HW 54756 Doclda: 32255005 Page 7? Ray also revealed another instance concerning mention of assassinating him. That was shortly after March, I961, and the formation of the Cuban Revolutionary Couneél was announced, with Ray as a key member. Ray said he had a very close friend who had been a detective under Batista and had also had contact with the FB! both before and after the Revabution. Ray characterized the friend as "a very honest man," despite the fact he worked under Batista, and one he trusted. After the Council was announced, Ray said, this friend called him and told him he had been at a meeting composed of former members of Batista's Bureau of Investigation, called BRAC, which Ray characterized as "a repressive organization." Ray said: "One of those at this meeting in this house in Miami told my friend that they believed that Castro was going to be overthrown by the United States and that since | was getting too much power, they should eliminate me. My friend warned me that | should be careful. He said they made mention of using an American to do the job of killing me instead of a Cuban. Even now | do not know if the CIA had anything to do with that, or whether it.was just this group of Batistianos." Ray said that at the time he was told that the lteader of the group was named Faget (first name unrecollected), who is now dead. (Ray said he believes his son is working for U.S. Customs in Miami.) , Ray said he had heard of Frank Fiorini about that time but he never met him, "I heard of Fiorini," he said, "and | was told that he was something like an adventurer, a man of action with many contacts, but | had no direct knowledge of him. He was involved more with the Batistianos." Ray said he knows of no relationship between E. Howard Hunt and Frank Fiorini at the time. Concerning the Castro assassination attempt in Chile in I97I organized by Antonio Veciana, Ray said he was not associated with it nor did he know of anyone, except for Veciana himself, involved with it who had previousty worked with him. He was told, however, that Luis Posada may have been invotved, and he remembers Posada as someone Cisneros once recruited for an infiltration mission into Cuba. "Later," said Ray, "! found out he was so close to the CIA | decided not to use him anymore," Ray said he does not know Lucilo Pena or his involvement in the Chile attempt. Speculating as to who could have introduced Maurice Bishop to Veciana, Ray said there is the possibility that Rufo Lopez-Fresquettcould have been the link without knowing it. "Rufo is a good friend of mine," said Ray, "but he -more-
HW 54756 Docld: 32255005 Page @ usually talks too much to be directly invotved in clandestine activity. But at the time Rufo had very close association with high government officials and the CIA and | know that he and Veciana were very good friends and in the same business sphere. |! would say he may have mentioned Veciana's name to some of those people -and they contacted Veciana as a result, knowing from Rufo of Veciana's feelings about Castro." Ray's feelings toward Veciana took a negative turn in 1972, he said, when he was organizing the Parte Partido Revoluctonario de Pueblo (People's Revolutionary Party) in Puerto Rico. This was, said Ray, a great effort to reinvigorate the anti-Castro movement. Ray said that Veciana wanted to become part of the group. "At that time," said Ray, "we knew he was working in Bolivia and traveling around Latin America and we thought he could be of help to us. Ray said that Veciana promised that he could get $10,000 to contribute to the movement, but the money was never produced. "Almost as soon as he joined," said Ray, "he began participating in an attempt to divide the movement. He made a declaration accusing us of being in consortment with Castro and he knew that was a lie. Everything he said was just so unbelievable and he had things printed about me in Reptica accusing me of everything. He just made everything up. Ray blames Veciana for the lack of success of the movement and says he does not understand why he attacked him. Basicalty, he said, he believes Veciana is an opportunist. Ray was asked if he was familiar. with the Moa Bay Mindgng Company. He said he was. He recalls a meeting around’ June, 1959, when he was still in Castro's cabinet. "We wollld meet at the Banco International everytThursday in the afternoon with a group that dealt with the economic problems of the new government," he said. "“Lopez-Fresquet was the Finance Minister at the time. At one meeting, | remember Regino Boti, who was Minister of Economics, said that the people from Moa Bay had contacted him to see what could be done with the government to re-establish their operation. They had about a $70 million investment. But Castro said not to deal with them because they had worked too close with the Batista government." Ray was asked if he remembered where he was on November 22, 1963. Around that time, he said, he was spending most of his time in Puerto Rico but flying regularly to various countrtes in Latin America. The day that Kennedy was killed, he said, he was at a JURE meeting in Caracas. Group leaders from various countries were there, he said, and he remembers the assistant to the President of Venezuela coming in after lunch with the news that President Kennedy was shot. -more-
