273 at the Cuban Consulate. ( . ? reported to his case officer that all that would have to be done to recruit Silvia Duran, whom he reférred to by using the Spanish word for whore, would be to get a blonde 102 blue-eyed American into bed with her. ( -) There is CIA also/information that indicates that Silvia Duran had an i= affair with a Cuban Ambassador to Mexico in the early 1960's. # The HSCA attempted to intervie _) yoy about Ms. Duran. An interview with[ was also Elena Garro Aad “S6 created a disturbance at the Cuban Embassy on November 23, 1963. desired so as to attempt to verify whether Qi vA The Committee's attempts to interview | |were frus- st trated. (See-appendix—a, ) - Ms. Garro's claim that she stayed at the Hotel Vermont wAs Were verified by the Mexico City Legal Attache on October noe 13, 1966. ( } ; ; @ for tis.) Ms. Garro claimed that she had been held there by Manuél Calvillo whom she believed worked for the Mexican Ministry of Govern- nent Cn 1963 Mr. Calvillo was an unwitting asset of the Central Intelligence Agency.} Ms. Garro claimed that she told Mr. Calvillo her story on November 23, 1963" (ret) the CIA Mexico City Station did. not receive a report? from caivitio ) on this matter until November 24, 1964, the same day that . pee Elena first told her story to American officials. For these reasons jit was felt that Manuel Calvjllo could well be a key dtetecainn | , “to Guravelling> the veracity Otebmseouseey Of Ms. Garro's reer mame enue AN story. The Committee's'‘attempt to interview Mr. Calvillo i
274 were also frustrated. (See appendix"? ) There is also circumstantial corroboration of Ms. Garro's allegation's regarding June Cobb sharp. (For example, Ms. Cobb was indeed a CIA agent and she did file fhe first . report of Ms. Garro's story. It should be noted that this first report was accurate in its detail)in that Ms. Garro's story remained essentially the same in subsequent repetitions. Ms. Garro claimed that she kicked Ms. Cobb out of her house. (There is a notation on Ms. -Cobb's veport that she was not able to regain access to Ms. carro) “the Committee attempted to obtain an interview with Ms. Cobb, but was once again frustratea.!'*" oN Reviewing the manner in which’ the CIA Mexico City snd station and the egal 3 “Attache! s office in Mexico City ae NY handled MS. ‘Garro" ‘Ss | allegations reveals that, at best, a nea i: oye were “handled > in an irresponsible - manner because. ‘they vg [at were dismissed after a superficial investigation. The first TE 4 report that came to the CIA was mis-filed and forgotten. The Legat, after talking to Elena, dismissed her story after interviewing one person whom she said may have been at the party! etn manner in which the official American Gommunity handled Charles Thomas! reporting is detailed in Section VI, C, li, above.) Mr. Thomas Speculated in 1969 about why Ms. Garro's story had been largely ignored by the American official's in Mexico: It would appear that whereas the FBI has discounted the Elena Garro allegations, the CIA is still considerably disturbed . by them. The CIA may not have pressed for es”
225” further investigation, however, for a number of reasons: 1) considering the sensitive over- lap and subtle competition between two intelli- gence collecting agencies, it had to yield to the FBI's clear jurisdiction; 2) there are ob- vious complications in conducting such an inves- tigation in a foreign country; 3) there is a close and delicate relationshin hetween the CIA Station Chief cnall and 4) some of the If) tie Elena Garro scenario may well be agents of the CIA. Under the circum- stances it is unlikely that any further investi- gation of this matter will ever take place unless it is ordered by a high official in Washington. n7e {Thomas Menorandun dated 4/257697 Jk Document #1684. atdemphd. The Committee' s “lasthope sins to locate Elena Garro. Although the Committee established telephonic contact with can) Ms. Garro, it was never able to arrange an interview. Consequently, the Committee was totally frustrated in this aspect of it's investigation, but yet believes that there is” a ‘a stusang possibility. that Lee Harvey Oswald did attend a twist party at the home of Ruben Duran. The Committee also considers it possible that Lee Harvey Oswald contacted pro-Castro Students at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, heréinafter UNAM.) as claimed by Oscar Contreras Lartigue.  ence-Section _¥i;-B,-above_for-deteils. ) Silvia Duran admitted that she had told Oswald of two ways in which he could get a Cuban visa: 1) he could get an intran- sit visa by first obtaining a visa to another Communist country such as Russia; 2) he could obtain a regular Cuban visa by knowing someone in Cuba who would, after—a—fashion, vouch for nim. (ey It is possible that after Oswald's attempts to obtain a visa by the first method were frustrated
X76 on Saturday, September 28, that he effort to locate someone trusted by the Cuban Consulate to ce could have learned of the pro-Castro group at UNAM vouch for him. here is no direct evidence about how es Contreras says that Oswald first contacted him as he was = i leaving a round-table discussion at the school of philosophy.” 7¢ It is known that, in 1963, the Duran’ s were close friends with the Chairman of the Philosophy Department at UNAM, Ricardo Guerra, who held seminars on Kant, Hegel and Marx ; 4. ae eo ete me in the Duran®é home. It is possible, if Silvia Duran had more than just a purely business relationship with Oswald, that she referred Oswald to one of Guerra's Marxist seminars in his search for help. Unfortunately, Contreras does not name who headed the round table discussion at which he met oswarall ss rvia Duran denied that she referred Oswald to anyone for help. 77 Ricardo Guerra is presently the Mexican Amabassador to East Germany and was not available to the Committee for an interview. On both, the Committee's trips to Mexico,the Mexican Government told the Committee that Mr. Contreras would be made available for an interview. The interview never occured.’ (gee-appondin 3+) Although the Committee's attempt to investigate Mr. Contreras' allega- the alleqyetion - tiong met targety. with. frustration, He teh! that those 2 elena) S can not be dismissed, Cxte RRS = D. Was Lee Harvey Oswald alone while he travelled in Mexico? The Warren Commission concludéd that Lee Harvey Oswald 1179 travelled alone while he was in Mexico. All of the witnesses,
RD? with the exception of Elena Garro de Paz who stated that 1? Oswald was accompanied by two "beatnik looking boys" ~See Section VI, t;—ebeve—for_details.) at Ruben Duran's party, have stated that when they saw Oswald in Mexico he was alone. But yet the Committee does not believe that it can. readily dismiss Ms. Garro's allegation that Oswald had a companion in Mexico in light of: 1) the corroboration of details of Ms Garro's story and the manner in which the American an te aati amarante “ied _authorities handled the investigation-of-that~story™ UT eo Seetionlitr-t7aeere.); 2) The possibility that someone Woe ‘ impersonated Oswald in Mexico (Ses"Seetier-VEt== eesome .) the and 3) the similarity in/description of Oswald by Ms. Duran ee rie Mere ae netted te Me 0b ey re anetnasanteey nem nuns ene tae nar AoE and Mr. Azcue and the description of Oswald's companion by Ms. carrg!®* ( SeerséetBns VA B end Se -ove: )