HSCA REQUEST FOR CIA FILES ON TERESA PROENZA.
Originator: CIA
From: RAYMOND, WALTER, JR./C/IAD/CAS
To: DDO
Document date: 07/26/1978
Document type: PAPER - TEXTUAL DOCUMENT

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104-10052-10191

2022 RELEASE UNDER THE PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY ASSASSINATION RECORDS ACT OF. 1997.4

MEMORANDUM FOR:

FROM

SUBJECT

CIA HISTORICAL REVIEW PROGRAM

RELEASE AS SANITIZED

26 JUL 1978

1999

Deputy Director for Operations

: Walter Raymond, Jr.

Chief, IAD/CAS

: House Select Committee on Assassinations

(HSCA). Request for CIA Files on

Teresa Pro

e n z a Proenza

1. The HSCA has requested the files on Teresa Proenza Proenza

in connection with their investigation into the assassination of

President John F. Kennedy.

Mr.

2.

In consultation with the Principle Coordinator, HSCA,

scott Breckenridge, we believe that these files should b

enied since they involve sensitive operational methods. (Th

attached MFR

em

at Tab A describes the project. At Tab B is the

Rame provided

to the HSCA.)

If the DDO concurs in denying the files to the HSCA,

Mr. Breckenridge will consult with the DDCI and with his

approval present this position to Mr. Blakey. It is likely

that Mr. Blakey will ask Chairman Stokes to contact the DCI.

Mr. Charles Anderson, Chief, IAD/CAS/COB, can provide

a briefing or additional details.

Walke Ragmund

Valter Raymond, Jr.

Attachments:

Tabs A & B hw)

APPROVED:

filthile

/Director for Operations

26 JUL 1978

Date

3086

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TAB

MEMORANDUM

SUBJECT

: Political Action Operations in Cuba - The PROENZA

Case

1. Introduction

5.

This memorandum sets forth information concerning the

conduct of a series of interlocking non-violent political action

operations against the Cuban government, its internal coalition

and its alliance with the Soviet Union mounted in 1963.

2. Objectives

."...

:;

!

Pursuant to instructions from the 303 Committee,

during the Kennedy Administration, the CIA established among its

objectives against Cuba the fragmenting of its governing

coalition and exacerbation of its relations with the USSR.

This decision was taken prior to the October 1962 Missile

Crisis.

As a result of the decision a number of non-violent operations

were carried out.

Those pertaining to the Teresa Proenza Proenza

case

are set out below..

3.

The Operations

a. On 3 April 1963 a set of spurious documents falsely

• ascribed to a disaffected CIA agent in Mexico were passed

through a CIA controlled asset to the Cuban Embassy in Mexico City..

The documents made it appear that the Cuban Vice Minister of

Defense, a highly placed and extreme Moscow-line Communist (who

had been in Moscow when the missile build-up was planned in

early 1962), was actually a CIA agent who had betrayed the build-

up.

The purpose of this disinformation was to cause a great

strain in the relations between the Cuban Connunist Party (then

known as the PSP) and the other partners in the coalition.

was also hoped that the operation would redound against the USSR

because the Vice Minister of Defense was a senior Moscow-line

member of the PSP. It was calculated that the USSR would

move to defend the Vice Minister, who was probably their chief

agent in the Cuban government, and that a collision between the

Soviets and Cubans

could result.

The Cubans accepted the

spurious papers and paid for them per our demand.

b. Through the summer of 1963 several further deliveries

of spurious documents were made to the Cubans and several

thousand dollars were received in payment.

But results of the

operation from inside Cuba were not yet observed. Therefore

on 13 November 1263, when a

delivery of documents was again

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SAD MFIMODS INVOLVED

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being made,

several were included revealing the presence of another

'CIA agent" in the Cuban

government, this time inside the Cubar

Embassy in Mexico. This

target was

was a close contact of the Vice Minister of Defense.