HW 54756 Ray said he also recalls that Rogelio Cisneros was at that JURE fieeting. When told that a file review revealed that Cisneros was reportedly scheduled to be involved in a pick-up of a cache of arms on Regaido Cay on November 23, 1963, a date which was changed to November 25th at the last minute, Ray said he recalled generally such an operation. "We had a boat in Costa Rica and we were supposed to pick up some weapons there but there was a mix up. | can't recall the details or the date exactly," he said. "Actually, Cisneros was the coordinator of such operations. | was informed of them, but he was the direct coordinator after they were improved." Ray was asked about his relationship with Andrew St. George who, according to file review, was with him on an attempted infiltration into Cuba. "Il think 1 first met him in Havana," said Ray, "when he passed through there on the way to the. Sierra Maestras to see Castro. | met him several times later when | came into exile and we exchanged information and ideas. He has something about him, a sincerity, that | like," Ray said he was not aware of the close relationship between Andrew St. George and Mitchell Livingston WerBell III. Asked if he had ever had any dealings with WerBell, Ray said: "The sunavabitch. |! would like to punch him in the nose, if you will forgive my saying that. Ray said his feelings about WerBell are based on an incident that happened in the Dominican Republic in 1965. At the time, after two failures, a final major infiltration operation into Cuba was being planned. "This was to be the first of a series of long and slow steps to build,a permanent opposition movement against Castro inside Cuba. This was supposed to be a very significant operation, not just another quick raid." Ray said he had already had his share of problems with the operation before his encounter with WerBell. Originally it was to be based out of Costa Rica, but political problems developed there and he had to move the operation out. He made arrangements to send the infiltration boat, the Venus, on to the Dominican Republic with its crew to set up a base there, Meanwhile, a supply of arms that were especially fabricated for JURE in California were seized in California. (They had been financed, said Ray, by a major "Buy-A-Rifle-For- $92" campaign among Cuban exiles; more than $100,000 was raised.) Then came the revolution in the Dominican Republic and the appearance on the scene of Mitchel! WerBell. Ray said he frantically made arrangements with the Venezuelan government to move his base of operations there and sent $750 of his personal money to the crew of the Venus for fue! to move the boat as quickly as possible to Venezuela and out from between the warring factions in the Dominican Republic. However, -~more- DoclId: 32255005 Page 9
what he later discovered, Ray said, was that WerBell was conspiring with his boat's crew, and mainly its leader, Jose Rabell, to convince them to go to Miami with the boat instead of Venezuela. That, of course, aborted the infiltration operation. "That's how WerBell stole our boat from us," said Ray. “After that our whole effort to get going again failed. By that time | was completely broke." Ray said he never did find out why WerBell was in the Dominican Republic or why he stole the boat from them. "I believe he was a CIA man," said Ray. Ray said he eventually wound up giving the boat to Nino Diaz_ for his anti-Castro operations. ~ Ray was asked about the incident concerning the visit of "Leon Oswald" to Silvia Odio. Ray said that when he was first questioned about it by the FBI, he was asked mostly about his feelings about her reliability and accuracy. "They told me that she said she had met Oswald," he said. "Il don't remember them telling me that the men who came to her said they were membersof JURE and were interested in buying arms. I don't think that was told to me. | told them that | knew she had some domestic problems and that she was under emotional strain from her divorce when she was living here in Puerto Rico, but | told them t would say she was sane. I| think she was a good person, a very bright person and a sane person." Ray was asked if he was ever told that Silvia Odio's stster also saw the three men who visited her apartment. He seemed surprised. "Il never did know that!" he said. "That to me has a lot of bearing. They never did tell me that. This is the first time | learned about that." Ray said that at the time he knew of no members of JURE -- going through Dallas in search of money of arms. He does ‘not recall! anyone by the name of Leopoldo or Angelo associated with JURE at the time. Ray said he had no American contacts in Dallas or major financial support from anyone there. Ray also said he did not recognize or had no association with individuals of the following names: Justin McCarthy, Bernardo DeTorres, Sam Acosta, Larrie Schmidt, Robert “Morris, Tony Sforza, Warren Frank and David Morales. He also said he had no association with Laureano Batista, but heard that Frank Fiorini was working with him at one time, HW 54756 Docld:32255005 Page 10