v9.1 AGENCY : -. RECORD NUMBER: RECORD SERIES : AGENCY FILE NUMBER : ORIGINATOR : FROM: TO: TITLE: DATE: PAGES: SUBJECTS : DOCUMENT TYPE: CLASSIFICATION : RESTRICTIONS : CURRENT STATUS : DATE OF LAST REVIEW : OPENING CRITERIA : COMMENTS : WW 54756 Docld: 32255005 JFK Assassination System Identification Form Agency Information HSCA 180-10093-10063 NUMBERED FILES 009005 Document Information HSCA FONZI, GAETON BLAKEY, G. ROBERT INTERVIEW WITH MANOLO RAY RIVERO 06/28/1978 9 ANTI-CASTRO ACTIVITIES RAY RIVERO, MANOLO ODIO, SILVIA CIA MEMORANUDM Unclassified 3 Redact 01/01/2003 Cover memorandum attached. Box 162. Page 1 Date: 10/14/20 Peleased under the John Kennedy WSsassination Records oOllection Act of 1992 (44 USC 2107 Note). ase#:iNW S4756 Date: 1O-31-2017
Select Committee on Assassinations G.®. House of Representatives WASHINGTON, D.C. 20515 WORKING MEMORANDUM BOB: At least three interesting points in here: |) Fiorini admits being propositioned by Barker for a "domestic assassination"; this indicates the subject might have been Ray. 2) The credibility of Silvia Odio is further enhanced. 3) The necessity of getting someone knowledgeable to rake Lopez-Fresquet with a fine toothcomb concerning everyone he was ever in contact with araund the time of the initial Bishop- Veciana contact. | feel he must be approached with patient obliquity. The first interview was screwed up and is an embarrassment on the Committee's record. (The interviewer didn't even know who Carlos Prio was.) peli? 54756 Docld:32255005 Page 2
la) O900 = MEMORANDUM - June 28, 1978 TO: G. Robert Blakey FROM: Fonzi & Gonzales RE: Interview with MANOLO RAY RIVERO dob: June 13, 1924 Manolo Ray was interviewed on June 7, 1978, in the offices of Ray and Associates, Engineering Consultants, San Juan, Puerto Rico. Background file research indicates that Ray received a graduate scholarship from the Cuban Ministry of Public Works in 1947 to study civil engineering at the University of Utah. He returned to Cuba in 1949 and was appointed a designer for the Cuban National Development Corporation and then chief of its structural department in charge of bridges and highways. In 1952 he became project manager for Frederick Snare Corporation of New York in construction of the Havana Hilton Hotel. In May, 1957, he organized the Civic Resistance Movement (MRC), an underground organization which-supervised acts of sabotage against the Batista regime. Following the Revolution, Ray was appointed Minister of Public Works by Castro in February, 1959, He officially resigned his position in November, 1959, During the interview, Ray said that he had been active in anti-Castro activity, organizing underground activity in Havana, prior to his resignation as Minister of Public Works. His brother, who reportedly tater committed suicide, had been arrested by Castro in March of 1959 for counter- revolutionary activity. Ray said his anti-Castro activity eventually ted to his founding the Revolutionary Movement of the People (MRP) around May of 1960. Among those Ray mentioned as being also instrumental in the founding of the MRP were Rufo topez- ‘Fresquet and Rogelio Cisneros. When asked, Ray said there were no Americans involved in the founding of the MRP. He said, however, that there was one who had been active with him in anti-Batista operations and later gave him support for his anti-Castro activities. His name was Ira Wolfe. "He was very close to me personally and we considered him like a Cuban," Ray said. At the time, “ Wolfe was a sales representattve for a kitchen equipment firm and married to a Cuban. After he left Cuba, he was divorced and went to work for what Ray described as a telephone company-related firm in Texas. He died there about five years ago at about 55 years old. Ray described Wolfe as tall, heavily built, with black hair and a round face. HW 54756 DBocld:32255005 Page 3 -more-
Although Ray said he was not as close to him as he was to Ira Wolfe, another man who provided anti-Castro support and was active on his own in anti-Castro activity was Wolfe's brother-in-law, the brother of his Cuban wife. Ray said he didn't at the moment remember his first name, but his last name was Rosello. Ray said he had known him for a number of years because he worked for a firm that sold ceramic tile and that he had sold the tile for the tunnel through Havana which Ray had been in charge of building in the mid-'50s. Rosello, said Ray, was somehow involved in the sale of weapons to Israel. Ray believes that Wolfe's ex-wife, Angela Rosello, may be living in the Miami area. “Ray said he had been in touch with individuals connected with the American Embassy in Havana both before and after the Castro Revolution. One contact he recalls was with sim Knoel, the first of which was around September, 1958, Ray said Knoel told him that he represented an agency interested in intelligence and propaganda and he wanted to exchange ideas and information concerning the 26th of July Movement. . Ray said he seemed particularly interested in whether or not there any Communists with Castre in the Sierra Maestra. After the Revolution, Ray said, he received another request to meet with Knoe! about the time he went underground with anti-Castro activities. That was a general meeting about what was happening at the time but it resulted in the setting up of a channel for the passing of messages between them later. Ray said that Knoel did not offer him any financial support at the time, but he later promised equipment which was supposed to be air dropped to MRP guerillas in the Escambray mountains. The equipment never arrived and Knoel later told hitm there was a "mix up" said Ray. SS Ray said he was unfamiliar with and had no contact with ’ David Phillips or Col. Sam Kail at the American Embassy. Ray said he first met Antonio Veciana in Puerto Rico after Veciana came into exile. Although Veciana was a member of his MRP movement at the time, Ray said that Veciana's attempt to assassinate Castro in October, 1961, in Havana was not officially planned or sanctioned by the Movement. Ray explained that, as the leader of the MRP, he did not believe that leadership assassination should be a key part of the Movement's strategy. He said it had too many "bad aspects" to it as a strategy, the principal one being it misted the members of the movement into believing that the movement would be successful as soon as the opposition leader was removed. That, said Ray, has a "weakening effect" on a movement's over-all strategy and the reason why he never -~more- HW 54756 Docld:32255005 Page 4
