Originator: HSCA
From: CIA
Document date: 00/00/0000
Document type: REPORT

# DOCID-32273520

## Page 1

JFK Assassination System

Identification Form

Agency Information

Date:

4/27/201

AGENCY :

RECORD NUMBER :

HSCA

180-10147-10165

RECORD SERIES :

CIA SEGREGATED COLLECTION

AGENCY FILE NUMBER: 61-01-03

Document Information

ORIGINATOR:

HSCA

FROM:

CIA

TO :

TITLE :

Released under the John F. Kennedy

Assassination Records Collection Act c

and de: 12107 Note) Caself N.

DATE: 00/00/0000

PAGES:

18

SUBJECTS :

CIA, FILES

MEXICO CITY

LOPEZ, GILBERTO

DOCUMENT TYPE: REPORT

CLASSIFICATION: Unclassified

RESTRICTIONS: 1A; 1B

CURRENT STATUS : Redact

• DATE OF LAST REVIEW: 01/01/2003

OPENING CRITERIA :

COMMENTS: Box 33

v9.1

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Clossification:

ECRET

(This form is to be used for material extracted

from ClA--controlled documenis.)

Cover Sheet

The attached package of paper is the property of

the House Seloct-Committee on Assassinations, and is

on loan

to ClA under an agreement whereby CIA is not

to reproduce or copy the draft or any portion thereof.

Notes may be taken on materials in this package,

and

rough notes may be prepared

as a basis for informal

and

oral exchanges with liscA representatives. These

notes, nowever, are to be held as though controlled and

are to be destroyed under agreed conditions with HSCA.

They are not to

be copied or excerpted and are to be

held until

further instructions are received for

eventual disposal.

These papers have been numbered for accountability

receipted

accordingly. They are to be handled on

a secure basis as

though constituting sensitive papers

on a need-to-know

basis.

REPRODUCTION

PROHICITED

REPRODIOTION

PR

Copyll of

SECRETI

Classification:

Classified by derivation.

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Page.

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Prepared

Cupez

DRAE'T

Cuban-American

In Book V of the final report of the Senate Select

Committee to Study Governmental Operations on the performance

of the intelligence agencies in the investigation of the

assassination, the FBI and CIA are criticized for their

apparent failure to fully pursue leads surrounding the

assassination of President Kennedy and then to fully report

to the Warren Comnission the results of the investigations

they did undertake. One such lead concerned the travel

from Texas to Mexico City of ap unidentifieet Cuban-

American on November 23, 1963, and then his flight to Havana on

November 27. 1/ The lead was made more "interesting" by

the fact that the Cuban-American reportedly attended

meeting of the Tampa chapter of the Fair Play for Cuba

Committee on November 17, 1963. Z/ The House Select

Committee on Assassinations examined the documents connected

to that lead to determine: : (a) whether the facts which were

known by the FBI and CIA about that individual warranted

further investigation and what investigation was undertaken;

(b) whether any of that information was reported to the warren

Commission; and (c) whether the known facts suggest any

involvement in the assassination of President Kennedy.

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Cuisan-Ame

can.

•page 2.

A chronology of the activities ee the FBI and CIA

on this lead amplifies the Information which was in the

possessiond the two agencies.

CIA Investigation

The first information on the travel of the Cuban-

incArly

Arrerican appeared at, December @

1963. At that time the

Mexico

Station of the CIA sent a classified message

to CIA headquarters that a source-dentified as

LITEMPO/ 4) had

requested off the Mexico City Chief Of Station at 1300 hours

on-that date

"urgent traces on U.S. citizen Gilberto P

Lopez." 3/ The source said Lopez arrived in Mexico on

November 23 en route to Havana and that Lopez had

disappeared with no record of his trip to Havana: According

to the message, Lopez had a tourist card, carrying number

24553, which he obtained in Tampa on November 20, 1963 and

his passport number was 310162.

The message stated that Lopez

left Mexico for Havana

on November 27 via Cubana (Airlines).

The classified message listed the pryptonym LIFTRe as the enignial

source of

information on

Lopez'

travel.

