investigating CIA activities states in
its
conclusions:
"All the coup plots that were developed within the Chilean
armed forces
proposed
the elimination of General Schneider one way or another...US
officials
continued
to encourage these plans once it was known that the first
step would be
to
kidnap General Schneider.
After two aborted attempts to kidnap this General, the CIA
gave Chilean
officials
three sub-machine guns and ammunition in order to carry out
the
operation.
Up to here the Senate Committee confirms having found
sufficient
evidence
that the CIA directed, organized, and founded with ten
million dollars
the
plan to prevent the Popular Unity government from taking
office, in
order
to then carry out a military coup. Nevertheless, it
could not
prove
that the weapons given to CIA- directed groups two days
before the
third
and last kidnap attempt were the ones actually used to kill
Schneider.
The CIA has tried to claim that the operation was carried
out by a
group
that had nothing to do with them
Who is the CIA Kidding?
The above-mentioned Senate report states that in August of
1975
Commander
Fidel Castro gave Senator McGovern a list of 24 aborted
attempts to
assassinate
him. He stated that the CIA was involved in
these. The
Committee
sent that list to the CIA and asked for a response to the
charges.
The 14-paged CIA response concluded: "...In summary,
the review
of
the archives shows that, of the incidents described in
Castro's report,
the
CIA had no participation in 15, never had contact with the
persons
mentioned,
and had no contact with them when the stated incidents
occurred."
"As for the other nine cases, the CIA had operative
relations with some
of
the persons mentioned but not for the purpose of
assassination...in the
cases
reviewed we found nothing that sustains the accusations that
the CIA
ordered
its agents to assassinate Fidel Castro..."
The report adds: "...The Committee has found no proof
whatsoever
that
the CIA was involved in the attempts on his life that Castro
listed and
gave
to Senator McGovern."
The CIA blatantly lied to the Senate: in all the cases
included
in
that report Cuban Security has irrefutable proof that,
indeed, the CIA
participated
directly and indirectly in them.
Could one possible think that an organization like the CIA,
built on
lies,
specializing in bribery and crime, would tell the
truth?
Impossible.
To their discredit we will briefly expose some of the plots
against the
leader
of the Cuban Revolution, some of which were told to
McGovern, where the
direct
participation of the CIA has been proved.
A criminal plot
In mid October 1961, via CIA agent Antonio Veciana Blanck
(Tony) -- who
as
leader of a counterrevolutionary organization was able to
hide his
espionage
activities-- a very careful operation was prepared to kill
Commander
Fidel
Castro and other revolutionary leaders. The plotters
built a fake
roof
in a building located at 29 Misiones Street, 8th floor,
apartment 8-A,
in
front of the old Presidential Palace, where they hid weapons
given to
them
by the CIA to carry out the assassination attempt.
From this apartment they intended to fire a bazooka at the
rostrum that
would
be installed on the north terrace of the old palace for an
event that
Fidel
Castro and other revolutionary leaders were to attend.
Simultaneously, several grenades would be hurled on the
public gathered
there,
in order to create panic and facilitate the plotters' escape
after the
savage
massacre.
Another attempt
On September 18, 1963, Cuban Security discovered another
plot to kill
Commander
Fidel Castro and other revolutionary leaders during the
commemorative
act
on the 3rd Anniversary of the CDR'S.
On this occasion, the CIA's agent was Pierre Owen Diez de
Ure, a French
citizen
recruited to carry out this assassination attempt and other
espionage
activities.
The plan of action was to place 60 pounds of C-4 plastic
explosives in
the
sewer pipes underneath the spot where the platform was to be
set up
from
which Fidel would address the public on this important
occasion.
Cuba's Department of State Security was able to discover
this plot in
time
and arrest the perpetrators.
Both these plots to kill Castro formed part of a general CIA
plan to
eliminate
several leaders of the Revolution at the same time.
___(photograph)
with caption: Weapons of the CIA agents infiltrated in
Monte
Barreto
with the objective to attempt to kill the leaders of the
Revolution.
___(Photograph)
with caption: More arms planned to be used by CIA
agents
infiltrated
in Monte Barreto.
Proof of this was the message transmitted to the station in
Havana on
July
21, 1960: "Possible elimination of three principal
leaders under
serious
consideration by head quarters." The weapons and
plastic
explosives
that were to be used in these respective attempts, and also
the
confessions
of the principal accused, are undeniable proof of the CIA's
machinations.
An agent and a gun
In the fall of 1963, Abel Hayder, CIA agent and national
coordinator of
the
MRR, received an order from the Agency to go to the US for
special
training
in subversion.
He arrived in the US clandestinely, and after a two-day stay
at the CIA
base
in Opa Locka, was sent to a house in Miami suburb where
various experts
gave
him a special 45 days course in techniques of demolition,
sabotage and
cyanide
poisoning.
After the training they began preparations to return Hayder
to
Cuba.
He was supplied with C-4 plastic explosives with detonators,
automatic
weapons
and a jar of 100 potassium cyanide tablets. The CIA
also
entrusted
him with the delivery of a Magnum Special with a telescopic
viewer to
give
to an expert who would use it to murder Commander Fidel
Castro.
The infiltration in Cuba, scheduled for mid-December 1963,
was
successful.
Thus the promise to send the weapon to be used in this
assassination
before
January 2, 1964, --date set for the attempt on Castro's
life-- was kept.
Abel Hayder landed at a beach near Havana and there he
buried the
weapons
he was carrying. Afterwards he walked to the road, got
on a bus
and
went straight to the house of his principal contact in the
capital
city:
the official of the Cuban Department of State Security who
had aided
him
since he began to infiltrate counterrevolutionary
groups. Abel
informed
him of the details of his landing and went straight to the
point:
the
agent who had been specially trained to murder Commander
Fidel Castro
had
to be caught.
This too the CIA hid from the Senate. But, can it deny
that Abel
Hayder
was one of its supposed agents, trained in one of its
terrorist
technique
schools in Miami? Can it also deny that it gave him a
powerful
rifle
to be used to kill the leader of the Cuban Revolution?
It should
be
pointed out that this case was not included in the list of
abortive
assassination
attempts on our leaders that was given to senator McGovern.
Deadly milk shakes
The agency devised a macabre plan to poison Fidel
Castro. In
order
to put it into effect it used one of the networks that had
already been
organized
in Cuba, directed by Ramon and Leopoldina Grau Alsina,
Polita.
The
CIA supplied a jar of poisonous capsules, and the Graus
chose Santos de
la
Caridad Perez, an employee of the Havana Libre Hotel, to do
the
poisoning.
Perez was in possession of one of the capsules when he was
arrested.
Of all the CIA plans to kill Prime Minister Fidel Castro,
this is the
only
one that the Agency admitted before the Senate, had gone
beyond the
preparation
phase. (See Volume I, Insert F, Report of the Senate
Select
Committee
to investigate intelligence activities). Obviously its
participation
goes much further, again showing the CIA's dishonesty with
the
Committee.
It was also discovered that these pills were brought into
Cuba by
diplomatic
pouch from a capitalist country. Cuba has clear proof
of this.
Action in Monte Barreto
On May 28, 1966, two counterrevolutionary CIA agents from
the US landed
illegally
at Monte Barreto in the Miramar district.
Revolutionary forces surprised them and a battle ensued in
which
artillery
pieces began to fire on the enemy transport that had brought
them.
Consequently, Antonio Cuesta Valle, chief of the
infiltration group and
Eugenio
Enrique Saldivar, both residents of Miami, were arrested and
seriously
wounded.
