FREE CUBA NEWS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP65B00383R000200250036-6
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 8
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 9, 2004
• Sequence Number: 36
• Publication Date: July 6, 1963
• Content Type: OPEN

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C u a M ews
PUBLISHED BY CITIZENS COMMITTEE FOR A FREE CUBA, INC.
Telephone [phone] ? 617 Albee Building, 1426 G Street, N.W. ? Washington 5, D. C.
Editor: Daniel James
Vo1.1,No.9, July 6, 1963
NOTE TO READERS
With this issue, Free Cuba News begins publication twice monthly
for the summer season. If events so warrant, however, publication will be
more frequent.
INSIDE CUBA
IS RUSSIA WITHDRAWING TROOPS FROM CUBA?
The answer, from inside Cuba, is no. U. S. claims of a "thinning out" of Soviet
forces in the neighboring Communist island are contradicted by underground sources
and newly-arrived refugees, who say that, on the contrary, the Russians are digging
in deeper. Here is their story:
0 "Families of Russian soldiers are coming into Cuba, " according to a Matan-
zas lawyer, Ricardo Fernandez. To him, that means that the Russians "intend to stay. "
0 Russians are now all over. An incoming former Uruguayan Embassy employee
says, "The Russians are all over Cuba. " That is just one of innumerable reports, many
published in Free Cuba News, that today Cuba is swarming with Soviet citizens.
0 More and more Cuban military installations are coming under Soviet control.
That is the story told by scores of incoming refugees. Testimony taken from among more
than 400 who recently escaped reveals that Soviet officers are in command of Cuban troops
which are to be used in crushing a Hungary-type revolt.
0 Cubans are being steadily evicted from residential areas in the cities of Havana,
Camaguey, Santiago, Matanzas, Caibarien and Santa Clara, to make way for incoming
Soviet military "technicians, " according to escapees from those cities.
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Russians are taking over non-military functions. They now have control
over the San Severino and Isle of Pines prisons. They run Puerto Nuevitas, in Cama-
guey. They direct mail censorship in the Ministry of Communications. They play a
key role in the Ministry of Interior, where they train G-2 and other police agents.
They oversee the office of the Foreign Minister, Raul Roa.
As for military activities:
40 Soviet cargoes still arriving in Cuba "resemble in appearance the crates
used last fall to bring in missiles, " agree recent refugees. Immense objects, coated
with zinc and carrying a red stripe down the center, are handled with extreme caution.
Truck-trailers move heavy cargo to Mariel, the biggest naval base, and others are
loaded and dispatched to Russian bases at Wajay, Torrens, Managua, and San Antonio
de los Banos.
0 Soviet military activity has increased greatly, say underground Cubans. In
the area of Corralillo, in Matanzas, alone, the number of Russians busily at work is
estimated by there to be well "in excess of 3, 000. "
? Soviet staff work seems to be increasing, too. "The Russian military head-
quarters atop a former Havana co-op apartment at 12th and 3rd Streets has been fant-
astically busy, " according to a neihbor, Angel de la Fuente, who has fled for his life.
Recently, he continues, a sizeable batch of high-ranking Soviet officers were assigned
to the 12th and 3rd headquarters, and quantities of new electronic equipment installed.
0 "There is heavy military traffic at the new Russian military base erected at
the mouth of the Caninzar River in Matanzas, " reports an underground worker, Eduardo
Garcia Santos. "Thousands of Russian troops have been newly assigned to Canimar. "
In the face of these eyewitness accounts, what is one to believe?
REBELS INFILTRATE SUCCESSFULLY
The flap over whether or not exile forces "invaded" Cuba a fortnight ago has
obscured the salient fact that anti-Castro forces, from points outside Cuba, did succeed
in penetrating the bearded dictator's supposedly impregnable bastion. Estimates of how
many did so run from 20 to 90, the latter figure based upon deciphering code designa-
tions for the anti-Castro infiltrators.
Proof that the infiltration mission -- it had never been planned as an "invasion" --
succeeded, is supplied by none other than Cuban official sources themselves. Monitored
conversations by Cuban Navy posts in the early morning of June 21, a day after the "inva-
sion" headlines began breaking, indicate that some infiltrating forces made it into the
mountains of eastern Oriente Province.
