The CUBAN YOUTH TRIBUNAL
Accuses the
U.S. in JFK
Killing
[This is another reprint from a
Cuban
newspaper
on their position relative to the JFK assassination.
It was a
supplement
to the State newspaper Gramma dated 20 August 1978. The
original was in
english
so the wording is theirs.]
Gramma
Havana, August 20, 1978
AT THE YOUTH ACCUSES
IMPERIALISM
INTERNATIONAL TRIBUNAL
PHOTO [of a committee meeting of persons who were young at
the turn of
the
century. no caption]
Important
revelations
about the CIA plot
to
implicate
Cuba in the assassination of
President
Kennedy
and the plans for attempts
on
the
life of Commander in Chief Fidel Castro.
The
assassination
in Dallas was to serve as a pretext for an attack on Cuba by
those who
have
distorted and concealed information about CIA complicity in
the case
*U.S.
citizen James Wilcott, a former CIA agent, states Oswald
worked for the
Agency
*There was great excitement and elation in the CIA over
Kennedy's
assassination
*The CIA lied to the U.S. Senate and is deceiving the people
of the
United
States. Testimony by the Cuban consul in Mexico who
refused Lee
Harvey
Oswald's request for a visa to Cuba *Accounts of direct
participation
in
plans to kill Fidel with bazookas, poison and other means
*Display of
electronic
eavesdropping devices which the CIA installed in the Cuban
embassy and
consulate
in Mexico City
The
CIA
plot to implicate Cuba in the assassination of President
Kennedy
and its manipulation of information about the crime in
Dallas
highlighted
the presentation of Charge 4 at the Youth Accuses
Imperialism
International
Tribunal on August 2.
Testimony
by
agents and officers of the Cuban security agencies who
carried
out missions in the ranks of the CIA or in the
counterrevolutionary
organizations
which it set up, financed and used; by former Cuban CIA
agents captured
while
engaging in activities against Cuba; and by former U.S. CIA
agents
point
the finger at those who have tried to conceal and distort
the facts to
escape
responsibility. New conclusive evidence was also
presented about
the
numerous attempts on the life of Commander in Chief Fidel
Castro which
the
CIA organized.
Charge
4,
covering political, economic and military agencies of
imperialism
and agencies of crime such as the CIA, was read by Jorge
Lopez on
behalf
of the Cuban National Preparatory Committee.
Dr.
Enrique
Marimon Roca, a member of the Cuban Investigation
Commission,
then presented a detailed report on the CIA's attempts on
Fidel's life.
He
showed
a videotape of interviews with three Cuban CIA agents
directly
implicated in these plans, and introduced the personal
testimony of two
others.
Dr.
Idalberto
Ladron de Guevara Quintana, also from the Cuban
Investigating
commission, presented a detailed report on the CIA's schemes
-- revived
lately
-- to implicate Cuba in the killing of President Kennedy.
Guevara
Quintana
introduced witnesses Eusebio Azcue Lopez and Juan Felaifel,
both Cuban officials, expert Nilvio Labrada Vicent and
prisoner Rolando
Cubelas
Secades.
Presentation
of
evidence began in the morning when Dr. Enrique Marimon Roca
requested the showing of videotapes of interviews with three
Cuban CIA
agents
who participated in the CIA's attempts on the life of
Commander in
Chief
Fidel Castro.
Leopoldina
Grau
Alsina said that she and her brother were recruited by the
CIA and assigned participation in a plot to poison Fidel.
She
said
the CIA sent her a bottle of potassium cyanide pills which
she
gave
to Manuel de Jesus Campanioni Sosa in order to poison some
leader of
the
Revolution, if it was not possible to poison Fidel
himself.
Campanioni
had been a bodyguard for Mafia figure Santos Trafficante.
Santos
de
la Caridad Perez Nunez, a waiter at the Habana Libre Hotel
said
Campanioni gave him two of the pills to try to poison Fidel.
He
said
that after he accepted the assignment he left one of the
pills at
home and took the other one to the soda fountain to wait for
the right
moment,
which came in March of 1962 when Fidel came into the
cafeteria one
morning
sat down and ordered three milk shakes.
Perez
Nunez
confessed that he went to get the pill but noticed the dry
ice
had ruined it, and he have up his attempts. He said
the
Campanioni
later asked him to return the other pill, which he did.
He
said
he has been in the prison for 14 years and has been well
treated.
He joined the rehabilitation plan 12 years age, and is paid
150 pesos a
month
for his work.
Eugenio
Zaldivar
Cardenas was the last of the three to testify. He
said he was captured by Cuban security forces when, in May
1966, he
tried
to slip into the country through the Monte Barreto area of
Miramar with
a
group commanded by Herminio Diaz.
