1104-10061-10053
2025 RELEASE UNDER THE PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY ASSASSINATION RECORDS ACT OF 1992
TO
Chief of Station, Paris
INFO.
FROM
Chief, NS
SUBJECT sonUNIC
Report on Antonio RODRIGUEZ Echazabal
ACTION REQUIRED REFERENCES
REF:
DIR 39176, 1 February 1962
ONLY QUALIFIER
NEADQUARTERS DESK
CAN JUDGE INDEXING
ABSTRACT
MICROFILM
1. As stated in reference, attached for passage to UITG
of a report en Antonio RODRIGEZ Erbasabal; the original
given to WHICH/11 on 6 February 1962.
ase two copies
report was
2. The last paragraph of attachment
of the debriefing of Subject.
tedna
zequent for
sulte
Attachments
Report (2 ss u.s.e.)
Distribution:
-3 - Paris
04170
CROSS REFERENCE TO
2
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WE/3 w/att
1 RI w/att
OFFICE
5/3
CLASSIFICATION
SECRET
F. BINGHAM
+212
DATE TYPED
7. Pub 1962
DATE Dit
12
DISPATCH SYMBOL AND NUMBER
HEADQUARTERS FILE NUMBER
201-244918
ORIGINATING
OFFICER
TYPIST
Anne Silbert
nes
COORDINATING
OFFICE SYMBOL
DATE
OFFICER'S NAME
14-00000
MEMORANDUM FOR : (M. de Vosjoli
SUBJECT
5 Fel.uary 1962.
: Report on Antonio RODRIGUEZ Echazabal
Antonio RODRIGUEZ Echazabal was born in Cuba on 17 August 1913.
He has a master's degree in agriculture, professedly has no religion but
is a Mason. RODRIGUEZ is married to Edith JONES, who was born in
Cuba on 10 March 1917; she is, however, of Haitian origin, being the
daughter of a former Haitian Ambassador to Belgium, and she is a devout
Episcopalian. The couple is known to have three children: a son who was
last reported to be in Havana, Cuba; a daughter married to a man of
German birth who was employed in the Castro land-reform organization
until his departure for Germany in December 1961; and a son, Antonio
RODRIGUEZ Jones, bora 24 August 1943 at Havana, who was studying at
the Ecole Francaise Internationale in Washington, D. C. in 1961. This son
has been reported to be anti-U.S. and to have requested permission of his
father to go to Cuba or to another "socialist" country to continue his
education.
JONES, his aunt and sister of the bod
Antonio RODRIGUEZ Jones resided in Washington, D. C. with Yvonne
wife of Antonio RODRIGUEZ Echazabal.
Miss JONES was born 10 April 1910 at Antwerp, Belgium; she was unmarrie
and was a secretary at the Pan American Health Organization. She became
■ U.8. citizen in 1959. Since the Castro regime has come to power,
Miss JONES is said to have spoken quite openly for Castro and against the
U.S. Government.
".
RODRIGUEZ lived in Haiti for about eighteen years prior to the
commencement of his diplomatic career, having been barred by the Batists
government from returning to Cuba. He became a Haitian citisen and was
the owner of a Port-au-Prince meat market called "El Ose Blanco". When
Castro assumed power in Cuba, RODRIGUEZ took over the Cuban Embassy
in Port-au-Prince in January 1959 after the Batista-appointed officials had
fled to the Dominican Republic. Soon thereafter he was named Ambassado:
to Haiti.
Following his appointment to the diplomatic post, RODRIGUEZ continue
to maintain contact with persons in opposition to President Duvalier of Hal:
Citizen of Cuba
1:4
{་2?
14-00000
In late July 1959, Haiti was invaded by a small group of Cubans, supposedly
as a prelude to an invasion of the neighboring Dominican Republic. The
incursion was successfully repelled by the Haitian Government, which
publicly charged RODRIGUEZ with complicity in the raid. RODRIGUEZ them
closed the Cuban Embassy and returned to Cuba after selling his private
property in Haiti.
While RODRIGUEZ was still in Haiti, two attempts were made on his
life. He accused the Trujillo regime in the Dominican Republic and,
indirectly, the Haitian Government of complicity in those attacks.
In November 1959, RODRIGUEZ went to Guatemala as Cuban Ambassado:
There, he appears to have associated freely with pro-Communist groups. I
March 1960, he was requested by the Guatemalan Government to leave the
country on the ground that he was engaging in activities inimical to the best
interests of Quatemala.
In November 1960, RODRIGUEZ reported to Karachi, Pakistan, as Cuba
Ambassador. His wife accompanied him there and served as his chief
secretary. During the initial months of his tour there, his closest relation
in the diplomatic colony were with officials of the Belgian Embassy,
presumably as a result of the fact that Belgium had represented Cuba when
there was no Cuban representative in Karachi. During 1961, however, his
social contacts were almost exclusively with Soviet, satellite and Chinese
Communist diplomatic personnel.
In late 1961, "when RODRIGUEZ apparently had decided to defect, he
confided to an acquaintance in the diplomatic colony that he was finished
with politics and wanted to devote the rest of his life to agriculture. He hog
at the time to go to the Dominican Republic or to another, unspecified South
American nation. At the time of his departure from Karachi by air for
Germany in early 1962, RODRIGUEZ reportedly made only a very limited
statement at the airport regarding his defection. The event apparently
received very little, if any, press notice in Pakistan.
Insufficient information exists at present to permit a determination as {
the genuineness of RODRIGUEZ's disaffection with the Castro regime. Foż
reasons which have not as yet been fully reported, the Department of State
denied a visa to RODRIGUEZ, apparently after he had made the decision to
resign his post in Pakistan. We understand, however, that, following his
Citizen of Cuba
14-00000
arrival in France in January 1962, he received permission from French
authorities to travel to and reside in Martinique. It appears that he left
France on 31 January 1962 on route to Martinique.
This service would appreciate having the results of any debriefing of
RODRIGUEZ by French authorities, with particular reference to the reasons
for his resignation and his plans for the future.