Originator: HSCA
From: LESNIK, MAX
Document date: 05/30/1978
Document type: SUMMARY

## Page 1

180-10065-10373

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

JFK Assassination System

9/21/201

Identification Form

Agency Information

AGENCY: HSCA

RECORD NUMBER :

180-10065-10373

RECORD SERIES: NUMBERED FILES

AGENCY FILE NUMBER: 008888

Document Information

ORIGINATOR: HSCA

FROM: LESNIK, MAX

TO :

TITLE:

DATE:

PAGES:

SUBJECTS :

05/30/1978

7

ALPHA 66

ANTI-CASTRO ACTIVITIES

PRIO, CARLOS

CUBA

LESNIK, MAX

CHIBAS, EDUARDO

DOCUMENT TYPE : SUMMARY

CLASSIFICATION: Unclassified

RESTRICTIONS:

3

CURRENT STATUS :

Redact

DATE OF LAST REVIEW :

10/16/1996

OPENING CRITERIA :

COMMENTS :

Interview with Max Lesnik. Box 161.

v9.1

50955

DocId: 32241839

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## Page 2

008888

MEMORANDUM -

TO:

FROM:

RE:

May 30, 1978

G. Robert Blakey

Fonzi & Gonzales

Interview with Max Lesnik

Background: Max Lesnik is the editor and publisher of

Replica,

a Spanish-language week magazine prominent in

the Miami Cuban community.

It regularly carries

statements,

proclamations and letters from the key Cuban activist and

terrorist

leaders, Including those from Orlando Bosch

in Venezuela.

The office

of Replica is a regular

gathering

spot for

many of Miami's Cuban political leaders,

including

Alpha 66's Antonio Veciana.

George Volsky,

a freelance

correspondent for the New York Times and formerly

with the U.S. Information Agency at the American Embassy

in Havana, maintains a desk at the Replica office.

Reinaldo

Pico, in

on the

first entry with the Watergate burglars,

is an employee of Replica.

The Replica office has

in the

past been the object of bombings,

usually with

little or

no damage, but reportedly the result of Lesnik's espoused

"liberal"

political leaning.

Lesnik himself is one

of the

founding leaders of the Second National Front of the

Escambray.

Details: Max

Lesnik was interviewed in his office at

Replica, 2994

N.W. 7th Street, Miami

(305-643-5481). on

May 25, 1978.

Lesnik said we could best

understand his place and role in

the Cuban political situation it he provided us first with

some historical background.

the

middle of 1951, he said,

the ruling Autentico Party government of Carlos Prio was

being strongly challenged by the Ortodoxo Party's dynamic

leader, Eduardo Chibas.

The son of a wealthy family, Chibas

had given most of his money away

to the poor and had a regular

Sunday evening radio broadcast during which he harangued against

the corruption of the Prio government.

He was so popular

with the people in the villages and rural areas of Cuba that

it was generally believed he would walk away with the election

for the presidency in 1952. However, in August of 1951, to

demonstrate his sincerity and dramatize his charges of govern-

mental corruption, Chibas publicly committed suicide on his

radio program.

To some extent, that created a power vacuum

in Cuban politics, said Lesnik,

but it made the election

victory of the Ortodoxo Party a

certainty in the 1952 elections.

-more -

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2

That is why Fulgencio Batista, convinced he would lose

the election, engineered a successful and almost bloodless

coup d'etat

on. March 10, 1952.

Carlos Prio

was forced to

flee the country. And

although, says lesnik,

Batista

promised an honest administration and eventual return

constitutional government, his dictatorship soon

characterized by corruption and brutality..

It was that,

Lesnik claims, together with the vacuum left in the people's

desire for a

dynamic leader by the death of Chibas, which

seeded the situation forithe coming to power of Fidel Castro.

Lesnik said that both he and Castro were among those

most politically active in the Ortodoxo Party at the

University of Havana but, he said, they were not

Castro came from a wealthy family

objected to the way Castro wanted to control the Party in

personal

manner, rather than

have the members of the Party

decide its direction.

