INTERVIEW WITH MANOLO RAY RIVERO
Agency: HSCA
Originator: HSCA
From: FONZI, GAETON
To: BLAKEY, G. ROBERT
Document date: 06/28/1978
Document type: MEMORANUDM

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JFK Assassination System

Identification Form

Agency Information

Date:

10/14/20

AGENCY: HSCA

RECORD NUMBER :

180-10093-10063

RECORD SERIES: NUMBERED FILES

AGENCY FILE NUMBER: 009005

Released under the John

. Kennedy

Assassination Records

Collection act of 1992

144 USC 2107 Notel.

Case#:NW 54756 Date:

Document Information

ORIGINATOR: HSCA

FROM: FONZI, GAETON

10: BLAKEY, G. ROBERT

TITLE: INTERVIEW WITH MANOLO RAY RIVERO

DATE: 06/28/1978

PAGES:

9

SUBJECTS :

ANTI-CASTRO ACTIVITIES

RAY RIVERO, MANOLO

ODIO, SILVIA

CIA

DOCUMENT TYPE: MEMORANUDM

CLASSIFICATION: Unclassified

RESTRICTIONS: 3

CURRENT STATUS : Redact

DATE OF LAST REVIEW: 01/01/2003

OPENING CRITERIA:

COMMENTS: Cover memorandum attached.

Box 162.

v9.1

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*

Select Committee on Assassinations

H.S. House of Representatives

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20515

WORKING MEMORANDUM

BOB: At least three interesting points in

here: 1) Fiorini admits

being propositioned

by Barker for a

"domestic assassination";

this indicates the subject might have been

Ray. 2) The credibility of silvia odio

is further enhanced.

3) The necessity of

getting

someone knowledgeable to rake

Lopez-Fresquet with a fine toothcomb

concerning everyone he was ever in contact

with around the time of the initial Bishop-

Veciana contact. I feel he must be approached

with patient obliquity. The first interview

was screwed up and is an embarrassment on

the Committee's record. (The interviewer

didn't even know who Carlos Prio was.)

Caston

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009005

MEMORANDUM - June 28, 1978

TO :

FROM:

RE :

G. Robert Blakey

Fonzi & Gonzales

Interview with

MANOLO RAY RIVERO

dob: June 13, 1924

Manolo Ray was interviewed on June 7, 1978, in the offices

of Ray and Associates, Engineering Consultants,.

San Juan,

Puerto Rico.

Background file research indicates that Ray received a

graduate scholarship from the Cuban Ministry of Public

Works in 1947 to study civil engineering at the University

of Utah. He returned to Cuba in 1949 and was appointed

a designer for the Cuban National Development Corporation

and then chief of its structural department in charge of

bridges and highways.

In 1952 he became project manager

for Frederick

Snare Corporation

of New York in construction

of the Havana

Hilton Hotel.

In May, 1957, he organized

the Civic Resistance Movement (MRC), an underground

organization which supervised acts of sabotage against

the Batista regime.

Following the Revolution, Ray was

appointed Minister of Public

Works by Castro in February,

1959.

He officially resigned his position in November,

1959.

During the interview, Ray said that he had been

active

in

anti-Castro activity, organizing underground activity in

Havana, prior to his resignation as Minister of Public

His brother, who reportedly later committed

suicide,

had been arrested by Castro in March of 1959 for counter-

revolutionary activity.

Ray said his anti-Castro

activity eventually led to his founding the Revolutionary

Movement of the People (MRP) around May of 1960.

those Ray mentioned as being also instrumental in the

founding of the MRP were Rufo Lopez-Fresquet and Rogelio

cisneros.

asked, Ray said there were no Americans involved in the

founding of the MRP. He said, however, that there

who had been

active with him

in anti-Batista operations and

later gave him support for his anti-Castro activities: His

name was Ira Wolfe.

"He was very close to me personally and

ve considered him Tike a Cuban," Ray said. At the time,

volte was a sales representative for a kitchen eduioment

firm and married to a Cuban.

