MEMO: CIA OPERATIONS AND PLOT TO KILL FIDEL CASTRO, RAUL CASTRO AND OTHER KEY FIGURES OF THE PRESENT REGIME IN CUBA
Originator: CIA
From: SWENSON, HAROLD
To: HART, JOHN
Document date: 07/09/1965
Document type: PAPER - TEXTUAL DOCUMENT

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

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Et. Col. Batmir BLANCO Rier

HEMORANDUM FOR:

FROM

SUBJECT

Mr. John Hart

: HI. Harold Swenson

: CIA Operations and Plot to Kill FidelCastro,

Raul Castro and Other Key Figures of the

Present Regime in Cuba

Source: Victor ESPINOSA Hernandez (201-285147), born 26

August 1937 in Cardenalcontentzan 20 sarch 1961.

Cuba, a Pl trainee who

was terminated as a malcontent on

Present

address is 415 East 52 Street, NYC, where his telephone is

HA 1-7875.

Supplemental Data: ESPINOSA flew Air France from Orly

Airport (confirmed by cachet in pp) on 29 May 1965 and on

arrival in NYC the same day contacted an INS Agent named

CAVASANJIAN (ph) who, on the basis of information in the

story of ESPINOSA which appeared to affect U.S. security,

notified the FBI.

Special Agent Frank O'BRIEN of the NY

Field Office of the FBI interviewed ESPINOSA on 2 May 1965.

The FBI notified us on 3 May.

I saw ESPINOSA on 4 May in the

NY field office of the FBI.

Frank O'BRIEN was present.

(O'BRIEN said that INS at Washington, D.C. apparently had

received a report and had notified FBI headquarters from which

a supervisor had telephoned O'BRIEN to inquire whether O'BRIEN

knew about aspects of ESPINOSA's story with derogatory allega-

tions about the CIA, including Earle WILLIANSON.)

Paraphrase of the source's story:

1. I do not have a

high regard for the CIA or for most

of the

exiled Cubans but I am against the Castro regime for

which reason I have become involved in these matters about

which I must be sure the CIA is informed.

I contacted the

INS and the FBI

because through them I could ensure contact

with a responsible CIA officer.

2.

I was a good friend of Rolando CUBELAS.

We conspired

together against BATISTA and we planned assassinations of

Batista supporters.

He carried out the killing of one of the

SIM chiefs, RICO fatan,

successfully.

A lot of things the

anti-BATISTA students did were not effective but we did more

than talk and this old assassination is proof that people

ito Rolando a ayer act:

File: Latenese

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3.

After CASTRO took over I left Cuba and engaged in

anti-Castro activities.

I got shot in

the process,

I was

betrayed by some of the Cuban exiles when I was going to bomb

Cuba, I saw how the CIA bungled and I became bitter.

I was

bitter about Rolando too.

I thought that he had turned

communist.

I sent him a

message a long time ago, telling him

that he was a traitor and no friend of mine.

That was when a

Pan American stewardess whom

he liked came

to me with a message

from him about how he was still a friend of mine and things

were not like they seemed:

I got mad and told her to tell him

off for me and I showed her the bullet wound in my leg that I

had because I was fighting CASTRO and those with him like

Rolando.

Afterwards I did not hear from Rolando until just a

little while ago. flerikin-s

It was in llay when I got a letter from an old friend,

Ack tuss FERNANDEZ"He had written to me before to let me know

that he is working for the CIA in Paris.

This letter in May

was pretty confusing but luis made it clear that there was.

something very important, that it involved Rolando CUBELAS,

that Rolando wanted me to go to Paris on an urgent matter,

and that another friend, Luis TRASANCOS, knew something about

it.

The letter said that the CIA knew about this and that

Luis FERNANDEZ thought maybe the CIA already had told me to

go to Paris, although he was not sure.

5.

I decided to go to Paris because of the mention of

Rolando.

The CIA

had taken my old Cuban passport when I was

in training in Guatemala and never returned it.

