14-00000 ° * . ‘ . AIEEE is men ST a AN ctl aan tbe meat of approne* ing likely candidates, He said ore would ba dona in coning weeks. I asked if this vee to be a RF stow -~ or vhethor the le-ders of che FW and other Cuban éGlenents would ba conauited, He indicated that this was the plan - that ganera) agrecont would be sought - and that 61] groups would be froe to sug-est candidates, However, he felt it was quite possible. for axample. that the Fad sould sugress eamiidates who vould not mat the atrist standards thet would ba 93% and would hava to be rejected. He was not clear as to who would exercise this power of veto - but I gather that he felt that the SRP which represents of will represent (in his nind) the party which cowsanis the greatest respect vithin the country, would exercise this prerogative. As I say, he waa a little fuszy on this point ~- he ney not have wished to tip his hand. or he may have felt that, it waa a little prematics for hin to discuss this nattor at greater length, . CONSTITUTION oF ae I said to RAY. "I wniderstand you do not want to retain the Constitution of 1940," Ne a-iied at this. He said this question kas been put to-hin befors. Often belligerantly. . However, he esid, each tine that he has explained why he foels that the Constitution must be rewritten hea has ended up convincing the person in question that oortain faatures of the Constitution of 1940 are either wiwerkeble, undecoeratic or obsolete. He said fow of the people who get worked up over the Constitution have ever read the Constitution asi therefore do not kmow whet they are talking about, He said the Constitution ig not like the American Constitution which seta cub its rrecents in general terms and eovers basic questions of ccvarment. The Cuban constitution is a long, rec-bl ing dooument that cftea goes into minute detaits of rules and reguintions 4eh have no plaes in the basic Jav of the land. First he said. he wanted to make i$ absolutely clear that he "leves” those provisions of the Constitution which guarantee individual liberties, private property. ete. Eovever, there are other parts of the Constitution wiich ere inpracticable, With respect to Agrarian Reform. he pointed out, the Constitution reyuires immediate paynent. jn ‘gash, Hé anid in no country of the world has on agrarian rrogram been carried out . with inrmediate oash paynents. Not only doss tha governsent not have the — monsy to carry cut such a rrogram, but if it. 11d-it would result in inflation and a sorious disloa:.tion of the ecmmomy, The electoral lava, he said, are very complex and thoge raletiniy: to- apport Lomment af the Congress eaa cnly result in corruption, T rematked: ., SYoy mean thoy are writtea in such a way ‘that they invite eorruption? He said: "Fore than that, they force corruption, ® Me aaid under the present ast-up coe >as to either be a millionaire or be able to borrow 200,000 pesos (and hus rnecert commitments) in orier ta be eleatad to gongress, He said te would like to see this part of the Constitution written along the Amgrieoan lines. Also, he enid the lawa relating to the raisine of revenues are archaic, Ne gaid thet tn onler to ae yuire noney for a given vrovran, a spocifla tax zust be applied designed
9. 10, bn to provide that money. He said that what is neaded are fever taxea, but mere general taxes which will provide the revenue neaded without the neosssity of a hodge-podge of tax bi’1s, Ne said that Felipe Pazos, Rufo Lopes Fresiet, cnd other exyerienesd finance men arree that this part of the Constitution must be rovieed. I said: "why not ‘ esand the Constitution rather then rewrite it?* Ne replied that thig wos ea possibility, bub that i¢ would be core practicable to write a workable Constitution providing a1] the guarantees of a dexocracy bot oniting a lot of the irrelevant ani uiworkeble features of the current one, HIS PERSONAL PLANS, I said I understood that he was plamiing to rotura to Cuba and asked if thia was correct. He said he and others of big - grcup plan to return at the appropriate tine but first he wanted to bs sure that he had nailed down certain political and support matters here, He said be was hopeful that the "political? ocngiderations ~ which he — indiented (without clarification) were going quite satisfactorily = would be satisfactorily conaliuied in "two weeks or 80," WLESINGER .