Agency Information

AGENCY: ARMY
RECORD NUMBER: 198-10009-10098
RECORD SERIES: CALIFANO PAPERS
AGENCY FILE NUMBER:

Document Information

ORIGINATOR: ARMY
FROM: JOSEPH A. CALIFANO, JR.
TO: MULTIPLE
TITLE: ICCCA: REPORT ON STATUS OF IMPLEMENTATION OF ACTIONS DESIGNED TO COUNTER SUBVERSION

DATE: 11/26/1963
PAGES: 19

SUBJECTS:
ICCCCA - SUBCOMMITTEE ON CUBAN SUBVERSION
CUBAN SUBVERSION
RESTRICTIONS ON TRAVEL TO AND FROM CUBA
SUBCOMMITTEE ON CUBAN SUBVERSION

DOCUMENT TYPE: PAPER, TEXTUAL DOCUMENT
CLASSIFICATION: Secret
RESTRICTIONS: 1B
CURRENT STATUS: Redact
DATE OF LAST REVIEW: 05/15/1998

OPENING CRITERIA:

COMMENTS: Califano Papers, Box 2, Folder 25. Memo from Califano to Wheeler, Sloan, Alger, Wendt, Carpenter, Quilter re: attached paper concerning status of implementation of actions designed to counter Cuban subversion.
MEMORANDUM NO. 81 FOR GENERAL EARLE G. WHEELER (JCS)
MR. FRANK K. SLOAN, Dep Asst Sec/Def ISA
(Regional Affairs)
MAJOR GENERAL J. D. ALGER, USA
REAR ADMIRAL W. F. A. WENDT, USN
MAJOR GENERAL J. W. CARPENTER, III, USAF
BRIGADIER GENERAL C. J. QUILTER, USMC

SUBJECT: Interdepartmental Coordinating Committee of Cuban Affairs:
Report on Status of Implementation of Actions Designed to
Counter Subversion (U)

Reference: DA Memo 464, subject as above, dated September 19, 1963

Attached herewith is a final draft of the Report to the President of
the Subcommittee on Cuban Subversion on Progress Made During September
1963 in Curbng Cuban Subversion in Latin America.

It is requested that comments, if any, be provided this office by
1200 hours, 2 December 1963. The Department of Defense portion of
subject report is based on submissions provided in response to referenced
memorandum.

Sgd
Joseph A. Califano, Jr.
Joseph A. Califano, Jr.
General Counsel

Enclosure
As Stated

cc: Mr. Yarmolinsky (OSD)
Lt Col Haig
Mr. Califano
ASG

EXCLUDED FROM AUTOMATIC REGRADING
DOD DIR 5200.10 DOES NOT APPLY
REPORT OF THE SUB-COMMITTEE

on CUBAN SUBVERSION

ACTION TAKEN DURING SEPTEMBER 1963 IN CURRING

CUBAN SUBVERSION IN LATIN AMERICA

SECRET
I. Control of Travel to and From Cuba

Department of State

a. Instructed Embassy Tunis to call to the attention of the Foreign Ministry our concern at increased evidence of Aeroflot attempts to establish North Africa routes to Cuba, especially through Algeria, and our conviction that Tunisia has a valid case in thwarting any Bloc civil air penetration of Africa.

b. Instructed Embassy Conakry to contact Guinean Government officials, reminding them of their past assurances that no Aeroflot flights to Cuba would be permitted to use Conakry facilities, and to express our concern at recent indications that Aeroflot was preparing to establish service to Cuba via Conakry.

c. Instructed Consulate Fort au France to investigate and report on alleged landing and refuelling of Cubana aircraft at Guadeloupe. Also double-checked directly with the Shell Company, the supplier of the fuel. Instructed Embassy Paris to query the French Government about alleged Cubana use of the Guadeloupe facility, and to express our concern at this evidence of Cuba's attempt to use French Caribbean dependencies for flights to and
from Latin America.

