SUMMARY OF VICTOR ESPINOSA DEPOSITION TAKEN JUNE 7, 1978 IN WASH., DC.
Agency: HSCA
Originator: HSCA
From: BLACKMER, S. JONATHAN
To: BLAKEY, G. ROBERT
Document date: 07/18/1978
Document type: SUMMARY

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JFK Assassination System

Identification Form

Agency Information

Date:

10/14/20

AGENCY: HSCA

RECORD NUMBER :

180-10075-10071

RECORD SERIES: NUMBERED FILES

AGENCY FILE NUMBER : 009265

Collection Aet of 1992

i44 USC 2107 Notel .

Case#:NW 54756 Date:

Document Information

ORIGINATOR: HSCA

FROM:

BLACKMER, S. JONATHAN

1O: BLAKEY, G. ROBERT.

TITLE: SUMMARY OF VICTOR ESPINOSA DEPOSITION TAKEN JUNE 7, 1978 IN WASH., DC.

DATE: 07/18/1978

PAGES:

10

SUBJECTS :

ANTI-CASTRO ACTIVITIES

ANTI-CASTRO CUBANS

ROBRENO, CARLOS

CUBELA, ROLANDO

MACHADO

CIA

DOCUMENT TYPE: SUMMARY

CLASSIFICATION: Unclassified

RESTRICTIONS: 3

CURRENT STATUS: Redact

DATE OF LAST REVIEW: 09/27/1996

OPENING CRITERIA:

COMMENTS:

Executive session. Box 170.

9.1

14 54756

DocId: 32246513

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MEMORANDUM

SUMMARY OF DEPOSITION

TO:

FROM:

DATE:

RE:

G. Robert Blakey, Chief Counsel

S. Jonathan Blackmer, Staff Counsel, JFK

8/CB

July 18, 1978

Summary of Victor Espinosa Deposition Taken June 7,

1978 in Washington, D. C.

I. ::

Background: Association with the Revolutionary.

Council of the University of Havana, 1954-1959.

Victor Dominador Espinosa Hernandez was born to a

wealthy, landholding family in Cuba.

In 1954, he entered

the University of Havana, joining two of his childhood

friends Jose Antonio Echeverria and Rolando Cubela in the

student political movement.

Cubela and Echeverria, some-

what older than Espinosa, were at the time already firmly

established as the leaders of the Revolutionary Council of

the University of Havana, primarily directing their efforts

Numerous clashes with the

police and general inattentiveness to studies prompted

Espinosa's

father to send Espinosa to Louisiana State

University in Baton Rouge in 1955. (рр. 3-6, 43-47)

When Espinosa became eighteen years of age in ap-

proximately 1956, he left L.S.U. and returned to Cuba to

manage the ranch-estate left to him by the death of his

grandfather.

Upon his return, his political fervor some-

what tempered, Espinosa was content to go about his business,

and spend long weekends in Havana once a month pursuing less

idealistic endeavors such as gambling and women. : (p. 47)

During one of these sojourns in Havana, Espinosa received a

telephone call from Cubela advising him that Echeverria had

just returned from a meeting in Mexico with Castro, and

wanted to assemble the

"old" group, as Castro wanted them

to step up their activities against Batista.

As a result of the meeting, action groups were

formed under the direction of Cubela and Echeverria. Each

group consisting of approximately four men was given the

task of assassinating a designated high ranking official of

the Batista Government.

Among the targets were Blanco farco,

head of military intelligence; Taberinalla, head of the

army; Usalace, chief of police.

(pp. 47, 48, 49, 50)

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Summary of Deposition

Victor Espinosa

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Espinosa's group, with Cubela and Pedro Carbo, was

immediately

successful, killing Blanco frco within the

week of their assignment. Although not suspected at

first, Cubela nevertheless fled to Miami, while Espinosa,

the youngest and least suspect, remained

in Cuba.

Cubela

eventually returned in 1957, and fought Batista from the

Sierra Maestra Mountains, independently of Castro. (pp. 51, 52)

Thus by late 1957, there were three groups fighting

Batista: Castro's group in Oriente Province, William

Morgan's group and Cubela's group.

