“& ‘a YY oe ~ SECRET 74 Igl5-95685 FU! | Cane now an assistant, te [MANUEL PINEIRC LOSADA}, commonly know oe nee Beard TT eay (S) a ECHART!} was assigned to the Cuban "Mhite House Police" in Havana, from alout March, 1959 ‘to July, 1959. Then one day in about August, 1959, ECHARTE encountered some friends in Manolo's Tailor Shop located at Glorie and Angeles, Havana, Cube. In.the _ course of conversation several. comments ware made about the pistol. which ECHARTE was carrying. As a result, ECHARTE withdrew his pistol which he believed to be unloaded, sointed/it at CONSUELO (LNU) who was present, and pulled the trigger. However, there was a bullet in the chamber, the gun /fired and CONSUELO was mortally wounded. RECHANTS ren from the saop and confronted his ‘superior, SANTIAGC7PFRAYLE, who, he felt, rowboat responsible . “| for the accident. na recent)Cuben G-2 raidBRCHARTE hed loaned) his pistol to FRAYLE because FRAYLE was relfetant to carry a _, Machine gung and FRAYLE had failed to completely unload the weapon whenjhe returned it to ECHARTE although he had indicated _to ECHARTE that he had done so 'G 7 - ; At this point ECHARTE explained that SEGUNDO PEREZ was.not complete:y emotionally stable and at periods of time became mentally unbalanced. It was about this time SEGUNDO PEREZ was suffering thrgugh one of these period; and FRAYLE was replacing hin.@ Lean ee 7 . Nevertheless, ECHARTE wes found guilty on a charge of culpable homicide and was sentenced to six years imprisonment. Ne was incarcerated at Principe Prison in Havana, Cuba, where he beceme acquadrted with PEDRO} SANTIESTE3AN, a political prisonez. - SANTIESTEBAN repeatedly discussed politics with RCHARTR at Princine and ECHARTE realized that there wasi.some 1 gic to SANTIESTSBAN's opposition.to the Castro regime. e&)/, (R Mm) After ECHARTE had served 15 months of his tern, he was released in early 1961 through the personal efforts of RAMON PERRZ,_ brother of SEGUNRO PEREZ... PEDRO SANTIESTRBAN had. been released prior to ini. C) Mi(KY wy | | HW 45937 DocId:32304241 Page 12
3; wnfios-956059 Ru) * SECRET 2 Ropk ceungy \nose euthority x Whgy ESHARTE was -relessed, in Cuba -opfhad greatly increased bY @fhat time, proached ; HARE Yeon PEDRO SANTTESTEBANP End Gep or fn :* SANTIESTEBAN PP civities to [Guben G-2. RECHARTEPYefused FJ ECHARIN then spent about one or two months making money the streets any way he could, Then in sbont March, 1961, or soon thereafter, ECHARTE wes given employment as switchboard operator: in the office of the Commandante at the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Commerce, loce ted at Infante #23, Havana, Cuba. RAMIRO VALDES was responsible for assigning ECHART? to this position and he did so upon request from SEGUNDO PERSZ Mies hed no jntessteence responsibilities ‘in this position. (& } After a year or slightly more.in this pcsition, ECHARTE was caught dealing in money exchenge on the black market ‘and was again arrested. His employment at the Cuban Ministry of Foreign . Commerce was terminated. ECHARTE posted $500 bond and efter he gias out op bail seyeral weeks, he personsliy contacted . . eee <—! male i . . . SCHARTS stated he had observed that since 1959 © LeCpovrrcurZ had betome more sophisticated, dressed better, reflected more self confidence end&hied become, very secretive. abcut his duties ECHARTE cgncluded f more authority a Cuban G- nd that ssibly he had travgliéd® abroad end tha@ais dugis bneernea Cepban G2 eotiviticnphs eh - a He confrente OORIGULE F¥ith these; observations and elthotgh 45) RODRIGUEZ BA volaed diséssingbuls area of responsibility in Ge | uban G- ne nevertheless a~ckvowledged@iis duties involved uban G2 ivit , yyy T observed that ECHARTE had been involved in two incldents while employed by the government and that ; incidents such as these created a_poor imag pe the government in the eyes of the Cuban people. OPRIGUEZF Warned ECHARTE that Cae . if he continved nis ways, he would have more and more trouble with the Cuban Government and wien Choaxa yeep ina consider pe leaving Cuba. ESHARTE esreéd with(RoDRIGuRry ad indicated he would be willing,to perform any service abroad needed by the Cuban Government. (RomaraveZ conceded thet ECRARTE could be useful.A y >) . ; | HW 45937 DocId:32304241 Page 13 ° |