10 December 1963 Miss Proenza was informed of her sudden transfer

back to Cuba; she actually departed on 23 January 1964:

recall was believed to be a result of the spurious documents and

of her known long-time friendship with the Vice Minister of Defense.

c. The first reaction to the operation inside Cuba

occurred in the week of 14 March 1964.

:At that time a junior

member of the Communist Party (PSP) was tried

and convicted

of betraying non-Communist leaders of the resistance to the former

•government of cuba which had been overthrown by Fidel Castro:

As the trial wore on

It became apparent that since the young

Conmunist had been the protege of the Vice Minister of Defense

the trial was really a trial of the latter.

d. During 1964 deliveries of documents to the Cubans

were continued and payments received.

On 18 November 1964

the Vice Minister of Defense was arrested on charges of -treason

and removed fron his post, as was his wife who also held cabinet

rank. They were jailed

as was. Teresa Proenza.

e.

After terms in prison all three defendants were

released to house arrest. Proenza was later permitted to work as

a librarian in Havana.

bed several years later.

house arres The Vice

The Vice Minister died peacefully in his

His widow was allowed to leave Cuba

to reside in Spain.

This phase of the CIA operation wound

down in March 1966 when the Cubans ceased taking an interest in

it.

4. Concluding Remarks

The foregoing is but the barest outline of a highly

complex operational system that made use of a wide variety of

techniques and assets which have not been revealed to the public.

The story would make dramatic headlines if it became publicly

known, especially in the present environment. The fact that

several persons were deprived of their freedom as a result of the

operation would attract further attention.

Furthermore, this

operation laid the basis for other operations of a similar

nature that were successfully mounted against Cuban and other

hostile targets.

In short, this file is a Pandora's box the

opening of which would not only expose the cryptonyns of other

operations of this type but would attract unfavorable publicity

for the Agency in certain quarters and would expose hitherto

secret techniques and assets.

This would make their employment

in the future very difficult. The fact that this series of

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operations did not begin to register on the Cubans until after

the death of President Kennedy should remove any suspicion that

it could in

any way have caused Castro to direct an assassination

attempt against the President.

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regimes,;

(

"MORANDUM FOR: SA/DO/0

: Chief, LA/STB

FROM

: Charles l'. Anderson

Chief, CAS/PAG/COB•

SUBJECT

: Maria Teresa Pr o en z a Proenza

TAB B

25 May 1978

CIA HISTORICAL REVIEW PROGRAM

RELEASE AS SANITIZED

1999

1.

Maria leresap ro en z a Proenza,

born

11 March 1908 in Havana, Cuba, is a Cuban citizen who

resided in Mexico for a number of years before the coming

to power of Fidel Cas tr 0 in January 1959. Miss Proenza,

a member of the Cuban

Communist Party in Mexico was an

associate of many Mexican and foreign Communists and

lottists in intellectual and artistic circles.

For

example, in 1957 she was the housekeeper of famed Mexican

Comnunist artist Diego Rivera.

She was also well

acquainted at the Soviet Enbassy in Mexico City.

2.

When the incoming Castro regime took comnand of

the Cuban Embassy in Mexico City, Miss Proenza was

iocally hired

work there in propaganda affairs.

Eventually she was given the title Third Secretary/

Cultural Attache.

She maintained her leftist Comnunist

and Soviet contacts and played an important propaganda

role for the Cuban Government because of then.

5. On 13 November 1963 this Agency initiated an

operation to counter Miss Proenza's effective exploitation

of her contacts in Mexico, a work which frequently had

Prent

strong anti-U.s. overtones.

Miss Proenza returned to

Ciba

in January 1964.

4.

with Miss Proenza.

At no time has this lgency maintained contact

• Charles W. Anderson

cc: C/LA/STB

merrilo

.:

2..

-

OsM5ll!

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SUBJECT:

Maria Teresa Pro en z a Proenza

DDO/C/CAS/PAG/COB: ClAnderson:jd (ext. 1620) (25 May 1978)

Distribution:

1 - SA/D0/0

1 -

Nemo Chrono •

-

Hit Parade

C/LA/STB

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