176-10036-10046 7 aN Ne AGENCY : : 176-10036-10046 RECORD SERIES : AGENCY FILE NUMBER : RECORD NUMBER : Embassy Madrid : Madrid TO: TITLE : : 7/22/1963 PAGES : “SUBJECTS : DOCUMENT TYPE : CLASSIFICATION : RESTRICTIONS : CURRENT STATUS: . : 9/10/2000 OPENING CRITERIA : COMMENTS : ORIGINATOR FROM DATE DATE: OF LAST REVIEW JFK ASSASSINATION SYSTEM IDENTIFICATION FORM NARA National Security Files DOS Airgram . 3 National Security Files, Box 44: Cuba Cables, 7/16/63-7/31/63. Box 1
_ DEPARTMENT OF STATE nL, BO CUO “4 FORRM USE ONLY ." GROUP.4° 0” Op pdirhgraded at 3<year - intervals. i Declassitied 12 years after. date. of f origin. _received by! and the reporting officer. Through | 7 ae / the Embassy had already received a report on a: Spanish 7 i police interrogation of Menendez, held. a few days . earlier. ; oO : * Menendez. ‘yelated ‘that he had held his job in Vienna - since November ; . ; “963 and that he had left on account of ideological incompatibility. with | the Castro regime. He gave as the reason for his late defection, the fact |. that he was trying to convince his wife to accompany him; . she refused and, ". 88 far as he knows, is still, in Vienne and will return to Cuba. + According, to Menendez, ‘there remain three officers’ in “the Cuban’ AN, ” on ‘Legation’ in Vienna, all of them thoroughly convinced communists. FORRESTAL : |: Charge d'Affaires Amado PALENQUE, a Communist theorist, was sent. from FORRES a Havana, ‘to. replace Fernando GAINZA, who also defected toSpain (See. NSO a Airgram ‘A-520y¢ Rims. Felenque is also accredited ¢o:the. Austrian Govern= KAYSEN ca - | sate and has the title of Third Secretary, The third officer ia Roberto. KILDUFF - ~ |.” BERAR, First Secretary of Legation, a forceful man of little education. — KLEIN -- ae a Menendez considers Mrs. Palenque very clever and thinks she really. runs — KOMER wo |. the office... ‘Deseribed as security-conscious, Mra. Palenque has the "keys , ors io --) the safes handles all classified correspondence, and is not above oo. anor Listening in on’ telephone conversations made through the ‘hegation bwitch~ SCHLESINGEE, spoard.s L “She is in charge of the two-key, safes SMITH . 7 4 fe ly other Cuban Government employee yesiditig in \ fiona’ ‘is ‘nis “Orando RODRIGUEZ, Cuban Ambassador to the Atomic Energy Commission. . Menendezy interestingly enouehe ¢ desoribed Rodrigues in terms similar | » “WIESNER eo ome ~ * pop DEPT. we itn = ms? a Red ‘ty? — néeusep 7 | . : - 119-63 ea re Clases icauce ipprowa cy: SS a
Page 2 2- tz mnadid™ those used by GAINZA during his interview ‘with Embassy officers. Both of then thought that Rodriguez was a decent. -fellow- -end- an” aniti=éommunist.. However, he’ was in.11] health and hed a wife and a number of children, which made it difficult ' for him to break with the Castro regime. Menendez expressed the opinion — that . . Rodriguez was saving some money to be prepared for the day when he receives _: “rerders to return to Havana, at which. time” he would most likely disregard his - ~~ inetruetion and. remain outside of Guba. His wife is outepokenly anti-commmistic. Menendez described ‘the Legation as not being exactly a ‘hotbed of activity. bos Chores are minor and involve mainly contact with other bloc diplomatic. repre- .- “s sentatives and increasingly closer contact with the Austrian Commmist Party. oo While under Gainza's regime locals were hired by the Legation, now they | are taker. Loe a aS ‘only upon recommendation by the Austrian CPs , : os - * KOPLENIC, ‘FISCHER and other Austrian Communist leaders ¥ were * grequent ‘Vieitors to ‘the Cuban Legation, Menendez said, as was an Austrien newspaperman by the name of ‘Bruno FREY, who-had lived some time in Mexico. Menendez believed that Frey “was on the Cuban payroll, furnishing political information on the Austrian scene. Frey's daughter, ‘Elizabeth, was employed by the Legation as a receptionist. “RPormerly, the Legation employed a Peruvian by the name of Dr. José CALDERGON a Mss I: anslator. . Calderon, however, stauchly anti-communistic and a good Catholic, na py h é) ‘was fired... He was replaced by a lady with the first name of DORA, recommended by - be ay “the Austrian CP. Another Austrian woman, whose name Menendez