14-00000 Ur | a MOVIMIENTO UNIDAD REVOLUCIONARIA - ty chdpmator and T have requested political asylum from the United States because we aro convinced that Cutan support of the Con-unist war in Vietnam is wrong and we r-fuou iv run tne ricks of transporting war material to North Viet Nam, . ‘ All Cuban ships have orders to carry cargo te North Vietnam to heip the North Vietnamese war effort, The Cuban Embassy in Japan is acting as the coor= a dinator for qll shipments of war material to North Vietnam via Cuban ships from | 3 Communist ports in Asia. The Cutan Embassy in Tokyo had secretly arranged for the fracolio Iglesias to take a shipmont of war materials from Forth Korea to North Vietnam. In order to hide their intentions, the Embassy arranged that the: fvacelio itinerary be kept up in the air until the last possible moment; then to : fool the crew and the Japanese they gave tho story the ship would return to Japan to lead tin cargo at Yahata and thon proceed on route to North Vietnam, In reale ity, wo wore to receive instructions on itinerary while in North Korea telling ua to proceed directly to North Vietnam after loading the war supplies. At the last moment, howaver, tho Embassy was informed that the port of Chinnampe was blocked by ice. The Cuban Exbassy then hastily arranged for us to : pick up a shipment of arms in Shangai previously scheduled for another Cuban boat about tho end of January. 7 ; Logistical support to the North Vietnamese is one of the two tasks assigned ; to Mr. Manuol Jorge Cuerys,. the now Cuban Ambassador to Japan. His other func- tion ie to erase the bad effects on Japanese-Cuban trade caused by the defection of the former trade Counselor to Japan, Gilberto Verany. Tho Cuban government is very concerned about the prospect of declining trade since already some comp< anieg that formerly traded with Cuba, will no longer do go openly. In general, I may say that members of the Cuban merchant marine live under unbearable conditions, The treatment we receive is so bad that no one feala like cooperating with the marine purposes of the regime, even in the few cases where there might be no ideological incorpatibility involved. As examples of thie treatment I may mention the constant spying on board 1 by members of the "Ge2%, For some reason, the "G-2" man on board is usually the radio and telegraph operator. In the “Aracelio" we had one by the name of Eduay — do Sanchez who was a notorious spy. Abourd we had another ran called Manuel Ria Rodrigues who was imposed as the Fourth Ongineer, even though he had no training or ability to perform such duties. 4s Captain of the "Aracelio"®, I was ordered TELEFONO FR 3~8099 10 3 2 ST. MIAM!, FLORIGA
14-00000 -2- by the governront shipping concern "Vazticas" to give Rua all possible coopsrat~ ion in the fulfillment of his functions, Ria then came to see me and asked, among other things, that I surrerder to him the incoming and outgoing rail of certain apecifiec crewmen who were suazected of teing arainat the government. Another instance of {l-treatrent which Cutan seamen resent is the discrim} nation to which we aro subject by the Cutan Cuctoms as compared to the preferr-« tial treatment they accord to foreign eailors, particularly those from behind the iron curtain, Most everything we tring from abroad to alleviate the scarcity suffered by our families ia confiscated at the Customs House. Still other reasons for disgust are the rany cute and discounts made from our alreedy low pay and, very especially, the fidiculously lev amount of forefg eug rency that wo are allowed when we eail atroad, For spending money in foreign. ports, all we got in local currency ie the equivalent of 25 per week which, of course, are deducted from our basic saleries, In applying thie restriction, no distinction is made between the crewren or the various officer ranks. It ia. $F for everyone. Because of all this, and because of the terrible conditions under which _ Communism keeps our homeland, most Cutan sailere and officers are staunch anti- Communists, The Government knowe thiz, but nevertheless they must employ what they call "the reactionaries" because of the scarcity of other trained personnel te man Cuban boats, Their only choice ie to epy on ue constantly, as I fave just explained. As to the operating conditione of the Cuban merchant fleet, it 1s vorth mentioning that Polish ships, which raze yp a sizable proportion of Cuban ship- ping, are supplied with Soviet-made equiprent which the Russians have long dise carded as obsolete. Again, my own ship is an example, The "hracelio” wae cone pleted as recently as 1963 in a Polizh shipyard, Yet, ita radar equipnent is 80 obsolete that it is simply not used, cince we could never find the parte to réo pair it when it broke. A German technic‘an told my Chief Mate here that at mst have been a World-War II unit. a Excessive bureaucratic red tape eré digorganization is another serious problem confronted by Cuban shipping aré which often results in considernble damage to those firms that trade vith tie Castro tyranny. I will illusterate this. The Cuban government agency reepcnsible for arranging maritime trennspor= tation for merchardise bought abroad is the “Empresa Cubana de Fletes" (CUFLET).