10. .ing Section, S-E-C-R-E-T NO FOREIGN DISSEM -~ 4- CS-311/04298-64 consulate,” Since there are no official Cuban misstons in Central America, the agent nogaa lly makes his way to Mexico and obtains © his Cuban visa there, In order to keep secret from the auther~- ities in his own country that he is going to Cuba, the agent eandidate gives another destination, and the Cuban consular . offices help by issuing his Cuban visa on a separate sheet of : paper instead of stamping it in his passport. The agent candi- date may pay hig own passage, but usually he ts supplied funds or an airline ticket through @ local DGI agent or the leftist group te which he belongs; the funda are issued by the Central Process- Whether he ts issued a ticket or given money to buy his own, the funds originate with the DGI and are forwarded to the candidate’s area through the DGI representation in the Cuban Embassy in Mexico, _DGI officers attached. to Cuban consulates are alerted to assist agent candidates in their travel. The agent is given a password, which varios from place to place; agents from El Salvador, for ' example, are told to mention “Mauricio.” When a DGI officer at a consulate interviews visa applicants, he expedites the visa for . ‘ anyone using the proper password; if the password is not used, he . F Stalls the applicant for several days while he cables Havana for authority to issue a visa. If the visa is issued in Mexico, the agent trainee is given a plane ticket on Cubana, the Cuban Govern- ment airline, and is ‘old when he is to leave. Accommodations and subsistence are provided if the trainee has to wait for passage, Agent candidates from British Guiana sometimes travel to Cuba by small boats, not regular Shipping service, Agent trainees going to Cuba use a variety of cover stories. For the local authorities, their travel is to some other destination, often as tourists, students, or laborers, For their own group, no cover story is required; for their families and friends, tour- ist or student travel is the usual explanation, For persons out- side the group, if Cuba is known as the destination, the cover story is a scholarship for study at a Cuban school or university. Groups of trainees from the same leftist organization often travel together from their own country to Mexico and thence to Cuba, but intelligence agent trainees always travel alone, Upon arrival at the Havana airport, trainees are met by DGI officers appearing as ICAP officials, The DGI has an arrangement with the Cuban immigration authorities under which persons of DGI interest are cleared through entrance formalities without compli- cations, The trainees are placed in hotels while final training arrangements are made, then are transferred to the schools where their training will be given, or to private houses or apartments if they are intelligence trainees, The case officer from the DGI department which will thenceforth control their activities is re- sponsible for them during their stay in Cuba, Using the funds allotted by the department, he provides them lodging, food, per- sonal expenses, médical care, and anything else they need during the training period; shoes, clothing, and personal items are drawn for them from the Dal warehouse, As far aS possible, DGI trainees live the normal life of students and use the cover story that they are studying on Cuban Government scholarships. Their movements in Havana are not restricted, except that arrangements are made to keep them away from fellow- citizens visiting or living in’Cuba, Since most of their train- ing iS given in Havana, and the course is intensive, they do not 5S-E-C-R-E-T NO FOREIGN DISSEM
Li. S-E-C-R-E-T NO FOREICN DISSEYM ~ § = CS-311/04298-64 usually travel to other parts of Cuba during the anstruction period, unless they are taken by the schocl to participate in national campaigns for which all students ar° dratted, such as cane-cutting and coffee-picking. After the training course is completed, if there is any delay in returning students to their own country, they may travel outside Eavana; trips are arranged and financed by the DGI liaison officer in ICAP. During délay periods, however, they are at the disposal cf the school, which may use them in “voluntary” campaigns cr other ways. Guerrilla agents of the same nationality are kept tcgether if they belong to the same organization, but trainees from different crganiza- tions of the same country are separated. Trainees of two nation=- alities are never put together, and forigners are. never grouped with Cubans, In both livirg quarters and training, the illegal intelligence agent is separated from guerrilla agents, All trainees are encecuragéd to have as little contact as possible with persons outside. th school, Upon arrival in Cuba, each agent _is assigned a pseudenym, which he uses throughout his training. actually, within