He
said
he had been recruited by the CIA in 1963 and had
participated in
two attacks: the first time they strafed the Havana
shoreline, and, the
second,
they fired on the home of Dr. Osvaldo Dorticos. He
explained that
they
were really trying to hit the aquarium, but since it was
located next
to
the Dorticos home, his organization claimed credit for
having attacked
the
residence of this member of the Political Bureau of the
Party.
Prisoner
Rolando
Cubelas Secades, who has served half of his 25-year
sentence,
appeared as a witness in the afternoon session. He
said that
speculation
by CIA officials to members of a Senate select committee to
the effect
that
the Am/LASH operation was linked to the assassination of
President
Kennedy,
by claiming that he was a double agent, was a perfidious
lie, fed by
the
CIA to the Senate and people of the United States. "It
is absurd
to
think that a double agent would have spent 12 years in
jail," he
pointed
out.
Another
witness
was Humberto Rosales Torres who recounted his participation
in a CIA assassination plot against the lives of Fidel
Castro, Raul
Castro
and Ernesto Che Guevara on July 26, 1961. The plan
also involved
an
attack on the Guananamo naval base to have been carried out
by the U.S.
forces
themselves in order to provide an excuse for an invasion of
Cuba by
Yankee
marines. Rosales said that after the plot was
discovered by Cuban
security
forcer he was arrested, tried and given a nine-year prison
term, which
he
has already served. He said he is now free, living the
normal
life
of any citizen, without limitations of any kind.
The
next
witness was Fernando de Rojas Penichet, who was a member of
a
counter-
revolutionary movement led b CIA agent Antonio
Veciana. The
movement
carried out various acts of sabotage and planned an attempt
on the life
of
Fidel Castro, which was scheduled for October 4, 1961, at a
meeting to
welcome
President Dorticos, to have been held in front of the north
terrace of
the
old President Palace.
CIA PERSONNEL WERE HAPPY AND EXCITED OVER T HE
ASSASSINATION OF
PRESIDENT
KENNEDY
After
testimony
from the witnesses called by Dr. Guevara Quintana, two
former
CIA agents --U.S. citizens James Wilcott and Philip Agee --
appeared
for
the second straight day.
The
former,
an electronics technician, said he had been recruited by the
CIA in March of 1957 and assigned to headquarters in
Washington and
then,
in June of 1960, to the Tokyo station.
He
said
his work frequently brought him into contact with operations
officers,
especially when he was involved in operations against the
socialist
countries.
Thus, on several occasions, he heard remarks to the effect
that Lee
Harvey
Oswald was a CIA agent. They told him that when Oswald
left the
USSR,
he was sent to the Atsugi Naval Air Station, a top secret
CIA base in
Japan.
PHOTO with caption
Radio
transmitter
installed in one of the main offices of the Cuban embassy
in
Canada.
PHOTO with caption
Window
no.
1, from which Cuban embassy entrance in Mexico was observed.
Window
no.
2, from which the Cuban consulate entrance in Mexico was
observed.
Wilcott
added
that, just before the Kennedy assassination, there were
certain
changes in the daily routine at the station, leading him to
believe
that
something was going to happen. On November 22, he had
traveled
out
of the city, but when he returned he was told to report
immediately to
the
CIA station. Then, his chief, Jack Randall, told him
President
Kennedy
had been assassinated and that he should be reachable or go
to the
station
since he might have been assigned an emergency task.
He said he
went
to the station with his friend George Breen and found a
scene of great
jubilation
and excitement.
"It
was
obvious that the majority of the personnel at the station,
especially
those who had to do with operations, were excited and
overjoyed abut
Kennedy's
assassination. This really bothered me because I
supported
Kennedy,
" he said.
During
the
next few days, according to Wilcott, the substance of
conversation
among operations officers was that one shouldn't think that
Kennedy's
assassination
was the work of a mad man. They gave specific details
about high
level,
top secret meetings regarding the Bay of Pigs (Playa Giron)
and how
Kennedy
was a traitor who deserved to die.
He
added
that a CIA case officer, who might have been Robert Will,
told
him
large sums of money had been spent recently for Oswald or
for the
Oswald
project.
He
also
heard Oswald had learned to speak Russian at the Atsugi base
before
going to the Soviet Union.
Wilcott's
colleagues
told him the original plan involved passing Oswald off
as a man solidly linked to the Cuban Government, so it would
be
possible
to claim the assassination was the work of a Cuban
agent. This
then
would provide the pretext for attacking Cuba. However, it
was not
possible
to establish solid ties between Oswald and the Cuban
Government, and
this
part of the plan was dropped.