Castro wanted control

over all the groups, and having Morgan under control, sent

Che Guevara to consolidate the other "fronts". Guevara's

mission was first to assassinate Rolando Menoyo, then Cubela.

Bỳ October of 1958, Guevara had taken Menoyo and Cubela into

custody, but released them after four days. (pp. 54, 55)

When Batista abdicated in January of 1959, Castro's

group was the only one left intact as the others had been

decimated by fighting, especially Cubela's after an assault

on the Presidential Palace.

As Espinosa described the scene,

"no one knew what to do; we were fighting a war and the war

was over; we didn;t have any ambition of power.

Our aim was

to get the guy (Batista), when these people's (Castro's) aims

were very well planned for far ahead."

(p. 56)

Thus by late 1959, with Castro in power, Espinosa,

seeing the student movement ending, left for the United States

and exile, (p. 58) (especially after Espinosa had been ar-

rested by Castro for attempting to smuggle the entire contents

of an army arsenal to Panama and was released only after

Cubela's intervention).

(pp.: 57-59)

II.

Espinosa's Relationship with Mike McLaney

•A.

1954-1959

Espinosa often frequented the gambling casinos in

Havana while a student at the University of Havana.

Through

a social friend, FNU Callejas, who was the manager of the

Hotel Nacional,

Espinosa was introduced to Bill McLaney,

brother of Mike, and then through Bill, to Mike.

relationship, according to Espinosa, was purely social during

the remainder of their years in Cuba, not involving any

clandestine activities directed at either Batista or Castro.

Espinosa is not aware of any activities of that nature by

either of the McLaneys during this time. (pp.. 9, 10)

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Summary of Deposition

Victor Espinosa

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B.

1959-1963

Under the sponsorship of McLaney, Espinosa left Cuba

in 1959 for Miami.

While he may have initially stayed at

MeLaney's home, he soon began living with his family in

Miami.

It is not known why Espinosa moved to New York in

1960, but his return to Miami later in 1960 was occasioned

by his desire to join his former colleagues in training for

the Bay of Pigs invasion. (pp. 9-12)

Espinosa left the "employ" of the CIA in August of

1961* (See Section III, P. 4); he returned to Miami.

June of 1963 Espinosa was detained by FBI and Customs agents

in Miami for an attempted bombing raid on Cuba. According

to Espinosa, McLaney

sponsored Espinosa and a few of his

associates in a plan to bomb the Shell Oil refineries in

Havana.

In this group were Sam Benton, Carlos Hernandez

Sanchez, John Koch Gene, Acleo Pedrosa. Amores, Miguel Al-

varez and Richard Albert Lauchli.

Benton procured an air-

plane, Espinosa the explosives from Lauchli, and McLaney

supplied the financing.

(pp. 16-22) An informant within

the group alerted the FBI which was waiting with Customs

officials as the group rendezvoused for the mission.

When

this mission failed, another one was immediately put into

operation. The oil

refineries were again the targets, but

the plan was to leave from a deserted airstrip in the

vicinity of Lake Ponchartrain, Louisiana, using either a

B-25 or a B-26 bomber, fully operational. Again Espinosa

planned the operation and secured the explosives through

Lauchli.

This time, McLaney was to provide the airplane,

and only inform the group of its location once the bombs

were ready for loading.

(pp. 23-29, 91, 92)

As was the case for the June 15th mission, this one

was also a failure.

One member of the group was recalled

to Miami due to a death in the family, the remaining members,

feeling this would breach their security, disbanded, re-

turning to Miami with Espinosa going to New York to report

to Mike McLaney. On July 31, 1963, the FBI discovered the

cache of explosives to be used on the mission at a farm house

at Lake Ponchartrain owned by Mike McLaney's brother Bill,

and confiscated the entire supply. (pp. 28, 29)

Espinosa remained in New York until approximately

1967, when he moved to France.