the guerrilla schools, students in either large or Small groups use their real names, Since their identiti-s are usuaily krewrn to their fellows from earlier asscciation or traveling together, The pseudonym is primarily a means cf protecting the Student from identification by persons outSide the school. For & time, the Dil used the pseudonym only during the triining period and assigned another pseudonym when the agent returned homy, but the ccnfusion ef keepe- “ing separate files was so great that the training pseudonym was adopted as perman-nt. Sometimes, however, pscudenymsS are still changed, for security reasons, when the student leaves Cuba or aftt->s he has returned to thy field. Training of Guerrilla Agents 12. 13. The LN Department, and specifically th- case officer in charg? of a group of agents to be trained as guerrillas, arranges for their instruction in the ER Department (Department cf Special Schools - Departamento Escuelas Especiales) of the Der, The case officer himself doéS not conduct thé training, which is entirely an EE Department responsibility. The stud-nt group iS assigned to one of the EE Department schcols in Havana, by nataenality: training groups are as large as 25 and a3 small as three o: four persons, Courses last three to Six months, depending on the type of traine ing and the ultimate mission cf the agents, but in Special cases may last as long as a ysar (two Guatemalars were trained that long). The instructors ar> ail military, drawn from the Cuban army; there is one for each military specialty, and a pelitical instructor, Training covers all aspects of guerrilla warfar-+, weapons hanad- ling, explosives, Sabotage, demolition, nilatary tactics, combat engineering, etc., as well as means of countering anti-guerrilla activities, Weapons are of both American and Communist-Bloc provenance, Some specialized training 1s given, for example, there is a School for frogmen at the meuth cf the Jaimanitas River in Barlovento, west of Havana, and two Guatemalans and a Dominican were trained aS frogmen during 1563. Guerrilla agents de not normally, however, receive any communications training (secret writing, radio, etce.): when they return home, their channel of communication for sending information and receiving instruction and support is through the organized group to which they belong. S-E-C-R-E-T NO FOREIGN DISSE
14, 18, 16, -S-~E-C-R-E-T NO FOREIGN DISSEM -6- CS-311/04298-64 Practice im guerrilla warfare and weapons and explosives handling is. given on the school premises in Havana, In addition, both dur- ing the course and near its conclusion, groups of students are - taken to the Escambray Mountains in Las Villas Province to put their training into practice and to Jearn to live off the country. They are integrated into regular Cuban army units ‘for short periods and take part in any military activities then in progress, During 1963, for example, a group‘of Guatemalans and a group of Salvadorians were- taken separately to the Escambray and partici- pated in the operations then being conducted by the Cuban army against anti~Castro guerrillas in the area, Guerrilla students are required to meet a standard of complete familiarity with all the-information and material forming part of their instruction. Examinations are given regularly; students who fail them are required to repeat the instruction. A student may have to repeat the entire course if he cannot pass the neces~- sary examinations, There are many failures, An agent candidute who proves completely incapable of mastering the course is : removed from the school, and an effort is made to find him a special job elsewhere, During the course, the instructors issue monthly reports to the school administration, both on the course as a whole and on the performance of each student. A copy is sent to the case officer, Reporting on students covers personal attitude, discipline, capability in study, political level, etc. While guerrilla training is in progress, two special preparations for the future are made, The first is the arrangement of the agent's travel to his target area, either his own country or another, Passports and other documents are prepared for his use on the return trip; funds are allocated for his future activity; and provisions are made for his carrying money or possibly special equipment back with him if that is required, The second thing is the assessment of the trainee for other possibilities, Through- out the course he is observed and evaluated; if he shows more thaa usual aptitude and ability, he comes under consideration as a potential intelligence agent for collection of information or penetration of his home government. If a trainee is assessed as Suitable for intelligence-agent work, he is removed from the guerrilla course and receives special instruction for more clandestine and more complicated