- ' asked: "Do you mean after 20 Januery?" SY emilad but nade no reply,. He aaid thet he hed hoped that ho had settled the matter of the logistical support when he talked to Kr, B last, but it now appears that it 1s not settled and that they nay have to return to Cuba without this support, He aaid he was leaving for New York on 9 January and would rensin there unti] Saturday, 15 Jonuary. He said he could be reached through Raul CHIBAS. I told him that I thought he siould return, as . goon as he could, and that wo wore prepared to assist him in every way * ‘ possible, ineluding providing him with a'comamicator. He eald we had already trained a com.unicator for his group who had been infiltrated inte Cuba and he wendered viere that men was at the progent tine = whether in Huvana or the hille. Ueilther I nor WIESINGER could enlirhten him on this point, except to acy that he vas safely in Cubs. During the entire interview. with no exception, RAY wag hie ugnal quiet. soft-spoken self. Fowover, ho iid sow ecotion when he ashed ne. if I thougrt sweone wae trying to sabotace his efforts to shipply the Fosistanes groups in Cuba. For example, te first broucht up ani it wes “ost obvious that it ia a catter ef great ecnesrn—te him. the matter of the plans, maps. ete., for the MRP action arainat the Isle of Pines, Ue said a carefully coorlinated plan hed beori laid on. That , BARQUIN discussed it with w insay. * That BARIWIN asked Jdomy" if the map and other pupors could be deliered in Cuba within 43 hours,: *Jirsy"® assured DARQUIN that they could and B.NYTIN banded them over, RAY sadd that BAR WIN erred in doing this as they had there own . . faeilities fer transmitting the fapers, The papers never arrived at ‘ their destination, ner have thoy aver boon heard frve arain, As a corse qusnes. 2 plan of great in--rtanee hai te be abandoned, and an irreplaceable oprortunity lost. ie vasa extranely agitated wen he , talked of this matter ani although JILN' G28 and T attempted to agcure him that +e vas cot be'ng anbotaved wii thet there were no "eax uniste" trying to frustr:to tie cotivities, ba nenetheless is ee
14-00000 12. worked up on the issue and will net be ecntent until he hag a satisfactory explanation. Now, he says, ho is confr-nted vith the delay in the air drop to the peonle in the Escambrays, "Do you think scasone wants these men wiped cut for scons reason or other and that this is why these unacceptable coniitions are placed at the last minute?® Ne we acsured nothing could bo farther fren the truth, but atill this is a concrete example of hie belief that he has not received tha support that he has been lead to believe he will reoadive, ERP INTILLIGINCS ORGANIZATION, We disouseed briefly the MRP intel . group being organizad under WIESINGSR's guidanes, Ve pointed out that little prerress had ben made due to the fnot that RARQUIN ~ AYts designee for the job ~ had so many other responsibilities that he eould not cive this matter hia wiivided attention, RAY laughed and said that BRIN has beon given no othor res;onsibilities, but that ke has sought cut other rearonaibi‘ ities on hia own which are tine taking. He promiaed to think about this and was agresabla to assigning a “airt sleeve" type of cperator to work with WiTSMem on the nuts and bolts, The nome of Nicolas VNIDOZA waa sugcested by the underaigned (in prior consultetion vith WISSINGTR) as e pergon of cousiderable intel ligened and drive and ondowed with a willingness to carry cut orders, Nicolas, wo is a brothar of ons of RATIs Closest man. Ignacio MEVDOZA. was accoptabie to RAY ond he asked - WISSINGER if he sould ascertain Nieo'as' yresent vhereabsuts so that he could be propositioned on the aubject. . The meating broke up after ten of clock, It was cordial throughout anid I feel cleared the air a little although it settled no matters of Gonsequenca, I told RAY I waa poing to Washington of Fanday and, after consultations, might wish to saq h'm again, He said he would weleone enother get-together and that I sould reach him through CHIBAS during the current week,