d. Instructed Embassy Rio to make a new approach to the Brazilian Foreign Ministry to express our concern at Cuba's continuing use of "charter" flights to Brazil and the laxity of Brazilian officials in the control of passengers. During the course of the month the Brazilian Government began tightening controls against Cubana flights. Specifically, all requests for landing permission were henceforth to be processed by the Foreign Office, with appropriate delays. Also tighter passenger, crew and cargo controls were to be instituted when a Cubana flight is permitted to use Brazilian facilities.

e. Determined that the U.K. had specifically warned Cubana that no aviation fuel was available in Barbados and that H.M.G. would, in the future, respect Shell Company's decision to deny fueling to Cubana planes.

f. Continued inter-Departmental efforts to prevent resumption of ferry service between Cuba and the U.S. which a British citizen, Harold Berber, has been attempting to establish during the past several months.

g.
g. Instructed Consul Georgetown to investigate and report on evidence the Department received which indicates that Cuba is planning to sell merchant vessels to British Guiana in order to facilitate the establishment of regular service for passengers and cargo.

Central Intelligence Agency

a. In connection with the Seventh Congress of the International Union (UIA) held in Habana September 29 - October 3, 1963 the Buenos Aires Station:

(1) encouraged the Argentine National Federation of Architects to oppose Argentine attendance at the Habana meeting, with the result that 25 of the 39 practicing architects who had planned to attend cancelled their participation;

(2) arranged to prevent the attendance of any officially authorized Argentine delegation at the Habana meeting, but encouraged the attendance of an official Argentine delegation of anti-Communist coloration at an international architects meeting to be held in Mexico in October;

(3)
(3) delivered a memorandum to the Minister of Interior concerning Cuban charter flights to Brazil which supported the Ambassador's request that the Argentine government express concern over such flights.

b. Rio de Janeiro Station continued to furnish the Embassy with data on Cubana flights to Brazil used in representations to the Brazilian Foreign Office. Also induced Rio airport officials to impose stringent passport control and baggage efforts. These efforts contributed to the Brazilian Government's failing to issue landing permits for Cubana flights on September 21, 24 and 25, 1963 forcing their cancellation. When Cubana, because of harassment at Rio, began using the landing facilities in Sao Paulo where controls were non-existent, CIA initiated and obtained a local liaison agreement for similar harassment in the event of future Cubana flights to Sao Paulo.

c. Mexico City station inspired a press campaign of hoof and mouth and smallpox epidemics in Cuba, prior to the Architects Congress to discourage participation in the Habana meeting. The resulting quarantines and inoculations
Innoculations were a factor in discouraging 52 of the 60 Mexican professional architects who were expected to go to Habana from attending the Congress.

II. Control of Movement of Propaganda

Measures to control...
III. Control of Clandestine Movement of Guerrillas and arms

Department of State

Made the necessary arrangements through Embassy Tegucigalpa with the Government of Honduras for the dispatch of three U.S. helicopters to give logistical assistance to the Honduran Army in its effort to locate and eliminate the band of guerrillas allegedly operating in the Patuca River area along the Honduran-Nicaraguan border.

Department of Defense

Three OH-13 helicopters from USOUTHCOM supported Honduran armed forces conducting counter-insurgency operations in the Patuca River area. A total of 27 sorties were flown resulting in delivery of 3923 pounds of supplies, evacuation of 12 sick Honduran soldiers, airlift of 19 passengers to points in the operational area, and recovery of 400 pounds of supplies from the operational area.

IV.

SECRET
IV. Control of Transfer of Funds

Department of State

a. Instructed Embassy Mexico City to inform the Mexican airline SAESA that their proposal to purchase surplus Cuban aircraft would in fact result in the accrual to Cuba of a significant amount of hard currency, and the U.S. would have to oppose the transaction. Further, if dollars were involved in the purchase, it would be a violation of the Cuban Assets Control Regulations.

b. Informed Department of Treasury, Foreign Assets Control Office, of the activities of Somondelp Enterprises, a Miami firm engaged in sending remittances to persons in Cuba in violation of the Cuban Assets Control Regulations.

c. Instructed Consulate, Belize to inform Mr. Richard Joyce, an American national, that his commercial transactions with Cuba were in violation of the Cuban Assets Control Regulations and that he is prohibited from engaging in such trade.