Nevertheless, on July 2o, 1995, Castro

party of 120

followers from Havana to Oriente Province

and attacked the army barracks at Santiago de Cuba.

His

arrest, subsequent trial and sentence to 20 years in prison

then

made him,

said Lesnik, the most well-known opposition

leader against

Batista.

Although Lesnik was not directly involved in the attack

on the barracks in Santiago,

arrested and sent to prison

with Castro.

But because Batista would have recurring demonstra-

tions of benevolency, Lesnik was released in

months and

Castro within two years.

Castro went to Mexico while Lesnik

remained at the University of Havana.

meeting with Castro

in Mexico in

1955, Lesnik said Castro told him he

would continue

fighting against Batista until he won or he died.

By March of 1957, with Castro in the mountains again with

a small band of guerillas, Lesnik had pecome very active with

the Directorio Revoluccionario Estudiatil (DRE) at the Univerity.

With Lesnik

as one of its organizers, the DRE mounted a major

assault against the Presidential Palace. The leader of the

assault

was

Carlos Gutierrez Menoyo, who was killed along with

many of his men.

Those who survived

fled into the Escambray

Mountains and set up a permanent guerilla camp there. That

led to the founding of the Second National Front of the

Escambray by its leaders: Carlos brother Eloy Gutierrez Menoyo,

Max Lesnik, Armando Fleites and Nazario Sargen (presently

head of Alpha 66).

Lesnik

said that as a result of the Second National

Front of the Escambray (SNFE) ensconced

in the central part

and Castro's 26th of July group

in the

Sierra

Maestra,

there wasn't significant coordination at the time of the

Revolution

in January, 1959. Although, said Lesnik, Castro!

ANN 50955 DocId:32241839 Page 3

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3.

offered SNFE leaders major positions in the new government,

he insisted, at the same time, that the organization be

dissolved.

For that reason,

many of the SNFE

leaders,

including himself, says Lesnik, remained apart from the

Revolution and Castro.

Then, when it became apparent

that Castro was

embracing Communism-- the final manifestation

of that for SNFE leaders, said Lesnik, was when

his close associate, Major Hubert Matos, who had tried to

him about Communist infiltration in the government--

Lesnik and the other SNFE leaders began a counter-Revolutionary

campaign against Castro.

Because of that, Lesnik and 12

other

key members of SNFE, were forced to

leave Cuba in

January,

1961.

Lesnik said that he and the other SNFE leaders arrived in

the United States by boat at Key West on January 26, 1961.

He said they had absolutely no contact with or help

from

any U.S. government agency.

In fact, he said, they were

immediately arrested and sent to a detention

camp in

MCAllen, Texas.

At the time, said Lesnik, neither he

SNFE leaders knew that the Bay of Pigs

invasion was

in the final stages of preparation.

Lesnik and the other SNFE leaders were not released until

July, 1961, three months after the Bay of Pigs.

Lesnik

said

they were not asked to participate in the invasion

because E. Howard Hunt, whom Lesnik described as the

chief planner of the invasion, had told everyone that

Asked how he knew that, Lesnik said

that he had become close personal friends with ClA agent

Jack Stewart in Havana during his anti-Batista activities.

Stewart was,

ostensibly, in the U.S. Embassy's political

section.

When Stewart heard that

Lesnik and his associates

were

being held

in Texas, he

attempted to get them released.

Failing that, he sent two emissaries -- ClA agents from

Mexico whom Lesnik says

he never knew the real

names of --

to explain to them that they weren't being asked to take

part in

the Bay of Pigs

because Hunt was saying that they

shouldn't be trusted

and that they might be Communists.

Lesnik said, however, that

even if they had been asked to

participate

in the Bay of Pigs, he and his SNFE associates

would have refused because they would not have wanted to be

aligned

with

those who were taking part in

it.