Finally,
Wilcott
said all this information was given to the Congressional
select committee investigating assassinations, along with a
list of the
Tokyo
station personnel he could remember. At Wilcott's
request the
attorney
for the Committee, a Mr. Goldsmith, called the CIA to ask
for a
complete
list of Tokyo station personnel with their photos so that
Wilcott could
identify
them for the investigation -- but the CIA refused to supply
the list.
Wilcott
has
spent the last ten years attempting to make public this and
other
information about crimes and illegal activity by the CIA,
but it has
been
very difficult.
THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES DID NOT EXERT PRESSURE TO
GET A
COPY
OF THE LIST WHICH MR. WILCOTT WANTED
The
next
witness was Philip Agee who testified for the second
day.
He said the House of Representatives had not exerted any
pressure to
get
a copy of the list which had been suggested to the select
committee.
He
added
that in spite of the fact that this was clearly important
information,
they didn't dare exert such pressure.
Agee
also
said it was important to note that the person who requested
a
visit
at the Cuban consulate in Mexico is not the same one charged
with being
Kennedy's
assassin, a fact that can be determined by the photos.
Other
inconsistencies
Agee mentioned were the undue haste of the CIA in
sending
the FBI a memo saying that evidence showed that Oswald acted
as a home
assassin
and the fact that the CIA and FBI said they had not
contacted Oswald
when
he returned from the Soviet Union.
"This
is
inconceivable," Agee said, "because it is a case of an
alleged
defector
from the country (the United States) who later returns and
these people
are
always contacted."
He
said
Oswald was taken from Moscow to Amsterdam by train, the trip
paid
for by the U.S. embassy and held a meeting on his arrival in
a CIA safe
house.
It
is
not known who paid for his return to the United States," he
said.
DOCUMENTS ABOUT CIA INTERFERENCE IN PANAMA AND ARGENTINA
IN 1953
Marshall
Perlin,
who distinguished himself as one of the attorneys for the
Rosenbergs, also appeared before the Tribunal. He said
that, with
documents
on the Rosenberg case, he had received papers dealing with
CIA
intervention
in Cuba, Chile, Ecuador, Panama and Argentina during 1953.
The
attorney
said that the same government which murdered the Rosenbers
was
responsible for genocide in Vietnam, sabotage of a Cuban
plane
resulting
in more than 70 deaths and for other atrocities as well.
Additional
witnesses
at the session were Alfonso Cabrera Toscano, a Colombian
political leader; Olga Martinez, a Uruguayan student; Cost
Rican
student
Oscar Barrante Rodriguez; Benjamin Liberoff, a Uruguayan
student; and
Frank
Shaffer Corona, from the United States.
PHOTO with caption
Powerful
interests
in the United States have tried to cloud the issue
of
President
Kennedy's assassination.
*Dr.
IDALBERTO
Ladron de Guevara Quintana, an expert from the Cuban
Investigating
Commission,
presented a detailed report dealing with the campaign of
slander
unleashed
by imperialism in its attempt to implicate Cuba in the
assassination of
President
John F. Kennedy.
He
added
that, from available evidence and the results of the
investigations
undertaken it can be surmised that the assassination of the
President
of
the United States at that time was the focal point for a
conspiracy
instigated
by powerful political and economic interests in the United
States
composed
of the most reactionary circles, which strongly disagreed
with both the
foreign
and domestic policies of John F. Kennedy.
He
emphasized
that, although this policy by no means constituted a radical
change in the structure and objectives of the capitalist
system in the
United
States, the changes introduced affected to some extent the
interests of
various
U.S. monopolies (especially the military-industrial complex
and the oil
companies)
as well as those of the Cuban-born counter revolutionaries,
the Mafia
and
especially the CIA.
He
said
powerful interests in the United States have tried to cloud
the
issue
of President's Kennedy's assassination, and that certain
groups have
tried
to convince world public opinion of the gross slander that
the Dallas
assassination
was the result of an international leftist plot, in which
Cuba played a
key
role. In keeping with this, imperialism has tried to
make it
appear
as if Lee Harvey Oswald carried out a plan directed by the
Cuban
Government
for which a complicated intelligence operation had been
orchestrated.
The
alternative
open to imperialism to explain the Dallas crime would, in
one way or another, remove suspicion from the real motives
-- that is,
those
which sprung from the clash of interests in the United
States -- and,
in
the final analysis, would confuse and complicate the trial
of the
investigation.
He
referred
to the way the CIA manufactured a cover story for Oswald and
used false evidence to try to influence U.S. and world
public opinion,
so
that people would think or have the feeling that Cuba
organized or at
least
gave tacit approval to the plot.
One
of
the goals oft this intelligence operation was to obtain
definite
results
in the confrontation with the Cuban Revolution. If the
United
States
was able to "demonstrate" that Cuba was responsible for the
death of
President
Kennedy, any action against Cuba would be fully justified,
including a
direct
attack. We should bear in mind that at the same time
the CIA was
engaged
in dangerous plots against the life of Commander in Chief
Fidel Castro.
