(1o4-10113-10082), A ote @ eee Oe A . « = _ ee co wee wo, OT ye . Fr oe: rere CIA HISTORICAL REVIEW PROGRAM RELEASE AS SANITIZED 1999 18 June 1969 MEMORANDUM FOk: Special Agent in Charge Miami Field Office SUBJECT : Field Office Memorandu Re: Charles GOVEA and Wilfredo “Pancho emcee Oe — io anneal —* 1. Ihave nov read with care the referenced memorandum _ — tae 65 Ba RE Oo which deals specifially with charges by a former agent Wilfredo 'Pancho'' VARONA against his handler known as "Frank" or Enrique. As you wil have perceived from reading VARONA's file by the time you read this memorandum, Mr. VARONA is not well regarded by ov Station and/or the people who have handled him to date. This onstitutes the reason for his termination. I would also like you7zo examine the field traces on Mr. Charles GOVEA, an attachnent to this memorandum. These traces indicate that Mr. GOVEA has had in the past, and possibly still may have, some conract with Castro intelligence organizations. We are presently wcting for a more complete read-out on Mr. GOVEA from the Nev York Office of the FBI. Understandably, therefore, you can ree we look somewhat askance at the GOVEA/ VERONA informatio. Although we recognize the integrity of the unwitting intermediary Mr. Winston Guest of Palm Beach, Florida, we also re:ognize the implications for "Frank" in Mr. GOVEA's knowleds: of our affairs given his possible Castro intelligence connection. Axiomatically, we will be interested in knowing, at some pont in the near future, whether "Frank's" true identity is knovn by either VARONA or GOVEA. 2. Ihave ditcussed this memorandum in detail with "Frank". Our viev on VARONA's allegations are presented below, keyed to you: basic memorandum. seiner oe Ge ah Ase ee ne é ro srntreeetin etre ttt eptceeRSBttrerent Hh SeaeAbh ies eet 9 ane 4 s+
14-00000 a. ia paragraph 4 of your memorandum of 11 June 196%: Mr, VARONA was recruited sometime during 1957 3y Mr. then assigned to the Agency's Station in Havana. He was subsequently handled by N=. | | another Agency Officer presently sticioned in Kingston, Jamaica. Later, still in Cuba, he was handled by Mr. Frank Belsito now serving in Panama eid Emilio Rodriguez (deceased.) Mr. Rodriguez _ turned Mr. ARONA over to "Frank" in November 1960." In August 1911, Mr. VARONA took asylum in the Brazilian Embassy indavana. He was later granted "salvo conducto'"' to Rio de Jaeiro. In the interim "Frank" was exfiltrated from Cuba tethe U.S. When Mr. VARONA arrived in the Florida arez during March 1962, he was met by his Havana Case Officer 'F rank" who continued to handle him until August 1962, at which time he was turned over to the Greek Case Officerhe refers to. The Greek Case Officer handled him for app:uximately three years. Along about 1965, the Greek Case Dfficer turned. Mr. VARONA over to Mr. Al "McQuade ak: Fred who handled Mr. VARONA until May 1968, at whi:h time he was ‘turned over to "Pepe! intro- duced by "Frank" who served as an intermediary because of his previais connection with Mr. VARONA. Pepe's ‘ specific job:vas to give Mr. VARONA one last chance to prove that h: could be productive before being terminated. Pepe, an eserienced agent handler's problems with Mr. VARONA were precisely like those of his predecessors. He found Mr, VARONA to be untruthful, bellicose and generally uwnatisfactory for any form of continued employ- { ment by WE ifiami. Therefore, after due consideration of Mr. VARSNA's potential to cause trouble because of his long exp:rience with the Agency, the decision was _ taken to terninate him recognizing full well there might be security :epercussions. ° ee Ure tow enree pg eats f Peg Oot E i : i a ener a ne ee nme enn nner grape nee: eee imtte renee emesis us ere: ee eat sein Se tN me tn ce te Het ets
14-00000 In tlu light of the foregoing, it is worrisome to find out tlat Mr. VARONA is aware that "Frank" recently recived transfer orders from the Organization. We need maze information on this. We suspect that the origin of this statement is the fact that Mr. VARONA recently met"F rank" on the street in Mexico City by complete haypenstance. During that meeting "Frank" alluded to th: fact that he was no longer working in Miami (althogh in fact he was) to confuse Mr. VARONA as to his tru whereabouts. It should be noted that Mr.. VARONA reérs to "Frank" as "Frank" because at one ‘ point during the time that he was being handled by "Frank", oth:rwise known as Enrique, he instructed |. usm — . Mr. VARON: to introduce him to the Vasco de CUNHA family as "Frank" Stevens, otherwise he had known UF rank" und:r the name, Enrique. The basis for Mr. VARONA saving that he believed "Frank" mishandled the WOFIRM program in many ways appears to be vitupe