After he left Cuba, he was

divorced and went to work for what Ray described

telephone

company-related

in Texas.

He died there about

five years ago at about 55 years old. Ray described Wolfe

as tall, heavily built, with black hair and a round face.

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2.

Although Ray said he was not as close to him as he was

to Ira Wolfe, another man who provided anti-Castro support

and was active on his own in anti-Castro

activity was

Wolfels brother-in-law

Ray said he didn't at the moment remember his first name,

but his last name was Rosello.

Ray said he had known him

for a number of years

because

he worked for a firm

that

sold ceramic tile and that he had sold the tile for the

tunnel through Havana which Ray had been in charge of

building in the mid-'50s.

Rosello,

sald kay, was somenou

involved

in the sale of weapons to Israel.

Ray believes

that Wolfe's ex-wife, Angela Rosello, may be living in

the Miami area.

Ray said he had been in touch with individuals connected

with the American Embassy in Havana both before and after

the Castro Revolution.

One contact he recalls was with

Jim Knoel

Ray said inthe first of which was around September, 1958.

him that he represented an

interested in

intelligence and propaganda and he wanted

to exchange ideas

information concerning the 26th

of July Movement.. Ray said he seemed particularly

interested

in whether or not there any Communists with Castro in

the Sierra Maestra.

After the Revolution, Ray said, he received another request

to meet with knoel about the time he went underground with

anti-Castro activities.

That was a general meeting about

What was happening at the time but it resulted in

the setting

up of a channel for the passing of messages between

them

later.

Ray said that Knoel did not offer him any financial support

at the time, but he later promised equipment which was supposed

to be air dropped to MRP guerillas in the Escambray mountains.

The equipment never arrived and Knoel later told him there

was a "mix up"" said Ray.

Ray said he was unfamiliar with and had no contact with

David Phillips or Col. Sam Kail at the American Embassy.

Ray said he first met Antonio Veciana in Puerto Rico after

Veciana

came into exile.

Although Veciana was a member of

his MRP movement at the time, Ray said that Veciana's

attempt to assassinate Castro in October, 1961, in Havana

was not officially planned

or sanctioned

by the Movement.

Ray explained that, as the leader of the MRP, he did not

believe that leadership assassination should

be a key part

of the Movement's strategy.

He said it had too many "bad

aspects" to it as a strategy, the principal one being it

misled

the members of the movement into believing

that the

movement would be successful as soon as the opposition leader

was removed. That,

said Ray, has a "weakening effect" on

a movement's over-all strategy and the reason why he never

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3.

sponsored a plan to assassinate Castro.

"However," said

Ray, "that doesn't mean we should not

take the opportunity

to do so if it arises."

Ray said that, although he never met Veciana in Cuban know

knew of him and his support of the MRP at the time.

very close to Rufo Lopez-Fresquet, the Minister

of Finance, and that he was working at the bank and that

through Lopez-Fresquet he was able to get some contributions

to the Movement.

I know he was very active."

Ray said that he heard through the underground that Veciana

was planning the Castro assassination attempt and that he

had gotten a bazooka for it.

He later heard that Veciana

himself had left Cuba the day before the assassination

attempt and that he later gave the excuse that he had to

helpisome people escape in a boat and that he had to jump

into the boat himself to do so.

"The story

was that the

attempt failed

because of the confusion that followed after

he left,"

said Ray.

Ray said that there was no indication at the time that an

American was behind Veciana's planning of the assassination

attempt.

He knew of no American that Veciana might have

been

associating with at the time.

Ray said he could not

identify Maurice Bishop, nor did his characteristics or

sketch resemble anyone he knew, although he said there was

some

resemblance to a U.S. government official he met in

Tampa when he first arrived

in exile.

He said he met

at least four government officials in Tampa while being

put up

in a motel there,

but he wasn't told whether they

were ClA or FBI. Ray said he doesn't

recall even the name

given to him of the one who

resembled Bishop and he doesn't

recall that it was "Bishop."

What Ray does recall about his initial debriefing in Tampa

was that he was

wanted to talk with

a long conference with

him.