He remained there until 1969,

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Summary of Deposition

Victor Espinosa

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then went into business in Spain and England.

He stated he

has had no contact with McLaney since 1965, his last anti-

Castro involvement with McLaney being the aborted July 1963

raid on the oil refineries in Havana. (p. 29)

III.

Espinosa's Contact With the CIA

During his anti-Batista activity in Cuba from 1954

through 1959, Espinosa was aware that certain persons in his

and some cont with the doing maste man,

ganization had similar contacts with the CIA.

Espinosa had

no contact with the CIA until he reached Miami in 1959 and

joined

the Bay of Pigs training force.

Espinosa was made aware of training being conducted

to invade Cuba upon his arrival. He left word with friends

to keep him informed and went to New York to work. A short

while later he was contacted, and immediately returned to

enlist.

Espinosa was sent to Guatemala in June or July of

1960 to begin the training. (pp. 10, 11)

In Guatemala

and later Panama and New Orleans,

Espinosa was trained in conventional military warfare,

guerrilla warfare, explosives and clandestine operations.

a result of this training, Espinosa did partici-

pate in various raids into Cuba, some

of which were aimed

at the destruction of military targets, others with the

purpose of gathering information and bringing individuals

out. These activities began before the Bay of Pigs invasion

and continued through the following summer of 1961.

14-16) *(It should be noted that Espinosa stated that he

was able to obtain from a friend in the government his file

which details each of these operations and the participants;

however, in our review of files on Espinosa, we find records

showing that Espinosa was terminated from involvement in

March of 1961 and taken off the payroll.)

IV.

Espinosa's. Involvement With the AMLASH Operation

Espinosa's activities with the CIA ceased as of late

summer 1961. (p. 62) In approximately June of 1965, while

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Sunmary of Deposition

Victor Espinosa

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on a pleasure excursion to Paris from his residence in

New. York, Espinosa contacted an old acquaintance, Jose

Trasancos who was at the time working for the Cuban

Consulate in Paris, having been in a position there since

approximately 1962 or

1963.

Trasancos

spoke of having seen Cubela in Paris and

"something was going on... Rolando (Cubela) is involved with

the CIA and there is something happening." (p. 63) Tras-

ancos wanted Espinosa to get the complete story from

George Robreno, a former member of the Student Revolu-

tionary Movement in Havana, and long-time friend of

Cubela.

Robreno at one time had been with the Castro

government as the head of the revolutionary tribunals which

carried out many death sentences.

i (p. 64) Originally,

Espinosa intended to meet with Robreno in Madrid, but after

encountering difficulties obtaining a visa, was forced at

his own expense

to send Robreno an airline ticket for

Paris.: (p. 65)

In Paris,

Robreno told Espinosa that Cubela had been

talking with certain CIA people about an uprising in Cuba

against Castro that was to be led by Cubela and others of-

ficials in the government and the army.

Cubela had been in

contact with an

individual named Williamson who was the

head of the CIA in Spain.

Cubela was

most concerned about

Williamson's trustworthiness, expressing as a basis, Wil-

liamson's apparent alcoholism and the fact that he had had

as a mistress a Cuban female who had taken certain important

documents from Williamson's apartment to Castro. Cubela

had wanted his old associate Espinosa to contact his "CIA

colleagues", still believing Espinosa

was with the CIA.

Espinosa was to explain Cubela's position to them viz-a-viz

Cubela's contact with Williamson.

In addition to this con-

versation with Robreno, Espinosa met with (Alberto) Blanco,

"El Loco", also involved in

the plot with Cubela. Blanco, en

route to Cuba from Russia via Czechoslovakia, mentioned

the

presence of Russian technicians in Cuba, stating that he

wanted the CIA to know that if they were thinking of double-

crossing Cubela, "They (Cubela and his associates in the

plot) would take care of these Russian technicians". (pp.

67, 68)

It was Espinosa's understanding that Cubela had come

to Madrid sometime earlier to meet with Artime and William-

son.

According to Robreno, Artime was soliciting Cubela's

aid in a different coup.