tasks, Training of Intelligence Agents 17. Intelligence (illegal) agents, from whatever source they are drawn (forcigners visiting or resident in Cuba, contacts of DGI agents or organizations abroad, or guerrilla trainees selected for Superior abilities), come under the DGI [llegal Department, which is responsible for their recruitment, training, and subsequent handling. Since they are truly clandestine agents, their rela- tionship with the DGI requires special security from its incep- tion, They travel to Cuba alone rather than in a group, and in Cuba they are kept apart from other persons of their own nation- ality and from one another, Agents of Cuban nationality are also kept apart from other nationalities and during training lead normal lives as far as possible. Both Cubans and foreigners are kept from.contact with the Cuban Government or official circles to avoid suspicion of any government connection, As with guer- rilda trainees, agents arc assigned pseudonyms for use ‘with the general public in Cuba and for use in field operations later, Agents are not allowed any knowledge of any DGI installations S-E-C-R-E-T . NO FOREIGN DISSEM
18. 19, 20. S-E-C-R-E-T NO FOREIGN DISSEN -7- : CS-311/04298-64 except the ones to which they are specifically assigned for train- ing, ind never enter any DGI official establishment or the cage officer’s home, . A foreign agent candidate arriving in Cuba is first debriefed by the case officer on his background and qualifications, since up to that time the DGI has only advance notice of his selection and knows Little about him. The interview is recorded, but without the trainee's knowledge, On one occasion In early 1964 a case officer arranged to meet a new trainee .in a Havana restaurant for the preliminary interview,: The case.officer provided himself with a@ pocket tape recorder, which he tested in advance and found was in good order, When he started to record the interview, however, he discovered that he had either forgotten to adjust the mechan- iss after he had tested it, cr he pushed the playback instead of the record button; the restaurant was suddenly electrified by a voice Saying: “Testing, ons, two, three; testing, one, two, three.” The interview was hastily concluded and was rescheduled the next day in'the safehouse where the agent, a Guatemalan, was lodged: in this case, of course, the agent was aware that it was being recorded, The results of the interview are entered in a biographical questionnaire covering all aspects of the agent’s family situation, political viows, background and education, employment experience, connecticns, and intelligence potential; the document forms the basis of the agent's DGI personal file. In addition, the agent is required to write a complete report on the operational situation in his country, including types and Styles of dress, cating habits, working hcurs and holidays, location of public buildings and places of entertainment, the press and its type and circulation, urban and rural transporta- tron, educational facilities, airlines, persenal documents for idertification, and loval linguistic idioms, In cases where an intelligence agent is selected from among guerrilla trainees, he may remain under the jurisdiction of the LN Department, which retains him as a guerrilla agent but arranges for his training as an illegal agent also, Training for intel- ligence work, however, iS always separate from guerrilla training and is not revealed to the Communist Party or leftist group sponsoring the agent, who becomes, in effect, a Semi-overt Cuban agent in guerrilla activities and a clandestine agent in intel- ligence reporting or other functions, One such agent, trained in Cuba in 1963, was returned to the Dominican Republic about mid- 1963: he carries on revolutionary activities with the Dominican Popular Movement (Gilovimiento Popular Deminicano - MPD) as a knowa Cuban-trained guerrilla and at the samé time works as an illegal agent (under the LN Department), without the knowledge of his MPD colleagues, as a penetration of the MPD, The case officer from the Illegal Department arranges for the com- plete support of the agent during training, providing him lodging in a private house or apartment, Supplying his food and clothing and personal equipment from the DGI warehcuse as is done for guerrilla agents, and kecping him in pocket money, If the agent is married, the expenses of his dependent family are also covered by the DGI, The case officer dots not give any instruction, but arranges with the MI Department (Department of Technical Opera- tional Support) of the DGI for training the agent in the skills he will require for his future mission, The MI Department has no Schools or regular training sites but uses private houses or apartments, which are precured and maintained by the DGI General S-E-C-R-E-T NO FOREIGN DISSEM