Ray said he got the impression

that Bender was mostly interested in his philosophy about

how Cuba should be governedn after the overthrow of Castro,

but Ray said

he found it a bit strange that Bender, was

specifically interested in the future of the King Ranch

in Ray's

vision

of ihe future of Cuba.

"I don't think

he liked

my answer too much,"

said Ray, "because I told

him that the most important

thing was to develop the

overall economy of the country and that, although I had

nothing against the King Ranch, they would have to contribute

more

to the

economy of the country. I don't think he liked

that answer too much. "

=more-

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4.

When asked, Ray said he was not familiar with the name

of Jack Malone who,

according to a file review, was associated

with the King Ranch

in Cuba.)

Ray

said he

subsequently had a number of meetings with

Bender

in Miami

a few of which concerned his

and the

MRP'S

joining of the united Frente prior to the Bay of

Pigs invasion.

Ray was asked if he was

aware at the

time of the opposition of the ClA's political

liaison,

E. Howard Hunt, to his joining the Frente. LIn his book,

Give Us This Day, Hunt points to Ray's joining the Frente

as one of the key reasons he resigned his position. I

Ray said he was not specifically aware of Hunt's opposition

to him at the time.

E. Howard Hunt, or "Eduardo, " but act, thay heat the cla's

"Golden Boy,"

as he was known, Manolo Artime, had the

personal support of a very influential and powerful government

official whor, Ray said he later found out, was Hunt.

Ray said that Hunt's portrayal of him in his book and of

relationship to the Frente was misleading.

Ray said

not anxious to join the Frente and that he resisted

doing so for some time.

"We were in touch with the leaders

of the front at the time," said Ray, "people like Tony

Verona

restrained

and we told them, why

should we join and be so

we want to

become part of

the situation just to be like a poker chip with somebody

else running the show

and not knowing what you are fighting

for?"

Ray

also

said that because his group was so well

organized within Cuba at the time and had deep underground

penetration, some other

exile Cuban groups were also not

anxious to

welcome him in the front because they were afraid

he would take control of it.

Ray said opposition to him also came from certain influential

and

wealthy anti-Castro Americans who saw the Frente as

a "social club" where they could have influence and, if successful,

reap

their benefits later in Cuba.

He specifically cited

William Pawley as one such. Ray said he met Pawley only once.

"At the Fime,

he said,

"there was a lot of heavy propaganda

against us

sin Fidel,. going around

Miami.

They were saying 'Fidelissimo

and that type of thing, accusing us of being

Communists. One of the members of our organization happene

to have an

office close to Pawley's and got to meet him and

then arranged

a meeting

between

So l went to meet him.

It was

very interesting because

"found the man very arrogant.

We started discussing Cuba

and the future of Cuba and so forth,

and then he said he

was

going to be sincere

with me.

He said

he believed that when Fidel was overthrown it would

be better

if I were assassinated and that somebody might just do it."

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5.

Ray also revealed another instance concerning mention of

assassinating him.

That was shortly after March, 1961,

and the formation of the Cuban Revolutionary Council was

announced, with

Ray as a key member.

Ray said he had

a very close friend who had been a detective under Batista

and had also had

contact with the FBl both before and

after the Revalution. Ray chanacterized the friend as

"a very honest man," despite the fact he worked under

Batista, and one he trusted.

After the Council was

announced, Ray said, this friend called him and told him

he had been at a meeting composed of former members of

Batista's Bureau of Investigation, called BRAC, which

Ray characterized as "a repressive organization." Ray

said: "One of those at this meeting in this house in

Miami told my friend that they believed that Castro was

going

to be overthrown by the United States and that

since l was getting too much power, they should eliminate

me.

My friend warned me that I should be careful. He

said they made mention of using an American

to do the

job of killing me instead of a Cuban.

Even now l do not

know if the ClA had anything to do with that, or whether

it. was just this group of Batistianos."

Ray

said that

at the time he was told that the leader of the group

was named Faget (first name unrecollected), who is now

(Ray said

he believes his

son is working for u.s.