Agents Armando Romero Martinez and Sandalio Herminio Diaz
Garcia were
killed
while attempting to invade our territory. They were
involved in
smuggling
in weapons to assassinate Commander Fidel Castro.
Herminio Diaz was a known gangster linked to Mafia types
such as Santos
Trafficante,
with whom he had shared the same table at the Riviera Hotel
in Havana
in
1959.
The CIA admitted to the Senate Committee that it had used
Santos
Trafficante
and other underworld figures in the assassination attempts
on
Castro.
However, the Agency has made numerous attempts to
demonstrate that
those
plans in which the Mafia and Trafficante were involved,
never went
beyond
the planning stage.
False! Herminio Diaz, a Mafia type hired by
Trafficante and
recruited
by him to work in the CIA, carried this plan to the stage of
execution
when
he landed in Cuban territory with powerful arms to try to
kill Fidel
Castro.
Other information shows that Antonio Veciana, an agent who
was involved
in
several different attempts to assassinate the leader of the
Cuban
Revolution,
also participated in the preparations to infiltrate through
Monte
Barreto.
Without guts to act
During Commander Fidel Castro's visit to Chile in 1971, the
CIA
elaborated
a plan to assassinate him using Cuban born counter
revolutionaries
Jesus
Dominguez Benitez (El Isleno), and Marcos Rodriguez, acting
as
"cameramen"
for Venezuelan TV Channel 4.
Both these men, briefed and directed by Antonio Veciana, who
carried
out
explicit orders, received a year's training in the use of
rifles with
telescopic
viewers at the camp in Florida. They were also given a
press
course
and training to make them professional TV cameramen.
Then they were put to work with Channel 4 of the Venezuelan
TV via the
well-known
terrorist and CIA agent Luis Posada Carriles (who later
participated in
the
preparation of the criminal sabotage of the Cubana plane in
Barbados).
As journalists, they obtained permission to cover the leader
of the
Cuban
Revolution's travels in Chile. For this purpose,
Antonio Veciana
provided
them with a special TV camera that had an automatic pistol
embedded in
it.
These individuals were to use the pretext of filming scenes
of Castro's
trip
to kill him with the weapon they had so cleverly
concealed. But
they
lacked the guts to follow through since, as they later
explained, there
was
no sure way of "saving their own necks" once the deed was
done.
The CIA tried very carefully to make these acts seem to be
the work of
Antonio
Veciana, so that the "work" would become the responsibility
of Cuban
exiles,
the traditional plot used by the CIA to cover up its
aggressions
against
Cuba.
Obvious conclusions
The details exposed here are but a few of the many that the
Cuban
Security
bodies possess. Nonetheless, they show concealment and
falsification
of information given to Senator Frank Church's Senate
Committee
regarding
the participation of the CIA in attempts to kill Commander
Fidel
Castro.
The CIA told the Senate of its participation in
assassination plans
between
1960-1965. Nothing is mentioned thereafter, to make it
seem that
from
then on, it stopped preparing "dirty tricks." However,
Cuban
Security
has proof that, indeed, the CIA has continued its
unscrupulous criminal
activity
to this date.
No other political leader has had to face, so many and such
varied
attempts
on his life as Commander Fidel Castro. Of course, due
to the
revolutionary
vigilance of the people and the timely actions of Cuban
State Security,
none
has come to fruition.
The CIA, however, is just one tool of US foreign
policy. The
people
of the United States and the youth of the world demand that
the US
Government
take the necessary measures to prevent this Agency from
continuing its
relentless
terror and from using assassination as an instrument of US
foreign
policy.
Another page of CIA criminal activities against Cuba
Banditry
It was with indignation that the people learned of the new
crime
committed
by the counterrevolutionary bands organized by the US
Central
Intelligence
Agency. On January 5, 1961 Conrado Benitez, a young
voluntary
teacher
was assassinated. He had been teaching peasants in the
Escambray
Mountains
in the central part of the country to read and write.
Bandits ruthlessly took the life of this young man, whose
only weapons
were
his books. This horrible crime was intended to
frighten the first
literacy
campaign teachers who brought knowledge to confront the
legacy of the
past.
This crime was also a manifestation of the bitter class
struggle taking
place
in Cuba with the profound revolutionary process that was
standing up to
injustice,
privileges, ignorance and exploitation. As Fidel
Castro leader of
the
Cuban Revolution, has pointed out: "Conrado Benitez
was killed
because
he was poor, because he was young, because he was black,
because he was
a
teacher."
However, that was neither the first nor the last murder
recorded in the
history
of counterrevolutionary banditry.
The crimes perpetrated by counterrevolutionary bands,
organized,
financed,
equipped and encouraged by the US Central Intelligence
Agency, as part
of
the plan to crush the Cuban Revolution, include a long list
of
assassinations,
sabotage, attacks upon defenseless towns, buses trains and
other forms
of
public transportation, arson in schools, rural stores and
other
centers,
etc., etc.
First, it should be understood that banditry, one of the
methods used
by
US imperialism against the Cuban revolutionary process, was
part of the
US
government's plan to create favorable conditions for the
overthrow of
the
revolutionary government through sabotage inside the country
and armed
invasion
from abroad. The CIA was to implement these plans.
The first incidence of banditry took place in 1959, when the
counterrevolutionary
organization "La Rosa Blanca (The White Rose), made up of
fugitives
from
revolutionary justice, former members of the tyranny's armed
forces,
traditional
petty politicians and landowners linked with Dominican
dictator,
Trujillo,
along with the CIA, tried to launch an invasion from Santo
Domingo.
The invasion flopped. This failure at first upset the
organization
but some of its members managed to reunite and get to
penetrate the
Escambray
mountains.
From then on new counterrevolutionary bands sprang up
fostered by
organizations
led, subsidized and armed by the CIA. At the same
time, the Cuban
revolutionary
process was becoming more radical and the interests of the
big
exploiters,
particularly those of the large landowners were severely
threatened.
During the second half of 1960, there were uprisings in
various parts
of
the Escambray. At that time, the ringleader Benito
Campos, known
as
Campito, began to operate in the northeastern part of Las
Villas
province,
in the municipalities of Sagua la Grande and
Corralillo. He was
inspired
by the Movimiento de Recuperacion Revolucionaria,
organization closely
linked
to the Agency from its founding in 1959. Among its
tasks was the
creation
of counterrevolutionary bands, and the Escambray became the
target of
this
CIA mission.
The counterrevolutionary bands received their supplies from
abroad and
were
organized inside the country through underground
networks. At
first,
small contingents of the Rebel Army pursued the
bandits. Later on
a
larger number of soldiers and militia were mobilized.
Imperialism placed particular emphasis on organizing and
enlarging the
bands
in the Escambray mountains, as part of a plan to divide the
Island in
two.
Therefore, banditry in Las Villas became the focus of enemy
activity.
However strange it may seem, the leadership of the Escambray
Mountain
bandits
fell to Jose Ramon Ruiz Sanchez, or Major Augusto, a
resident of
Siboney,
a suburban sector of Havana. He broadcast orders to
the bandits
from
his home. Through this agent, the CIA was able to make
a large
scale
drop of weapons in the Escambray.
___(photograph)
with caption: One hundred thousand workers of the
peoples _____
were
mobilized in the regions of centra Cuba to squash the
bandits financed
and
armed by the CIA of the United States.
The Escambray bandits were much more aggressive than those
in the rest
of
the country. Undoubtedly, they had the topography of
the area in
their
favor. For example, in Pinar del Rio, they were wiped
out fairly
quickly
and, although they committed crimes, they were not as active
as the
bands
in Las Villas. In Havana and in Matanzas, there were
also some
groups
that managed to commit a number of murders, but they were
rapidly cut
down
there and in Oriente as well.
