-] 4m exile. Enclosure to 1A-264 -65 5 April 1965 these ideas, Both the latter had been ambassadors to Cube during the Prio regime and there were strong ties between thea. At the tiwe of this conference in wuly 1964, apparently Prio convinced Ileitao and Amcedo that the idea of a Cuben Government in Exile would be a solution to the Cuban problem. Brasil still had fresh in its mind the horrible scare of going Communist, and Teitao is strongly anti-Communist. He offered Prio a place to gatuer in Brazil for wost of the Cuban leaders (and he knew them all). The list of people to be invited to Brazil contained all the top leaders I can give you their names but I think it vould be just academic because the gathering did not take place. This proposal created tremendous excitement among the Cuban exiles and of courée Prie wentioned it as the basis for his enthusiasm in creating @ government in exile. Dr. Prio felt that if Brazil, which ia the largest nation in Latin America, and the most popular with the U8, especially now that it has a friendly government, would recognize the Cuban Government in Exile and give it a temporary home there that this would persuade the US to cooperate in some way or another. The fact is that recently the Brazilian authorities turned down Dr. Prio, much to his sorrow. The information I have is that there vere some very etrong pressures exerted by the State Department on the Brazilian Governzent against the idea of cooperating with Dr. Prio or any of his friends, in creating a Cuban Government in Exile. Just a few days ago in Miami, Mr. leitao told Dr. Prio, and this is very reliable inside information, that if he had gone ahead with the original plane of inviting Prio and other Cubans to grazil, he might have lost his job. 21. Incidentally, yesterday I had a very interesting tidoit which I don't know is true or not. Perhaps tomorrow it will be all academic, but I was told that Prio and Leitao would have one last secret meeting in Houston, Texas, where Mra. leitao is texing som kind of medical treatment. So perhaps this is not completely dead yet or mayte Leitac wants to appear as trying to insist some gore «= I don't know, but it fis interesting. 22. Anyway, after the Brazilian turn-down, the Mieni leadership was Staggered. Ho ome knew what to do next or whom to talk to. Apparently the Cuban leaders felt that unless they had tne support of a latin Awerican country they would not be able to wo ahead with thelr government in exile idea. «li - ; aw fre ne i o “remem
14-00000 Enclosure to LA-2G4 -65 5 April 1965 23. As @ result of something that happened wore recently, I have real hopes. In the iast few days, perhaps you have heard, there was an unbelievable plebiscite held in Miami first, then in los Angeles, ani then im New York and Puerto Rico, in which people vere just invited by a comuittee of vowen to come to certain places and express theeselves on a little card on whether they wanted a government in exile to be formed. Well, the reaction vas un- believable. I gave out only two spall announcesents on ay radio program, and we had aloost 5@OO people come to Hollywood and Vine on @ rainy, cold afternoon to deposit their little postcards saying "We want @ goverument in exile.* Miami had close to 50 thousand do the same, Wew York had over 50 thousand people. Puerto Rico ' had another 10 or 15 thousand. In other words, it was a spontaneous, legitimate reaction of the Cuban public in favor of having some kind of an organization to represent them in their exile. 2h. As a result of this informal plebiscite, we've resolved in los Angeles to ignore the impasse that had come about in the leadership in Miami, to ignore the difficulties and complications and a1] the things that people told us would be isposaible in having a government in exile without the support of the US, and go ahead. And this is the eain reason for my visit with you tonight. The idea, incidentally, of a government in exile way raise some hackles in the State Department but from a purely legal point of view, I feel, and I have no reason to believe the contrary, that the Cubans in exile here are not violating any law of the US -- federal, state or local -- because what they are doing at this time is running an election to determine the opinion of 200 thousand-300 thousand people as to whom they think should take over the leadership of the exiles. Until such time as those elected declare themselves a government in exile there would be no conflict with US laws. Perhaps at that time, once these people are elected and accept the election, they can then discuss this point with the State Department. If the State Departsent tells them that if they declare theaselves & government in exile that they're going to jail,.then all they have to do is find out if Costa Rica will take thea, or El Salvador, or Brazil, or whatever. Of course, they and we know that most of these countries are strongly dependent upon US aid and loans, and so fortn, ror their operation acd there is no doubt in my mind that it is going to take a little persuasion to get a latin American country to defy the US and give this government in exile a piece of land and recognition. But there is an alternative which we have considered and this is that these wen who will be elected in this process do not necessarily have to declare themselves a government a ne a + owemamel t
