Interview: Eusebio Azcue Lopez Page 2 Azcue: | Eusebio Azcue Lopez. Blakey: ' And your date and place -of birth. Azcue: Oo August 15, 1911 Blakey: I'm sure you recall Mr. Azcue that we previously interviewed you on April 1, 1978. \ What we would like to do this time is ask you a few additional questions and we have brought from the United States some pictures with the hope that you might be able to identify some people. But before going to the pictures, I wonder if I could ask you some general questions about the procedures that were followed in the Cuban Consulate in the processing ‘ of Visa applications. Azcue: Um huh. Blakey: Who normally handled the visa applications? Azcue: The secretary--Silvia Durante--the secretary. Blakey: On what occasions would you handle one person? Azcue: - When the applicant made a request to meet me personally because of any particular problem. Blakey: Would there be any occasion in which a security ‘ officer associated with the Consulate would become involved in the visa application? Azcue: Never. That never happens. Blakey: I take it then it was the custom so before either the Cuban Consulate or the secretary of the Consulate to handle the visa applications?
Interview: Page 3 Azcue: Blakey: Azcue: Blakey: Azcue: Blakey: Azcue: Blakey: Azcue: Blakey: Azcue: ‘Blakey: Eusebio Azcue Lopez That is the common practice. You testified or indicated to us in your last conversation that you were recalled to Cuba in the latter part of November. Yes. After the assassination of President Kennedy on November 22, did an occasion arise where you had conversations with any of the people who had been stationed in Mexico City? No, they Mexico. Did you ever have a conversation with Ms. Duran after the assassination? No. She | ? She lived in Mexico. Did you ever meet her after November of '63? Two years later. And at that occasion did you have an opportunity to discuss the.assassination? No, I did not. She told me about her problems in Mexico with the Mexican police. But I was going to Canada , I was in Mexico on a transit 7 oo so I didn't have much time to speak with her. Did you discuss with her at that time your feeling that you relate to us on our last visit?
Interview: Eusebio Azcue Lopez Page 4 \, Azcue: I don't remember but I don't think so, because we had a very short talk and I think it was mostly about the problems she had had with the Mexican police. Blakey: Did you ever--have you seen her since that time? Azcue: No. Blakey: Have you been in correspondence with her? Azcue: No. Blakey: Have you had any telephone conversations with her? Azcue: No. Blakey: The Warren Commission Report indicates that Ms. Duran told the Mexican police that she called the Russian Consulate to inquire about Lee Harvey Oswald's visit. You indicated to us during our last visit that it was your memory that you called the Russian Consulate personally. Azcue: I never said that I had personally called the Russian Consulate. My recollection was that , I thought that the Russian Counselor had called me. Because his telephone call was passed to me. fe
Interview: Eusebio Azcue Lopez Page 5 ‘It is likely that it was Silvia Durante who called the Council and then gave the phone call to me. What I said was that it was strange that we had no reason to get concerned» about that problem. That was Oswald's problem not ours. So I always thought that the Russian Councilman had phoned me because I.was given the communication and talked to the Russian Counselor over the phone so I thought he was calling me. I didn't know. Blakey: You talked to him personally, is that correct? Azcue: Yes I did. Blakey: I think you related to us in our last conversation what that was about, so let me move on to another “matter. Azcue: Yes. Blakey: The next matter that I want to bring up with you is very delicate and I hope that you will: understand that I am not asking these questions without serious reason. It is only because information has been brought to our attention y that we have not evaluated, indeed seek to evaluate it by speaking to you and some other go people here in Cuba. And it deals with Ms. Durante
Interview: Eusebio Azcue Lopez Page 6 We are concerned to make a judgement about her character. Not only for speaking the truth but also in her personal relations. It is based on information that has been brought to our attention about her personal life and its possible relation to Lee Harvey Oswald that I ask you these questions. Azcue: Yes. Blakey: In 1963 was Silvia Duran married? Azcue: Yes, she was. Duran's name comes from her husband who was Horatio Duran. Blakey: Did she have a reputation at the Cuban Embassy for being unfaithful to her husband? Azcue: Not that I know. I never heard anything in that regard. Of course, we do not care about what people do in their personal life. She had a very decent behavior. She had a child, a girl. Her husband used to come to the Consulate very often to pick her up in his car. Their relation seemed to be very normal. Blakey: Have rumors ever been brought to your attention yo that she may have had a “love affair with Lee Harvey Oswald?
