MOVIMIENTO DEMOCRATA CRISTIANO (MDC)
Originator: HSCA
From: CIA
Document date: 11/14/1978
Document type: REPORT

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180-10142-10409

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

CIA HAS NO O0J

DECLASSIFIO

RELEASE OF

DRAFT -

MDC

11/14/78

Betsy Palmer

BOX

0.01

- RETURNTO CIA FOL

Background Use Only

Do Not Reproduce

MOVIMIENTO DEMOCRATA CRISTIANO (MDC)

24

42

After Castro's assumption of power in 1959, it became

evident to many Cubans that political parties were being

surpressed and the 26th of July Movement was being infil-

trated by Communists. This political atmosphere gave rise

to the creation of underground organizations such as the

Christian Democratic Movement of Cuba (MDC). I Proclaiming

the doctrine of Christianity as its foundation, the MDC

published

a manifesto in March, 1960 denouncing Communism

and strongly advocating the free enterprise system. 3 One

of the founders of the MDC, 35-year-old law professor,

DI. Jose Ignacio Rasco, was elected head of the organization*

and immediately criticized the violence prevalant in the

Castro regime. s

This public criticism produced pressure on

him to leave Cuba and he arrived in Miami on April 22, 1960 6

By June, Rasco had allied himself and the MDC with the Frente

Revolucionario Democratico (FRD)

and thus became one of the

five original exile Cuban leaders brought together by the

State Department and the CIA to form the nucleus of a Cuban

government-in-exile.

After the Bay of Pigs invasion, the MDC split into factions.

Rasco remained head of the largest faction and organized

delegations in Miami, New York, Chicago, Venezuela and Cuba, 10

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The clandestine faction operating in Cuba was lead by Pepin

Fernandez Badue who used the

alias "Lucas" Il when Fernandez

arrived in the U.S. in October, 1961, he presented his

credentials to the Cuban Revolutionary Council, (CRC) ,

claiming he was the representative of the MDC movement in

Cuba.

into the CRC hierarchy. 13

Council president, Dr. Miro Cardona, accepted him

The "Lucas" faction remained with

the Council but its role was ineffectual because Fernandez

eventually failed to hold the group together.

14

The "Rasco" faction of MDC had as its Military Chief an

independently wealthy young Cuban, Laureano Batista Falla. 15

Free-spirited and under no financial pressures, Batista Falla

organized and partially financed the infiltration attempts

of the MDC. 16

It was one of the most active and effective

underground groups in Cuba during the early 1960's.17

Prom 1960-1262, 1°Cbatista Fallawas associated with the

CIA as a "political and psychological agent

He trained

at the CIA-sponsored camp for the MDC near Perrine, Florida,

prior to the April 1961 invasion20

and made many trips from

this camp to deliver explosives, guns and ammunition to the

21

Cuban underground.

At that time, most underground groups worked together,

sharing supplies and information.

22

However, the repressive

measures of the Castro regime after the April 1961 invasion

caused members of the Cuban underground to live in fear of

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discovery and made inter-group liaison extremely risky.

Despite the inherent dangers, the underground movements of

the MDC and Movimento Revolucionario del Pueblo (MRP)

worked jointly for an

all-out sabotage effort in the fall

24

of 1961.

The

"Batista" faction of the MDC (so named after the

youthful military chief rose to the position of president

25

in 1962)

entered into similar cooperative alliances with

other exile groups for the purposes of propaganda, sabotage

and supplying the Cuban underground. Many MDC members joined

the Cuba Committee in 1962 which was formed to counteract

the propaganda of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee, a pro-

Castro organization in the U.S. .

The MDC and the Directorio

Revolucionario Estudiantil (DRE) worked together to formulate

plans for an

underground organization to infiltrate Oriente

27

Province.

