104-10308-10034 _ r . FEB. 60 —— ratte _ uid | oO |, . ROUTING AND RECORD SHEET | ‘ PRIOR TO FILING : TO: ACTION BRANCH 1. Fill in Seot. 2. on back. Detach back _* flap and forward to RID. 2. Destroy front cover sheet, unless it records significant action taken or comments requiring preservation. If file no. and title shown are not proper, insert proper file no. below and forward document to RID/AN. PROPER FILE NO. TS: ALL ADDRESSEES FILL IN SECTION { OM BACK, If APPROPRIATE COMMENTS WH/4 REGISTRY ROOM DATE C 1. MAY 1961 COPY DETACHED cand E oe B “A =| og © (iia NI; : NS » D> a Q { 4. % BERR REREE. EN) & % “ al Pinas B ae Pd, %, : PP ett EEE EE Ea EEL. LG ave Tgp gas! PD. a c | Byers Oy hits PB ed P le a . WH/4 REGISTRY FILE TITLE 17 " RID/FI - 19-120 ~/3° °C | apsteact | FILE NUMBER (PRIMARY CODE) REQUEST f ry 4 pk INDEX [7-JAO 7? DATE MICROFILMED DOCUMENT DATE DOCUMENT NUMBER \ N UFGA 01647 AS lax iy | Be 6100 “eaions SECRET wo | “py
din Key West by, fiching boat. from Cuba, on,2 May. “was bréught to the- ‘WAVE aréa he. same ‘day and debriefed rapidly. because he ” reported the existence of a plot’ to kill Fidel CASTRO during the week of aL May. His story follows. . 6 35. Hi was raised.in Oriente Piéy r “parents were owners of two smail fincas. He has a brother named V ctor -HERRERA.: . After his father's. ‘death | a few ‘years ago his brother. sold. on fincas and he stayed on with his mother at.the other. This wasa finca /caballerias, known. dale Las, Gorday. } worked the finca’ and also collect é 3, ‘About 4 November 1958 Subject < came to the U.S. but was ‘refused dinittance, allegedly because he refused to ask for asylum because he interpreted asking for _ asylum at that time as being in favor of Fidel CASTRO, On 9 February 1959 he began revolutionary activity with a small group affiliated. with the Movimiento De Democratico - Cristiano. One. oe, " FLEITES was his. first chief. Another person.in this. group was one Jose ‘'FADUL wilo now lives at 435 Winthrop Street, | Westbury, ‘New York. 4, During 1960 and 1961 he worked i in be h Havana and Oriente... ‘He eventually came under the command of a Dr,. ee oO was chief of the underground i in- _ Holguin, He organized a group in Tunas o were prepared.to go into. combat. upon - the e receipt of arms. ., These men, were. organized into 16. smaller. ‘groups; “ 5. In early 1961 Subject 1 met SORI Marin, the military coordinator of the Unidad Revolucionaria, while in hiding in the same house in Havana. SORI later _went to the U.S. to coordinate. military plans and to arrange for the delivery of: arms: “Pay tthe arms were to be delivered to his group in the Pueto Padre area, * CS py VF [AO- 3 [eee 22 May 1961 OMB Leet GF YI a
13-00000 ., | - SECRET = Ze 6. In March 1961 SORI, Rafael, and Francisco were arrested as the result of information furnished to G-2 by one Captain BERMUDEZ who was working under SORI and supposedly in command of a group of guerrillas in Pinar del Rio. BERMUDEZ has now infiltrated another guerrilla group in Quivaron, Subject t3 tried to organize a. ra@ii)to break SORI out of the military hospital but his my was bared 6 te G-2 by somebody on the hospital staff. After the arrest of SORI an (Englis e d(Bob EDDES }ook over the job of arranging for arms deliveries, The wliveried to t to the Pudtto Padre area were scheduled several times but delayed each time for various reasons. The final date was set for the week after the invasion. 7. When the air attack on Havana came on 15 April the militia took control of the streets by nine o'clock in the morning and further movement was impossible. Three key men were arrested immediately in the initial round-ups that were made by the militia. This was a general sweep in which they picked up anybody on the smallest grounds of suspicion. Subject escaped by hiding for two. days in the apartment of the Interventor of the Havana motion pictures theaters. The Unidad Revolucionaria had some arms. but only five magazines of ammunition for each gun. Some members of the group were in favor of beginning to fight even with these limited arms, but they were dissuaded because of the impossibility of moving people or materiel through the streets. 8. A large number of the key people in the Unidad Revolucionaria were arrested or went into asylum during the next few days. {Bob GEDDES s arrested about 19 April on the basis of an accusation from the manager of the Hotel Capri where 24 (GEDDES)was staying. Subject was given this information by the(two telephone operators in the hotel who worked for the UR. 9. Subject learned that five or six of his group leaders in Tunas were arrested in the initial round-up but they were later released, He believes that the organization in that area is substantially intact. He believes that the UR was badly damaged in Havana but that it is still functioning. He says that the MRR and various smaller organizations are practically destroyed. He believes that a small group called the Martianos have some assets left, but they cooperate with the UR, 10. Subject was offered the opportunity to get out of Havana by paying two thousand pesos for which he could get a false passport with an American visa and a ticket on one of the airlines. He said that he strongly believes that this is a racket organized by the Cuban G-2. It not only gets them a lot of money but also gives them a chance to smoke out people that they are looking for. Finally he arranged to leave Cuba via fishing boat. He had to hide under one of the seats until the boat was safely out of the harbor. SECRET Ss Ea
13-00000 . . - SECRET wo * ~3- 06 ll. Just before his dep rture? Subject's chief in the UR, one (Manuel RODRIGUEZ ho goes under the name off Luis LOPEZ,)tried to persuade him to stay because RODRIGUEZ Anew of a plot to capture or’assassinate Fidel CASTRO during the week of 21 May.0vThere were supposed to be six "Comandantes" and eight civilians in the plot. They were all people placed close to CASTRO, ‘and they had access to the keys to the arms depots throughout Cuba. It was their intention to open these and give arms to anybody willing to take them. They hoped by this means to provoke a general uprising. Subject said that he had had enough of such plots. He felt that if this one didn't come off right away if wouldn't come off at all, and that he was too hot to stay in Havana any longer to wait for it. 12. Subject said that Ramon FONT who works with Alberto FERNANDEZ of the Tejana was a member of the UR now in Miami who could confirm his identity and role in the underground in Cuba. 13, .In commenting on his experiences in the recent past Subject said that from the standpoint of the underground the invasion came three or four weeks too soon. Not enough people had received arms to enable them to engage in combat. He also said that if they had received some warning of the air attack they would at least have been able to get ready to use the arms they had. As it was they were completely paralyzed, He believes that now it is very difficult to hide or transport arms and that in any future uprising the delivery of arms will have to be more or less simultaneous to all groups and will have to take place at the time that we want the uprising to begin. The groups can be organized in advance and the places for the arms deliveries selected, but the actual delivery would have to be done in the manner described. 14. He knew of a UR, leader named(JUSTO who was supposed to be a very capable man. He did not know if JUSTO)was still at liberty or not. ob END OF DISPATCH SECRET yr