Cubela could not trust Artime,

feeling he was working both sides with the CIA and Castro.

Espinosa returned to New York the week following

his meeting with Robreno in Paris and went directly to

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Summary of Deposition

Victor Espinosa

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Cavasantos of Immigration and Naturalization to be put in

contact with someone in the CIA. Cavasantos sent Espinosa

to the FBI in New York, where they were joined by someone

from the CIA, whom Espinosa felt was aware of the individuals

mentioned in the AMLASH operation.

(pp. 70-72, 76) Espinosa

related Cubela's message and was told he would

be contacted

within a few days. (p. 73) After two weeks, Espinosa con-

tacted a friend who worked for Senator Javits who arranged

for a meeting in Washington with a State Department

official involved with Cuban affairs.

Feeling that he had done all he could do, Espinosa

returned to New York, where he worked for the next two

years before moving to France and Spain. (pp. 77, 78)

Sometime later, Espinosa learned of Cubela's

arrest and imprisonment in Cuba and was most surprised that

Cubela was not executed. (p. 79)

V.

Individuals of Interest Known to Espinosa

A.

Norman Rothman: Espinosa met Rothman in Havana

sometime in the late 1950's, possibly in the casino at the

Hotel Nacional, and later in approximately 1960 or 1961 in

Miami at the Biltmore Hotel.

Espinosa was a social acquaintance of "Cappy"

Rothman, Norman's son,

in Miami from approximately 1960-

1963.

(pp. 31, 32, 98-101)

B.

Meyer Lansky:

While Espinosa did not know

Meyer Lansky, he did see him at the Rivera Casino in

Havana.

(p. 97)

Raphael Garcia Bongo: Trafficante's attorney.

Espinosa knew Jorta Bongo, the brother of Raphael, and

through him met Raphael.

While not first-hand, it was common

knowledge that Raphael was Trafficante's attorney in Cuba.

Approximately five years ago, Espinosa learned that Raphael

had been arrested in Spain for passing counterfeit money.

Espinosa heard that the counterfeit money was linked to

Trafficante. (pp. 103-105)

D.

Sam Benton: Knew him through McLaney. Benton

was supplier for the aircraft used on the two aborted oil

refinery raids in 1963.

(pp. 18, 19, 23, 93)

E. : Raul Castro: Espinosa met Raul on two occasions

in Havana

soon after Castro's takeover. Espinosa was present

in Cubela's hospital

room when Raul Castro visited Cubela.

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Summary of Deposition

Victor Espinosa

Page Seven

Jerry Patrick Hemming: Met him on a few

occasions.

Hemming was always trying to get involved

in

exile activities.

The general opinion among Espinosa's

associates was that Hemming was not to be trusted.

G.

friendship.

Rolando Cubela: (AMLASH) Long and involved

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MEMORANDUM

TO:

FROM:

DATE:

RE.:

G. Robert Blakey

Chief Counsel

S. Jonathan Blackmer

Staff Counsel, JFK

June 28, 1978

Index of Victor Espinosa Deposition

Aleman, Jose

p. 101

Alliegro, Anselmo

: p. 52

American Emoassy, havana

pp. 32, 33

Amores, Acelo Pedro

p.

13

Artime, Manuel

D.

40,

82, 83,

84, 85

Banister, Guy

p.

27

Batista

pp. 4,. 7,.9;

46,

47, 48, 50, 55

Bay of Pigs

pp.

14, 15,

35, 36.

38, 42, 58, 60,

71, 89, 90

Bayo, Eddie aka Eduardo Perez

pp. 41, 42

Bender, Frank

p. 32

Benton,

Sam

pp. 18, 19,23, 93

Bernardino, Frank

p.

Blanco, Alberto

pp.

67,

68, 72, 76, 77, 78

Bongo, Raphael Garcia pp. 103, 104,

105

Bosch, Dr. Orlando

p.

86

Callejas

Carbo, Pedro

p.

9

p.

50

Carol, Alphonzo

Castro, Fidel

P.