However,
international
reaction to the assassination and the domestic turmoil
which followed it, the failure to prepare the doctored
evidence with
which
Cuba was to be implicated, the promise which the United
States had made
not
to invade Cuba, the determination of our people to defend
their
Revolution
at any price, and the International balance of forces itself
were the
factors
which finally scuttled the plans of aggression against the
Cuban people.
He
pointed
to the evidence fabricated by the CIA to link Oswald to Cuba
and
charged that Lee Harvey Oswald "had been a CIA agent since
1958,
recruited
and trained at the Atsugi Naval Air Station, a military base
in Tokyo,
Japan,
used by the CIA to conceal its special operations."
He
enumerated
facts which reveal the CIA's participation in the plot
against
Cuba, and recalled the picture supplied by the CIA to the
Warren
Commission,
obtained by the Agency from its espionage center which
maintained
constant
surveillance on visitors to the Cuban embassy and consulate
in Mexico
City
and made use of electronic eavesdropping techniques as well.
He
said
that as part of the plan against Cuba, the CIA -- fully
aware of
the Mafia's role in the Kennedy killing -- has tried to link
our
country
to such elements through people like Jack Ruby and Santos
Trafficante.
The witness characterized this move as "a bogus and crude
provocation."
He
also
mentioned the CIA's maneuver in the face of its constant
failures
to implicate Cuba in the Kennedy case, which involved
speculating on
the
possibility that prisoner Rolando Cubelas Secades was a
"double agent"
who
supposedly -- according to the CIA -- informed Cuban
officials of the
plots
against the life of the top leader of the Cuban
Revolution. Then,
as
a reprisal, Cuba supposedly decided to assassinate President
Kennedy.
This
new
scheme by the CIA, said Dr. Ladron de Guevara, "is simply
aimed
at throwing the investigation off the track of those
actually
responsible
for the crime, and once again at linking Cuba to the
assassination of
President
Kennedy."
The
Cuban
expert stressed various aspects of the slanderous campaigns
against
Cuba, "which have been maliciously and deliberately
fabricated at one
time
or another, to create, promote or revive the focus of this
grotesque
CIA
scheme: blaming Cuba for t he killing of President Kennedy."
The
witness
recalled that since the events in Dallas more than 100
people
linked in some way to the case have died under mysterious
circumstances.
He concluded by saying that this was further proof that the
investigations
had to be carried through to the end.
PHOTO with caption
"Bugging"
expert
leaving espionage center set up across the street from the
The
Cuban
embassy and consulate in Mexico City front 1960 to 1972.
PHOTO with caption
*Dr.
ENRIQUE
Marimon Roca, an expert jurist and member of the Cuban
commission
in charge of investigating attempts on the lives of
political leaders,
stated
in his well-documented report to the Youth Accuses
Imperialism
International
Tribunal that the elimination of political leaders and heads
of state
was
a U.S. Government policy carried out through its agencies of
subversion,
mainly through the Central Intelligence Agency.
He
called
attention to the fact that the U.S. Senate Select Committee
investigating
the CIA's activities publicly admitted in its conclusions
the existence
of
several of the CIA's innumerable plots to assassinate
leaders in
various
parts of the world. He added, however, that the CIA
told the
Senate
nothing about its involvement in the assassination of many
figures of
the
progressive and revolutionary movement nor about many of its
plans for
assassinating
leaders of the Cuban Revolution.
"Although
the
assassination of political leaders is not the only method
utilized
by the CIA in its so-called covert actions -- which range
from
destabilization
and blackmail to the overthrow of legally established
governments --
assassination
and terrorism are the most frequently used methods of this
Agency at
the
service of U.S. imperialism," he said.
The
Cuban
expert asserted that the CIA had lied to the Senate
committee in
charge of investigating the Agency's activities, and, at the
same time,
was
trying to confuse U.S. citizens and world public opinion in
general by
giving
a false image of its participation in such unscrupulous and
criminal
activities.
He
said
that in August of 1975 our Commander in Chief gave Senator
McGovern
a list of 24 unsuccessful plans for assassination attempts
against
Fidel
himself and other leaders of the Revolution.
Dr.
Marimon
Roca asked the Tribunal to consider -- as both an example
and
an indictment -- a plan concocted by the CIA to be put into
effect in
October
of 1961 at a rally to be held in front of the north terrace
of the old
Presidential
Palace in Havana.
This
plan
to assassinate the Commander in Chief and other leaders of
the
Cuban Revolution was conceived in Washington as far back as
March 14,
1960,
by Allen Dulles, then head of the CIA, and J.C. King, head
of its
western
hemisphere section. They were following the
instructions of
Dwight
Eisenhower, then President of the United States, who, on
December 11,
1959,
has suggested to the head of the CIA the possibility of
eliminating
Fidel
Castro.
