Agency: HSCA
Originator: HSCA
From: CIA
Document date: 00/00/0000
Document type: NOTES

## Page 1

JFK Assassination System

Identification Form

Agency Information

Date:

4/14/201

AGENCY: HSCA

RECORD NUMBER :

180-10144-10239

RECORD SERIES:

CIA SEGREGATED COLLECTION

AGENCY FILE NUMBER :

30-61-02

Document Information

ORIGINATOR:

HSCA

FROM:

CIA

TO :

TITLE:

DATE: 00/00/0000

PAGES:

10

SUBJECTS :

Released under the John

F. Kennedy

Assassination Records

Collection Act of 1992

144 USC 2107 Notel.

Case#:NW 53080 Date:

06-05-2017

CIA, FILES

MEXICO CITY STATION

CIA, METHODOLOGY

DOCUMENT TYPE: NOTES

CLASSIFICATION: Unclassified

RESTRICTIONS: 1A; 1B

CURRENT STATUS: Redact

DATE OF LAST REVIEW: 08/21/1995

OPENING CRITERIA:

COMMENTS:

Box 24

v9.1

HH 53080 DocId: 32272526

Page

1

---

## Page 2

DRAFT

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 Commission the results of the investigations

they did undertake.

One such lead concerned the travel

from Texas to Mexico City of an unidentified 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 a ....:.

meeting of the Tampa chapter of the Fair Play for Cuba

Committee on November 17, 1963. 2/ 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.

HH 53080 DooId:32272526 Page 2

---

## Page 3

67

Cuban-American.. • page 2

A chronology of the activities of the FBI and CIA

on this lead amplifies the information which was in the

possession d the two agencies.

CIA Investigation

The first information on the travel of the Cuban-

American appeared on December 3, 1963. At that time the

Mexico City Station of the CIA sent a classified message

to CIA headquarters that a source identified as LITEMPO/4 had

requested of 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 cryptonym LIFIRE as the

source of information on Lopez's travel. It indicated the Mexico

City Station had no traces on him. 4/

In änother classified message dated December 3, 1963 from

the Mexico City Station to CIA headquarters, the station

reported also that the FBI office in Mexico City had been

advised by Mexican authorities that Lopez entered Mexico on

November 27 at Nuevo Laredo. 5/

HH 53080

DooId:32272526 Page 3

---

## Page 4

Cuban- American... page 3

In another classified message dated December 4, 1963

to the Mexico City Station from CIA headquarters,

the Agency

reported that the State Department check on Lopez had produced nothin

yet because of the difficulty in tracing

records using only

a name and passport number. 6/

The message contained this

paragraph:

We assume you have not told LITEMPO

that Lopez flew to Cuba on 27 November

because you

. do not want to blow the

LIFIRE operation. This problem is up

to you. I/

The LIFIRE operation referred to in the classified message

to the Mexico City 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/

On December 5, 1963 the Mexico City Station reported

that the 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

November 25 at 1600 hours in Room 203. 9/ LITEMPO also

reported that Lopez departed on a Cubana flight.on

NY 53080 DocId: 32272526 Page 4

---

## Page 5

Cuban-American.. • page 4

November 27 for Havana. That classified message stated

additionally that LITEMPO/4 had a good 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.

In a dispatch dated December 5, 1963 from the Chief of

Station in Mexico City to headquarters, copies of the

photograph of Lopez were attached and the dispatch stated

that the photograph was taken on the night of November. 27,

1963 at the Mexico City airport by Mexican authorities.as

Lopez was boarding a Cubana flight. 1l/ The dispatch gave

the 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 listed as the only

passenger on Cubana flight #465 on November 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.