Customs in Miami.

Ray said he had

heard of Frank Fiorini about that time

but he never met him.

"¡heard of Fiorini," he said,

"and I was told that

he was something like an adventurer,

a man of action with

many contacts, but I had no direct

knowledge of him. He was involved more with the Batistianos. "

Ray said he knows of no relationship between E. Howard

Hunt and Frank Fiorini at the time.

Concerning the Castro assassination attempt in Chile in 1971

organized by Antonio Veciana, Ray said he was not associated

with it nor did he know of anyone, except for veciana himself,

involved

with it who had previously worked

with him.

He was

told, however, that Luis Posada may have been involved, and

he remembers

Posada

as someone Cisneros once recruited for

an infiltration

mission into Cuba. "Later," said Ray, "I found

out he was so close to the cla l decided not to use him

anymore."

said he does not know Lucilo Pena or his

involvement in the Chile attempt.

Speculating as to who could

have introduced Maurice Bishop

to Veciana, Ray said there is the possibility that Rufo

Lopez-Fresqueticould have been the link without knowing

it.

"Rufo is a

good friend of mine," said Ray, "but he

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usually talks too much to be directly involved in

clandestine activity.

But at the time Rufo had very

close association with high government officials and

the ClA and I know that he and Veciana

were very

good

friends and in the same business sphere.

I would say he

may have mentioned

Veciana's name to some of those people

and they contacted Veciana as a result, knowing from

Rufo of Veciana's feelings about Castro. "

Ray's feelings toward Veciana took a negative turn in 1972,

he said, when he was organizing the Parte Partido Revolucionario

de Pueblo (People's Revolutionary Party) in Puerto Rico.

This was,

said Ray, a great effort to reinvigorate the

anti-Castro movement.

Ray said that Veciana

become part of the group. "At that time," said Ray, "we

knew he was working in Bolivia and traveling around

Latin America and we thought he could be of help to us."

Ray said that Veciana promised that he could get $10,000

to contribute to the movement, but the money

produced.

""Almost as soon as he joined," said Ray,

"he began participating in an attempt to divide the

movement.

He made a declaration accusing us of being

in consortment with Castro and he knew that was a lie.

Everything he said was just so unbelievable and he had

things printed about me in

Replica accusing me of everything.

He just made everything up."

Ray blames Veciana for

lack of success of the

movement and

says he does not

understand why he

attacked him.

Basically, he said, he

believes Veciana is an opportunist.

Ray was

asked if

he was familiar. with the Moa Bay Mining

Company.

He said he was.

He recalls a meeting around.

June, 1959, when he was

still in Castro's cabinet. "We

meet at the Banco International everytThursday in

the afternoon with a group that dealt

•with the economic

problems

of the new government," he said.

"Lopez-Fresquet

was the Finance Minister at the

At one meeting, !

remember Regino Boti, who was Minister of Economics, said

that the people from

Moa Bay had contacted him to see what

could be done with the government to re-establish their

operation.

They had about a $70 million investment. But

Castro said not to deal with them because they had

too close with the Batista government. "

Ray was asked if he remembered where he was on November

22, 1963.

Around that time, he said, he was spending most

of his time in Puerto Rico but flying regularly to various

countryes in Latin America.

The day that Kennedy was killed,

he said,

he was at a JURE meeting in Caracas.

Group leaders

from various countries were there, he said, and he remembers

the assistant to the President of

Venezuela coming in

after

with the news that President Kennedy was shot.

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Ray said he also recalls that Rogelio Cisneros was at that

JURE meeting. When told that a file review revealed that

reportedly scheduled to be involved in a

pick-up of a

arms on Regaldo Cay on November 23,

1963, a date which was changed to November 25th at the

last

minute, Ray said he recalled generally such an

openation.

"We had a boat in Costa Rica

and we were supposed

to pick up some weapons there but there was a mix up. I

can't recall the details or the date exactly," he said.

"Actually, Cisneros was the coordinator of such operations.