The active operations between the MDC and other

anti-Castro groups peaked in the year 1963. One involved

the MDC, the Movimento Insurrecconial de Recupueracion

Revolutionaria (MIRR) and the Movimento Recuperacion

Revolutionaria (MRR). In April, Frank Sturgis, Miami-based

soldier of fortune, supplied information that Batista Falla,

Orlando Bosch Avila, Manuel Artime and Alexander Rorke were

jointly planning an air strike over Havana on April 25.28

According to Sturgis, the strike was to originate from an

airstrip in Puerto Rico and the target was a sugar refinery 29

The bombs were homemade, assembled by Batista.

30 Rorke

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publicly announced that the strike had taken place as scheduled,

31

which took the other planners by surprise.

Sturgis claimed

the strike was still in the planning stage and financial

32

backing had

not been completed.

This incident created a

stir and resulted in an intensive FBI investigation of Rorke's

33

allegation.

Since Radio Havana, contrary to usual policy,

34

made no immediate protest over the bombing,

the FBI concluded

that Rorke's story

was probably untrue"s

and, according to

36

Sturgis, merely a publicity stunt.

In early June, 1963, the MDC made a unity pact with

Commandos I in which the latter group was to provide training

and assistance in military intelligence and the MDC to provide

37

three small boats and a team of men to infiltrate Cuba.

The

MDC also made a pact with Dr. Carlos Prio Socarras, former

President of Cuba who donated $50,000 to the group for military

38

aid in return for its promise of political support.

39

Richard Rudolph Davis, a Cuban alien,

had a preipheral

association with the MDC through his contact with Batista Falla

in the summer of 1963.

This

association was noted in Book v,

Final Report of the Senate Select Committee to Study Govern-

40

mental Operations.

Davis was

residing in New Orleans and, although not an

MDC member, claimed to have once been a "coordinator" for the

41

group and

the New York Police Department.

He was a friend

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of Batista Falla and contacted him because, he said, Batista

Falla was in a position to recommend men in the Miami area

who needed work.

42 Davis claimed he could provide employment

for a small group of Cuban emigres. He said he had entered

into a business deal with geologist David L. Raggio and

a wealthy, right-wing New Orleanian, Gus de LaBarre, forming

the Guatemalan Lumber and Mineral Corporation.

It was their

intention to train the Cubans on some land in Lacombe, Louisiana

to which De LaBarre had access through his nephew, Frank

44

de LaBarre.

After a necessary training period, the group

was to be sent to Guatemala to cut mahogany trees, he claimed.

A group of about 18 Cubans did arrive in New Orleans in

the summer of 1963. Leading them was a well-known Cuban

exile, Victor Paneque

46

"Commadante Diego".

who used the military code name of

Paneque was closely associated with

Batista Falla in the military activities of the MDC.

47 Davis

later admitted to the FBI that the men had arrived dressed

48

in khakis

and thought that they were to receive military

49

training.

In the latter part of July, 1963, the FBI conducted a

raid on property near that of the "lumber company" training

camp.

The Bureau seized a cache of dynamite and other ex-

50

plosives.

This raid, according to Davis, unnerved his

trainees!

and they elected to return to Miami.

138368

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A somewhat different version of this episode comes

from Gus de LaBarre's nephew and attorney, Frank de LaBarre,

who first related his story

in 1966 to his former law school

52

classmate, Jim Garrison.

De LaBarre said his "Uncle Gus" had introduced him to

Davis, whom De LaBarre described as a "floater."

They came

to

see De LaBarre about drawing up articles of incorporation

for the Guatemalan Lumber Company and that is when he says

he learned of their plans to bring unemployed Cubans from

Miami to train as lumberjacks. Uncle Gus sent provisions to

the exiles on a daily basis and solicited money for food and

..53

clothing from friends and relatives.