On November 29, 1960, the revolutionary leadership decided
to set in
motion
what was popularly known as La Limpia (The clean up) of the
Escambray).
More than 60,000 militia: workers, students and
peasants,
organized
into combat battalions, joined the contingents of the Rebel
Army
operating
against the bandits, and began a strong offensive aimed at
wiping out
banditry.
The Escambray was turned into a huge operations ground and
the bandit
groups
had no peace. The militia, led by officers of the
Rebel Army,
kept
the bandits in check. Some were compelled to
surrender, others
escaped
abroad or scattered to different areas. Workers,
peasants, and
students
firmly confronted those who attempted to hinder the
Revolution.
The
militia was able to return home by the end of March 1961.
This was the prevailing situation at the time of the
invasion at Playa
Giron,
an area near the Escambray. Immediately, bandit
activity flared
up.
With the hope for a successful invasion by the mercenary
army
frustrated,
imperialism once again gave top importance to banditry and
reorganized
the
small group of refugees left in the Escambray. Osvaldo
Ramirez
then
became the ringleader supported by the CIA.
The bandits planned to increase the number of groups but
reduce the
number
of members in each one so as to give them more
mobility. New
bands
sprang up, increasing villainy and terrorism.
The many crimes perpetrated against the population and the
cruelty that
characterized
the bands culminated in the assassination of Manuel Ascunce
Domenech, a
young
member of the Literacy Brigade and his pupil, Pedro
Lantigua, a
peasant.
As a result, the Revolutionary Government passed Law no. 988
which
instituted
the death penalty for band chieftains and assassins and the
confiscation
of collaborationists' property. This law was the legal
basis for
revolutionary
action against the bandits.
___(photograph)
with Caption: The worker-militia captures a
counter-revolutionary
in
the services of the CIA.
___(photograph)
with caption: Yet another bandit surrenders to the
Revolutionary
Army
Forces.
Later, Lucha Contra Bandidos (LCB), the anti-bandit section
of the Army
was
created. This military body grew out of actual combat,
and as it
fought
it became more organized and experienced. The creation
of the LCB
made
it possible to reduce military personnel. Those who
remained were
mainly
peasants from that area who were familiar with the terrain
and
accustomed
to mountain climbing. The local LCB troops were the
most
successful
weapons for annihilating banditry.
The Second Agrarian Reform Law, enacted on October 3, 1963,
dealt a
severe
blow to the bandits. It eradicated the rural
bourgeoisie which
was
an important economic mainstay of banditry.
Throughout those years, major operations and heroic,
anonymous State
Security
actions against banditry were carried out. This was
the case of
The
man from Maisinicu (Alberto Delgado), a Cuban State Security
officer
who
infiltrated into the counterrevolutionary bands and dealt
severe blows
to
the criminals. On December 29, 1963 the State Security
bodies
began
an operation to cut off the important underground supply
line to the
bandits
known as Rat Line, led by the CIA. This was the final
blow to the
bandits
who still remained in the Escambray.
The continuous combined operations of State Security and the
LCB, plus
the
complete support of the people for the Revolution, and the
internal
contradictions
produced by the bandits' lack of ideals, the ambition of
their
ringleaders
and the criminal nature of their activity, all contributed
to
eliminating
banditry.
Towards the end of 1965, Luis Vargas and Jose Rebozo were
the only
bandits
remaining in the Escambray. Luis Vargas was arrested
on December
1,
and Jose Rebozo on October 1, 1966..
Thus ended another chapter in imperialism's criminal action
against
Cuba,
perpetrated by the CIA.
The struggle against the bands that imperialism tried to
establish in
the
mountains areas of the Island was won at the cost of effort
and lives
of
our people. Dozens of peasants, women, teachers and
soldiers were
assassinated
by the bandits; over 240 fighters lost their lives in combat
or on
duty.
The country had to divert huge quantities of all kinds of
resources to
foil
the CIA's plan of setting up centers of banditry to promote
terror in
rural
areas. But the end result --the smashing victory of
the people
over
the forces of reaction-- was inevitable.
This reality did not, however, make the CIA abandon its
policy of
promoting
banditry. Years later, through the infiltration of
agents from
abroad,
the enemy attempted to revive banditry. But in every
single case
it
was annihilated before it could accomplish its subversive
and criminal
mission.
The blow to the "Rat Line"
Almost fifteen years have passed since the important
underground CIA
network
known as Rat Line, used to supply and inform
counterrevolutionary bands
operating
in the northern region of the Escambray, was completely
liquidated by
the
Cuban State Security.
For the first time Alberto Miranda Toledo, a Cuban Security
agent who
was
able to infiltrate this network and even became its second-
in-command,
spoke
publicly of this rude blow to banditry and to the US Central
Intelligence
Agency.
"The CIA wanted to make the northern part of the Escambray a
stronghold
for
bandit activity for it was the ideal place for agents to
infiltrate
from
abroad. There were several bands already operating in
that
territory,
among them the one headed by Campito.
"I had penetrated some of the counterrevolutionary
organizations in Las
Villas
as early as 1959 and had created an image as an active
counterrevolutionary
element. In 1962, when Cuban Security headquarters,
was informed
of
the existence of an important supply and information network
for
counterrevolutionary
bands, I was assigned the mission of penetrating this
network.
"I was known that the network was directed by Leonardo
Prieto, but his
whereabouts
was not known. After establishing links with
individuals in Santa
Clara
who were disenchanted with the Revolution, I made contact
with Mr.
Mariano
Pinto, who had been administrator of a tax office and a
political boss
during
the Batista dictatorship.
"I won his confidence to carry out counterrevolutionary
activity.
He
turned out to be the CIA's main agent in the Rat Line
network.
Later,
he even suggested to the CIA that I become deputy director
CIA that
network;
he sent my biography to the CIA Operation Unit in
Miami. Mariano
Pinto
and Leonardo Prieto, wanted by Cuban Security, were one and
the same.
"Pinto, who communicated with the CIA through a Western
embassy
official
in Cuba, also checked on other CIA agents, their operations,
etc.
The
network he directed was made up of some two hundred men,
mainly in Las
Villas,
and also in Havana that kept in touch with
counterrevolutionary
organizations
and CIA agents in the capital city. The Rat Line
supplied bands
in
the northern part of the Escambray with money, weapons,
ammunition and
communications
equipment. It also gave the CIA economic, social and
military
information
on the country. The CIA got the weapons to the bands
by dropping
them
from planes at a place, date and time previously agreed upon
through
the
Rat Line. They supplied the money as follows:
they turned
US
dollars over to a given person abroad, and this person would
guarantee
that
someone else would give the network the equivalent amount in
national
currency.
"By that time, this was the only network left to supply
bands, for the
CIA
had received many blows from Cuban Security. So the
Rate Line
grouped
all the various elements that opposed the Revolution and, at
the same
time,
received special support from the CIA.
"The members of the Rat Line were basically from the middle
level and
petite
bourgeoisie, people linked to the Batista tyranny, ex-
politicians, etc.
"The CIA's orders to the bands, who were strongly harassed
by the
Revolutionary
National Militias and the Revolutionary Armed Forces, were
to regroup
and
stay in the Escambray at all costs. They wanted to
keep the
northern
region in order to control the Escambray, divide the Island
in two and,
as
soon as conditions permitted, organize a provisional
governments, as
though
it were an internal movement, and to have this provisional
government
request
the aid and intervention of the United States.