ng Enclosure to LA-204 -05 5 April 1965 im exile, They could declare themselves to be some kind of a leadership junta, or 8 preyaratory committee or whatever, to avold any legal problems with the State Department of the US. 25. There has been -- IT telieve I wentioned it before -- a tremendous amount of floundering by the leaders in Miami after the Brazilian denial of a weeting place in Rio de Janeiro and a group of us in California, and frankly I have been the priwe instigator in this, have decided not to wait for the people in Miani, but to go @head and start an election in California to sce how it works out. I can assure you that in the planning of this whole election there have been no participants except a number of us Cubans all of whom I think are in good faith and who may not be leaders but are intelligent and well weaning. So, we decided to start here in California where, incidentally, the passions of politics are not as vehement. In Miami, the people are intense in their political passions and their brains are clouded. For instance, about five or six days ago, I called Dr. Eduardo Suarez Grivas, who is the power behind Prio's political machinery. All the meetings are held in his house and he is the real brains of this whole thing. This san was a Cuban senator for some 10 years and one of the wost active in passing good, progressive legislation. I consider his one of the wost brilliant men in the political strata of Mieni. I talked to hin for half an hour on the phone, hed to let hiw know what we were planning and to ask him if there was any possibility of our endanger- ing something that would be good for Cuba because, if 80, we wouldn't do it. Our objective is the liberation of Cuba, if our move here could possibly upset something else,w would refrain. Ile asxed oe to wait a few days because something was going on but I learned fron other sources that the situation down there waa almost chaotic so we're going ahead, 26. Now, what are we going to do? Well, this is the story; we call it the California Plan. We are going to hold an election on April 25th -- that's about four weeks from now roughly -- that will give us plenty of tice. The mechanics are these: We will invite every Cuban in the Los Angeles area to come to one of 15 to 25 predetermined polling places throughout the city and surrounding areas where we know that there are a number of Cubans, We think that we will be able to use the International Institute on Boyle Brreet, the CYO building in East Loa Angelea, several churches, including the Blessed Sacrament here in Hollywood, a number of Masonic temples, the Knights of Columbus hall downtown at Bonnie Brae and Ninth, and a number of business places. For instance, there are about five Cuban restaurants we will turn into polling places, a few stores, shops, and gas stations owned and operated Pate tay to ~
14-00000 y Bnelosure to LA-29h -65 5 April 1965 by Cubans. The polls will be open from 0900 to 1500, Sunday, April 25th. . 27. In each polling place there will be a looseleaf register on which the person cosing in to vote will put his name, his signa- ture, his address, telephone, and then his identification, which will be checked. We will accept Cuban passports, void or not, legigration cards, and driver's licenses, plus whatever other identification is approved by the voting committee. We will meet Saturday (27 Mar 65] with six ex-magistrates of the Cuban courte who heve had electoral experience. They will give us guidance on how to do this properly. After the person identifies himself end registere we will give hin a ballot to mark in private. Either from his wemory, or from an information sheet available he will vote for a president, a vice-president and for perhaps as few as 15 or as many ag 25 members of an advisory council. The number has not yet been determined. The advisory council would have certain veto povers over the President, as we do not want another dictator. There will be another ares on the ballot for a regional representa- tive of each city that has more than five thousand Cuban residents. 28, When the people mark their ballots and drop them into the ballot box we wili-solicit whatever financial help they can afford to defray thie election expense, which will approximate $2,000. We will try as far as possible to have a former wember of the Cuban judiciary at each polling place, along with one or two members of the 2506th Brigade on guard. We will try to get the cooperation of the city in providing us with police. At 1500 we will seal the ba llot boxes and try to have the city or some siailar authority impound them so that they will be out of the hands of Cubans until they are properly counted. This may be a little shameful but we don't want anyone in Miami or any place to say that these ekctions were fraudulent because we handled the ballots. 29. .To help keep the election clean we will stamp the hand of the voter with a special ink of the type used at race tracks and places of amusement. This ink only shows when put under black or ultraviolet light. Having ence cast e ballot, they will be unable to vote again in any other place because they will be marked. That is one way of keeping it clean. : 30. Eligibles will include every Cuban over 18 or 21 ~-- we have not decided the age yet. We would like to keep as close as possible to the age provided in the 1940 constitution of Cuba, so whatever the constitution says, that's what we're going to abide by. a