Here are excerpts from the Cuban Navy radio:
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1st Post: "They got away... they got away in the mountains. Come in, Macabi.
It is positive they took to the mountains. " (Macabi is a big port on Banes
Bay, Oriente.)
2nd Post. "All right. Go ahead. Tell me the place where they are. Tell me the
place where they are. "
1st Post: "They were there by the road. Listen! Listen I They fired. They fired
some shots. They took to the mountains, and fled. It was by the road! "
3rd Post: "Look! Look! Those are the ones of this afternoon! Those are the ones
of this afternoon!"
1st Post: "Well, there was a group of about eight. A group of about eight. "
2nd Post: "Look, they didn't return to the attack. What they did was to flee to the
mountains. "
3rd Post: "Listen, Macabi. Listen, Macabi, I hear a mobile transmitter. I hear
a mobile unit." (Ninety sets of numbers, with five digits each, were then
recorded in transmission. They were evidently of rebel origin and could
have been the code numbers for the infiltrators.)
1st Post: "On the twenty-first day of June, I report a mobile unit broadcasting.... "
The story of racial discrimination under Castro that Free Cuba News published
on May 25 (see "How Castro is Treating Negroes") has been reproduced and commented
upon widely. The examples of discrimination cited in it did not surprise those who
have read Karl Marx, the founder of modern Communism, for he himself was filled
with racial prejudice... and preached it. That is called to mind by a letter in the
New York Times for June 25, by James W. Symington, which reveals so much about
the real attitude of Communists toward the Negro as practiced in Cuba today that we
reprint below several pertinent paragraphs from it. Writes Symington:
"With reference to C. L. Sulzberger's column of June 5, it should not be surpris-
ing that Marxism has come full circle on the race issue.
"The subjugation of peoples of different ethnic origins is not foreign to the
practice of Marxist nations. What may be less known is that it is not contrary to
Marxist principle -- if by such 'principle' we can mean what Marx himself had to say
on the subject.
"At the time of the Manifesto, Karl Marx expressed himself on the question of
race in a way not calculated to endear him to the masses. In one article he lumped
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many races, and principally the Slavic race, into a group w ich, to avoid euphemism,
he characterized as 'ethnic garbage.' He was congratulatory of the Hungarians for
their long containment of Slavs, and attributed this to the superiority of the Hungarian
race. "
A footnote to the Symington letter is supplied by the recent stories of discri-
mination against African students in Communist Bulgaria, and by Khrushchev's charge
that Red China is using a "racial approach" in its ideological war against him. In
racial as in so many other matters, the Communists are true blood-brothers of the
Nazis.
CASTRO IMPOSES CURFEW ON PEASANTS
Peasants who are not in their homes by 8: 00 P. M. will be summarily shot, warns
a new Castro Government order, reflecting the seriousness with which it is taking the
mounting signs of peasant discontent. Leaflets printing the warning are being dropped
by helicopters in the rural areas.
Also to be summarily disposed of, adds the warning, are peasants who have
shown "the slightest indication of cooperation with the lackeys of Yankee imperialism.
Latest reports point to an increase in armed encounters between Government
forces and rebellious peasants. The latter have challenged Castro's men in battles at
Manicaragua and Yaguajay, in Las Villas; San Jose de los Ramos and Bacunayagua, in
Matanzas; the Organos Mountains, in Pinar dei Rio. More than 25 clashes are said to
have taken place between the opposing sides in Las Villas and Matanzas Provinces alone.
CUBAN MAIL UNDER SOVIET CENSORSHIP
Cuba's postal system is now virtually in the hands of Soviet military censors.
They occupy the eighth floor of the Ministry of Communications, in Havana, and there
they instruct Cuban personnel in the art of censorship.
The Russians, according to a former Cuban Post Office employee, Esperanza
Marajon Valero, have perfected the art of censoring letters to the point where some
can be read without being opened. Others are opened without any tell-tale signs being
left. Special light bulbs are used to liquify the sealing paste on envelopes from which
letters are removed without detection.