Although he suspected that military training was being

conducted at the camp, Frank de LaBarre said he didn't pay

much

attention to the activities of the group. However, when

he heard on his car radio that the FBI had seized a cache of

ammunition at a house in Lacombe, he immediately called his

uncle. Although receiving assurances that the lumber group

was not involved, De LaBarre called the officers of the

corporation together and insisted that the Cubans be taken

out of there. Davis, however, told him that the Cubans did

not want to leave, whereupon De LaBarre said he had to do

some real "brainstorming." He rented a Hertz ton-and-a-half

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truck and instructed Davis to take it. to the camp and ¿ell

the cubans

"that the invasion is on." Davis complied, and

the Cubans loaded their gear, jumped in the truck and were

brought to the Greyhound bus terminal in New Orleans. Each

was

given a one-way ticket to Miami plus a small amount of

cash and told they would get their orders when they reached

Miami. Looking as though ready for war, with knapsacks and

guns bulging from under their clothes, they boarded the bus.

That was the last, De LaBarre said, he saw of them.

The last he heard of Davis, he said, was in 1964 when

one of De LaBarre's friends reported he had gone into business

with Davis and was left with a lot of bills. 54

Other than providing the manpower for the training camp,

Batista Falla was not involved in this episode or was the

MDC as an organization.

Concurrent with his involvement with leaders of other

exile organizations, Batista Falla was dealing with foreign

governments in an effort to gain support for his faction of

the MDC. After the World. Congress of Christian Democrats

in

Strasburg, France, two West German officials of the Christian

Democratic Party conferred with the MDC in Miami. 55

According

to one of the officials, the West Germans, after months of

study, had decided to help finance the MDC, not because they

were particularly fond of them, but felt once Cuba was liberated

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the Cubans would have a moral superiority over the rest of

56

Latin America.

Another offer of help came from Luis Somoza, former

President of Nicaragua, who provided the MDC a base for

57

operations in that country.

Venezuelan President,

Romulo

Betancourt, allegedly also offered to make a base available

for the MDC and provide it with personnel and supplies.

58

Recognizing that these Latin American bases of operation

were important to the MDC, Batista Falla nonetheless pre-

ferred to work out of the Miami area. Its proximity to

Cuba, good facilities for operating boats and the availability

of a large number of Cubans to serve as mechanics and do other

necessary labor made Miami more desirable than the Latin

59

American facilities.

The major drawback in Miami was the

presence of U.S. government officials determined to strictly

enforce the Neutrality Act and other Federal statutes.

U.S. Customs raided MDC headquarters

in Miami on

April 21, 1964 and confiscated a large cache of arms and

60

ammunition.

Undeterred, the MDC simply relocated the

military section in separate headquarters, continued to store.

61

materials for infiltration and attack missions against Cuba,

62

and conducted study courses in military training

and theory.

In July, Batista Falla and Victor Paneque infiltrated men

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and equipment into Cuba to form a nucleus of guerrilla bands.

who, once they got adequate arms and ammunition, planned to

go into the mountains of Cuba, 63

The MDC eventually suffered the fate of other anti-Castro

organizations -- finding it increasingly difficult to finance

infiltration and sabotage missions, and experiencing in-

creased surveillance by U.S. authorities determined to limit

their activities.

The organization's activities gradually

declined, Batista Falla eventually gave up his anti-Castro

activities, moved to Washington, D. C. and received a doctoral

degree in political

science. 64

In the spring of 1970, he

moved to Venezuela.

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FOOTNOTES

MOVIMIENTO DEMOCRATA CRISTIANO (MDC)

1. CIA/Deputy Director Operations, Movimiento Democrata

Cristiano (MDC) Volume 3, Objectives of MDC

2. Ibid

3. HSCA #009538, Item 4, P. 2, FBI #105-87909-5, 1/30/61)

4. Ibid

5. CIA/DDO, MDC Volume 3

6. HSCA #009538, Item 4, P.2, FBI #105-87090-5, 1/30/61

7. Ibid

8. Give Us This Day by E. Howard Hunt, Popular Library

Edition, pp. 43-44.