ration plus frustration. The vituperation being a basic ingrdient in his opportunistic character. b. E2 paragraph 5 of your memorandum of 11 June 196%. That "Frank" had certain responsibilities re Juanita Cistro is very true. "Frank'' was funda- mentally ressonsible for the defection of Juanita Castro although Mr. VARONA furnished the lead. The "Frank''/' Juanita Casto relationship is now quasi-legendary. He did not fumbe the very difficult handling of this contro- versial persm. Mr. VARONA would have been in no position to luow the load placed upon "Frank" by the Agency in trring to gain operational mileage from Miss Castro. Revrhe information that "Frank" was in posses- sion of infornation which could have resulted in the assassinatio of Fidel Castro, the following comment . must be maw: This refers to the Plan RAPHAEL which om
14-00000 -Re Mr. VARONA's charge that five of his family went to involved Mr. VARONA's brother. “F rank" was not the Case Off::er on this operation, although he had originally re:ruited Mr. VARONA's brother in Cuba prior to his wxfiltration. The Case Officer for the RAPHAEL oseration, if one considers that there was a case officer, would have been Stephen P. Mangello. jail in Cuba ind four of his friends ‘went to the wall" in Cuba becaue: of the shortcomings of "Frank, " "Frank" has the following specifically to say in rebuttal: 'VATONA was continuously admonished from the time of is arrival in the U.S. in March 1962 to be discreet roncerning his connection as well as his ean _— relatives' cmnection with the Agency. It was common knowledge ix the exile community that VARONA and his family vere dedicating their lives to the overthrow of Castro. No member of VARONA's family was molested by Castro until the exfiltration of VARONA's | brother in 1264. VARONA's brother left a wife and two childrez. behind and later within a period of three months initnted divorce proceedings. VARONA's brother anc probably his wife, and possibly other members o: the family knew of Plan RAPHAEL. It would be diZicult, if well nigh impossible, to ascertain who could live been the cause of the arrest of members of VARON£'s family, since besides the family members, other agems who were also involved in this Plan were arrested atapproximately the same time. Re the four friends "wio went to the wall, ' this appears to be sheer embellishnent on the part of Mr. VARONA. " c. Re paragraph 6 of your memorandum of 1] June 19:4: Re Mr., VARONA's statement who holds che highest position for the Agenc ant who-vwirks directly for "F rank'' is oné Joaquin , — “SAN ENE} this again is embellishment. Mr. ARONA J known for some years that Mr. SANGENIS as obviouwly heads the ¥MOT Organization. This is one gf the WH/Mianii Station's several projects. Hos ately, ee 5 ee anne’ cnsmstietepeenjesemaacriensbeneae sestaianes acest ae enemas Ramona Ga Bet meme) YS eR tert + tem emeeeerth senpununnsntungngnan- eens eh ete thn  SaqaenanensTaen :
74-90000 Mr. VARON: is not informed on other Station operations, 10 it is understandable that in his attempt to bing attention to himself that he would focus mm those things he is aware of. Mr. VARON:'s opinion of Mr. SANGENIS and his handling of money is his own opinion. The Station's viev is that it is lamentable that Mr. VARONA, over the years, did not show the same amount of personal dedication to getting the job done that M=:. SANGENIS has shown. Again, it appears to b: one more vituperative allegation which has litle basis, based on information so far provided by Mr. VARONA. oo cturyenienaner se — d. Re paragraph 7 of your memorandum of 11 June 196%: WARONA was in fact the messenger sent by "Frank''vo the person who was going to conduct the exfiltration of "F rank" and several co-workers in June 1961. He did not, as he suggests, have a prime or oxjanizing role in this exfiltration which was, in fact. handled by the | family, long time assets of the Havana Sta ion. Wpsthes he a s_ agiiall: _involved in tha exfiltration 2 as waa\truein "Frank's" case. e. le paragraph 8 of your memorandum of 11 June 196": é ; is true-that My. VARONA is a good x a” aa friend of thé Vasco de C fa ily’, He got to know this favily when VAsco-LH{T vas Ambassador to Cuba. Tic Ambassado¥ gave BATISTA piriod, and this form d basis of their’ / friendship. From time to time over the years, the. ; qrnqneenteatinten2 $ SAAT ND -—IEIERDTED fe coeeent + stent aE ee sommes a camamamaaarwecrenee cements + Snes een cm em ++ aapngenenND on sae