On
July
21, 1960, a cable was received at the CIA station in Havana
which
read as follows: "Possible physical elimination of three top
leaders
being
seriously considered by central office."
On
October
4, 1961, the counterrevolutionary organization People's
Revolutionary
Movement (MRP), led by CIA agents Bernardo Paradela
Ibarreche and
Antonio
Veciana, worked out plans for sabotage and the assassination
of leaders
of
the Cuban Revolution.
The
acts
of sabotage were aimed at arousing the indignation of the
people,
thus ensuring a large turnout at the rally to be held in
front of the
old
Presidential Palace, where Commander in Chief Fidel Castro
was to
speak.
The assassination attempt would be made that day by firing a
bazooka at
the
rostrum where the Commander in Chief and other leaders would
be
seated.
The bazooka was to be located in apartment 8-A, on the eight
floor of
the
building at 29 Avenida de las Misiones.
A
woman
who was caught while trying to plant an incendiary device in
a
Sears'
department store in Havana disclosed the plan. She
named Juan
Izquierdo
Diaz, MRP head of operations, as one of those responsible
for the
plan.
Izquierdo had taken over his post from Antonio Veciana, who
had slipped
out
of Cuba to the United States the day before the attempt was
to be
carried
out.
Izquierdo
Diaz
revealed all the details of the plan, stating that it had
been worked out by Veciana before he left Cuba.
The
plan
was foiled by the state security agencies, and Raul Venta
del
Maso,
Raul Fernandez Trebejo, Jesus Arguelles, Bernardo Iglesias
and several
others
were arrested as the main participants.
Numerous
weapons
and explosives were confiscated in the operation.
Another
plan
concocted by the Pentagon and the CIA was to be put into
action
on July 26, 1961, in the former province of Oriente.
The
main
objective was to assassinate Fidel Castro, Raul and Ernesto
Che
Guevara and, at the same time, fake an attack on the naval
base in
Guantanamo
and carry out further acts of sabotage and terrorism
throughout the
country.
After
calling
attention to several other plans to assassinate the leader
of the Cuban Revolution, Dr. Marimon named the CIA directly
responsible
for
these sinister lots. He also denounced, as direct
participants in
the
plans, a number of Cuban-born terrorists, among them Antonio
Veciana
Blank
(known in international crime circles as Victor or Mario)
who was
recruited
by the CIA in 1960 and has followed specific CIA
instructions to
assassinate
Fidel Castro.
PHOTO with caption
Surveillance agent carrying transmitter with which to
communicate with
other
agents.
The
witness
referred to the activities of counterrevolutionary CIA agent
Venecia Blank an to his participation in the plan to
assassinate Fidel
Castro
in Chile. He mentioned that the Miami Herald of
January 20, 1977,
ran
an article by columnist Jack Anderson in which he named
Veciana as the
coordinator
of assassination attempts against Fidel Castro in 1961 and
1971.
Anderson
also said in May 1977 that Veciana was linked to the
assassination of
President
Kennedy. Dr. Marimon said that it was also Anderson
who revealed
that
Veciana, before the U.S. House of Representatives Select
Committee
investigating
the assassination of President Kennedy, admitted that he had
been
summoned
to Dallas by CIA officer Maurice Bishop and that Lee Harvey
Oswald,
Kennedy's
presumed assassin, was also present at their meeting.
PHOTO
The
CIA
and the Cuban-born counter revolutionaries rejoiced over
Kennedy's death
*CUBAN
WITNESS
Juan Felaifel Canahan made important declarations in his
appearance
before the International Tribunal on August 2.
Felaifel,
as
a member of the Cuban state security agencies, carried out
its
orders
to infiltrate the CIA by first pretending he belonged to the
counterrevolutionary
organization known as the Movement of Revolutionary
Recovery, and by
making
use of his contacts with his brother Anis, a CIA agent who
also
belonged
to one of the counterrevolutionary organizations.
On
the
orders of the stat security agencies, Felaifel traveled to
Miami in
April 1963 and went to work almost immediately for the
CIA. He
was
given training in subversive activities and espionage.
He
carried
out 21 missions of infiltration into Cuba before returning
to
Cuba permanently on February 21, 1966.
Through
his
contacts with the Cuban-born counter revolutionaries abroad,
he learned that President Kennedy had promised to give
support to
mercenary
brigade 2506, organized by the CIA for the attack at Playa
Giron.