"On December 29, 1963, Pinto and the other members of the
CIA Rat Line
network
were captured and a decisive blow was deal to the bandits
and to the
United
States Central Intelligence Agency's plans."
___(photograph)
with caption: Alberto Miranda
John Stockwell and Holden Roberto met again in early
November, 1975, in
an
improvised lookout a few meters off the highway that links
Caxito with
Quifandongo.
The moment for striking the final blow was approaching, for
attacking
Luanda
before the 11th, to install a puppet government on the piles
of corpses
and
then chop up the country: one third would be taken
over by Zaire
to
satisfy Mobutu's expansionist ambitions; the biggest stretch
would
belong
completely to the corporations interested in the iron,
cooper,
diamonds,
kaolin, feldspar, marble, black granite urunium and, of
course, the oil
as
well.
The two men posed for photos 32 kms. from
Luanda. At the
moment,
Holden Roberto, CIA agent recruited in 1961 at $10,000 a
year, awaited
victory
with confidence, reassured by the plans dreamed up in
Washington that
included
an air lift for supplying abundant weapons from US bases,
logistics
support
from NATO and the recruitment of mercenaries, as in the
period of the
Crusades,
to carry out
The CIAs' sinister program in Angola
Once again it was the Central Intelligence Agency, playing
its role as
the
operational arm of the United States Government's policy of
acting as
international
gendarme. The CIA, with its worn-out schemes and
formulas used on
so
many other occasions, well known in Guatemala, in 1954; in
Playa Giron,
in
1961; in Vietnam and Laos, for nearly two decades; in the
Dominican
Republic,
in 1965; in Chile in 1973.
According to an apparently unbreakable golden rule,
operations begin by
placing
on target any movement, government or individual that might
potentially
become
a counter force to the system of imperialist exploitation,
domination
or
interference and against those forces or currents of
national dignity,
progress
and revolutionary change, it unleashes an arsenal of
conspiracies that
often
evolve into coups d'etat, assassination attempts,
fratricidal wars,
secession
and genocide, in order to confront, diminish and discredit
"international
communism, according to the directive of the US National
Security
Council
of 1947.
The cover-up of the operations is a must in the ABC's of the
Agency, as
is
evident from such abominable expedients as the use of
subsidiary
regimes,
troops of local puppets and alleged "liberation
movements". Thus,
the
United States contributes with arms and dollars, and the
rest with
cannon
fodder.
Because Angola
was no exception to the modus operandi of the CIA in Third
World
countries.
Angola turned out to be too big, too rich and too strategic
a territory
for
a movement such as the MPLA --with real national roots,
whose founding
group
projected progressive thinking-- to consolidate itself as
the popular
vanguard
first in the anticolonialist struggle and then in the
struggle for
independence.
That popular force which had begun the first national
liberation
war
against Portuguese colonialism in 1961, had to be
counteracted and,
from
then on, the CIA took charge of financing the internal
counterrevolution
embodied in the National Front for the Liberation of Angola
(FNLA,
formerly
the UPA and GPRAE) and its agent-chief Holden Roberto.
Fort that
purpose,
it immediately had the unconditional collaboration of
Mobutu, who was
also
to be placed in power as president with CIA complicity, thus
establishing
Zaire as the subsidiary regime for its schemes and Kinshasa
as the main
launching
pad for its intervention in Angola.
On the military plane, NATO provided the support for
Portugal in its
war
against the insurgent MPLA forces.
Nevertheless, none of the wise experts or their US espionage
computers
could
predict that the very dynamics of the liberation war in the
colonies
would
bring about the downfall of fascism in the metropolis and
that, when
that
happened, a process of decolonization would be precipitated
that, this
time,
would not have to answer to the typical neocolonialist
procedures that
France
and England had applied on the African continent on other
occasions.
The existence of a political situation that was not
controlled by the
colonial
powers led the CIA into one of its biggest, dirtiest and
costliest
operations
against the free will of any people according to the no less
extensive
accumulation
of confessions and revelations formulated by some of the
instigators
and
executors of the so-called.
Program for Angola
A report of the US Senate Security Committee revealed that
the CIA's
secret
operations against Angola began before November, 1974, from
its
Kinshasa
Station.
___(photograph)
with caption: ; John Stockwell, together with Holden
Roberto.
Their
defeat by the revolutionary forces of the MPLA was fast
approaching.
John Stockwell and Jonas Savimbi in Angola.
A total of 18 Agency officers, some of them with prior
experience in
Vietnam
and Laos, were accredited in the capital of Zaire for the
mission of
making
contacts and providing supplies to the FNLA and UNITA
groups. The
team
of operative and telecommunications officers from the CIA
that worked
in
Kinshasa, mainly under diplomatic cover, included Stuart E.
Methven,
Samuel
L. Martin, Roberto Benedetti, Nancy R. Buss, Peter T.
Hanson, Bruce
Brett,
Jeffrey Panitt, Victoria Viger, Bruce Barnard, Robert W.
Carmen, Peter
W.
Comar, Wilfred Gagnon, William Harner, Richard J. Harrinson,
Martin
McFarlane,
David S. Markey, Thomas T. Mix and Nick E. Unger.
When the cease-fire between Portugal and the Angolan
organization
occurred
in November, 1974, the FNLA entered Luanda with considerable
military
forces
whose purpose it was to wipe out the MPLA or throw them out
of the
transitional
government that was to be established in Luanda a month
later,
following
the signing of the Alvor Accords. With CIA training,
the FNLA
dedicated
its efforts to a bloody wave of kidnapping, torture, murder
and the
virtual
massacre of MPLA members and sympathizers. The
so-called
"people's
houses" that sprang up in some sectors of Luanda were
centers of terror
in
which even cannibalism was practiced, as many of the
accredited
correspondents
in Luanda were able to confirm.
___(photograph)
with caption: The agent Holden Roberto in company with
Chinese
advisors.
John Stockwell, former head of the CIA Task Force for Angola
has
pointed
out that the FNLA attacks on the MPLA began in February,
1975, after
the
Forty Committee had approved the designation of $300,000,
for the
elimination
of the only legitimate representative of the Angolan people.
Stockwell adds that CIA intervention was undertaken through
the so
called
"Program for Angola", submitted to President Ford and
approved by him
in
his Presidential Findings which were then discussed by the
Forty
Committee
in January, June and July of 1975. On July 14, the
Agency was
requested
to draw up a covert plan of action for Operation
Angola. This
plan
was elaborated by the CIA's Africa Division and presented on
July
16.
That same day, it was approved by President Ford, who also
authorized a
budget
of $6 million. On July 27, Ford authorized and
additional
$8
million for the project.
At the same time, CIA director William Colby told the
National Security
Council
that the Agency would really need to invest $100 million to
ensure that
it
would win in Angola; but since a program of that financial
magnitude
was
too difficult to keep secret, the final sum was $31 million.
The CIA program also included support for Jonas
Savimbi, leader
of
UNITA, one of the organizations that Portuguese colonialism
had adopted
in
1966 to fight against the MPLA guerrillas and which provided
an
eventual
reserve for a neocolonialist changeover. In August,
1975
Stockwell
met in Zaire with UNITA's Minister of Foreign Affairs who
then
accompanied
him to Silva Porto for an interview with Savimbi.
This contact mission was carried out with the approval of
Colby,
Kissinger
and the White House itself.
Arms, dollars and mercenaries
In his book In Search of Enemies John Stockwell states that
the program
was
launched when the first C-141 plane carrying arms left on
July 29,
1975,
with two additional high priority flights in
preparation. The
arms
came from CIA warehouses in Texas and the cargo was prepared
in South
Carolina.
