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2025 RELEASE UNDER THE PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY ASSASSINATION RECORDS ACT OF 1992
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20 October 1959
MEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD
SUBJECT: Highlights of Tape-Recorded Conversation in Miami Between
Mr. William D. Pawley and an Unidentified Cuban during
Period 17-18 October
On 20 October the undersigned and Owen Faust of WH/3
listened to the play-back of a tape, brought to Washington from Mand
and given to Colonel King by Mr. Pawley on 19 October, which was a
recording of Mr. Pawley's conversations with two Gubans during the
period 17-18 October. The first conversation was with an unidentified
Cuban, believed to be a member of a group of wealthy anti-CASTRO Cubans,
members of which have talked to Mr. Pauley recently about their
plans for sabotage of the coming sugar harvest as reported in UMMA-32
dated 2 October. The second Cuban was AMPACA-1, a Cuban journalist
of operational interest to Station Habana, and a separate memorandum
is submitted on that conversation.
2. The unidentified Cuban, who had somewhat of an accent and
spoke indistinctly, was difficult to understand. He mentioned a
meeting "with some of our people who came up from Cuba” to discuss
plans. He said his group had been contacted by a representative of
General Jose Eleutorio PEDRAZA, leader of Cuban revolutionary groups
in the Dominican Republic, who wanted to know what action their group
had taken and was told that they had a plan "to start sabotage". The
Cuban said the PEDRAZA representative said their group (the PEDRAZA
group) had four provinces organised in Cuba, mentioning Camaguey and
Santa Clara, and that they had two provinces yet to be organised —
Habana and Matanzas.
3. The Cuban said his group needed two things - moral backing
and money; he pointed out that Cubans in Cuba are afraid to start an
underground movement, and there was no way to raise funds, etc. Mr.
Pawley gave him no encouragement on the money angle, saying that even
if there were Americans willing to run the risk of becoming involved
in Cuban revolutionary activities by furnishing money for such a
movement, which he doubted, he felt that at the present time it would
be like "putting money down a rat-hole" for the following reasons? -
(1) there is no unity among the anti-CASTRO groups, and there are at
least 10 that he knows of who are working absolutely independently of
one another; and (2) CASTRO is in control of the country and has the
support of a large number of Cubans, especially the under-privileged,
Mr. Pawley said he felt the Cuban economic situation was worsening
fast and that if it gets bad enough, a large number of Cubans will
turn on CASTRO, but until that time comes it would be dangerous to
try to organise a revolutionary movement.
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4. Mr. Pauley asked the Cuban if his group felt they had moral
support of the U. 8. and the Cuban replied that they wanted U. S.
moral support but whether they had it or not, they felt they were
obliged to carry through with their plans. Mr. Pawley said he didn't
know what to tell him -OCO would have to think about it and see if any-
thing could be done. He said, "having been connected with the U. 8.
Government, I can't get involved in revolutionary movements". Also
said he would hate to see the Dominican Government get involved,
which might be difficult to avoid with so many Cuban exiles there,
but commented that he understood "the Dominican Government hasn't
given them a dime".
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Martha Tharpe
WH/III/CARIB