477-10002-10017 v9.4 AGENCY : RECORD NUMBER : RECORD SERIES : AGENCY FILE NUMBER: ORIGINATOR : FROM: TO: TITLE: DATE: PAGES: SUBJECTS : DOCUMENT TYPE: CLASSIFICATION : RESTRICTIONS : CURRENT STATUS : DATE OF LASTREVIEW : OPENING CRITERIA : COMMENTS : HW 50955 Bocld: 32705164 JFK Assassination System Date: Identification Form — Agency Information LBI 177-10002-10017 NSF, UNARRANGED FILES, LA/CUBAN SUBVERSION, BOX 5 Document Information CIA 02/18/1963 1 NEED SUBJECT ASSIGNED DRAFT BRIEFING NOTES Unclassified 1A; 1C Redact 04/21/1998 Page i 8/26/20 1
DRAFT BRIEFING NOTES . 18 February 1963 RIVAL FORCES IN LATIN AMERICAN: SUBVERSION I. Since the October crisis, Fidel Castro has obviously been trying to straddle the rift between Moscow and Peiping over global Communist strategy. As Mr. Martin aptly put it yesterday, Castro's heart is in Peiping put his stomach is in Woscow, II. This same split between all-out militancy and a more cautious policy--call it coexistence or "two steps forward, one step back"~-~is reflected on the extreme left in many Latin American countries, Ill. Thus Cuba at present not only seeks to serve two mas— ters, but choose among rival servants in its Latin American subversion. A. Castro's views on what..is good for socialism and revolution in Latin America. are more in line with those of the Chinese Communists than the Soviets. 1. Latin American delegates to the East Ger- man Party Congress last month told one of our high-level and reliable agents in the Communist party on their return that most Latin. American Communist party representa-_ tives strongly supported the position of the USSR regarding the differences between SECRET BW 530955 Bocld:32205162 Page 2
HW 450955 DoclId: 32205164 SECRET it and China, Both the Cuban and Venezuelan. representatives took a "neutral position," that is, they did not support the Soviets. ((veteran high-level Venezuelan Communist, FALN leader, from Venezuelan delegate to | the congress.)) | Last summer a. group of dissident Brazilian Communists who had split off from the regu- lar party went to Cuba to seek Castro's sup- port for their movement. .According to one of our established sources among the dissi- dents ((former Central Committee member of © regular party, now_on dissident central comn— mittee)), they got it. castro advised them to organize guerrilla activities and launch a revolution as quickly as possible. He reportedly told the group that powerful revolutionary movements were being built up in Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. The activities of the splinter-group Com- munists has so rankled the regular party that its leader, Luiz Carlos Prestes, a veteran in the Communist movement in Latin we Zh we SECRET Page 3
HW 50955 SECRET . America, left on 7 February on a trip to Moscow, Prague, and Havana to build a counter-fire against: ‘the dissidents. Ac- cording to two reliable covert sources in the regular party ((members of’ national com— mittee on organization ‘and ‘member of the Sao Paulo state committee)), Prestes planned to stop in Prague to arrange with the Chi- nese Communist Ambassador there to send two representatives to Peiping to make a direct complaint about support being given by Com- munist China to the splinter group. Prestes plans to stop on his way back in Havana to discuss Cuban support for that same splinter ‘group. While in Moscow he reportedly will discuss the Sino-Soviet ideological differ- ences and assure the Soviets of his party's support. B. Only the Cuban and Venezuelan Communist parties are totally committed to terror and revolution. . Else- where in Latin America the Communist parties of- ficially support more moderate Soviet views but there are serious dissensions among some of the leaders and within -the membership, The Cuban mis- sile crisis exacerbated these differences, DoctTd: 32205164 ~3~ SECRET Page 4
SECRET 1. “The Brazilian case is the only clear split so far noted in the major Latin American parties, but the Paraguayan Communists have just conducted a purge of some 34 members and leaders for deviationist thinking. 2. The Ecuadorean Communist Party has dis- owned two leaders who have attempted to organize guerrilla bands without party sanc- tion. One of then, Manuel Araujo Hidalgo, returned “in early 1962 from a trip to China where he reportedly received some support. 3. Other parties have these problems as well. There are many impatient leaders and more followers who want to get on immediately . with revolutionary economic, social and. political reform. | | Iv. In spite of differences over tactics and timing be- tween various Communist groups, all intend eventually to deliver the Latin American countries into the Com- munist-socialist bloc. The so-called Soviet "conserva~ tive" view, as it is now espoused, is more intent on trying. to achieve power by legal means if possible and by subversion rather than by force. -4. SECRET HW 50955 DBoclda: 32205164 Page 5