The Logistics Office was chiefly responsible for
coordinating the US
part
of the program, while the CIA Africa Division, together with
the
Special
Operations Group and liaison from the Air Forces, took
charge of the
composition
of the cargo and sent the formal memo to the Pentagon
requesting the
plane.
The station in Monrovia, Liberia, was in charge of refueling
in the
Robertsfield
Base and Kinshasa was responsible for unloading the
goods. The US
Navy
also contributed to implementing the "Program" by shipping
arms to
Zaire
on its transport ship The American Champion.
But all these arms failed to shake the resistance of the
MPLA, and
since
the FNLA-UNITA coalition had no popular support whatsoever,
it withdrew
from
the transitional government, relying more on the results of
a foreign
intervention
than on its own forces.
The CIA program then entered its most active and, to a
certain extent,
desperate
phase. Its primary objective was to seize Luanda at
all costs
before
November 11, the date set by the Alvor Accords for
Portugal's
withdrawal.
Among its desperate actions, the CIA roused the Portuguese
who were
still
in Luanda to kidnap planes with arms for the MPLA and fly
them to
Kinshasa,
for $30,000 per flight. Meanwhile, the Navy was to
intercept
ships
traveling between Luanda and Cabinda and support infantry
actions on
shore.
For this project, various types of ships were acquired and
equipped
with
artillery. Later they were turned over to the Zaireans
and to
Portuguese
mercenaries.
Meanwhile, commando battalions of Mobutu's army were flown
in
C-130's to Ambriz, where the so-called government of Holden
Roberto had
been
set up. The brothers-in-law had decided that the
occupation of
Luanda,
before November 11, would be the first step toward
converting Angola
and
Zaire into a single state or a federation.
With the Zairean troops and the Portuguese mercenaries, what
Col-by
referred
to as "intelligence compilers" came to Angola. The
latter were
nothing
more or less than CIA experts who were supposed to direct,
advise and
train
FNLA and UNITA forces in Angola territory.
During this period, the CIA also established coordination
with the
French
Service for Foreign Documentation and Counterespionage
(SDECE), after
taking
into account France's economic interests in Angola.
Major French
oil
companies had created the FLEC to promote the recession of
Cabinda, and
on
the military level, France was acting as a bridge for
supplying a
substantial
portion of the weapons projected for the program.
The SDECE received intelligence reports from the CIA in
Paris and, in
August
1975, CIA deputy director Vernon Walters promised that
organization
$250,500
to recruit mercenaries. Bob Denard, a longtime
mercenary who had
fought
for Mobutu in the Congo, was in charge of recruitment while
the SDECE
was
to provide passports and visas and solve any legal problem
that arose.
South Africa, a friend of the CIA
The former head of the Task Force for Angola says that some
time before
the
invasion by the South African Army, the head of the CIA
Africa
Division,
Potts was in favor of South Africa's participation.
The heads of
the
CIA stations in Kinshasa, Pretoria and Lusaka agreed with
Potts and
expressed
their support for direct participation by the South
Africans.
"CIA
ties with South Africa's Bureau of State Security (BOSS) go
back to the
60s
when they worked in close coordination in recruiting
mercenaries for
the
civil war in the Congo", according to the magazine Counter
Spy.
"Later", the magazine continues, "the United States went all
out in
developing
the operational capacities of South African intelligence,
especially in
the
realm of the strategic center of sea routes around the Cape,
monitoring
places
that allowed them to look both north and south, in order to
spy on the
governments
and liberation movements of Africa."
Thus, the Pretoria station maintained close links with the
leadership
of
BOSS. CIA officers in the Kinshasa station and
representatives of
BOSS
received two C-130 planes in Ndjilli and supervised the
transfer of
their
cargos to a CIA c-141 that would carry the arms to Silva
Porto, on
October
20, 1975, following orientations from CIA general
headquarters.
It is known that the director of BOSS made two personal
visits to
Washington
for secret meetings with the head of the CIA's Africa
Division.
After the 11th
Midnight of November 10, 1975 came to Luanda, without the
FNLA- UNITA,
without
mercenaries, Zaireans and South Africans; without Holden
Roberto being
able
to go beyond his improvised lookout -- from which he would
no longer
look
to the south.
The FAPLA victory in Quifandongo, and those in Quibala and
Gavela,
which
stopped the South African blitzkrieg short, had saved
Angola's
independence
and its future. The course of the war had been
virtually
determined.
But that didn't stop the CIA's interventionist
activity. Supplies
of
arms were stepped up between Kinshasa and Carmona, where the
focal
point
of the FNLA was located then, and the recruiting of
mercenaries was
reactivated,
now with the limited objective of achieving the division of
the country.
CIA efforts to use mercenaries in Angola increased at the
end of 1975
and
continued thereafter, even following the December 17, 1975,
US Senate
vote,
by an overwhelming majority, prohibiting the use of US
combat personnel
or
any type of aid to the divisionist groups in Angola "without
the full
authority
of the US Congress". In defiance of that decision, the
CIA
established
bases for recruiting mercenaries in London, Paris and Madrid
and in
some
US cities.
At the beginning of December, 1975, the CIA made contact in
Madrid with
former
Colonel Santos E. Castro, with a view to making plans to
recruit a
mercenary
force of 300 Portuguese, who would go and fight with the
FNLA --a force
for
which an initial sum of $110,000 was budgeted, although the
total
operation,
including the costs of recruitment, wages, plane flights,
maintenance
in
Angola and medical expenses, would come to more than $1.5
million.
In Miami, Manuel Artime, the well-known CIA agent an chief
of the
mercenary
invasion of Cuba, set up a recruitment office to form a
support brigade
for
UNITA and FNLA action, offering individual monthly salaries
of up to
$1,000.
Around this time, in January of 1976, AP released statements
by the
Playa
Giron mercenary Jose Antonio Prats, who claimed to be
"representative
of
the UNITA and we have requests from Cubans and Latin
Americans..."
According to the public testimony of the mercenaries tried
in Luanda,
there
were various organizations controlled by the CIA that were
engaged in
the
recruitment of mercenaries, such as the World Wild Geese
Club, Phoenix
Associated
and Omega Group Limited.
In London there were two offices for this purpose, the
Security
Advisory
Services (SAS) and the Mercenary Forces Group. In
February, 1976,
John
Best, spokesman for the former, revealed that the
recruitment was
financed
with US money that had been received through Major James E.
Leonard,
Assistant
US Army Attache to the US Embassy in London, who acted as
liaison with
the
SAS.
The CIA hasn't stopped
Even after the crushing defeat of the mercenaries in the
provinces
bordering
on Zaire, strong repulsion of the attempts to invade Cabinda
and the
total
withdrawal of South African troops, the CIA didn't give up
organizing
and
financing actions against Angola.
The ex-head of the CIA in Angola points out in his book
that, with the
first
part of the Angola adventure over in September, 1976, the
CIA had
already
begun to evolve its intervention program for Ethiopia.
At that
time,
in a meeting among Stockwell, the director of operations,
and the head
of
the Ethiopia Somalia-Section, the future program for
Ethiopia began to
be
drawn up. To Stockwell's surprise, the director of
operations
proposed
that the CIA could request the launching of another covert
action in
the
Horn of Africa.
The Luanda trial of mercenarism had barely ended when a
meeting took
place
in the Azores Islands, in June, 1976 organized by the
Political Adviser
to
the Head of UNITA, a US citizen and CIA official, with the
aim of
reactivating
cooperation between the counterrevolutionary group and the
Agency.
In May of that year, the Organization of Free Africa (OAL)
was created
to
infiltrate into the former Portuguese colonies and try to
destabilize
their
governments through such actions as sabotage, criminal
assaults and
assassinations.