HH 53080

DooId: 32272526 Page 5

---

## Page 6

Cuban-American... page 5

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/

On March 19, 1964, the Monterrey Station sent a

classified message to headquarters that Enrique Ruiz Montalvo,

an agent of the Mexican

Federal Judicial Police, had

informed the CIA that one of Ruiz's contacts reported

in late February, 1964, that an American citizen named Gilberto

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

said Ruiz's contact reported that Lopes entered Mexico on

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

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 November 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/

HH 53080

DocId: 32272526 Page 6

---

## Page 7

Cuban-American... page 6

The cable stated also that background information

concerning the Monterrey base's contact with Ruiz was:.

contained in a

• dispatch dated March 18 which was being pouched

to headquarters on March 20. 21/

On March 20 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 Ruiz's contact "jibes fully with that provided

station by LITEMPO/4 early December 1963. " 22/

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 Gibson, 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, 1975 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

HH 53080 DocId: 32272526 Page 7

---

## Page 8

72

Cuban-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, had 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/

HH 53080 DocId: 32272526 Page B

---

## Page 9

73

Cuban-American... page 8

Lopez'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

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

tension

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/

HH 53080

DocId: 32272526 Page 9

---

## Page 10

Cuban-American... page 9

Rodriguez told the FBI that Lopez lèft 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. 51/

In a report in March 1963, the FBI reported that Lopez

had attended a meeting of the Tampa Fair Play for Cuba Committee..

on November 20, 1978..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 Cuba 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/

HH 53080 DocId: 32272526 Page 10

---

## Page 11

75

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

HN 53080 DooId:32272526 Page 11

---

## Page 12

7.6

¿Cuban= American...page 11

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.

In the 1977 report of the Inspector General of the

CIA, 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 Inspector General's report

corrected the statement in the Senate report that sources

reported

that Lopez appeared "suspicious" when he was

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

internal CIA document of December 5, 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 19,

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

HH 53080

DooId: 32272526 Page 12

---

## Page 13

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,

the Inspector General concluded that "the source patently

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

the Inspector General completely discounted the cable

by the Deputy Chief of Station in Mexico City on March 20,

1964 that the Mexican police source information "jibed"

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

Presumably the discrépancies pointed out by the

Inspector General are meant to explain the fact that the

CIA did not take more aggressive investigative steps to

ascertain whether there might have been some connection

between Lopez and the assassination. In that regard, the

1977 Inspector General 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

HH 53080

DocId: 32272526 Page 13

---

## Page 14

7%

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

regard, the attempts of the Inspector General to denigrate

the value of the information provided on Lopez do not

diminish the apparent negligence of the Agency in seriously

pursuing 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

appear.. to be well-explained reasons öoth 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 nonpolitical 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

chapter, no evidence appears to suggest that Oswald was

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

connected in any way with Oswald or Dallas.

1H 53080

DocId: 32272526 Page 14

---

## Page 15

79

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

information that LIFIRE was the source of

the information about Lopez'is travel, the cables and

messages reflected the desire to not reveal that method.

It also seems plausible that the FBI likewise chose not to

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.

MY 53080 DocId: 32272526 Paye 15

---

## Page 16

80

Cuban-American 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.

I/ Id.

8/

2/ Classified CIA Document Mexi 7253, IN 74227, 12/5/63.

10/

Id.

11/

12/

Id.

13/

Id.

14/

15/

Id.

17/

Id.

18/

Id.

19/

Id.

20/

Id.

21/

Id.

Classified CIA Document HMMA-22579, 12/5/63.

Classified CIA Document

5 Dec. 1963.

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

22/ Classified CIA Document Mexi 8740, IN 43940, 20 Mar. 1964.

HH 53080 DocId:32272526 Page 16

---

## Page 17

Cuban-American

footnotes... page 2

23/

Classified CIA Document,

Personality File Action Request,

16 December 1963,

#201-741600.

24/

Classified CIA Document.

25/

Id.

26/

Id.

27/

28/

Ibid.

at

29/

Ibid.

at

30/

Ibid. at

31/

Ibid. at

32/

Ibid. at

33/

Ibid. at

34/

35/

36/

FBI Report, 8/26/64, Serial 105-126109-12, p.

43/

44/

45/

46/

47/

48/

HH 53080 DocId: 32272526 Page 17

---

## Page 18

Cuban-American

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 anc

was classified 4-F

on February 23, 1962 due to a

language barrier.

50/

51/

2/

53/

54/

55/ -

56/

57/

58/

59/

60/

61/

62/

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

Ibid.

at

Ibid.

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.

64/ Id.

65/

66/

See Senate Report, p.104.

CIA Classified Document, 1977 Inspector General's Report,

Tab B, p.16.

67/ Id.

68/

Id.

69/

Ibid. at 17.

HH 53080

DooId: 32272526 Page 18

---