41

pp. 4,

6, 7,

9, 22, 33, 36, 37,

46 ,

47,

51,

42,

53,54,55,56,57,59,

60,

62, 64, 78, 79, 81, 83, 84, 96, 107,

108,

109

Castro, Raul

Chaumon, Porton

C.I.A.

p. 55

p.

5

pp. 10, 11, 15, 17, 33,

34,35, 37,38,

39, 41,

63, 65, 66,

67, 70,

71, 74, 75,

76, 78, 81,

82,

83, 85, 86, 93, 103

Coscaya, General Bayo p. 42

Cubela,

Rolando

pp.

5,

48,

6, 32, 40, 42, 43,44,

46, 47,

49,

52, 53,

54, 55,

57,

59,

50,

60, 62,

63,

78,

64,

56,

68,

58,

71, 77,

79,

80, 83,

65,

66,

84,

86, 102

Customs, U.s.

pp.

17,

90

DRE

p.. 30

Echeverria, Jose Antonio

pp.

5,

43, 44, 46, 47,48,50

F.B.I.

pp. 17,

27, 28, 29, 70, 71,.72,94

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Index of Victor Espinosa Deposition

Page 2.

Ferrie, David

Gene, John Koch

Gill, Fred

P. 27

p.

13

p. 28

Gonzalez, Alfred

Guevara, Che

pp.

54,

55

Hemming, Gerald Patrick

p. 34

Hernandez, Carlos

pp. 13, 18, 23, 24, 28, 30, 84

Hunt, Howard

p. 11

Irco, Colonel Blanco pp. 47,

Javitis, Senator

73

48, 49

Gener, Raphael

p. 100

Jiminez, Mario

pp. 10, 14

Jiminez, Miquel Alvarez pp.

13, 14, 18, 20, 23, 93

Lansky, Meyer

p.

97

Lanz, Pedro Diaz

• pp.

7,

8

Lauchli, Rich Albert pp.

24,

25

Lobo, Julio

pp.

86,

87

Machado, FNU (aka Machaletto)

pp. 6, 48

Machin, FNU

p.

Marcello, Carlos

p.

28

McLaney, Mike

pp. 9,

McLaney, William

76,

10,

18,

91, 92,

19,

21, 24, 28, 29,

32,

93,

95, 96,

97, 106

pp.

9, 10,

22, 26

Menoyo

pp.

54,

55

Morales, Ricardo Nauarette

p. 8.7

Morgan, William

54

Nacional, Hotel

pp. 9,95, 107, 108

Naranjo

Nundez, Calcie

P.

P.

14

Paris Cuban Consulate p.

62, 63, 67

Phillips, David

Pontchartrain, Lake (Bombing Raid) pp. 23, 26, 28, 91, 92

Popich, Nick

Pujol, Jorge Alonzo

p. 101

Raminda

P.

Rodriquez, Nutosa

PP •

48,

Rothman,

"Cappy"

pp. 31,

Rothman, Norman

pp. 31,

Robreno, George (Jorge pp.

63,

49

97,

99

32,

98,

68,

75,

99,

101

77,

78,

82,

831.

84, 86,

(El Maga)

Salvat, Manuel

p.

30

Shell Oil Refinery, Havana

pp. 20, 21

Siva, FNU

P.

41

Smith, Jose

p.

7

Snow, Larry

p.

95

Soccaras, Carlos Prio p.

46

State Department

p. 74

Sturgis, Frank

pp. 8,

33,

89

Taberinalla, FNU

P.

49

(Army Chief under Batista)

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Index of Victor Espinosa Deposition

Page 3.

Tepedino, CarloS

Trafficante, Santo

Irasancos

Ugarte, FNU

Usalase, FNU

Vallejo, Colonel

Vasquez, Antonio Soto p.

Veciana, Antonio

Westbrook, Joe

Whitehouse, Teddy

Williamson (CIA-Madrid)p.

33

PP.

96,

PP .

68,

15

97,

69,

p.

49

p.

13

23

p.

88

PP •

6,

49

PP.

100, 101

104,

80

105

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