It indicated the Mexico

City

Station had no traces on him:

4/

of the some date

In another classified message dated December 3,

1963) from

the Mexico City

Station

to CIA headquarters, the station

repoxted also-that the FBI office

in Mexico-City had been

advised by Mexican authorities

that

Lopez entered Mexico on

Novemuer 27 at Nuevo Laredo. 5/

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Cuban-

Am

ican... page 3

seit the Next dang

In another classified message dated, December 4, 1963

to the Mexico

C1

Lt

Station from CIA headquarters, the Agency

reported

that the State Department check on

Lopez had produced nothi

yet because of the difficulty in tracing records

using only

a name and passpori number..!/

The message contained this

paragraph:

We assume you have not told CITEMPOLSOURCE]

that Lopez flew to Cuba on 27 November

because you do not want to blow the

LIFIRE

operation. This problem is up

to you. 1/

The LIPIRE operation referred to in the class latessage

informinion oN

tO

the

Mexico

Cit)

Station involved cooperation between the

CIA and Mexican federal officials who participated in a

plan of photographing passengers of flights departing for Havana.

and obtaining the passenger lists of the Cubana flights.

Mexican officials also had their own program to photograph the

passports of the passengers arriving from Havana. 8/

that the

On December 5, 1963 the Mexico City Station reported

reporTiNg

LITEMPO/4

source had stated that Gilberto Lopez

had

crossed the Mexican border at Laredo, Texas on November 23,

1963 and registered in the Roosevelt Hotel in Mexico City on

The riposting Sour ch

November 25 at 1600 hours in Room 203.% LITBiPO aISO

reported that Lopez departed on a Cubana flight on

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Cuban-Ane

an.

•page 4

additionally that

November 27 for Havana.

That classified message

the Source

secured

LITEMPO/* had a good

stated

photograph

of

Lopez. 10/

The photograph of Lopez contained in his CIA 201 file

has "27 November 1963" stamped on the back. In the photograph

Lopez is shown wearing dark glasses and the background in

the photograph is dark and indistinguishable

he following day

i dispatch dated December: 5, 196

from the Chief of

StationinMexico

(ty to headguarters, copies of the

photograph of Lopez were attached, and the dispatch stated

wiend.

that the photograph was

taken. On the night of November

1963 at the Mexico City airport by Mexican authorities as

Lopez was boarding a Cubana flight. ll/ The dispatch gave

Go dEsires

previously reported information of the numbers of Lopez's

passport and tourist card and his entry

into

and departure from Mexico. The dispatch contained the

additional information that Lopez was

isted as the only

passenger on Cubana flight #465 on Novemoer 27, 1963 to Havana;

the flight contained a crew of nine Cubans. It said he used

a U.S. passport and a Cuban courtesy visa. 12/ The dispatch

had the following message:

"Source states the timing and

circumstances surrounding subject's travel through Mexico and

departure for Havana are suspicious." 13/ The dispatch

said also that the source "urgently" requested all available

data on the individual.

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Cuban-Ane

can... page 5

shami dite

Also on Decmeber 5, 1963,

CIA headquarters cabled the

Mexico

City Station and identified this Cuban-American as

Gilberto Policarpo Lopez, who was born on January 26, 1940. 14/

It stated also that Lopez was not identical with a Gilberto

Lopez who had been identified as active in pro-Castro groups in

Los Angeles. 15/

CIA herdquantees reccived

O March 19 1964, the Monterrey Station senSa

classified message to headquarters that Enrique Ruiz Montalvo

an agent of the Mexican Federal Judicial Police, had Stzted

informed the CIA

that one of Ruiz's contacts reported

In Tate February, 1964, that an American citizen named Gilberto

Lopes was involved in the Kennedy assassination. 16/ The message

said

Ruiz'

contact reported that

Lopes entered mexico on

foot from Laredo, Texas about 1200 hours on November 13 carrying U.!

passport #319962, which was issued July 13, 1960. 17/ According

to the dispatch, the contact related also that Lopes proceeded by

bus to Mexico City "where he entered Cuban embassy"; it said that

he left the Cuban Embassy on Novemoer 27 and was the only

passenger for Cuba on flight

#465. 18/: It said the contact

reported that

Lopes was issued Mexican travel form B, #24553, at

Nuevo Laredo. 19/ According to the dispatch,

Ruiz

reported

that he could not verify the contact's information,

but thought it might be of interest to the United States

government: 20/

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Cuban-Ame

an... page

accuse

The cable stated also that backyround information

riport

concerning the Monterrey base's contact with Ruiz was

contained in

dispatch dated March 19 which was being pouched.

to headguarters.

