TERNAL SUBVERSIVE ACTIVITIES: The[ __——_—sJ ambassador inf is convinced of the accuracy of Venezuelan charges of Cuban subversion. (Page 11) There is an additional report on the use of a Cuban trans- port plane to supply pro-Castro groups in Venezuela with weapons. (Page 12) — Cuban Chargé Lasalle in Bolivia is reportedly supplying .., weapons to the leftist section of the governing party, as the serious political crisis there becomes more in- tense. (Page 12) A clandestine source has reported that two Cubans are with a group of Peruvian leftists currently hiding in Bolivia, and that Castro has agreed to provide money and guerrilla training for a rival group. (Page 12) iv HW 55355 Docld:32401327 Page 5
TOP-SECRET PRAR MILITARY DEVELOPMENTS: Three independent. clandestine sources have reported the unloading of military equipment from a Soviet cargo vessel, probably the METALLURG BAIKOV, on 19 or 20 November. This vessel was suspected of carrying a military cargo long before its arrival in Cuba. (See Daily Summary of 12 November.) It carried what was probably the eighth full military cargo to arrive in Cuba since the 1962 missile crisis. One source, a retired civil engineer whose reporting has been factual and in most instances based on personal observation, reported that the METALLURG BAIKOV unloaded "large quantities of arms and military equipment" in Havana on 20. November and left the next day. Another source reported that Havana longshoremen had stated that a Soviet ship, which they did not identify, had unloaded arms at Regla Wharf, Havana, on 20 November. A third source, an educated Cuban of Western KBuropean extraction who is a resident of Havana, reported that tanks were among the equipment unloaded from a Soviet vessél that arrived in Havana on 19 November. The three sources are probably referring to the same shipment. If the report on the delivery of tanks is 4 true, this would be the second consecutive reported shipment of armored vehicles to Cuba. The ORENBURG reportedly delivered some 45 tanks on 23 or 24 October. (See Daily Summaries of 28 and 29 October.) It has previously been reported that another probable military shipment, the ninth, is now en route aboard the SLUTSK. (See Daily Summary of 3 December.) (CIA TDCS-DB- 3/658 ,289, 6 December, SECRET NO FOREIGN DISSEM/CONTROLLED DIS- SEM) The Soviet “coastal defense rockets" now belong to the Cuban Army artillery forces, according to a recent speech by Raul Castro. Cubans probably have been training in cruise missile operations since last spring, and the rotation and withdrawal of some Soviet naval personnel in September suggested that the cruise_missile system wa ver to the Cubans at that time. which probably serves the cruise missile system remains active, however, indicating that some degree of Soviet involvement_continues. (CIA FBIS, 14 November, UNCLASSIFIED and NSA 2/-{__YR16-63, 28 August, 1963, SECRET KIMBO) 7 I . JFK Act 6 (1) (B) HW 55355 Docld:32401327 Page 6
HW 55355 TOP-SECREF-DIAR FIDEL CASTRO'S SPEECH: Fidel Castro's speech of the night of 6~7 December was on the occasion of the graduation of women teachers for the literacy campaign. He devoted most of the 99 minutes to a discussion of the development of local education in Cuba. At one point, however, he made a moderately long digression to discuss Venezuela and the situation raised by Venezuela's dis- covery last month of a large cache of weapons, some of which have been traced to Cuba. Castro stated that, while "the imperialists and their lackeys" charge that Cuba is promoting subversion in Vene- zuela, rebellion and subversion cannot be promoted from with- out. The Venezuelan revolution, he maintained, stems from the Venezuelan people's own disgust with their government and with its permitting the "imperialists" to plunder Venezuela's wealth and resources, If subversion could, in fact, be promoted from the outside, why, he asked, have all the resources of im- perialism failed to subvert the Cuban Government? 7 Betancourt, "that miserable lackey," is trying to incite the United States to take military action against Cuba, Castro charged, As a pretext the Venezuelans say they have discovered arms from Cuba on the Venezuelan coast, Castro stated.’ "Some of the arms," he said, “are said to have borne an effaced Cuban seal, and other arms are said to be bazookas, recoilless cannon, mortars, But Cuban mortars perchance? No! Yankee mortars! Yankee bazookas: Yankee recoilless cannon! Arms which we did not manufacture; arms which we did not buy!" Castro then went on, without specifically denying that the weapons had come from Cuba, by implying that the CIA had obtained Cuban arms from Cuban deserters and that it would not be difficult to plant these weapons in Venezuela. (Here he is obviously referring to the Belgian-made light rifles and submachineguns which have been identified as among those shipped to Cuba in 1959 and 1960.) With respect to the US-made mortars, bazookas, and re- coilless rifles, Castro challenged the OAS investigating com- mittee to "investigate thoroughly," make laboratory tests, trace the serial numbers, and then "they will be able to reach only one conclusion: that they belong to the CIA," Castro then attempted to show the "brazenness" and in- consistency of those who would use the Venezuelan arms cache as a pretext to invade or to blockade Cuba when for more than four years the very same kind of silbversive activity as is now being charged to Cuba has been perpetrated against Cuba~- without any hemispheric attempt to punish the aggressors, -2— DoctId: 32401327 Page ?
FIDEL CASTRO'S SPEECH - cont'd “Things have changed quite a bit," Castro declared, "to attack or to blockade Cuba now would not be easy; we can de- fend ourselves; we are calm; we know what we have to defend ourselves with." Then, in an implied reference to the Soviet shipment of strategic missiles to Cuba last year, Castro de- clared: "When we hear some of these lackeys of imperialism talking so calmly about invading Cuba, when it has been only one year since the October crisis, they are once more proving us right and are once more justifying Cuba's taking defensive measures; this talk led to the October crisis." Castro then declared that "these men are so deceived by their own propaganda that...they cannot conceive of what any invader would meet here." A war against Cuba, he said, "would not end while there was a Single mercenary soldier treading on our soil." Castro then returned briefly to his views as to how peace can be assured in the Caribbean. "Whatever they want to dis- cuss with Cuba," he said, "let them come and discuss honestly with Cuba; because we have stated the indispensable prerequisites for a peaceful atmosphere.,,in the Caribbean." Thus far, how- ever, "they have answered with aggressions on top of aggressions," This course, -he said, "is doomed to failure." (CIA FSIS Havana, 7 December, OFFICIAL USE ONLY) ‘CUBAN INTERNAL SITUATION: A shake-up in the Cuban cabinet has moved Faure Chomon Mediavilla to the post of transportation minister; he succeeds Capt. Omar Fernandez, whose ministry was recently under attack by Castro for alleged inefficiencies and "vices." Major Jesus Montane Oropesa is replacing Chomon as communications minister. Chomon, who served as Castro's first ambassador to the Soviet Union, took over as communications minister in March 1962. He is currently a member of the National Directorate of PURS. Fernandez, his predecessor, is reportedly moving to an unspecified position in the Ministry of Industries under Che Guevara. , Montane took part in the attack on the Moncada Barracks in 1953 and followed. Castro to exile in Mexico. He took part in the GRANMA expedition of 1956 when he was captured and im- prisoned. After the revolution, he reportedly received only } a minor post in the government because he had talked too much in prison. His most recent post, dating from at least August 1962, has been as number two man in the Tourism Institute (INIT). He is said to be an ardent Marxist-Leninist, who preaches it at every opportunity. (UPI 63, 6 December, UN- CLASSIFIED; background information: SECRET) 3 FOP-SECRET DINAR HW 55355 Docld:32401327 Page 6