OAL headquarters was in Madrid and it had branches in Miami,
Paris and
other
important cities. Its most active members included a
number of
Cuban-born
counterrevolutionaries, whose representative belonged to the
counterrevolutionary
CORU group, protected, naturally by the CIA.
More recent information indicates the arrival in Zaire after
December,
1977,
of groups of French, US and Belgian mercenaries whose
mission is to
support
operations against Angola in Maquela de Zamboen in the
north.
The CIA hasn't stopped its "program" in Angola, nor in the
rest of
Africa
--wherever the people decide to struggle to become masters
of their own
destiny.
The CIA continues to be the operational arm of US
imperialism's policy
of
acting as international gendarme, an arm for the forces of
peace,
progress
and socialism to cut off.
The "Maxim" Case
A movie house was the clue that led to the identification
and location
of
Francisco Munoz Olive (alias Montes), once the state
security bodies
had
collected sufficient information to know that there existed
in Cuba an
individual
who worked for the CIA under that alias.
Who was Montes? Where did he live? What did he do?
What were his
activities?
Cuban security had received a scanty piece of information
during its
investigations:
"He lives near or in front of a movie house, one block away
from
Ayestaran,
a street in the center of Havana."
The only movie house in this location was the Maxim
theater.
Therefore,
from then on, the Security Bodies began to refer to the
search for
Montes,
the CIA agent, as the Maxim case.
Shortly thereafter, with the help of the mass organizations,
particularly
the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, they
determined that
in
front of that movie house, on Bruzon Street, in the house
numbered 65,
in
apartment number 2, lived a tall, heavy- set man, light
complected, who
had
been a member of the police force for many years prior to
the
Revolution
and presently received a pension from the State. This
man was
Francisco
Munoz Olive. He was the CIA agent Montes.
The CIA had provided Montes with the technical equipment
that he used
in
his work: a radio received, carbon paper for invisible
writing,
code
keys for receiving messages, etc.
___(photograph)
with caption: Radio-receiver used to capture messages
sent from
the
United States.
The first important contact that Montes made in order to
build his
network
was Rafaela Rojas, who had a long and ominous
counterrevolutionary
history
in Oriente province and who had been convicted and
imprisoned by a
revolutionary
court for these activities.
It was through Joan of Arc, the alias that Montes himself
gave Rojas
when
she moved to Havana after serving her sentence, that Munoz
Olive
recruited
some of the members of his network. Montes himself
spent long
"rest"
periods in a chalet belonging to his wife's family in the
city of
Holguin,
and here he directly recruited an expoliticker from that
region into
the
network.
Montes did not spent all his time "resting", as he would
have it
appear.
He spent much of his time collecting economic, political and
military
information
on Oriente and he sent his secretly written messages to the
CIA right
from
Holguin. He often went to Santiago de Cuba, the
capital of former
Oriente
providence, in order to meet with one of his collaborators
who had
moved
from Havana to Santiago shortly after having been recruited
into the
group.
Another target point for the network was the area of Antilla
and Banes,
in
Oriente. Some members were recruited from this very
area,
including
Melba de Feria Santiesteban, a large landholder who was
affected by the
Agrarian
Reform Law and who became one of the most important of agent
Montes'
collaborators,
after "Joan of Arc" left the country.
Melba de Feria, profoundly reactionary and anti-communist,
played a
leading
role in the network as the link between her boss and some of
his
collaborators.
She herself recruited Dr. Martha Frayde Barraque (alias
Fuente) and for
a
long time acted as the direct link between the doctor and
Montes.
Fuentes,
as she was known in combat by the CIA, became a source of
very valuable
information.
She had many friends and a wide variety of activities that
permitted
her
to obtain information that she systematically relayed to the
CIA
network
chief.
Dr. Martha Frayde Barraque took advantage of her large
social circle,
composed
of both personal and professional relations, to obtain
secret
information
on Cuba, which she then handed over to the government of the
United
States.
The group of informants was varied and dissimilar, although
the
majority
could be identified as reactionary elements, embittered,
traitors
--enemies
of the Revolution. It is worth noting that
Dr. Frayde maintained personal contracts with members of the
diplomatic
corps
accredited in Cuba, through which the CIA agent managed to
acquire
illegal
resources and materials for her enemy activity.
Also, Dr. Frayde maintained regular contacts with Cuban
elements who,
attracted
by diversionist propaganda and campaigns coming from the
Chinese
Embassy
in Cuba, provided her with information about these matters.
The information which Martha Frayde obtained was so
important to the
CIA
that this US Government agency decided to pay her a monthly
salary in
dollars
which was collected in Madrid, Spain, by the doctor's good
friend Maria
Sifontes
Vazquez (alias Beba). Beba was to safe the money since
Dr. Frayde
was
planning to leave Cuba.
MSJ ONE EIGHT FIVE X RECEIVED SIX BUT FOUR MISSING X PLEASE
SEND AGAIN
FOUR
STILL URGENTLY NEED MESSAGE ONE EIGHT FOUR ON POLITICAL
PRISONERS XX ON
TRAINING
OF CHILEANS AND VENEZUELANS AND NAMES AND AIMS FORESEEN XXX
STILL
INTERESTED
IN PLANS LEAVE OR SEND CUBAN FORCES TO ANY PART AFRICA AND
IS THERE WAY
OF
KNOWING WHEN ISIDORO MALMIERCA LEAVES FOR TRIP AND TO WHERE
XX
GREETINGS
MAXIMO
One of the characteristics of this type of espionage network
is the
observance
of the classical rules of compartmentalization and
secrecy. Since
Munoz
Olive served many years in police forces and had been
educated directly
by
CIA and FBI officials with whom he had tight relations, he
rigorously
demanded
the application of the standard rules that US intelligence
agencies
follow
in order to safeguard their subversive and illegal
activities.
The official links between Munoz Olive and US repressive
bodies were
established
before the triumph of the Cuban Revolution. At that
time, he
maintained
relations with US citizens accredited as diplomats of the US
Embassy in
Cuba.
Actually, they were advisers from the Batista police
force. After
January
1, 1959, Munoz Olive expanded these relations, particularly
with David
Morales,
a US Embassy attache, who took charge of recruiting into the
Yankee
Central
Intelligence Agency. In practice, Munoz Olive became
Morales'
operative
assistant and carried out numerous intelligence tasks for
him.
Afterwards,
other CIA officials were put in charge of Munoz Olive until,
in 1961,
diplomatic
relations between the US and Cuba were severed.
Agent Montes, considered to be a very reliable and
trustworthy man and
having
the endorsement of long-standing official links with the
FBI, was
useful
to the Intelligence Service that functioned in Yankee
diplomatic
headquarters
and, particularly, to CIA officials who collaborated with
him in
different
activities, such as accompanying and guiding North Americans
who were
carrying
out complex and sensitive intelligence operations,
recruiting telegraph
operators
and sources of information, selecting and furnishing secret
houses for
training
agents, and moving in espionage equipment and materials.
Montes spy ring was duly supplied with special modern
communications
equipment.
These were built in the CIA laboratories and were supplied
to the
principal
agent by means of caches or deposits made in secure,
previously
selected
places. Agent Munoz Olive, who had a car, drove to
places near
the
coast outside Havana, in the area of Guanabo, the Mariel
road, and
other
sites, in order to pick up shipments of transmitters,
accessories, and
large
sums of Cuban money which the CIA headquarters sent
periodically from
the
US.