did not recall, - ‘yy yassists her part time. The Palenques live in the same building in which the - a Legation is.located, on Wiedner. Hauptstrasse No. oe bat on & + different floor. a _— ; Behar. Lives nearby... os ae wo peg tee Bt a ete i: BDI clot a ~ Menendes ‘described his. own 1 work as “insignificant, ‘ ‘and said he wae mainly " concerned with the monthly mailing of 2000 copies of a cultural magazine, which »'- was edited in Havana but translated into German by the Legation. Additional copies were given out by the Legation to visitors. Moreover, he attended cultural vi.) fumetions and ‘lectured in Austrian institutes of higher learning on Cuba. He also assisted in’ the recent drive of the Cuban Government for the hiring of foreign _ ‘technicians - ‘and ‘interviewed. Austrian technicians dnterested in working in Cuba. ~ ‘He ‘set: the mumbér of those’ interviewed at six. Menendez claimed not to have had access | to. Glassified information and said that Mrs. Palenque, who controlled. the gate. was so careful »that he was not able to take any papers out when he defected. “He claimed to have had no knowledge of the intelligence and commnications work effected bythe Legation, although he said he was sure that they had no radio — ‘equipment. . Pouches were delivered weekly to the Czech Embassy in Vienna for _ transmittal to Prague and onward to Hevena. A Cuban diplomatic courier came once - eB. month. oa. a . Swing ‘through. the European capitals. cs ee Se ‘There ‘was only one Cuban ‘student in dustrie. : He was s David GARCIA x Santamaria, ‘studying’ in Graz. In. Menendez'-' opinion, Garcia was: 3 disillusioned with Gastro | oo and. would probably, not return: A Cubes a ay de As os. a _ Bos Aviator frequéntly ¢ seen in the Legation’ was’ DOMINGUEZ 2 (emu), a Spanish exile, _— “who was active in the World Peace Organization. Menendez recalled also that _ during the last few ‘months, he had seen three Americans at the Legation. One was a
o ee GE aE OUP TEP a & G4, nell student, whom he charac terized as a beatnik type who came with a girl, who © _ Probably was also an American,inquiring about the possibility of obtaining a visa for Cuba. The second. man, whose name he believed to have been Robert GOGD; came five or six times in-June. He was also interested. in going to Cuba. He thought _ that Mr. Good was about 30 years old. Finally, about eight monthe agoa- , .'. My. PORTER called at the Legation. Mr. Porter, who returned. to the ‘Legation in: June, claimed to be an ex-serviceman; to have been in the US Army and to have . participated in the Normandy landings. -Porter described himself as a student of history and sociology at the University, of. Vienna and asked. for. agazines § and . : books about present day Cuba. . wT gg A Shwe te Menendez was reluctant ‘to tell anything about his training for his 8 job, ° cos: and claimed to have been instructed briefly in the Foreig Office by RUIZ DE VELASCO "°° on cultural affairs. He alleged that he received his position. through a passing '. 1 gequaintence with Cuba's present Ambassador. to Bolivia Roberto > Ay whom. he . vo» befriended during-the Batista regine. — eee BLE See on ‘Comments From Menendez! story end the. Spanish police: report. it. appears ‘that his ‘motivation for defection was only in part-if at all-connected with his . ideological opposition to Castro, At the Legation, working as a receptionist- 7 ' typist. was a Spanish girl, Matilde HERRERA, and it seems that Menendez got. emotionally involved with her, and when he received orders to return ,he abandoned | his wife and son and followed her to Spain, where she had gone a few days before him. It would appear that Menendez had a moré active part in the operation of the : | Legation.than he admits, and at least in the times of Geinza had access to- ae . elassified material, This he plays dowm, because his stay in Spain depends on hie “+. ability to convince the Spanish authorities that he had never been a Commmist and mo ~ 2 that. he is only a. small fish. Additional debriefing « on some > intelligence Points ‘will be onduc ted Shrove CAS channel. Laks ht “ * Livingston De Watrous —— : “Counselor of Embessy. _ OF. Political. Afiairs - ee ee hegre cme renee poe eat ates