CIA
officers
and the Cuban counter revolutionaries in Miami knew of
Kennedy's
later refusal to give direct support to the mercenaries once
they had
landed
in Cuban territory. Some within the CIA and among the
counter
revolutionaries
were of the opinion that Kennedy had taken a weak stand
toward the
Cuban
Revolution and the socialist camp in general, Felaifel said,
and the
president's
prestige among these CIA groups and Cuban-born counter
revolutionaries
took
a nose dive.
Following
the
exchange of the mercenaries and their return to the United
States, there was a welcoming ceremony at which President
Kennedy
promised
to return a Cuban flag to the mercenaries "on Cuban soil
after
communism
is eradicated."
Felaifel
said
that the whole thing boomeranged on Kennedy because in the
opinion of the Cuban exiles and CIA officers, the flag had
been "put on
ice"
due to Kennedy's weakness and his moves to restrict and
control CIA
activities,
in addition to Robert Kennedy's habit of meddling in the
affairs of the
counterrevolutionary
organizations, the CIA and the Mafia.
He
said
that at the outset of the October Crisis the exiles were
worried
about how the president would react in the face of
communism.
Their
worries disappeared for the moment when Kennedy declared a
quarantine
of
Cuba, since they thought this was the prelude to an
invasion.
Their
hopes
vanished, however, when rumors began to spread that there
had
been an agreement in which Kennedy, promised not to invade
Cuba.
The
president's attitude was then considered as one more act of
treason
against
the exiles and the CIA.
As
a
result of the agreement putting an end to the October
Crisis, control
over the counterrevolutionary groups and the CIA was stepped
up.
The
measures annoyed the counter revolutionaries, who claimed
that Kennedy
sympathized
with the establishment of a socialist state in Cuba.
This, plus
Robert
Kennedy's interference in the affairs of the CIA, the Mafia
and the
counter
revolutionaries, created a climate of hostility against the
Kennedy
brothers,
who were accused of trying to make the United States adopt a
conciliatory
line toward the socialist camp. Felaifel noted that,
thus, the
foundation
was already laid for the approval of any action against the
Kennedys.
He
went
on to say that as a result of the propaganda spread against
Kennedy,
the Cuban exiles and the CIA agents were thrilled when they
heard the
news
of Kennedy's death, saying that finally firm steps would be
taken
against
the Cuban Revolution.
He
called
attention to the reaction of Bob, a high-ranking CIA leader
of
Sicilian descent who had a penchant for using mafioso
language.
Bob
was watching television with the CIA team to which Felaifel
belonged
when
Kennedy was assassinated. When he saw the news, he
burst out, "We
finally
got rid of the ‘pinko' in the White House!"
He
said
that a few days later Bob called his team together at the
CIA safe
house in Miami and told them that operations against Cuba
would be
stepped
up, with no limits on expenses and no control of any king
because the
vice-president,
who was now the head of state, was a rabid anti-Castroite
and
anti-communist.
Present
at
that meeting were Jose Enrique Daussa, the CIA's top agent;
and
Nicolas Salado, Porfirio Ramirez Ruiz and Reynaldo Rodriguez
Reyes, all
members
of Felaifel's infiltration team.
PHOTO with caption
939-927K
Photo
of
the alleged Oswald which appears in the Warren Commission
report.
It
was
taken from the CIA espionage center across from the Cuban
embassy
and
consulate
in Mexico City.
PHOTO with caption
Green Opel, licence plate 91-NBG, used for surveillance.
The
number
of CIA teams and counterrevolutionary groups was increased
and
their respective activities -- infiltration, sabotage and
attacks on
Cuban
fishing boats and merchant ships -- stepped up.
Felaifel
also
learned that the CIA, acting in collaboration with the
counterrevolutionary
organization Movement of Revolutionary Recovery and,
specifically, with
its
leader Manuel Artime Buesa, planned another assassination
attempt
against
Fidel Castro. The plan was worked out by CIA
headquarters in
Virginia,
and the assigned to the Miami CIA station through agent
Artime, who was
to
coordinate the action with Rolando Cubelas Secades.
Artime
received
large sums of money from the CIA under the cover of business
transactions, using as a front the Tabraue jewelry shop, on
Flagler
Street
in Miami. Its owner, Guillermo Tabraue, was a Cuban
counterrevolutionary
whom Artime had recommended to the CIA as the middleman for
handling
the
funds sent by the CIA to the counterrevolutionary
organization and to
Artime.
Artime worked out the execution of the plan in France and
Spain,
meeting
with Cubelas in Spain.
Felaifel
learned
of the plan through CIA agent Anis, head of intelligence
for Artime's organization. Anis, Artime and a man
known as
Gallego
Sanz built a silencer for an FAL 7.62 rifle similar to the
one Cubelas
had
in Cuba. The silencer was tested in the Everglades of
Florida,
and
later Gallego Sanz sent it to Spain with a Tasco telescopic
sight, both
to
be delivered to Cubelas.