He said while

in detention in Texas, he discovered there were many Cubans

being brought there who had run away from the training camps

in Guatemala

and he was told by them

that the Cuban leaders

of the invasion were Batistianos and those who had been

associated

with

casinos

and gambling.

"The closest associate

of Hunt and Artime,*

for instance,"

he said, " is Bernard

Barker. "

= more-

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After they were released

from detention in Texas, Lesnik

said he became inactive in political

affairs as a

result

of a difference, of opinion between

him and the öther

SNFE leaders, mainly Eloy Guitierrez Menoyo. Al though

he has always espoused a political philosophy of

democratic socialism, he said, the smear campaign

conducted against him and the other SNFE leaders by

E. Howard Hunt and his right-wing cohorts led many

Cubans to distrust them and consider them as Communists.

Menoyo, said Lesnik, took the position that it didn't

matter, that they should carry on their anti-Castro

military activities anyway and

when they were successful

at it the people would see that they were not Communists.

"My argument," said Lesnik, "is that we could not fight

on two different fronts.

We could not fight against Castro

and at the same time against the Batistianos

and those

who were accusing us of

being Communists.

I told Menoyo

that we should win the support of the cuban exiles first.

Why should I risk my life if l was not

going to

get any

support?"

It was at

that point, said Lesnik, that he dropped out of

being politically active with

any

exile organization.

He did, however, get into radio broadcasting and helped

some organizations with their public relations and

propaganda.

also at that point, he said, that Antonio Veciana

came along and with Menoyo founded Alpha 66.

Later,

said, when the

Batistianos and

right-winger Cubans who

had joined Veciana found out that Menoyo was involved,

they split away and formed Commandos L. Veciana then

regrouped with Menoyo.

Lesnik said that he never heard of Veciana's association

with Maurice Bishop until he read about it in Jack Anderson's

He was aware,

he said, of the Castro assassination

attempt in Chile in

1971 but, he said, Veciana told him at

the time that it was his own plan. He always did think, he

said, that Veciana must have had

some high government

contacts, probably ClA, because he was able

get the

AID job in Bolivia.

Lesnik was shown

a sketch and

given a description of Maurice

Bishop. He said

he did not

recognize him as anyone familiar

to him.

"As far

as I know," he said, "I only met two ClA

men that i know

inamy life: Jack Stewart and Mike Ackerman. "

(Ackerman is a Miami area resident who quit the ClA and

has been

prominent in the local media as one of its public

defenders.)

-more-

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Lesnik was asked his opinion of Vecianá's credibility.

He said: "Well, you are asking me if I believe what

Veciana

says.

Is Veciana

an honest man?

I believe

Veciana is an honest man, very trustworthy and

very dedicated.

At times! say to myself, Yes, l believe

Veciana. At other times l am not so sure. For instance,

do you believe Veciana when he says it is not true about

the narcotics charge?

Not at all. Yet, on the other hand, I know

how dedicated Veciana is, I know that more than

st ain who i know

If you ask me, I would say Veciana

is not the type of man who would have anything do with

narcotics.

anything

else he is dedicated to overthrowing the Revolution and to

killing Castro.

so the question is, could it be that

he might have thought that the money that could be gotten

from narcotics could be used to a more noble purpose?

I don't know.

But

I do know that Veciana is

a very

honest and dedicated man."

Lesnik said the only significant contact he has had

with the ClA was through Jack Stewart in

Havana. When

he was in Havana in 1958 a friend told

him that an

American at the Embassy was

interested

in what was going

on in the Escambray.

That's

how he met Stewart.

has not beennin touch with him in

recent years.

Lesnik

said he was not receiving any ClA

assistance or financial

aid when he was doing his radio broadcasts on WMAE in

Miami.

He said he paid for the broadcasts by selling

his own advertising.

He said he never met David Phillips

or Doug Gupton or anyone named Choadan.

He also said he never met E. Howard Hunt. He said his

business associate, Reinaldo Pico, had worked for him

before he started working for the ClA. He said Pico

thought he was working for the ClA when Hunt asked

him to take part in the Watergate operation.