Hl gener. NY 55-9505 OY" oe ae ‘ A stasement was drawn and move rougene ECHARTE sian CS | it. Essentially it constituted a stfterent to the effect that ‘i ECHARTE agreed never to disclose information about the training 1 he was to then ve afforded and never to ose any official assignment he received from Cuban G-2 ‘) oo | ’ . ECHARTE was then instructed'*that he was to continue to | give the appearance of being unemployed and to appear as though aan he were making nis living by his wits or the street dealing in - jewelry and any other way possible. ; However, his training was: to | commence immediately. He was told to report algne to a certain address, now unrecalled, whi.ch was@fnear the fodpan Havana. When2s’ he arrived there, he was shown to t eseme of the building where he encountered a (Chinese Cubsap who. never disclosed his name, but merely said he was:to be k EAETE's instructo =) ce [- i . This Chinese Cuban}. instructor was about age 31,. approximately £18" tall, abdut LY@)pounds, muscularly built. and “4 had a slightly [deformed left leg fAich ceused hin t alk with oo . a linp9G@Phe irstructor indicat®a that his Gere legpmad been injurea.! by a Severe blew in the fig area which permanentlyf~damaged the 7 nerves and muscles of tim fee ZS) KM (S > _ | ECHABTE was’ instructed by this individual in the art cf. fighting and defending himself with his hands and feet, the use of a knife in hand to hand combat, and she use of the garrote. ‘e ECHARTE was afforded this training three to four hours daily fer on the streets at various hours:during the day to create the “a period of about two months. Purposely ECHARTE was to be seen oe ~---- ‘dGmpression he was unemployed. Later on some of phi training wes —° ‘ TH conducted lat a house located in the vicinity off 3rdaPetreet ena [etre i y - “| | | | | | st Avenue Miramar, Havana, Cuba. ECHARTE learned tis house was OW ed by a pro-Cestro Cuban who had been xepatriatgda, from the United 2... States, but meyer learned the owner's name. SWE) a 7 2 = ECHARTE ascertained thet Cubaa G-2."“frequently changed | the location wiere instruction was conducteG. Whenever an additional \locution or a change of bcation. was required, a Cubar G-2 agent tiould scout for a suitebie house, approach the ovner - and simply inform him that the facilities were needed temporarily. The owner was obliged to comply and make the basement or soine , 1 other place available even though the owner had no. connection . whatsoever wita’cuban G2 or the Cuban Government. The owner was simply toli that certein individuals, never identified by name, would us: the facilities at certain hours. The trainee and the instructor never identified themselves to the household personnel, Cusen G-22to0ok this. precguzgion to prevent identification of their fintélligencd’ personnagy: 1) ae ae A HW 45937 DocId:32304241 Page 14
J | Ce OR 1 . 5. © ea See r a oe oa Upon completi ion of the aforemer. tioned training, ECHAR ‘Th,ywas told to _repo to a house located in the vicinity of one treet and[Firs venue,|Miramar, Havana, Cuba, which tu to be an empty house’ Here ECHARTE was afforded braininafin Snotoaraphing « documents, developing film, technical aspects oO rotcgraphy, codes, the. prepare.tion d use of secret .. _ inks, chamfering, and ways to conceal messagesphs) There was no nn training infisicrodots or reduction of photog aphs The instructor im this phase of training wasae, Ge: an mu latt about ie age 21, who was a feotiege student agit ECHARTE never 1ezrned his name. This in®tructor was eWORW5'9', very slightly built and weighed about 125 pounds. Here again the training was furnishedfonly two to four hours daily, not necessarily on consecutive days, and the specific hours varied from day to day. There was no set * schedule followed every week. When ECHARTE's ‘instruction was completed for the day, he wouXl then be told ‘what dey he, shold next report and the hour to be there. ECHARTE said this was done intentionally sc, that ECHARTE's daily MN did not fall into ea set pattern that could be tracg fiouaion was told to prepare his hin Beoret ink” by 3 lemon juic@ and water, or salt and.water any other acid with water, and to write his message with the_prepared solution n regular stationer ) He was instructel that#after ng completec the message he wes to conpletely Tub the paper snooth fan over ihn thefyertical aivecticuPDs wel ia the(Rorizontal Lrectiorfm of the paper. lie was then told to te an open text messag the same paper: end forward it to any designated GropLgi.ven to hin stated he never had the opportunity tofutilize a codeje@nd doubtec Sie) that he coul@ recall it., He indicated That::hg would attempt to a, ‘ ecallzin his. om mind&he basics of the fecdefMhich he had a 1 anen tp fe) usadkend said hé woul furnish tais in formason in the yo event™=he found he was able to recall it. This samedi Struc tor | also furnished Cis fundamen or cl tandestine QL_Lo Messes ac < With regard to the Goad y bo fitiiz ECHARTE geceived, als in the [reception and trans eo “7! * geoner ? HW 45937 DocId: 32304241 Page 15