Interview: Eusebio Azcue Lopez Page 7 Azcue: I met him--we met him three times, both me and Silvia Duran. That ‘gentleman never came back. I think she would have told me anything because she was perfectly loyal to me. She would have pointed to any aspect of any topic she would have had with him. And she left the Consulate really very late to have any date and she used to live very close to the Consulate. and her husband used to come for her almost every day. And she worked in the Consulate from very early in the morning til very late in the evening. We had lunch very close to the place where the Consulate was located? Blakey: How did she get home? Azcue: . Mostly her husband used to come in the car to pick her up.: Blakey: pia anyone else ever pick her up? “azcue: Never. She had very few relations. She used to have relations mostly with us and with elements that were sympathetic to us. a , Blakey: Has it ever been brought’ to your attention that Silvia Duran may have introduced Lee Harvey Oswald to students at the National University i in Mexico City?
Interview: Page 8 Azcue: Blakey: Azcue: Blakey: Azcue: Blakey: Azcue: Blakey: Azcue:; Blakey: Azcue: Busebio Azcue Lopez No, never. And I would have opposed to anything like that because I never Liked the personality of that gentleman--I felt he was an enemy. Did you ever socialize with the Durans? Yes I did. They used to have many parties and we used to join. them for dinner and for talks. ? with his husband. Were there any parties held that September weekend? I don't remember. Is it possible that there could have been a party that weekend? I remember that they gave me a party--as a farewell party, but it wasn't the beginning -of November I think. We are obviously principally concerned about September 26, 27, 28, 29,. 30. If she gave any party I did not attend. Did you have any conversations with anyone else that would lead you to believe that there might have been a party at her house at that time? yoo I don't remember. It is~impossible for me to remember. sce
Interview: Eusebio Azcue Lopez Page 9 Blakey: Is it possible that you could have given a party that weekend? Azcue: No, I did not. I never gave parties. Blakey: — You indicated that you did go to parties at her house on more than one occasion. Azcue: Yes because before being my secretary she used to be the secretary for the Cuban Mexican ?. Committee or ’ something like that. So she used to socialize very much with all of us for many years, not months but years. Blakey: To you knowledge did Maria Teresa Prorenza ever attend a party at her house? Azcue: It's very likely, I don't know. Because Teresa Proenza is a very old lady . At these parties most of the people who attended were young people so I don't think she attended. Teresa Proenza was a_very old lady at that time and was very delicate. ‘Blakey: How old would she have been then? Azcue: Maybe she was of her sixties, but she didn't seem to be very healthy. - She suffured from ? in her elbows: She was not able to write almost. And she was not the kind of lady to attend parties very often.
“Interview: Eusebio Azcue Lopez Page 10 Blakey: Did Louisa Calderon ever attend a party at the Durans? Azcue: _ Louisa Calderon was working at the Commercial Delegation then she didn't have those relations with Silvia. And Louisa Calderon had been working there for a short period of time and she lived with her mother. So she was not qualified for our group, so to say. The Commercial Delegation had their group. Blakey: Did Alfredo Mirabal ever attend a party at the Durans? Azcue: Alfredo Mirabal had just arrived. And he had many problems with the education of his son, the installation of his house. So the only party I ever remembered that he attended was a Congress of Counselors that took place in Mexico City in which we attended together. He was, so to say, a home man, ,a man who stay at home most of the time with his son and his wife, his mother-in-law. Blakey: Did Ornesto -- would you help me with this , ae punctuation? on Lopez: Ornesto M-i-l-e-r. van) Blakey: Is that name familiar to you? Ornesto?