COPY NO, 
OCI ‘NO, 0268/62 
23 February 1961 
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CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY 
OFFICE OF CURRENT INTELLIGENCE 
IS 
—CONTINUED-CONTROBLEASE 
RETURN 
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CURRENT INTELLIGENCE WEEKLY SUMMARY 
CUBA 
. 
High Cuban officials have. 
on several recent occasions pud- 
licly expressed willingness to 
resume "normal" relations with 
the United States, although 
these sté..ements clearly imply 
prior acceptance by the United 
States of Cuba's ties with the 
bloc. 
The controlled press and 
radio contrast Cuba's "concilia- 
tory gestures” with what they 
interpret as increasing signs 
of US intransigence. 
The Castro regime 
is court- 
ing the newly inaugurated Quadros 
administration in Brazil, but 
there are. indications that 
Quadros thus far prefers a neu- 
tral position and that the Bra- 
zilian military would strongly 
orpose close ties with Cuba, 
Cuban media have lauded Quadros 
for his “independence” of the 
US, and Fidel Castro on 16 Feb- 
ruary spent 
several 
hours 
with the departing Brazilian 
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AAS 
ambassador, Vasco Leitao da 
Cunha--the first time in over 
a year he is known to have 
talked alone with a Western dip- 
lomat. 
The ambassador, 
who ieft 
later the same day to assume the 
second most influential post in 
Brazil's Foreign Ministry, told 
the Brazilian press on his re- 
turn home that "Fidel Castro’ 
:: 
emphasized to me that Cuba can- 
not withdraw from the American 
community" and that Castro ex-— 
pects President Quadros to visit 
Cuba shortly. 
Leéitao da Cunha was one of 
the more knowledgeable diplo- 
mats during his nearly three 
years in Havana, and it is doubt- 
ful that he succumbed to Castro's 
blandishments; his private re- 
port to high Brazilian officials 
will probably be pessimistic 
concerning Cuban developments. 
Quadros, who visited Cuba last 
year as a presidential candidate, 
is not known to have expressed 
an intention to return. 
Ecuador's attempts to pro- 
mote an inter-American effort 
to “conciliate US-Cuban diffor- 
ences" appear to have met with 
little favorable response. Cuba 
is encouraging the Ecuadorean 
CURRENT INTELLIGENCE WEEKLY SUMMARY 
Latin American move that could 
be used to demonstrate “US in- 
transigence."” 
Castro's recent 
threat to support antigovernment 
groups in other Latin American 
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countries--in retaliation for 
US aid to Cuban refugees——has 
led to bitter anti-Castro reac-~- 
tions elsewhere in the hemis- 
phere and serves to undercut 
Cuban efforts to appear desirous 
of maintaining normal relations 
with other hemisphere countrtes, 
Cuba's 
recognition 
of 
the Gizenga regime in the Congo 
on 
16 February was accompanied 
by 
propaganda 
blasts 
at the 
United States, 
well as 
at 
the 
UN 
and Belgium, equaled 
in virulence only ‘by Communist 
China! Se 
Inside Cuba, sovernsent 
forces continue to try to 
liquidate anti-Castro guerrilla 
forces in the Escambray Moun- 
tains 
of Las Villas Province, 
but there is still no indication 
that the operations are nearing 
success. 
It has been over six. 
months since the government 
initiated this effort and nearly . 
two months since it announcéd 
the launching of a "major of- 
fensive."” 
move as it would encourage any 
23 Feb 61]. 
WPRKLY REVIEW 
SECRET 
Page 13 of 2. 
BRE 
45. 
seared 
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the 
The material ccataing inf rmation 
the National Defense of the sited States 
the meaning of the 
Laws, Tele 
1 USC 
Seca 79) aor 
791, the transmission oF 
of which 
pny menace 
it port.dited by lew. 
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Cuta 
REPORT NO. 
SUSJECT 
Travel Restrictions in 
DATE D:STR. 
23 }:arch 1941 
NO. PAGES 
PLACE 
1 varch 1%1 
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EVALUATIONS. ARE DEFINITIVE APPRAISAL 
CONTENT IS TENTATIVE, 
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Phe CASTRO governnent has inposed stringent restrictions on persons 
travellin; on the highway fron Sarctl Spiritus to Triatisa, Las 
Poovince. 
Persons 
dzsiring to travel over this hivinay, 
Whieh is alons the western 
ery cf the Ecsscbray Mountsins, 
the resion of extensive counterce: 
resistence, are re- 
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quired to obtsin pisses fren 
fices of the 
Villas Militar, 
District. 
Furthescore, cher 
pes ~5 have becn set up slorg the 
hiphway to see 
ell 
in possecston 
of the military prsses. 
2. Persons desiring to go to Trinidad from ceatral and eastern parts 
of the Province can travel over tne ratlro:i line from Senta Clara 
without any special documentation. 
However, the 
has 
taken 
security preesutions hy shstioning @ larce nuther of 
ate 
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"CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY 
Counterrevolutionary Forces Losing 
freed for 
PATE DIST 
27 March 1561 
Rigid Y=oberge on Cuban Totecco 
‘NO PAGES 
CSFERENCES 
Late February 1961 
_late February 1961 
‘The situation is becoming increasingly acute for anti-Castro ecounter- 
revolutionary forces in Cuba. 