Lesnik said he knows Frank Fiorini Sturgis but he never

worked with him in any anti-Castro activities.

sturgis occasionally at the studios of television

Channel 23 where Sturgis would come to pick up his wife,

who also worked there.

He said he doesn't think Sturgis

would have anything to do with him

because of his

reputation as a liberal.

Lesnik said he met Manolo Ray in 1960. Ray had been one

of the early members of the Ortodoxo Party but had not

become active in politics until 1957. In 1960, Ray

was a minister in Castro's government when he broke with

it and

went into hiding.

Menoyo put Lesnik in touch with

Ray and gave him names of anti-Castro Cubans who would

help him. One of the names that Lesnik says he gave Ray

-more-

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6.

was that of Rogelio Cisneros, who took over as head

of the

• MRP when Ray left Cuba.

Lesnik said that almost all his anti-Castro activity

has been in

the public relations and propaganda end.

In fact, while still in Cuba, he said, he was doing

radio broadcasts openly for Castro in

support of the

Revolution but at the same time he was covertly

editing and publishing a small anti-Castro publication.

le said he started Replica in 1966 as a two-page

ropaganda sheet paid for by the MRP and Alpha 66.

He said Menoyo and Ray paid him to publish the

newsletter on a strictly cost basis. He said they

did not pay him anything because he isinte insisted

on remaining independent. "I told

them," he

said, "you

do not tell me what to write and l will not tell

you

how to conduct your military operations."

said he had no contact with Orlando Bosch in

the early 1960s.

"At that time," he said, "Bosch

working with people who were

our enemies, the

Batistianos and right-wing people.

It wasn't until

1968 or 1969, when

he started Guban Power, that he

came to me and asked me to publish

statements for

him. "

When Bosch made his

famous bazooka attack against

Polish ship

in Miami harbor, he immediately afterwards

went to Lesnik's home.

asked him when he told me,

'Why did you do that?

Do you belong to the CIA?! He

said no, he didn't belong to the ClA. Then

I said, 'Well,

going to be arrested.

In this country you

blow up a ship unless you belong to the ClA.'"

-esnik said, however,

as a result of his attempt to

nelp Bosch by publishino

his statements, the FBl and the

ClA and other U.S. agencies have begun

campaign to

get him.

He said there have been attempts to link him

narcotics and terrorist activities and, he said, an FBI

more than once attempted to entrap him.

As a result, he says,

he knowsthis files at the FBl and

ClA are thick with misinformation about him. He has been

attempting for more than

a year to get them through FOlA

and has not been successful. He said

as soon as he gets

them ne is going to publish them completely as they are.

He said the one who is the key man in misinforming the FBI

about him is Ricardo Morales Navarette.

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• ...

7.

Lesnik said he is linked to many different Cubans

of various political factions, some of whom are

involved in narcotics and terrorism, because the

U.S. agencies do not know the historical nature of Cuban

politics.

He said it is unlike U.S. politics where

political opponents rarely meet and

do not

get together

or associate with each other.

In Cuba, he

said, political

opponents often got together in some public place or,

more likely, in

the newspaper's office where they would

argue for hours.

"That is the way it is here," he said.

"Everyone comes here because they all want me to do

something for them, write stories about them or publish

their statements.

That's why Bosch would come here and

Aldereguia, who they now say is a Castro agent, would

come here and Veciana would come here. And many others.

They would be here almost every day, but the FBl woüld

see them come

in and say, 'Look, they are conspiring

with Lesnik!!

That's why my files are so thick."

Lesnik said he

remembers that when he first heard about

the assassination of Kennedy, his first reaction was

that Kennedy was

a victim

of

a right-wing conspiracy.

He said he still feels that way but he has no information

to support his feeling.

that Castro would have killed Kennedy.

He does remember

that prior to the Kennedy assassination there weee

rumors about in the cuban community that there would

be a coup d'etat, but he did not give them much thought

because "the Cuban mentality at the time was always

thinking about plots."

#

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