Also, because

I got caught when I tried to bomb Cuba, the INS had warned me

not to travel outside the U.S. saying I could go to jail lor

five years and I could not get a re-entry permit and all that.

However, I checked with an INS officer who knew me.

He said

the INS was not so interested in me anymore and

I probably could get re-entry.

Because the letter was so

pressing in my travelling at once,

I decided not to go through

a lot of red tape.

I went to Florida to see my.

brother, Rene,

residing at. 5000 SW 69th Avenue, Miami. He arranged through

some friends whom I don't know to get me a false Cuban passport.

The pp has number 423335, is dated 19 November 1964,

name of the source, and has entry and departure

cachets for London on 4,

10 and 21 May

1965; for Le Bourget

on 7 and 21 May; and for Orly on 29 May

1965.)

I bought a

ticket and left for Paris without having any

trouble.

I

&m

not sure about the dates and the sequence of travel because

everything

was so hurried.

I went to London as well as to

Paris and I tried to go to Spain but had to turn back.

Anyway

I remember the important things.

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6. At Paris I telephoned Luis TRASANCOS who invited

me to lunch in his apartment.

When I got there, I found Alberto

"El Loco", whom I have known since early 1959 and

considered a traitor.

I called Luis aside to tell him

this but Luis explained that BLANCO was instructed by Rolar.do

CUBELAS to see me, that Loco and Rolando are against CASTRO,

and that my seeing loco was the reason that it was so urgent

7. Rolando CUBELAS had been in Paris a couple of months

earlier and, according to El loco, had left a letter instructing

El Loco did not have

the letter with him but I believe it.

liars and exaggerate and are insecure and all that is wrong

about them, but I know what is good about them and how to check

on things.

So I cross-questioned El loco and others until I

was sure that they told me the truth.

What I am telling you

1s what I found out from El Loco, confirmed later through'El

Mago ROBRENO, and confirmed in part through questioning others

who know parts of the story but not all of it.

Rolando CUBELAS plans to kill Fidel and Raul CASTRO

and other key men in the regime.

Rolando has a house at

Varadero Beach adjacent to the house of Fidel, so it is easy

for Rolando to get Fidel any time.

The idea is not just to

kill Fidel but to change everything in Cuba. so Rolando has the

cooperation of other people whose names I do not know except

for El LOCO BLANCO and El Mago ROBRENO and ALNEIDA.

Rolando is

very security conscious so he does not want people

to know any more than is necessary.

You must understand the

danger to these people.

What I can tell you now is that El Loco

has his faults and so does ROBRENO but both worship Rolando and

are trustworthy insofar as be is concerned. El Loco is back

inside Cuba now.

El Mago Robreno is in Madrid and can get

messages in and out. He is responsible for killing many of

my friends and he kicked their dead bodies afterwards, so I

do not like him and maybe later I shall kill him;but for now I

believe that he is useful and can be trusted for the matters

which involve Rolando and the plot against Fidel CASTRO.

Some of the CIA people are not trustworthy. This is

what bothers Rolando CUBELA$ and El Loco and El Mago and me too.

Ihis is why Rolando wants me to get his message through. He

wants an answer fast.

The message is that CUBELAS and the

are able to kill Fidel and others in the regime,

but they need some help and they need to know whether the CIA

and the U.S. Government are with them and willing to support

them or not.

If the answer is affirmative, Rolando will send

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details about what he needs and so forth. Time is important

because Rolando says that he caunot delay more than three or

four months.

That is the maximum.

would find out and arrest everyone if there is more delay.

have to be bought.

Anyway he needs to know your stand.

El Loco and El Mago said that on 5 or 6 June someone

is passing through Madrid en route from Prague to Habana and

that this person could carry the answer to Rolando.

not say how I should get the answer to El Mago but I suppose

I can fly to Madrid to give it in person and, if you want, one

of you can accompany me.

I myself suspect that Rolando will

move. earlier than in two or three months.