05

9. CIA/Domestic Contact Division document, Jose Ignacio Rasco!

Information Report 00-K-3,233,366, 8/16/62

10. Ibid

11. Ibid

12.

Ibid

13. Ibid

14.

HSCA Security File #092, Senstudy Document, Volume 32,

Item 1, #97-4110-72

15. Ibid

• 16.

HSCA #009303, FBI #97-4623-149, Section V

17.

HSCA Security File #092, Senstudy Document, Volume 37,

Item 4, #105-95461-15, p. 4

18.

HSCA #009303, p. 6, FBI #97-4623-149, Section V

Approval form J

HSCA #009303, p.

4, FBI #97-4623-149, Section V

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Footnotes - MDC

Page

2

21. Ibid

22.

HSCA Security File #092, Senstudy Document, Volume 37,

Item 4,

#105-95461-15, p. 4

23.

Ibid p. 2

24. Ibid

25.

HSCA #009303, p. 8, Item 4, FBI #105-183815

26.

CIA/DDO, MDC Volume 3, Cable to Director from JMWAVE,

#14986,

6/21/62

05

27.

CIA/DDo, [laureano Batista Fallay Information Cable IDCS

DB 3/660-050, 3/14/64

28. HSCA #009303, p. 1, FBI #9704623, Section 1

29. Ibid

30. Ibid p. 5

31. Ibid

32. Ibid

33. HSCA #009303, p. 3, FBI #97-4623, Sections II

through VI

34. Ibid p. 3, FBI #97-4623, Section IV

35. Ibid p. 2, #97-4623-35

36. Ibid p. 2, Item 1 (9), FBI #97-4623

3%. CTA/DDO, MDC: Volume 5, Information Cable UFG-3536/

38. Ibid

39.

HSCA #012981

40.

Book V, Final Report, Select Committee to Study Govern-

mental

Operations with respect to Intelligence Activities,

United States Senate (SSCI) •

On page 12 of the SSCI, the

group of Cubans connected with the Guatemalan Lumber

Company project are identified as the same group arrested

when the FBI raided and seized dynamite on property in

Lacombe, Louisiana. It should be noted that the FBI

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raid

occurred on July 31, 1963 at property owned by

William J. McLaney, whereas the Guatemalan Lumber

Company trainees were on property owned, according to

Frank de la Barre, by a friend of his.

Although

de la Barre did not mention the name of the owner,

the FBI Report from Miami, Bufile #2-1821 Section

33

lists the names of the Cubans arrested on McLaney

property

and Victor Paneque was not among them.

41.

HSCA #012981

42.

Ibid

43.

Ibid

44. Ibid

45. Ibid

46.

HSCA Security File #092, Senstudy Volume 32, Item 2,

#97-4110-123, p. 2

47. Ibid

48.

HSCA #006716, P. 4, FBI, Richard Rudolph Davis, Volume 1

Report from New Orleans, 7/3/64

49. Ibid p. 2

50. Ibid

51. Ibid

52.

HSCA #012981, Fonzi memo 9/6/78

53.

Ibid

54.

Ibid

55.

CIA/DDO, MDC Volume V, Information Cable [UFG-4531,]

1/29/64

56. Ibid

57.

CIA/DDO [Laureano Batista Falla,] Volume 1, Information

SDB-3-655,718, 7/26/63

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CIA/DDO [Laureano Batista Falla, Volume 1, Information

Cable TDCS-DB-3/658,177, 11/14/63

HSCA Security File

#092, Senstudy Document 33, Item 1,

#97-4110-86, p. 13

60. Ibid, Volume 32, Item

2, #97-4110-123, p.1

61. Ibid

62. Ibid, Volume 33, Item 2, #97-4110-132, p.2

63. Ibid

64. HSCA #009303, P.7, Item 3, FBI #97-4110-207, Report

Miami, 1/28/70

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