V.
V. Strengthening of Counter-Insurgency Capabilities

Department of Defense

a. Thirteen Latin American officers graduated from the counter-insurgency Operations Course of the U.S. Army School for Latin America in the Panama Canal Zone on 20 September. During the month, a total of 91 Latin American officers enrolled in courses stressing counter-insurgency at the Army Canal Zone school.

b. Eight U.S. Army counter-insurgency mobile training teams were providing training to the Armed Forces of five Latin American countries during the period. U.S. Air Force counter-insurgency training teams were in two countries.

c. In the Canal Zone, 15 students from five countries were under instruction in the operation of coast guard utility patrol craft used for coastal surveillance. Six students from two countries were undergoing similar training in the United States.

d. A U.S. Navy counter-insurgency training team is in Venezuela to assist in improving the security of oil installations in Lake Maracaibo.
e. Costa Rica and Honduras were provided one Cessna 185 aircraft each for medical civic action and internal security purposes.

f. On May 25, 1953, three M-43B KAMAN helicopters were provided to the government of Colombia on a 90-day loan. The Colombian Government requested an extension of the loan and a 90-day extension has been approved.

Central Intelligence Agency

a. Guantanamo City Station has recruited, on a trial basis, a former member of the 13 November guerrilla group and debriefings are in process. Negotiations continue with the Government of Guatemala for the formation of a new internal security service.

b. Lima Station has agreed to furnish the Peruvian Investigations Police (PIP) with an outboard motor to increase their patrol capability on rivers crossing the Bolivian frontier. Our information is that the rivers crossing this frontier have provided the primary avenues for recent attempts to gain clandestine entry of personnel and weapons into Peru.

VI.
VI. Exchange of Intelligence on Cuban Subversion

Department of Defense

Engineering installation work continued on radio stations for Managua, Nicaragua and Tegucigalpa, Honduras. No further progress has been made in reaching agreements with Colombia and Ecuador for rights to establish radio stations in those countries. Installation of the new trans-isthmian commercial cable in Panama is nearing completion.

Central Intelligence Agency

CIA Stations continued their exchange of intelligence information with local intelligence agencies. The following actions are of special significance:

a. The CIA Station in Buenos Aires furnished the Argentine State Intelligence Service (SIDE) with information on the travel of Argentines to Cuba, and requested that SIDE provide name traces and debrief these travellers on their return whenever feasible. SIDE provided the traces, but did not conduct any debriefings. The Station has not felt it feasible to try to remedy this omission in view of the personnel changes expected within SIDE after the new government is installed on
b. As a result of information passed by the Bogota Station to the Administrative Department of Security (DAS) concerning Colombian travellers to Cuba, a number of passport violations have been discovered in which travellers to Cuba are using passports issued to other persons. There is a reluctance, however, on the part of the Colombian Government to prosecute this type of violation.

c. At the urging of the CIA Station in Lima, the National Intelligence Service (SIN) instructed one of its penetrations of leftist groups to campaign for a trip to Cuba in order to receive guerrilla warfare training. This asset has been offered, and has accepted, an opportunity to make the trip by the Leftist Revolutionary Movement (MLR), primary vehicle of Cuban subversive activities in Peru. Briefing and debriefing of the asset will be done by the SIN.

The Peruvian Naval Intelligence Service (FNIS) has, in response to the efforts of the Station in Lima, sent one of its agents to Chile where he will sign aboard a Chilean freighter calling at Habana. The asset has been given specific intelligence requirements to fulfill.
The Prime Minister and Minister of Government and Police has requested from the CIA representative in Lima any information that he might supply on subversive elements posing a threat to the Government of Peru. This request has opened an additional channel to the highest level of the Government with a concomitant prospect for effective action when needed.

d. Through regular liaison channels, the Venezuelan General Directorate of Police (DICEPOL) has been provided by CIA with the names of all Venezuelans known to have travelled to Cuba from February through August 1963. This activity will be carried out on a continuing basis; the names are now being integrated into the regular watch list kept at international airports in Venezuela. Thus far, at least three returnees have been arrested on the basis of the information supplied to DICEPOL. DICEPOL has indicated its appreciation of the data being supplied and desires that the arrangement be continued.

