176-10036-10067 JFK ASSASSINATION SYSTEM IDENTIFICATION FORM AGENCY : NARA RECORD NUMBER : 176-10036-10067 RECORD SERIES : National Security Files AGENCY FILE NUMBER : ORIGINATOR : CIA FROM : TO: TITLE : Training DATE : 2/18/1963 PAGES : 9 SUBJECTS : DOCUMENT TYPE : CLASSIFICATION : RESTRICTIONS : CURRENT STATUS : DATE OF LAST REVIEW : 9/10/2000 OPENING CRITERIA : COMMENTS : National Security Files, Box 59: Cuba Subjects, Cuban Subversion, 2/18/1963. Box 1 q te 4m re Ro. oe Fw. AMM MMM mou
err ee & § er © Aw = wy F wy ae / 4 C SECRET DRAFT BRIEFING NOTES | 18 February 1963 aes oe TRAINING We estimate that at least 1,000, and perhaps as many ‘as 1,500 persons came to Cuba during 1962, from all the other Latin American countries with the possible exception of Uruguay, to receive idéological indoc- trination or guerrilla warfare training er both. ‘More have gone in 1963 despite the limited facilities’ for: reaching Cuba at. present. A. The largest contingents. have come from Venezuela, Peru, Ecuador, Argentina, and ‘Bolivia. B. Some of the courses are as short as four weeks, designed to. lét it appear that the trainees had merely attended some conference or celebration and done a little sightseeing. ¢,. ‘Other - courses last. as long as a year, and may include intensive training in such things as sabotage, espionage, or psychological warfare, "Many trainees have stayed on in Cuba indefinitely. We have devoted a great deal of effort’ to monitoring Latin: American travel to Cuba at the main jump-off points such as Mexico and Curacao. We have to do this because the Cubans go to great lengths to conceal the fact that some of these trainees have ever been to Cuba; and how long they stayed. SECRET
We know a great deal ‘about this travel from our "penetrations of the Communist parties, from con- ‘trolled agents we have been. able cto maneuver into the training courses in Cuba, and from coopera- tive travel control authorities in Latin American | countries. | | The Cuban Embassy in Mexico City gives the trainee a visa on a:separate piece of paper, so that his passport, when he goes home, will only show that ‘he has. been in Mexico. We have a record, however, of those who fly on to Cuba. In other cases, particularly in the case of travel through Montevideo before the quarantine, the Cu- bans furnished passports under other names for travel: by way of Curacao. | We derive some of our figures from travel control points, and another set from the information we receive fron penetration agents of established | reliability in the Communist parties. Some of the Latin American governments are also able to main- tain fairly accurate lists of their nationals known to have been. in Cuba. We get a certain amount of crosschecking from lists of names fur- nished us by. several of our agents who have Qe SECRET
SECRET undergone training, and in confessions of cap- . tured guerrillas who had been in Cuba, Thus in the case of Peru, for instance, we come up with a list of 235 names of individuals known to have made extended stays in Cuba in 1961 and 1962. We have to make allowance for some who did not receive guerrilla training, and allowance _in the opposition direction for those whose names have escaped our surveillance. But we are guided in these adjustments by the cross-checking infor- mation I have mentioned. _ Some of the trainees arrive, and many go home, by way. of the Iron Curtain and Western Europe, using Soviet, Czech, or Cuban aircraft and. prob- ably shipping as well for the trip between Cuba and the Bloc. This is another attempt to conceal their movements, and in some cases permits fur- ther indoctrination and training in Bloc countries. We feel fairly certain that under the circum- stances our estimate of 1,000. to 1,500 guerrilla ‘warfare trainees in 1962 is an accurate one. We also believe that the tempo of this training is being stepped up, just as we know that it increased in 1962 over 1961. age / SECRET ~J
C _ SECRET 7 WII. “The basic training covers cross-country movement of guerrillas,. firing, care of weapons, and general | guerrilla tactics. took such a four-week course more than a year ago, ostensi- bly going to Cuba for a convention, and returning to his Havana hotel every few days during the course to spread the word that he had been sightseeing. A. took a longer course and. then was sent home by way of Europe has ' given us a great deal of detail on the type of training. He reports that some of the trainees remain indefinitely: The Cubans sometimes re- fer to these men as their International Brigade, Sometimes they are formed into national units from a particular country, in effect forming a - packaged cadre which can be returned to the home- land to lead a "Liberation Army." B, . A trainee who recently returned to After fellow trainees were asked to mark bridges and ‘other similar demolition targets on detailed maps of They were also required to fill ~4 SECRET
out a lengthy questionnaire on sabotage targets, - possibilities for subversion of police, methods for illegal entry and travel, suitable drop zones for air supply, possible points of attack against police and military posts, and similar information necessary for directing subversion and insurrection. Iv. We keep getting reports that in such countries as Colombia, Venezuela, and Peru, where there are guer- rilla forces either in action or in being in the hills, the Cubans carry on their training by providing instruc- tors or advisors for these forces. These reports are invariably second-hand, and we have not been able to confirm any of them. A. In some cases, it has turned-out that a reference to "a Cuban" with the guerrillas referred to someone who had-been trained in Cuba and was . training others, rather than a Cuban national. . . We know positively that three Cuban nationals - were involved in the strike violence at La: Oroya, Peru, last December, which culminated in some four million dollars worth of damage to the smelter of the American-owned Cerro de Pasco min- ing company. One of these Cubans has also been SECRET
“°° @®. OC SECRET ( directing ‘the armed invasions of. big ranches in - the Andean highlands by land-hungry Indians. ‘This information contributed to the decision of the Peruvian junta to crack down on. Communists in Jan- vary. Unfortunately, by that time the Cuban na- tionals had either gone underground or fled the country, and the Peruvians are still Looking for them, . We have no direct reports that these Cu- bans have worked with the Peruvian guerrillas. Cc. In Brazil, in fact, the complaint of guerrillas in training camps there was that they had been recruited by a promise of Cuban instructors, but found there were none, This came to light when the report ofa Cuban intelligence agent, relay- ing. their complaints | to Havana, turned up in the wreckage of the Varig airliner which crashed in Peru in November... . Dd. We do not rule out’ the possibility that there are’ Cubans in the field with active guerrilla forces, ‘but we have no evidence at present to prove it.