on March 20

21/

On March

The Nexterty

,the Deputy Chief of the Mexico City

Station

cabled a classified message to headquarters in which it was

stated that the information contained in the earlier dispatch

which discussed the manchepent"jibes fully with that provided

station by LITEMPO

early December 196,322

A 201 file

was opened on Gilberto Policarpo

Lopez by

Agency headquarters on December 16, 1963. 23/ At that time his

records indicated that no earlier 201 file had existed.. The

file contains a "Review of 201 file on U.S. Citizen" by

Barry Gibsons an operations officer for the

LAM/FI

component

of the Agency. 24/

In that review the file was-classified

as a "counterintelligence case (i.e., involving a foreign intelli-

gence or security service)." 25/ The date of entry of that

category in Agency records is indicated as January 22, 1915 in

Lopez's-file. 26/

FBI Investigation

In a report dated August 26,

1964, the-FBI documented

the results of its

investigation on

Gilberto Policarpo Lopez

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Cubar-American... page 7

which had been carried out in Key West, Florida. The report

stated that Lopez's counsin, Guillermo serpa Rodriguez), told the

FBI that Lopez came to the United Stated for the first time some

time after Castro first came to power. 27/ He stayed

approximately

one year and then returned to Cuba. 28/ Rodriguez stated that

Lopez returned to Cuba because he was homesick and missed

his family; he had parents and four brothers who still resided

in Cuba,

29-%

Rodriguez stated also that Lopez's brother Selito

was

a member of the Cuban militia at that time. 30/ Another

brother, Raimundo Policarpo Lopez

Thad reportedly been

sent to the Soviet Union to study by the Cuban government;

according to Rodriguez. 31/

Rodriguez told the FBI that Lopez returned to the United

States in 1960 or 1961 because he was afraid he would be drafted

into the Cuban militia if he remained in Cuba. 32/

The FBI learned that Lopez

married an American woman in Key

West in August, 1962. 33/ According to Lopez's wife, he worked

for a time with the Pepsi Cola Co. in 1962 and at the Molina

and Murgia Bakery in Key West, which was owned by cousins. 34/

She said that he also worked for a construction company in

Tampa in June, 1963. 35/

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Cuban-American:

• •page ô

Iopez's wife told the FBI that Lopez began suffering from

recurrent attacks of epilepsy and had to be confined at Jackson

State Hospital in Key West in early 1963. 36/ She stated that

he was treated by doctors from Coral Gables and Key West for the

epilepsy. 37/ She stated that she did not believe he had a

history of epilepsy before coming to the United States. 38/

She believed his convulsions were brought on by nervous tension

and worry over his family in Cuba and may have been a reason

for his return to Cuba in 1963. 39/

The wife said that in approximately November, 1963,

she received a letter from Lopez saying he had returned to

Cuba. 40/ The wife stated that she was surprised he had returned

but that he had mentioned he was going back to Cuba when he

left for Tampa in November, 1963. 41/ The wife gave her opinion

that he returned because of his close relationship with

his

parents. 42/ The wife stated that she received another letter

from him later from Cuba. 43/ According to the letter, he was

working as an elevator operator in Havana. 44/ In that letter

Lopez said he had received some kind of financial assistance

for the trip from an organization in Tampa. 45/ According to the

wife, Lopez did not have sufficient personal funds to pay the

expenses to Mexico and Cuba. 46/ She said that he had never had

contact with cuban refugee organizations to her knowledge. 47/

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Cuban-American... page 9

Rodriguez told the FBI that Lopez left Key West

in late 1963 to go to Tampa

with the hope of being able

to return to Cuba. 48/

Rodriguez said he believed Lopez wanted

•to return to Cuba because he was afraid of being drafted into

the U.s. military. 49/ Rodriguez said Lopez was not involved

in any pro-Castro activity while living in Key West, but that

Lopez was "definitely" pro-Castro. 50/ Rodriguez recounted. that

in one instance he and Lopez actually had a fist-fight over

Lopez's pro-Castro sympathies. 5}/

In a report in March 196p, the FBI reported that Lopez

had attended a meeting of

the Tampa Fair Play for Cuba Committee

= on November 20, 19z7.

