o yo. wei € viler Oat | on October 5, 1964, eleven days after the piiblica- tion of the Warren Commission Report, a story alleging Lee Harvey Oswald's presence at a party in Mexico City attended by Cuban government personnel came to the atten- tion of the Central Intelligence Agency (wx742? p.94, .entry 7430, CIA #721; Blind memo dated 10/5/64, CIA #576). allegation of this type, if true, could negate ye pNarren Elena's Story as Reported October 5, 1964 gee va tape eee Ele7 Elena Garro de Paz ‘and Deba Garro de Guerrero Galvan, first cousins £ Horatio, Ruben and tynn Duran were invited to a twist party | at the home of Ruben Duran in the middle of the week in the fall of. 1963. Lee Harvey Oswald was 7 alleged to have been at this party in the company of “two other beatnik-looking boys." (Ibid.) The Americans re- Mained together the entire evening and did not dance. When Elena tried to speak with the Americans, she was "shifted" to antoher room by one of her cousins” (The memo does not state whether Elena had mentioned which cousin had not allowed her to speak to the Americans.) One of Elena's cousins told her at the time that (he or she) did net Know who the Americans were except that Sylvia Duran (an employee of the Cuban Embassy and the wife of Horatio Duran), had brought them to the party. |
The day after the party, Elena and Deba saw the three Americans on the Insurgents, a main avenue in Mexico ih 7 > city.! The Garros claimed that they had recognized. Oswald's photograph when it was published after the assassination /:) +) Sylvia Duran's arrest "underlined the Garros' certainty" that the man had been Lee Harvey Oswald. (Ibid.) Deba added that Lynn and one of the Duran brothers had made trips to-Texas. (Ibid.) She added that, even a“ though the Duran brothers had always been poor before the assassination, they were both driving expensive new cars. (Ibid.) | the Gource of the memo}was a witting Central: Intelli- gence Agency asset known by the cryptonym LICOOKIE: I whom) . the Committee identified as June Cobb Sharp while receiv- ing (1cooKtE" 5) file. According to Elena, Ms. Cobb was - sent to her house shortly after the assassination for a few days, by a mutual friend, a Costa Rican writer Eunice Odio. (CIA No's 580-583; WX-7241, Entry #427, p. 92, CIA #719) Ms. Garro asserted that while at her house, Ms. Cobb expressed interest in the Kennedy assassination.’ one night Elena's sister Deba, who was visiting, got drunk and told the whole story. (Ibid.) Claiming to be a CIA agent, Cobb suggested that Elena and Deba go to Texas to tell their story. (Ibid.) Elena stated. that when Cobb's sugges - tion was rejected, Cobb stated that she would arrange a meet—
Cox ing with the CIA Station Chief. (Winston Scott was the Mexico City Station Chief in 1964). The meeting did not occur because Ms. Cobb was asked to leave the Garro -house evidently because she kicked Elena's cat. (CIA No's 580-583; Wx7241, Entry #427, p. 42, CIA #719). A notation on the memo says that (iyi (Licookie I) never re- gained contact) with Elena Garro de Paz. (Wx724l, p. 94, Entry #430, CIA #721; Blind Memo dated 10/5/64, CIA #576). the (4icookid memo was not inserted in either the Elena Garro or Lee Harvey Oswald "p" (personality) files but in a local leftist and Cuban project file. The Com- mittee learned about the memo from Wx-7241, a chronologi-. cal history of the Oswald case prepared by Anne Goodpasture for the CIA in 1976). The memo was found in December, 1965. (See Wx 7241, p. 94, CIA #721). Gtaniey watson) found the memo. A marginal notation on Wx7241 says, "Why was this not sent to Headquarters?" (P. 87, CIA #714). The Committee has been able to determine that the memo was for- _ warded to headquarters shortly thereafter. eas Me eas hs . Ce SS ru Ate bere. een of oN oe Biography... 3 co poe ee eS? re a The story was told by Elena Garro de Paz who was) oo... 2 born of Spanish parents in Puebla, Mexico on December 11, a a 1917. (All information in this section culled from Bio- graphy Dta form prepared by Charles Thomas.) Ms. Garro attended the National Autonomous University of Mexico and
later did graduate work at Berkley in California and at the University of Paris. In 1963, Elena had long been mar-— ried to Octavio Paz, a career diplomat who is also one of Mexico's finest poets and leading intellectuals. When | Octavio was named Mexican Ambassador to India, the couple separated by mutual consent. Elena's daughter, also named Elena, has always resided with her mother. Since Elena spent seventeen years of her early life in Europe she had a rather un-Mexican objectivity about od _ her native land and had a reputation for being one of its more articulate detractors. At the same time, Elena was considered emotionally committed to ary aspects of Mexican — life and made an important contribution to its artistic development. - In the 1960's Elena became a significant writer. ‘Hogar Solido, El Rey Mago, La Senhora en su Balcon, Ventura “Allende, Andaise por las Ramas, Parada Empresa, and El Viaje are plays that have had appreciatve audiences in Europe, where they were translated into German, as well as in Mexi-. co. Ms. Garro's short stories are collected in a volume | called La Semana de Colores. The Literacy Supplement of the London Times has called her novel, Los Recuerdos de Porvenir, "a spendid success." Critics have said of her: "For Elena Garro, there is no¥ frontier between reality and fantasy; in any case, the latter is a second reality-- perhaps more intense--to which one may penetrate without
By eet bh: passport or forewarning, thanks to the effectiveness of a literature fired with passion, flavor and life." Many people who knew Elena have asserted that the frontier between reality and fantasy is also difficult for her to distinguish in real life. (Biography Data Form on Elena Garra de Paz prepared by Charles Thomas.) | Ms. Garro, for many years, was an active worker in - the Confederacion Nacional Campesina (onc) , the agrarian arm of the Partido Reformista (PRI). Because Ms. Garro was a tireless propagandist and agitator on behalf of the poorer Mexican peasants, she was on close personal terms with and enjoyed the respect of peasant leaders from all over the country. (Ibid.) | . Elena was considered a witty, urbane and opinionated woman with an unflagging sense of humor. Her forthright Opinions and sharp wit tended on occasion to ruffle feathers _in Mexico, hut her important social, literacy, and political connections rendered her faily immune from serious counter- attack until 1968. Then, Ms. Garro was forced to flee the country with her daughter, Elenita and her sister, Deba. Guerrero de Galvan, in the midst of the student strikes. The House Select Committee on Assassinations has been unable to determine the exact reason Ms. Garro had for fleeing Mexico.