I was informed of them, but he was the direct coordinator

after they were improved."

Ray was asked about his relationship

with Andrew St. George

who,

according to file

review,

was with

him on an attempted

infiltration

into Cuba.

"I think I first met him in Havana,"

said Ray, "when he passed through

there on the way to the;

Sierra Maestras to see Castro.

I met him

several times

later

I came

into exile

exchanged

information and

He has something about him,

a sincerity, that 1

Ray said he was not aware of the

close relationship between

Andrew

St. George and Mitchell Livingston WerBell 111.

Asked if he had ever had any dealings with WerBell,

Ray

said:

"The sunavabitch.

I would like to punch him

in the

nose, if you will forgive my saying that."

Ray said his

feelings about WerBell are based

on an incident that happened

in

the Dominican

Republic in 1965.

At the

time, after two

failures, a final major infiltration operation

into Cuba

was being planned.

"This was to be the first of

a series

of long and

slow

steps to build

‚a permanent opposition

movement against Castro inside Cuba.

This was supposed to

be a very significant operation, not just another quick

raid."

Ray said he had already had his share of problems

with

the operation before his

encounter with WerBell. Originally

it was to be based out of Costa Rica, but political problems

developed

there and he had to

made arrangements to send the infiltration boat, the Venus,

on to the Dominican Republic with its grew to set up a base

Reput tro

move the operation out. He

there.

Meanwhile,

a supply of

arms that were especially

fabricated for JURE in California were seized in California.

(They had been financed, said

Ray, by a major "Buy-A-Rifle-For-

$92" campaign among Cuban exiles; more than $100,000 was

raised!

Then came the revolution in the Dominican Republic

and the appearance on the scene of Mitchell WerBell. Ray

said he frantically made arrangements with the Venezuelan

government to

move

his base of operations there and sent $750

of his personal money to the crew of the venus for fuel to

move the boát as

quickly as possible to Venezuela and out from

between the warring

factions in

the Dominican Republic. However,

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what he later discovered, Ray said, was that WerBell was

conspiring with his boat's crew, and mainly

Jose Rabell, to convince them to go to Miami with the boat

instead of Venezuela. That, of course, aborted the

infiltration operation.. "That's how WerBell stole our

boat from us," said Ray. "After that our whole effort to

get going again failed.

By that time l was completely

broke."

Ray said he never did find out why WerBell was

in the Dominican

Republic or why he

stole the boat from

"I believe he was a ClA man," said Ray. Ray said he

eventually wound up giving the boat to Nino Diaz

for his

anti-Castro operations.

Ray was asked about the incident concerning the visit of

"Leon Oswald" to Silvia odio.

Ray said that when he was

first questioned about it by the FBl, he was asked mostly

about his feelings about her reliability and accuracy.

"They told me that she said

she had met Oswald," he said.

"I don't remember them telling me that the men

who came to

her said they were members of

JURE and were interested in

buying arms.

I don't think that was told to me.

/ told

them

that I knew she had some domestic problems and that

she was

under emotional strain from

her divorce when she

was

living here

in

Puerto Rico, but I told them I would

say she was sane.

I think she was a good person, a very

bright person and

a sane person."

Ray was asked if he was ever told that silvia odio's sister

also saw the

three men who visited her apartment.

He

seemed

surprised.

"I never did

know that!" he said.

"That

to me has

a

lot of bearing.

They never did tell me that.

This is the first time l learned about that."

Ray said that at the time he knew of no members of JURE

-- going through Dallas in search of money of arms. He

does 'not recall anyone by the name of Leopoldo or Angelo

associated with JURE

at the time.

Ray said he had no

American contacts in Dallas or maior financial support

from

anyone there.

Ray also said he did not recognize or had no association

with

individuals of the following names:

Justin McCarthy,

Bernardo DeTorres, Sam Acosta, Larrie Schmidt, Robert

-Morris,

Tony Storza,

Warren Frank and David Morales.

He also said he had no association with Laureano Batista,

but heard that Frank Fiorini was working with him at one

time.

#

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