52/ The report also stated that at a

meeting of the group on November 17, 1963, Lopez stated that he

had been refused travel back to. Cuba. He said at that time

that he was waiting for a phone call from Cula to get word on

his departure to Cuba. 53/

According to that report in March, 1964, a member of the

Tampa FPCC stated that she called

a friend in Cuba on

December 8,

1963 and was told that Lopez

had arrived safely. 54/ The member

had attempted to locate Lopez in Cuba through friends there because

Lopez had not delivered gifts to persons in Cuba from people

in Florida as he had promised to do. 55/ The member stated

also that the Tampa chapter of the FPCC had given Lopez

approximately $190 for the return trip to Cuba. 56/ The member

said that Lopez had gone to cuba by way of Mexico because he did

not

have a passport. 57/

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Cuban-American

•. page 10

The March 1964 FBI report listed Lopez's passport as

#310162, which had been issued in January, 1960, and his

Mexican tourist card as "M8-24553, issued November 20, 1963

in Tampa. 58/ It stated that Lopez entered Mexico by private

auto at Nuevo Laredo on November 23, 1963 and departed for

Havana on November 27 as the only passenger on a Cubana flight,

carrying a Cuban courtesy visa. 59/

According to the FBI file, Lopez's mother, Esperanza

Rodriguez, was born in Key West, Florida. 60/ The file

listed three cousins and four uncles who resided and worked in

the Key west area with their families. 61/

Lopez's FBI file contains a memo from the Tampa office

dated October 26, 1964 which states:

It is felt that information developed

regarding the subject is not sufficient

to merit consideration for the Security

Index. 62/

The only information transmitted by the FBI to the Warren

Commission on Lopez concerned a check at the Passport Office: 63/.

The information the

Bureau did send to the Commission a bout the

Tampa chapter of the FPCC did not include any information on

Lopez's

activities. 64/ The CIA apparently did not provide

any information on Lopez to the warren Commission. As pointed

out in the Senate report, this omission is made more egregious

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Cuban-

rican... page 1}

by the fact that sources had reported within a few days of

Lopez's departure for Havana and of the assassination that the

circumstances surrounding his travel seemed "suspicious" and

that in March, 1964, while the Warren Commission was well

underway into its work into the investigation of the

assassination, Lopez had reportedly been involved in the

Kennedy assassination.

CIA TARForCe Report

In the 1977, feport oft

Inspeato Generatof the

ClAy the Agency attempted to

refute several "inaccuracies".

in the Senate report regarding the reporting on Lopez's

travel. That is apparently the only follow-up by the

Agency on the lead after the Senate report appeared.

In the first place, the Inspeetor General. Report

corrected the statement in the Senate report that sources

reported that

Lopez appeared "suspicious" when he was

JFR

surveilled in Mexico. 65/ The It report explained that the

internal CIA document of

December

1963

which characterized

the man as suspicious was merely "cryptic and impressionistic

rather: than constituting a tangible basis for dramatic

activity or final conclusions." 66/

The report stated additionally that the March

1964 cable from the Monterrey base which recounted the

information on Lopez from the contact of the Mexican police

and claimed Lopez was involved in the assassination was

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Cuban-American... page 12

incorrect on several points: Lopez's name was misspelled

"Lopes"; it stated that Lopez entered Mexico on foot when

the CIA repeated the FBI's conclusion that he had traveled

by auto; it gave incorrect digits in Lopez's passport

number; it stated that the Mexican tourist visa was issued

in Nuevo Laredo and not Tampa; and it reported that he

stayed at the Cuban Embassy. 67/ Based on these inaccuracies,

TFR

the Inspector ferreral concluded that "the source patently

was extensively misinformed." 68/ Based on that observation,

TER

the Inspector Gerreral completely discounted the, cable

by the Deputy Chief of Station in Mexico

City or March 20,

1964 that the Mexican police source information "jibed"

with what had earlier been reported by the CIA's source. 69/

Presumably the discrepancies pointed out by the

TFR

Inspecter General are meant-to-explain the fact that the

CIA did not také

more aggressive investigative steps

to

ascertain whether there might-have-been some connection

between Lopez and the assassination. In that regard, the

1977 Inopector Gonen report explains that the Agency

had no other means of investigating Lopez at his disposal

and had carried the lead as far as it was able by

questioning a Cuban defector about Lopez. While the fact

of the CIA's lack of access

to further information about

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Cuban-American... page 13

Lopez may well be the case, that fact does not explain either

the failure of the CIA to take more seriously the suspicions

of the sources, or most importantly, to report whatever

information it had to

the Warren Commission... In that

TFR

regard, the attempts of the Inspector General to denigrate

the value of the information provided on Lopez do not

explitin

finnine

diminish the apparent negligonce of the Agency In seriously

pursulag the information as it was received.