Each Wednesday, at 10 a.m., and each Saturday at 11:30 a.m.,
the
windows
and balcony doors of 65 Bruzon Street, apartment 2,
closed. These
were
t he days and the hours in which the CIA transmitted to
Francisco Munoz
Olive
directly from Langley, Virginia. On those days, at
those times,
Munoz
Olive exhibited a keen love for Spanish instrumental music,
in
particular,
two pieces: "El Relicario" (The Relic), and "Por el
Mundo" (In
this
world).
When one of these pieces was heard over the frequency on
which Olive
was
to receive the transmission, it indicated that a message
would or would
not
be transmitted that day. If "El Relicario" was played,
Olive
would
take pencil and paper and copy the numbers which were
transmitted
immediately
afterwards. If the other piece was played, Olive would
be able to
open
his windows and doors once again. That day there would
be no
message.
What interests did the CIA raise with Montes? Many and
varied
ones.
In the messages from Langley, signed by Maximo, the network
was urged
to
obtain secret information about military, economic and
political
affairs:
military units, the movements of the leaders of the
Revolution and
their
friends, the harvest, friendship with diplomats, wives, and
technicians
from
socialist countries, international events held in Cuba,
Cuba's policies
with
respect to Latin America. These were among the more
frequent
interests
that the CIA raised with Munoz Olive for the purpose of
using this
information
in plans against Cuba.
We want to refer to one specific matter. After 1970,
the CIA
pressed
Montes' network several times to transmit information about
Chilean
exiles
and other Chilean revolutionaries living in Cuba.
With this request for information that obviously has nothing
to do with
"the
security of the United States Government", the CIA once
again
manifested
its complicity with Pinochet and the criminals that have
installed a
fascist
regime in Chile. For what and for whom does the CIA
information
about
the activities of Chileans in Cuba?
As is known, one of the main objectives of the activities
against Cuba
planned
by the CIA has been the physical elimination of Commander in
Chief
Fidel
Castro, and espionage has been used for these criminal ends.
The Agency instructed Munoz Olive to collect information
about the
movements
of revolutionary leaders and government officials,
particularly about
their
trips outside of Cuba, and transmit this information to
Langley.
They wanted to know the dates and itineraries of
trips. Why did
the
CIA want this type of information? Perhaps to carry
out its
diabolical,
terrorist, criminal plans?
For some time now the windows and doors of the apartment in
front of
the
Maxim theater do not have to be closed on certain morning
hours of
Wednesday
and Saturday. The network of spies has been captured.
The Department of State Security captured from the
ring-leader's house
the
RR-48 and its accessories, the carbon paper for invisible
writing,
drafts
of messages received and sent, informative reports from the
members of
the
network, codes for ciphering and deciphering messages,
counterrevolutionary
propaganda, a gun other instruments that Munoz Olive used
when he
belonged
to the repressive bodies of the Batista tyranny, and large
sums of
money.
All this was found in hiding places behind an altar, in a
false
compartment
of a night table, and inside of books hollowed out to store
money.
And so the Maxim case was closed.
Conversation with "Delfin"
The CIA Radio-station in Havana up to January 3rd. 1961
___(photographs
with caption: 1. John Z. Williams, officer of the CIA
Station in Havana
1959.
2. David A. Morales Sanchez, officer of the CIA
station in
Havana,
1959
A US Senate Select Committee for investigating US
intelligence
activities
chaired by Frank Church, has recently acknowledged publicly
that a CIA
station
operated out of the US Embassy in Havana --as a center of
subversion,
destabilization,
counterrevolution and plots to assassinate Fidel Castro and
other
leaders
of the Revolution-- up to the very day the Eisenhower
administration
decided
to break relations with Cuba.
This is no news to our people. As early as 1959, Cuban
Security
officers,
among them Valiente G. Gonzalez Morales, managed to
penetrate the CIA
Station
in Havana as recruits and even played a significant role in
the
counterrevolutionary
plots that were hatched there.
___(photographs)
with caption:
1. Roberto E. Van Horn, head of the CIA radio Station
in Havana,
until
January 3rd, 1961
2. Erikson S. Nichols, officer of the CIA Station in
Havana, 1959.
3. Delfin
In 1959, on instructions from our newly created state
security bodies
Gonzalez
Morales (Delfin) managed to learn certain details about how
the CIA
Station
on the 5th floor of the US Embassy systematically operated
and directed
activities
against the Cuban Revolution organizing counterrevolutionary
groups;
recruiting
counterrevolutionary leaders; promoting banditry; supplying
arms,
ammunition,
sabotage material and funds to counterrevolutionary groups
and
organizations,
and plotting the overthrow of the revolutionary government
in line with
CIA
and US governmental plans.
First, Delfin infiltrated the Anti-Communist Legion of the
Caribbean
(LAC),
led by the CIA in that area. When a LAC branch was set
up in
Cuba,
he met with Carlos Dominguez, a member of the CIA operation
group and
Vice
President of Chrysler Company in Havana. According to
Delfin,
"this
Dominguez had played and important role as a CIA agent in
the operation
that
wound up with the overthrow of Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala."
Three other members of the LAC leadership also took
part in that
meeting
held early in 1959 at Dominguez's house in Nautico
Residential
Area:
Julio Oton Sanchez, national coordinator; Erbe Vergara,
Roberto
Hernan.
Erbe Vergara was also a Cuban State Security officer and the
enemy used
that
interview to recruit Delfin and Vergara for the CIA
"Dominguez asked me a great number of questions, Delfin
related:
my
social background, whether I had been baptized, whether I
had
participated
in the revolutionary struggle, whom I had worked with in the
revolutionary
movement, what I thought about Communism, my date of
birth...A few days
later,
I was summoned to the American Embassy.
"The Anti-Communist League of the Caribbean had the CIA's ok
but we
were
told not to let the rank-and-file members of LAC in on the
fact that it
was
run by the CIA and was in contact with the US Embassy.
The CIA Station in Havana was on the 5th floor of the
Embassy. I
was
given an ordinary envelope containing a code name that
admitted me to
the
CIA station office where I was received by CIA station
chief, Major
Robert
Van Horn. Dominguez introduced him to me and told me
that Robert
would
give me a rundown on the structure and functioning of the
counterrevolutionary
organization.
"I went to lots of meetings always alone, as was the case
with other
leaders
of the Anti-Communist League. We all had different
days. I
used
to go on Tuesdays, at 10 a.m. At first we were given a
sort of
training
course in how our counterrevolutionary organization should
work.
"We were told how to set up a counterrevolutionary
organization, the
different
sections to be created, everything that had to be set up and
put into
operation,
the compartmentalization that had to abe maintained among
the
members...They
would say it had to be organized from the top down and not
from the
bottom
up, to prevent penetration by Cuba's G-2, or state security
bodies.
"LAC should accomplish certain missions and carry out
liaison
work.
Through LAC, the CIA would supply military equipment to
other
counterrevolutionary
organizations, bands, terrorist groups. They incited
and support
the
rise of counterrevolutionary bands. LAC for example,
was
entrusted
with creating a banditry center in Pinar del Rio. At
first their
plan
was to divide the country into three parts and launch a
US-supported
invasion
on the southern part of Cuba. We were very often told
about the
need
to eliminate Fidel, Raul, Che and other leaders of the
Revolution.
"Robert Van Horn and Dominguez assigned me the task of
organizing
action
and sabotage cells and a supply network for the
counterrevolutionary
bands,
with a chain of contacts and liaison with other
counterrevolutionary
organizations
in every province, to determine where it would be possible
to stage the
bandit
uprisings and, in general, supply weapons, ammunitions and
military
equipment
"They provided me with certain contacts with bands already
established
in
Las Villas province. In Santa Clara, for example, the
CIA liaison
with
bandit chiefs Evelio Duque, first and Tomas San Gil later,
was Mr.