I believe that

26 July is a good date because all the chief targets will be

asserbled so it will be easier to get them all fast, but Rolando

did not send me this as his plan.

11. El Loco and El Mago have access to ary Cuban Embassy

in Europe and these embassies are engaged in contacts with

communists and in subversion.

The same applies to embassies in

Africa.

El Loco and El Mago could have been giving you valuable

information allalong.

Yet your people play security games and

do not use people like this. Instead you use unreliable and

risky people.

12.

El Loco was in Europe as an officer of Cuban Security.

He had codes, ciphers and microfilm to prove this and he showed

them to one of your people in Madrid. What better proof. do you

want? What did

you do about it? Nothing.

Yet this man, a

member of the Cuban Security, offered to work as a double for

you and he tried to tell you about Rolando's plot. Now he is

back in Cuba.

As the result of his frustration over your

attitude, he was in terrible mental state when I saw him. Had

I been your people in the CIA, I'd not have let him return that

way.

In his upset he could do something rash which might blow

the whole operation.

13. El Mago ROBRENO is a delinquent.

He shot an American

in Cuba over some private disagreement.

He shot a police

officer.

He beat up his wife, now his ex-wife.

This is apart

fron his killings on behalf of CASTRO in the trials of counter-

revolutionaries.

This is why Fidel wanted ROBRENO out of Cuba.

ROBRENO is a delinquent, a trouble maker and an embarrassment.

In the Cuban embassies in Europe, they know this.

not want trouble and they see him.

They do not believe that he

is counter-revolutionary or plotting against the regime. He is

useful.

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14. I sent El Mago a ticket so he could travel from

Madrid to Paris to see ne.

This is because your people in

Paris said they could not help me get a visa to Spain and

because when I tried to enter Spain illegally I ran into

trouble and turned back.

As I said before, I wanted to get

confirmation of what El Loco had told me.

El Mago confirmed

everything.

15. Now to mention the problems about your people, I must

explain that these are incidental to the real reason for

seeing

you which is to give you the message from Rolando. I did that.

16.

Rolando said that he did not trust Earle WILLIAMSON

and did not want to see him even though Williamson wanted to

meet Rolando when Rolando was in Europe last.

I have known

Williamson

for years, since he was in Habana and belonged to

the Vedado Tennis Club and was drunk by three p.n. every single

day.

Recently in Madrid, he has set up a Cuban girl in an

partment and he got her a job in a cubai felugee office.

She

stole files or the contents of files from

office. She is

working for the regime and Williamson fell for her.

Her nick-

name is Tota.

This makes not a bit of difference

to us except

that it is further reason that people risking their lives

against CASTRO do not confide in Williamson.

Do not confuse

Tota with Beba, another Cuban girlfriend of

Willianson.

Be ba

is the niece of Julio LOBaS.

She is divorced from a friend of

mine.

She has been going with lilliamson and she is all right.

WillIanSOn

says that"s the CIA chief for Spain and airica.

Some chief.

17•

Another one of your people whom my friends do not

trust and whom I do not trust is Carlos TEPEDINO.

He has a

jewelry shop here in NY around 47th Street. I sold him a

couple of my paintings some time back.

ust id'out to nake money and who will do anything for money.

This is a man who is

You •

should not trust him but you do.

For example,

he told you

that he has the confidence of Ambassador CARRILLO in Paris,

that

he could become better friends with CARRILLO if you supplied

money with which to buy confiscated jewelry from CARRILLO. So

you gave the money, the amount TEPEDINO asked for, TEPEDINO

paid less for the

jewelry to CARRILLO, TEPEDINO made a nice

profit for hinself, and CARRILLO thought it all very funny.

CARRILLO told friends that he knows that TEPEDINO is working

for you CIA people and won't tell TEPEDINO anything which

CARRILLO does not want you to hear. CARRILLO told all this to

El LOCO BLANCO.