The Agency is

not to be faulted for the strength of its intelligence

gathering, but rather for the judgment which kept that

intelligence from the governmental body, the warren

Commission, which was mandated to pass on the strength of

exactly that kind of information.

From the information collected by the FBI, there

plausible

appear to be welt explained reasons both for Lopez's

desire to return to Cuba and his solicitation of the help of a

local FPCC chapter for that travel. His contacts in Florida

appear on their face to be innocent and tempulitiat and not

in any way connected with the assassination.

Despite the

suggestion by the

Senate report of suspicion in the fact

that Oswald "may" have been in touch with that same FPCC

the #SCA Fund

chapter, no evidence appotts to suggest that Oswald was

actually in touch with the Tampa FPCC, or that Lopez was

connected in any way with Oswald or Dallas.

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Cuban-American.. page. 14

Despite what is now known about Lopez, the Warren

Commission may well have wanted to lay to rest

suspicions which would remain about Lopez, and satisfy

itself that these circumstances in no way indicate foreign

involvement in the assassination. The CIA has contributed

to those suspicions by not airing the matter and explaining

circumstances which could shed light on otherwise sinister

appearing events.

The Committee has documented instances where the CIA

decided to forego passing information to the Warren Commission

out of a desire to not lay bare extremely sensitive

sources

and methods of intelligence. The LIFIRE operation

certainly falls within that category and as soon as the CIA

began receiving intormation that

LIFIRE was the source of

the information about

Lopez's traveil, the cables ara

messages reflected the desire to not reveal that method.

It also seems plausible that the rai likendae chose not to fael)

divulge what it had learned about Lopez because in doing..

so, it would have had to reveal the sensitive CIA operation

which generated the initial information on Lopez's travel to Cuba

on November 27.

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## Page 17

Cuban-Ame

can footnotes

1/

The Investigation of the Assassination of President

John F. Kennedy: Performance of the Intelligence

Agencies, Book V, Select. Comm. to Study Governmental

Operations, 4/23/76, P. 61, Senate. Report No. 94-755.

2/ Id.

3/ Classified CIA Document

Mexi) IN 72615, 3 DeC. 1963.

4/ Id:

5/ Classified CIA Document

Mexi) IN: 72829, 3 Dec. 1963.

6/ Classified CIA Document

_, 4 Dec. 1963.

Id.

9/ Classified CIA Document

Mexi

7253, IN 74227, 12/5/63:

10/ Id.

Dispatch

11/ Classified CIA

(Documen't HMMA-22579, 12/5/63:

12/

Id.

13/

Id.

14/ Classified CIA Document

5 Dec. 1963.

15/

17/

18/

Id.

16/ Classified CIA Document MNTY 0829, IN 43194, 19 Mar. 1964.

Id.

Id.

19/

20/

•Id.

Id.

21/

Id.

22/ Classified CIA Document

Mexi

8740, IN 43940, 20 Mar. 1964.

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Can-American footnotes..

• page

23/

24/

25/

26/

27/

28/

29/

30/

Classified CIA Document, Personality File Action Request,

16 December 1963, #201-741600.

Classified CIA Document.

Id.

Id.

FBI Report,

8/26/64,

Serial 105-126109-12, p.

Ibid. at

Ibid. at

Ibid. at

Ibid. at

Ibid.

at

Ibid. at

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## Page 19

Cuban-Amer

can footnotes... page 3

49/

Ibid. at

According to lopez's FBI file, he registered with the

Selective Service at Key west on July 29, 1960 and

was classified 4-F on February 23, 1962 due to a

language barrier.

50/

51/

21

53/

54/

55/

56/

57/

58/

59/

60/

61/

62/

63/

FBI Report, 3/31/64, Serial 105-126109-9.

Ibid. at

Ibid.

64/

65/

• 66/

67/

68/

FBI Report, 10/26/64, Serial 105-126109-13.

Senate Report, The Investigation of the Assassination of

President John F. Kennedy, Book V, p. 63.

Iạ:

See Senate Report, p.104.

TASK FORCE

CIA Classified Document, 1977 Inspector General's Report,

Tab B, p.16.

Id.

Id.

69/ Ibid. at 17.

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