[I have many old friends in Esvana and 
other large Cuben cities who are risking their lives daily, andere 
—— 
contributing every peso they can spare to counterrovolutionary 
activities. 
It is 
ma vho ere terrorizing the militia, and 
engeging in the boxing incidents which 
Sly im Evana. 
They 
are in every sense ag ective as the counterreve.uvionary forces in| 
however, look to the Escambray as their syzbol and hope for free4tem, and’ 
the consessus is thes if Castro is miccessful in wiping out opposition in 
the Escarbrny, Cuba is lost. Courterrevoluticsary astivities in the 
eities will cease. 
As rainy of ny friends have sald to me “we are 
tired of risking our lives ond living in the hope dsy after day that the 
counterrevolutionary invasion will coze. 
If socething 
not heppen 
in the near future, we chali give up end co our best to get oursclves 
and our families out of Cuba.” 
Arrests are freqveat, ond oftentizes 
the accuset are shot without becefit of trial, ar a chance to refite | 
the charges agsinst then. 
Quite receatly tvo trertze boys wore chot 
on the word of a teenase girl ~ a 
of Castro's militia 
th:at 
they vere responsible for a boxbing incident in an Eavara school, 
The 
only injury inflicted by the borbing incident 
slight head 
suffered by a little girl. 
Further, the stories of blood-letting prior 
to execution are absoluts fect. A young doctor friend of mine accused 
of counterrevoluticaary activity kal so 
blood drew 
body tefore execution by a firing 
that it wes nescuseary to 
him in an upright position in or’: 
to shoot hin. 
2. 
There 
sure 
reons to brirg etout the 
of 
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Castro resins 
total erlcrgo. 
And I refs, 
tleally to th 
totascce cates to the U5, 
ere 
vith the 
GCollers 
te 
to pay for the anti-W propecia walen Se ins finin:! 
throughout 
Latin Actrrica. 
Every day fersyoosts frun Maver. to West Pala 
brirs in tot*cco end fruity. 
The tebscco ts thr 
courcs of 
dollers for Crtts2, 
tely 
million per 
Tak: 
Date _0.7 APR 
1976. 
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Esce:bray, and actually 
rumnirg ereater personal risks, 
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NOT RELEASABLE TO 
2 warch 1961 
FOREIGN 
NATIONALS 
‘SC No, 00051/61 
CONTINUED CONTROL 
Copy 
SUPPLEMENT 
TO THE CURRENT INTELLIGENCE DIGEST 
Office of Current Intelligence 
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY 
This document contains classified information affecting the national 
security of the United States within the meaning of the espionage 
laws, US Code Title 18, Sections 793, 794, 2nd 798. The law prohibits 
its transmission or the revelation of its contents in any manner to 
— 
, 
@n unauthorized person, as well as its use in any manner prejudicial 
_ 
to the safety or interest of the United States or for the benefit of any 
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foreign government to the detriment of the United States. 
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NCLASG. “HED 
P 
WHE 
“SANITIZED ¢ 
COPY
4, 
certed government counteraction. 
Organized Resistance Continuing 
In Cuba 
Anti-Castro forces are con- 
tinuing their activities through- 
out Cuba despite government 
Claims thac major centers of re«- 
sistance have been, or are about 
te be, eliminated. 
Government 
sources Claim the capture of 
about 900 rebels in the Escambray 
Mountains of Las Villas Province 
area in which the fovern-~ 
ment had previously estimated 
that less than 1,000 guerrillas 
concentrated, | 
Castro publicly admitted 
early this year that Las Villas 
is the province most widely af- 
fected by dissidence; only wide- 
spread public suppot for the 
anti-Castro cause could have 
sustained the guerrilla activity 
this long in the face of cor- 
“A recent escapee from Ciba re- 
ported on 27 February that an 
opposition group has detailed 
plans for the sabotage of Cuban 
oil refineries in the Havana 
The skirmishes between 
guerrilla bands and government 
forces in Oriente, Matanzas, 
and Camaguey provinces, \ 
LATIN AMERICA 
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: 
ably involve small and scattered 
resistance groups, some of which 
have already apparently been 
eliminated. However, the fact 
that at least some of these out- 
breaks involve personnel who 
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defected from the armed forces 
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or other government entities is 
indicative of a situation that 
could in the long run become a 
threat to the regime, 
The out- 
breaks may also reflect a grow-~ 
ing determination among here- 
tofore passive dissidents to re- 
sort to armed resistance and 
could have »:en part of a coO- 
orcinated eifrort to relieve 
some of the pressure on the 
Escambray guerrillas. 
Cuban exile 
grouns are approaching an agree- 
ment to coordinate their activity 
against Castro. 
Rivalries among 
the exiles have long hampered 
their activity. 
Sources:| 
prob- 
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CIA/FBIS HAVANA, 
28 Feb 61 
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2 Mar 61 
CURRENT INTELLIGENCE DIGEST 
Page 4 
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