Also you should know that TEPEDINO tells you that he

agrees with you but when he is with others who criticze you,

he tells then that he agrees with them. He has been acting as

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a supposed intermediary between you and Rolando CUBELAS

connection with this plot.

This is because CUBELAS trusted

TEPEDINO as an old friend. Let me explain that this TEPEDINO

is an older guy so the friendship is not like that between

¡olando and myself.

We double dated, fought and plotted

togethe He has been telling Rolando's friends over a period of

This TEPEDINO is different. He is out to make

*Ime that he has CIA contacts and can get anything needed from

the CIA.

He has not come through.

They want nothing else to

do with him.

19.

Another of your people is wichy BERNAL who works for

Williamson in Madrid.

BERNAL was Cuban Military Attache in

Japan when he defected, absconding with $18,000, all of which

he kept for himself and none of which he contributed to the

counter-revolutionary cause.

This is the kind of person whom

you trust and whom we do not.

1s Dick's secretary, there is no complint in particular.

About your Paris people, Bob, Dick and Maureen who

Maureen does not know when she is being kidded.

Luis TRASANCOS

and El Loco BLANCO saw her in Paris.

They jokingly asked if

she would work for theSoviets for

twice what you people are

paying her.

She paled and swallowed the story.

After El Loco

told

me the story,

I talked to Maureen. I confirmed it.

Maureen is the go-between for Luis TRASBNCOS and Dick.

The

problem is that we can't be sure that we can get the story from

Rolando CUBELAS to the CIA chiefs by using your Paris people.

He don't want Luis TRASANCOS or Luis FERNANDEZ to know more

than they need.

This is just good security.

They know enough

about the general plan but they need not know details..

Others who know quite a bit are ARTIME and his aide,

QUINTEROS.

CUBELAS met bot

ARTIME and TEPEDINO in Europe.

They agreed on a few reference

points on the north coast of

Cuba as possible exfiltration

places from which ARTIME could pick up CUBELAS' people if some-

thing goes wrong• Also ARTIME gave something to CUBELAS which

CUBELAS took back to Cuba in his bag. I do not know whether

It was a rdio or not but you people ought to see to it that

CUBELAS does have a radio so he can communicate with you.

22.

A little about myself: I have some money. My family

managed to get quite a bit out of Cuba.

We are trying to get

live at 15th and Linea

the rest of the family' in Vedado, Habana.

my grandmother and my uncle out.

The y

My grandmother is

Juan IRIVARREN and my uncle is Pedro HERNANDEZ.

They are

supposed to have gotten visas for Spain and to be getting exit

permits but we have been

hearing this for

some time.

I used

my own money to buy passage for El Blago between Madrid and

Paris and to pay my own expenses.

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23.

he has a child,

El Mago does not work but his girl, Sonia, by whom

1s working as a dancer in Spain;so he does

pretty well there on her earnings.

are in Miami now.

His wife and two children

• in New York some place.

his father, a fine guy and good newsman, is

want me

24. I have done my part in getting word to you. If you

to do something, let me know.

If I get any further

he will let you know so you can meet me.

this only to INS,

the PBI and you. I am not going to say

anything to anyone else.

ACTION: I shall discuss with WILLIAMSON.

Frank O'BRIEN will

notify us if he gets further word.

by sending (via El Mago, unsavory

If you want to test this

though he be) a message to

CUBELAS that we certainly are in favor of helping those who are

trying to make Cuba free but that we want him to send someone

responsible with full details before we make commitments, you

can send me a cable while I am over in Madrid. As stated

defore, the file makes all of this

seem a ball of wax.

foregoing account speaks for itself.

The

Maybe the CUBELAS boys

are sincere and will act, maybe they are just talking, maybe

this is a provocation.

If you want to find out all that El

Mago knows, it probably will be necessary for a staffer to

spend tine with him.

The Madrid Station was not disposed to

do this when I was there last.

NOTE:

ESPINOSA.

I used the name Harold Safely in the meeting with

Harold Swenson

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