DRAFT MEMO ON POLITICAL ACTION OPERATIONS IN CUBA - THE PROENZA CASE.
Originator: CIA
Document date: 01/01/0000
Document type: PAPER - TEXTUAL DOCUMENT

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1104-10065-1017

2022 RELEASE UNDER THE PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY ASSASSINATION RECORDS ACT OF 1992

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MEMORANDUM:

SUBJECT: Political Action Operations in Cuba - The PROENZA

Case

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1.: Introduction

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 of the

Kennedy Administration the CIA established among its objectives

against Fidel Castro's Cuba beneat fragmenting its governing

coalition

and de exeration

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. De operations

B: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 apparent that the Cuban Vice Minister of

Defense, a highly placed and violent 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.

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It was believed that such a revelation would throw a great

strain on the relations of the Cuban Communist Party (then known

as the PSP) with the other partners in that coalition. It was

also felt that the operation would redound against the USSR

because the Vice Minister of Defense was a senior member of

the Moscow-line 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 1963 when a delivery of documents was again

being made several were included revealing the presence of another

"CIA agent" in the Cuban government, this time inside the Cuban

Embassy in Mexico. This target was Teresa Proenza Proenza,

Long-time Cuban Conmunist and contact of the soviet intertigenese-

in Mexico, who was acting as Cuban Cultural Attache. On 10 December

1963 Miss Proenza was informed of her sudden transfer back to

Cuba; she actually departed on 23

January 1964. It was apparent

that her recall was connected with the spurious documents and

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

Sor. The first reaction to the operation inside Cuba occurred

in the week of 14 March 1964. At that time a junior member of

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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 Communist had

been the protege of the Vice Minister of Defense the trial was

really a trial of the latter; another Tukachevskiy case.

Fd-During 1964 deliveries of documents to the Cubans were

1964

continued and payments received. On 18 November the Vice Minister

of Defense was arrested on charges of treason and removed from

his post. Sof was his wife who also held cabinet rank. They

were jailed as was Teresa Proenza.

*.l. After terms in prison all three defendants were released

to house arrest:

Proenza was later permitted to work as a

librarian in Havana. The Vice Minister died peacefully in his

bed several years later. 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.

s.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

and tbe story would make the juiciest.

of

headlines if it became

publicly known, especially in the present moralistic environment.

The fact that several persons were deprived of their freedom as

a result of the operation should be noted. Furthermore, this

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operation laid the basis on which other operations of a similar

nature 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 cryptonyms 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 operations

did not begin to register on the Cubans until after the death

of President Kennedy should remove any suspicion that it in

any way.

goaded Castro. into assassinating our president.

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