14-00000 Agency fount it useful to use this friendship as a means of cowtrolling Mr. VARONA when he became unmanageable. f. Fe paragraphs 9 and 10 of yor memorandum of 11 June 1169: Ve know that \. has written at least one trticle fox VIDA ; We have no information. however, to effect that he is being at all succe:sful in re-esfdbhishing and/or revitalizing the old "Autmtico" Pa Given his unfavorable reputation irthe Cuban community, it is unlikely that he would enjpy any success in this endeavor. g. Ze paragraph 11 of your memorandum of ll June 196%: IO Te — ton, a me should be noted: that Mr. Osorfo\ DAVILA,- . presently litng in Miami, is “the brothexof a prominent Communist i1 Cuba today and should be viewed in that light. ‘Frank's recollection of the situation involving servants ant the ASPRU home, which he took over with the servants. does not jive with Mr. VARONA's report. There were “vo white and two black servants in the house. -The zight of the Bay of Pigs invasion, the Cuban Internal Service sent agents to the ASPRU home. to pick up "Frank.' One colored and one white servant were at _home at thattime and they told the DSE agents that "Frank" war "a gay blade" and would not be home until early the nezx morning. The DSE left the residence leaving behixl a note for "Frank" to report to their headquarter: the following morning. In this context, it should be ivted that "Frank's" cover in Cuba during the period in.question was that of a professional gambler; a cover whic: served him well during most of his service there. Kh oe cig ey ») wages. rae
14-00000 * NS Er ee Sapam h. Ee paragraph 12 of your memorandum of 11 June 196%: &) “Frank" has no knowledge of the material referred to. A further check will be made to determine if this information was passed to "Pepe" who vo uld have made it avazable to the Station. (:) This material apparently was passed to "Pepe" and subsequently analyzed by the Station. DSE personalities were carded. Mr. VARONA's statement that "Frank" did not properly utilize the information again appears to be another vituperative attempt to einen strike at "F sank" who he apparently blames for his downfall wit: the Agency. &), (d), (e), (£). No Comment. ‘@), (h), (i), Gj). This is probably completely fabricated material. Nevertheless because of its rather sensational zature, the Station would be interested in receiving trie copies of this material so that it can be analyzed in +e light of specific, positive collection, evidentiary material at hand. It would also be appreci- ated if your zffice could glean the source.or sources of this alleged! sensational material. Ee: (k), (1), (m). {t} No comment a ‘Rois a Haitian exile living da. There is no information ommunist. (G:-Henri ¥ most of hiS¢me-in-C that Mr. VIX i (=) As in (g), (h), (i), (j) above, the Station would like tu*mow the source of the alleged photograph which Mr. V4RONA refers to, This again appears to be sheer fatrication. ; Ae att
14-00000 = . ee a - oo osm we 2. If you read the foregoing analysis in the light of Mr. VARONA's file, I bzlieve you will clearly ascertain that we put little, if any, cmfidence in any statements made by Mr. VARONA. We are deeply troubled, however, by the fact that Mr. VARONA has wed one Mr. Charles GOVE ashi 5 means. who in turn used his good offices to establish contact With you. We consider it highty important to determine whether Mr has any current comection with Cuban intelligence and to that end, we have urgeniy requested from the Bureau any and all ose current information bearing on the matter. Although Mr. VARONA cannot provide Cuban intelligence through Mr. GOVEA anything really curzent, he could albeit unwittingly provide a tremendous amount of information dealing with Agency modus operandi which we vould not like them to have. This becomes quite important in view of the fact that we have several indications of aggressive DGI/TN operations to gain information on the AMOT as wellas our AMCZAFT operations. 3. Your pa:agraph 15 clearly reveals the fact that VARONA has an ax< to grind and he has chosen this way of reingratiating hims:<!f with the Agency by passing information on “F rank" the man who handled him for the longest period of time. For tactical yelitical reasons you may deem it wise to "receive his report:' under no circumstances, however, would ‘ we want this to be ured as a bridge to become involved in again with a man in whose integrity or objectivity we have no confidence whatsoever. To rexerate re the previous paragraph, we are most concerned about GC*EA and if we can develop any current infor- mation on Mr. GOV=A's contacts with Cuban intelligence, we believe it will be ne:essary to get some word to Mr. Guest to disengage himself f>:m contact with this person. erty nv mot 7 * 1 ea aS 8 SSDS AAAS «=» sbstenetnaeanenienetaianer anaes oe Se eit: tte SSPE i 196 | ST 9mm a coat. ares ere * tt A GEFEN A SCENES sete en ie @ eens tee SRSA? Sem seme ESET fe