Felaifel.
Also
learned that Cubelas had trouble with the silencer and had
asked Artime to sent him another one. Taking into
account that
the
first silencer was a home-made job, Artime asked the CIA to
send him a
professional
one. The new silencer was delivered to Cubelas in
Europe.
Felaifel
testified
regarding these events in the trial on March 8, 1966,
in which Rolando Cubelas and others involved in t he case
were
convicted.
PHOTO
Imperialist
economic,
political and military institutions and its criminal
agencies
such
as the CIA denounced for activities against the peoples.
*THE
CUBAN
youth, representing the youth and students of the world,
expressed
their
condemnation of imperialist economic, political and military
institutions
and criminal agencies such as the CIA before the Youth
Accuses
Imperialism
International Tribunal.
PHOTO with caption
The CIA also installed a listening device in the Cuban
consulate in
Jamaica
PHOTO with caption
Window
used
by surveillance agent from a fixed point to check up on
Cuban
embassy and consulate in Mexico City, The photo was taken
while the
agent
was trying to open the window to watch the
entrance
to
the embassy. The operation was
repeated every
day
as he got ready to begin his espionage work with a camera.
Representing
the
Cuban Young Communist League, Jorge Lopez formulated the
charges of
the
Tribunal's fourth day of work. The CIA, he said,
serves as the
arm
of U.S. imperialist intervention and plunder throughout the
world.
Speaking
about
the CIA, he added, "Characteristic of the methods used by
this
apparatus
for subversion and espionage are the assassination of
political leaders
and
officials, robbery, fraud, bribery, destabilization, the
overthrow of
legitimately
constituted governments and corruption of every sort."
Though
he
pointed out that the list of the CIA's monstrous crimes
throughout
the
world would be endless, Lopez mentioned that among the most
notable
were
the plots carried out to assassinate Congolese nationalist
leader
Patrice
Lumumba; Chilean army chief, General Rene Schneider; and
former Chilean
foreign
minister under the Popular Unity Government, Orlando
Letelier -- the
latter
assassinated in a conspiracy with DINA (the Chilean secret
police) and
Cuban-born
counterrevolutionary terrorists.
He
denounced
the CIA plots to murder the top leader of the Cuban
Revolution,
Commander
in Chief Fidel Castro, and noted that the U.S. Senate
Committee report
on
U.S. intelligence activities had acknowledged these criminal
and
illegal
plans.
Lopez
emphasized
that although the information given by the CIA to the U.S.
Senate
was designed to demonstrate that the attempts on the
Commander in Chief
were
carried out only between 1960 and 1965, events have proved
these
declarations
completely false. He gave examples of CIA plots
against Fidel
Castro
after 1965.
Lopez
said
that reliable evidence exists to show that the Central
Intelligence
Agency has planned more attempts on the Cuban leader than
were admitted
to
the U.S. Senate Select Committee.
The
Cuban
representative charged that international credit agencies
such as the
International
Monetary Fund, the International Bank for Reconstruction and
Development
(World Bank), the Inter-American Development Bank and
others, serve as
colonizers
for U.S. imperialism. He termed the Organization of
American
States
a despicable instrument of the darkest designs of Yankee
imperialism.
He denounced NATO as an aggressive military pact used by
imperialism,
under
the direction of the United States, to justify its most
flagrant
violations
of contemporary principles of International Law. He
also
characterized
SEATO CENTO, the Rio Pact and others as "cold war"
instruments which
back
up aggression against and exploitation of the peoples.
He
condemned
the system of military bases maintained by U.S. imperialism
around the
world,
citing as examples the cases of Puerto Rico, Panama and
Guantanamo.
PHOTO
Statement by former Cuban consul in Mexico City
*EUSEBIO
AZCUE
Lopez, who in September 1963 held the post of Cuban consul
in
Mexico
City, gave the Tribunal full details of the visa request
made at that
time
at the Cuban consulate by a U.S. citizen calling himself Lee
Harvey
Oswald.
The
witness
explained that a person who claimed to be Lee Harvey Oswald
presented
himself
at the consulate for the first time on September 27, 1963
and was taken
care
of as usual, by Silvia Duran, the Mexican secretary who
received
visitors.
She
informed
the supposed Oswald that in order to apply for the visa he
requested he
would
have to fill out an application form and attack six ID-size
full faced
photos.
The
person
showed documents that made him out to be a member of the
Communist
Party,
USA; a former resident of the USSR; the husband of a Soviet
citizen,
and
a member of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee.
When
informed
by the secretary that it was obligatory for him to fill out
the form,
submit
it with the six photos and await a reply from the
immigration office in
Havana,
the supposed Lee Harvey Oswald asked to speak with Azcue to
try to
insist
on not going through this procedure.