VII. Surveillance of Cuban Diplomatic, Commercial and Cultural Missions

No special actions to report.
VIII. Other Special Actions

United States Information Agency

a. The Agency's press service transmitted seven articles relating to Cuban subversion on its wireless file service to USIS offices throughout Latin America for placement in the local newspapers. Developments reported in these articles included demands by the Bolivian Senate for the ouster of the Cuban Chargé d'Affaires, terrorism and government counteraction in Venezuela, the seizure in Ecuador of an arms and explosives cache reportedly received from Cuba, several articles on the International Union of Architects Congress in Havana (emphasizing the intent of the Castro regime to use the Congress as a forum for its propaganda claims), and Assistant Secretary Martin's Los Angeles speech in which he pointed out the regime's affinity for Chinese communist doctrine and its continued emphasis on violent revolution and subversion. In all, the press service transmitted 27 articles and commentaries during September on the subject of Cuba, the other articles dealing for the most part with economic and political conditions inside the country as evidenced by the regime's own admissions and the reports of refugees.
B. The Voice of America Spanish broadcasts to Latin America during September carried a total of 20 news analyses, commentaries, press round-ups, and interviews related to the subject of Cuban subversion. Some of the developments treated included the following:

A commentary on communist embassies as channels for subversion; a news analysis on the U.S. students who visited Cuba; Assistant Secretary Martin's Los Angeles speech; a news analysis on Cuban subversion as an obstacle in the normalization of U.S.-Soviet relations; a three-part series on university autonomy in Latin America; a feature on the letter of a Colombian student who went to Cuba on a scholarship and was disillusioned by the communist indoctrination; a commentary on Che Guevara's recent article on revolutionary strategy; and a commentary on guerrilla training in Cuba. Many of these items were repeated several times in the broadcasts. The "Rendezvous with Cuba" hour carried four or five commentaries that were interspersed with interviews nightly on economic and political developments inside Cuba. Of special note, the Cuban radio and Castro himself reacted angrily to Voice of America broadcasts about Che Guevara's article and to commentaries that Cuba had accepted an agricultural role in
the communist bloc and had postponed its plans to industrialize.

c. On September 27, the Agency issued a circular instruction to all its Latin American posts urging greater attention to opportunities for publicizing Cuban-stimulated subversion, suggesting the various types of information activities to support this effort, and requesting monthly reports of field actions taken to implement the instruction. This was done as a follow-up to the original instruction on Cuban subversion which was issued April 3, 1963.

Central Intelligence Agency

a. CIA in Brazil assisted in the defection and exploitation of a Cuban athlete Roberto Perez Ondarse in Porto Alegre on 4 September 1963. Perez was a member of the Cuban basketball team which participated in the World University Games (FISU) held in Porto Alegre, Brazil in early September 1963.

b. Assistance was given to the Government of Guatemala in the interrogation of some of those who were arrested in connection with the Communist Party documents that were confiscated in late May 1963.
Only one of those interrogated admitted to any involvement with the captured documents, the Communist Party, guerrillas, or anything else that could be construed as incriminating. The one who did admit knowledge denied that he was involved in any way. The Government of Guatemala wants to interrogate this person again at a later date.

c. CIA Station in Montevideo arranged for an interview between an Uruguayan military intelligence officer and a recent defector from the Montevideo Cuban Embassy during which extensive information regarding Cuban subversive activities was revealed. The Uruguayan officer prepared a report containing this data and presented it to the National Council of Government which has been slow to indicate concern over communist subversive activity in Uruguay. As a result of this report, the NCG has directed the Minister of Interior to appoint a special commission to study the problem of Communist subversion and to make recommendations as to what course of action should be taken by the Uruguayan Government. Should the Government wish to press for passage of stronger
stronger anti-subversive legislation the Station has taken steps to prepare Uruguayan public opinion by planning simultaneous local press releases of the salient features of the defector report with similar press reporting in the United States where the defector will be brought to light.