HW 54756 sponsored a plan to assassinate Castro. "However," said Ray, "that doesn't mean we should not take the opportunity to do so if it arises." Ray said that, although he never met Veciana in Cuba, he knew of him and his support of the MRP at the time. "I know that he was very close to Rufo Lopez-Fresquet, the Minister of Finance, and that he was working at the bank and that through Lopez-Fresquet he was able to get some contributions to the Movement. | know he was very active." Ray said that he heard through the underground that Veciana was planning the Castro assassination attempt and that he had gotten a bazooka for it. He later heard that Veciana himself had left Cuba the day before the assassination attempt and that he later gave the excuse that he had to helptsome people escape in a boat and that he had to jump into the boat himself to do so. "The story was that the attempt failed because of the confusion that followed after he teft," said Ray. Ray said that there was no indication at the time that an American was behind Veciana's planning of the assassination attempt. He knew of no American that Veciana might have been associating with at the time. Ray said he could not identify Maurice Bishop, nor did his characteristics or sketch resemble anyone he knew, although he said there was some resemblance to a U.S. government official he met in Tampa when he first arrived in exile. He said he met at least four government officials in Tampa while being put up in a motel there, but he wasn't told whether they were CIA or FBI. Ray said he doesn't recall even the name given to him of the one who resembled Bishop and he doesn't “recall that it was "Bishop." What Ray does recall about his initial debriefing in Tampa when he entered the U.S. in October or November, 1960, was that he was eventually told that a Mr. Frank Bender wanted to talk with him. Bender then arrived and he had a long conference with him. Ray said he got the impression that Bender was mostly interested in his philosophy about how Cuba should be governedn after the overthrow of Castro, but Ray said he found it a bit strange that Bender, was specifically interested in the future of the King Ranch in Ray's vision of ‘ihe future of Cuba. "I don't think he liked my answer too much," said Ray, “because | told him that the most important thing was to develop the overall economy of the country and that, although | had nothing against the King Ranch, they would have to contribute more to the economy of the country. | don't think he liked that answer too much." =more- DoclId: 32255005 Page 5
HW 54756 (When asked, Ray said he was not familiar with the name of Jack Malone who, according to a file review, was associated with the King Ranch in Cuba.) Ray said he subsequently had a number of meetings with Bender in Miami, a few of which concerned his and the MRP's joining of the united Frente prior to the Bay of Pigs invasion. Ray was asked 1f he was aware at the time of the opposition of the CIA's political liaison, E. Howard Hunt, to his Joining the Frente. [in his book, Give Us This Day, Hunt points to Ray's joining the Frente as one of the key reasons he resigned his position. Ray said he was not specifically aware of Hunt's opposition to him at the time. He said, in fact, that he never met E. Howard Hunt, or "Eduardo," but knew only that the CIA's "Golden Boy," as he was known, Manolo Artime, had the personal support of a very influential and powerful government ter, official who’, Ray said he later found out, was Hunt. Ray said that Hunt's portrayal of him in his book and of his relationship to the Frente was misleading. Ray said he was not anxious to jotn the Frente and that he resisted doing so for some time. "We were in touch with the leaders of the front at the time," said Ray, "people like Toény Verona, and we told them, why should we join and be so restrained as you, why should we want to become part of the situation just to be like a poker chip with somebody else running the show and not knowing what you are fighting for?” Ray also said that because his group was so well organized within Cuba at the time and had deep underground penetration, some other exile Cuban groups were also not anxious to welcome him in the front because they were afraid he would take control of it. Ray said opposition to him also came trom certain influential and wealthy anti-Castro Americans who saw the Frente as a "social club" where they could have influence and, if successful, reap their benefits later in Cuba. He specifically cited William Pawley as one such. Ray said he met Pawley only once. "At the Time," he said, "there was a lot of heavy propaganda against us going around Miami. They were saying 'Fidelissimo sin Fidel! and that type of thing, accusing us of being Communists. One of the members of our organization happened to have an office close to Pawley's and got to meet him and then arranged a meeting between us. So | went to meet him, It was very interesting because | found the man very arrogant. We started discussing Cuba and the future of Cuba and so forth, and then he said he was going to be sincere with me. He said he believed that when Fidel was overthrown it would be better if | were assassinated and that somebody might just do it." -more- DoclId:32255005 Page 6