The
former
Cuban consul stated that he attended the person, that it was
the first
time
he had seen the fellow, and that he confirmed what the
secretary had
told
the visitor. Azcue, according to his testimony,
further explained
that
it was impossible to obtain a visa in that office without
prior
consultation
with the Foreign Ministry, after submitting both the form
and the
photos.
After
insisting
on his visa, pulling out the aforementioned documents to
back
up
his case, the supposed Oswald left the consulate. "He
seemed
extremely
vexed," said Azcue, who also gave a physical description of
the person.
The
former
diplomat explained that later this Mr. Oswald formalized his
visa
request,
again insisting on seeing the consul. Azcue said the
man seemed
upset,
asking how long it would take to get a reply from
Cuba. "I
explained
to him that if he had someone in Cuba who knew him and would
vouch for
him,
it might shorten the process," Azcue said.
Oswald
returned
to the consulate the next day, the 28th of September, to
insist
once again that he be granted a visa. Azcue told him
that without
a
USSR visa already stamped in his passport, he could not give
him a
transit
visa for Cuba. The supposed Oswald became incensed,
began
shouting
and called the people of the consulate a bunch of
bureaucrats.
Azcue
responded angrily and ordered the man out of the consulate,
who walked
away
muttering and slammed the door.
On
all
his visits, the so-called Mr. Oswald discussed only the
request for a
visa,
never going into unrelated matters. He had no contacts
at the
consulate
other than with Silvia Duran and Eusebio Azcue.
When
in
November of 1963, once more in Cuba, Azcue found out that a
U.S.
citizen
named Lee Harvey Oswald had been accused of murdering
Kennedy, he
immediately
remembered the man who visited the Cuban consulate in Mexico
and called
the
Foreign Ministry to alert them.
Azcue
met
with Comrades Dr. Raul Roa, then foreign minister, and Nilo
Otero,
a
Foreign Ministry official, and told both about the incidents
related to
Oswald's
visa request.
Azcue
said
that a short time later he saw a newsreel on the murder of
Oswald
by
Jack Ruby, and realized that the victim bore no resemblance
to the man
who
had visited the consulate. Late he observed that the
photographs
turned
over to the Warren Commission by the CIA -- photos which
supposedly
depicted
Oswald on his visit to the consulate -- did no picture
either the
person
who had made the visa request at his office or the Oswald
accused of
assassinating
President Kennedy.
PHOTO
Electronic spying by CIA in Cuban consulate and embassy in
Mexico City
*CUBAN
ELECTRONICS
engineer Nilvio Labrada Vicent also testified before the
Youth
Accuses Imperialism Tribunal, concerning electronic bugging
devices
installed
by the CIA in the Cuban consulate and embassy in Mexico.
The
expert,
who showed the Tribunal and spectators the devices that had
been used,
told
how a very sensitive miniature amplifier had been installed
by the CIA
behind
the telephone dial for purposes of eavesdropping on all
conversations
in
the area of the telephone.
The
instrument,
which is a common one used by the CIA in its telephone
spying,
functions
when the receiver is hung up and runs on the voltage from
the telephone
line.
He
said
that the device's microphone could pick up conversations up
to six
meters
away an transmit them, via telephone line, a distance of
more than one
kilometer,
with the desired quality and fidelity.
When
the
phone is taken off the hook, the voltage drops below the
necessary
level,
and the equipment stops working so that the user doesn't
perceive that
he
is being checked on. The equipment can be activated
from a
distance.
Labrada
Vicent
also discussed the remote control radio receivers installed
in
armchairs
in The Cuban diplomatic headquarters. This equipment
is
self-charging
and I embedded in wood for camouflage, thus facilitating its
transportation
and installation.
The
radio
receivers were designed to pick up conversations in the area
where they
were
installed and to transmit them via radio frequencies.
With
the
use of remote control devices it is possible to lengthen the
life of
the
batteries by turning them on and off at will. This
type of check
is
usually paired with a visual one, to make sure the
transmitter is used
efficiently.
Labrada
Vicent
emphasized that this equipment is similar or identical to
equipment
discovered and captured on other opportunities; and that the
type of
component
used comes from the United States.
He
emphasizes
that the equipment is highly sophisticated, specially
designed and
manufactured.
He repeated finally designed and manufactured. He
repeated
finally
that these instruments are among those used by the CIA in
their
sinister
espionage activity.
Hector
Hernandez
Pardo and
Gabriel
Molina
Photos:
Liborio
Noval
DOCUMENT [not readable] with caption
The
Cuban
Ministry of Foreign Affairs turned down an application
for a visa made by U.S. citizen Lee Harvey Oswald on October
15, 1963
End of Page
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1998-2014 Cuban Information Archives. All Rights
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