Bonanza.
I was also provided with contacts that the CIA had with
Benito Campos'
and
Blas Tardio's bands and others.
"I held several interviews with their respective liaisons,
with the aim
of
making maps of the area so dates, signals and sites could be
selected
for
dropping weapons. These weapons, which the CIA sent in
from
abroad,
gradually fell into the hands of the Rebel Army, since I
naturally
passed
this information on to our headquarters in the Cuban
Security
immediately.
"Roberto and Dominguez appointed me Head of Action and
Sabotage of the
Anti-Communist
League of the Caribbean and CIA liaison. This was made
official
in
June, 1960, at a meeting to step up counterrevolutionary
activity,
explain
LAC's role in the final phase of the plan against Cuba, and
what steps
the
US Government and revolutionary government.
"That meeting was called by CIA officers Major Robert Van
Horn, Carlos
Dominguez
and Lieutenant Colonel Erikson S. Nichols, known as
"Frank" whose
cover
was a diplomatic post in the US Embassy. Some 20 CIA
trained LAC
members
also attended this meeting held at a farm in Cacahual owned
by a
counterrevolutionary.
It was planned as a birthday party so as not to arouse
suspicion.
"Among other things we were told that we would have to
supply men for
the
bands and send men abroad for training; that they would
supply weapons
to
the organizations and bandits; establish an economic and
diplomatic
blockade
of Cuba; stage a provocation -- a fake aggression against
Guantanamo
Naval
Base, and that there would be a US supported invasion from
abroad.
On December 3, 1960, the Cuban State Security arrested more
than 40
ringleaders
of counterrevolutionary gangs. At their trial, both
Delfin, the
alleged
CIA agent and LAC Head of Action and Sabotage, and Erbe
Vergara,
testifies
and publicly unmasked the CIA's participation in every
subversive and
criminal
action against Cuba.
Finally, they charged that US diplomatic headquarters in
Havana was
being
used by the CIA to direct the counterrevolution and
aggressive plots
against
our country.
Significantly, just a few days later the Eisenhower
administration
decided
to break relations with Cuba in a new step to isolate Cuba
and create
an
international atmosphere propitious for launching the armed
aggression
against
Cuba engineered by the CIA from abroad.
Shortly thereafter, on January 3, 1961, the US Embassy
closed its
doors...
But the US Central Intelligence Agency's criminal and
subversive
activity
against the people, the Cuban Revolution and its leaders did
not stop.
A CIA provocation
The CIA espionage and control centre, opposite the Cuban
Embassy and
Consulate,
at 149-1 Francisco Marquez Street in the Capital of Mexico.
From the vantage point, photos of all Cuban officials and
visitors to
the
Cuban diplomatic offices were made, bugging devices
installed in the
various
diplomatic offices were monitored and communications were
established
with
a CIA surveillance team to check and harass anyone who went
to the
Consulate
Embassy.
There are no limits to CIA activities against Cuba, to carry
out its
illegal
and anti-Cuban activities, the Central Intelligence Agency
often uses
third
countries, even those that maintain good relations with
Cuba, in an
effort
to create problems for these governments.
A good example of this was the CIA surveillance and
espionage of the
Cuban
Embassy and Consulate in Mexico City, their staff and
visitors.
All
this work was done inside Mexico, in flagrant violation of
the laws of
that
friendly country and with disdain for the sincere feelings
of sympathy
and
friendship the people of Benito Juarez's homeland felt for
the Cuba of
Jose
Marti.
In his book, published in 1975, former CIA agent Philip Agee
revealed
that
"The Cuban operations section (in Mexico) consists of two
case
officers.
Francis Sherry and Joe Piccolo, and a secretary under
Embassy cover and
one
case officer under non-official cover. An observation
post for
photographic
coverage and radio contact with the LIEMBRACE surveillance
team is
functioning,
as well as LIENVOY telephone monitoring and LIFIRE airport
travel
control.
Agee went on to say that "The most important current
operation targeted
against
the Cuban mission is an attempted audio penetration using
the telephone
system.
Telephone company engineers working in the LIDENY tapping
operation
will
eventually install new wall boxes for the Embassy telephones
in which
sub-
miniature transmitters with switches will have been cast by
TSD".
The espionage and surveillance center
The LIEMBRACE surveillance team mentioned by Agee was headed
by an
individual
known as Guillermito, who lived at No. 1217 Pitagoras St.,
and had a
mustard-yellow
Valiant, license plate number JV-532. At first, his
headquarters
were
at No. 16 Agrarismo St.
The operations center of this CIA team for harassing and
spying on the
Cuban
Consulate and Embassy was located at No. 149-1 Francisco
Marquez St.,
Colonia
Condesa, opposite the Cuban mission. This group worked
actively
up
to 1972, when it was disbanded.
Up to that time, the CIA checked the entrance and exit of
persons who
visited
the Cuban Embassy and Consulate in Mexico City from there,
photographing
everyone including the staff, using electronic espionage and
installing
bugging
devices in the diplomatic offices. It was also a
liaison and
communications
center for the CIA surveillance team in the surrounding
area.
Alberto Cesar Augusto Rodriguez Gallego, who pretended to be
a
Colombian,
but was actually born in Havana, was the CIA's main agent in
the
Espionage
Center at No. 149 Francisco Marquez St.
___(photograph)
with caption: CIA agent Rodriguez Gallego who now
lives in Spain
Data on Rodriguez Gallego
He was born in Havana on November 6, 1922, attended grammar
school in
Tampa,
Florida, and graduated from the University of Havana Law
School.
From
1941 to 1950, he worked in the legal department of the Cuban
Finance
Company,
and later for the Cuban Telephone Company, one of the most
powerful US
monopolies
on the Island. There, Rodriguez Gallego managed to
become the
president's
right- hand man.
He left Cuba for Mexico in 1960. There he lived at No.
800-1
Bolivar
Street, Colonia Alamos, Mexico, D.F. and, in late 1961 he
moved to No.
149-1
Francisco Marquez Street, Colonia Condesa, Mexico 11. D.F.
(Telephone
514-74-967).
Then and there, the CIA's Espionage and Surveillance Center
came into
existence.
From a window on the third floor of the house Rodriguez
Gallego watched
all
the visitors to the Consulate, working full time for the CIA
throughout
his
stay in Mexico.
When the CIA's LIEMBRACE group was temporarily disbanded in
1972,
Rodriguez
Gallego hurriedly set off for Spain to carry out missions
for the
Central
Intelligence. There he bought apartment 7-A at No. 194
Manzanares
Avenue,
Madrid 26, where he now lives.
He is listed as assistant director of the Berlitz English
Language
Academy,
at No. 80 Jose Antonio Avenue, Madrid.
Bugging Techniques
The espionage tapping operation that Philip Agee mentions in
his book
was
a CIA job that used the telephone network in the offices of
the Cuban
ambassador
and his secretary, in the consulate and the consul's office
and in the
sentry
box. Nor is this the only espionage action against the
Cuban
Consulate
and Embassy in Mexico City.
Another kind of device was discovered when the chairs in the
ambassador's
office were sent to be upholstered. Another time the
CIA placed a
bugging
device in a sofa that had been sent for reupholstering,
along with four
chairs,
to the Bucky shop, at No. 418 Coyoacan Avenue, Acc. B.
Colonia del
Valle,
Mexico 12 D.F. It has been established that these
espionage
devices
were installed while the furniture was in that upholstery
shop.
End of Page
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