In some cases, letters are resealed and postmarked with a later date, thus
hiding the fact that they have been held up by censorship and avoiding, insofar as pos-
sible, arousing the suspicion of the recipients.
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Decoding sections have been set up in the Communications Ministry. Phrases
which have double meanings are suspect, and letters containing them are passed on
for decoding.
It goes without saying that the Soviet censors are always on the lookout for intel-
ligence from correspondents in the U. S. which may be of value to Moscow.
How do the Russians know which letters to open? Those arriving from or going
to the United States and other foreign countries are, obviously, the first to be examined.
Next come letters known to have been sent by, or written to, persons in Cuba suspected
of being hostile to the Red dictatorship or of being cool toward it. (Naturally, anyone
who is not a Communist or a member of the militia, or who has refused to do "voluntary"
labor, is automatically suspect.)
Letter-writers suspected of being hostile to Castro are "fingered" by his vigi-
lance committees, which operate on every block in residential areas, and pass on to
their Soviet masters the addresses of suspect persons.
The longer it stays in power, the more does the Castro regime come to resemble
the typical Communist police-state.
0 On May 30, the Cuban Government announced that torrential rains and heavy
winds had washed out a bridge over the Jigua River, near Palma Soriano, in Oriente.
As a consequence of that "natural phenomenon, " it continued, several people were killed.
What actually happened was this-
Cuban guerrillas blew up the Jigua River bridge and mined the highway leading
to it. They then went for cover and lay in wait for a military convoy scheduled to pass
by. The rebels permitted most of the convoy to pass them, then blew up the last two
trucks with their mines. That trapped the rest of the convoy between the wrecked bridge
and the destroyed trucks, where the rebels punished it severely. Such was the "natural
phenomenon" recorded by the Castro regime.
0 So many Cubans have been fleeing their homeland in small boats that the notor-
ious Minister of Interior (police), Ramiro Valdes, had to announce, on June 14: "All
maritime commands have been taken over by the Department of Vigilance of Ports and
Coasts, " which is under the direct control of the Division of Public Order in Valdes'
police setup.
Now, patrol boats with mixed Russian-Cuban crews prowl the waters along Cuba's
northern coast in search of little vessels carrying Cubans to Florida and freedom. Their
orders: shoot to kill. "Boatloads of fleeing Cubans -- men, women, children, even
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babes in arms -- are ruthlessly shot, " reports a native fisherman, Juan Sanchez
Fernandez. "Every few days one seeks the hulks of small craft scarred with bullet
holes -- mute testimony to the murders that have been committed."
The Straits of Florida have become the hemisphere's "Berlin Wall. "
? War, in the physical sense, has been declared on organized religion in Cuba.
An Office of Religious Affairs is now found within the Ministry of Interior, which is in
charge of repressing the Communist dictatorship's enemies, and it encourages repres-
sion and violence against all Christian denominations whether Catholic or Protestant.
Some examples:
The Baptist Church at Campechuela and its educational center at Cruces, both
in Las Villas, have been denied the right to hold meetings.
The congregation of the Pentecostal Church in Cienfuegos, also in Las Villas,
has been pelted with rotten vegetables by Communist hoodlums.
Protestant churches at Jauco and Chiv.1rico, in Oriente, and Jiquiabo and Yabu-
cito, in Las Villas, have had their properties seized by the state and converted into
warehouses, "peoples stores, " and Government garages.
? The dead hand of the Cuban Communist bureaucracy has fallen upon what is
left of Cuba's culture, discloses a 19-year-old actor, Tony de Alba, who has just quit
working for the National Council of Culture, in disgust. Only brainwashed Communists
can perform in Cuba today, he asserts, because all dramatic productions are nothing
but Communist propaganda aimed at ridiculing the U.S. and glorifying the U.S.S.R.
Movie-going had fallen off sharply, reports Tony, because the Communist govern-
ment for a long time allowed only dull Russian films to be shown. The dictatorship then
permitted double bills featuring both a Soviet film and an American one -- but that didn't
help, because Cubans would usually leave the theater as soon as they had seen the U.S.
product. Lately, to intimidate those desirous of leaving, the regime has ordered the
lights turned on the moment that an American film ends so that anyone seen getting up
can be instantly spotted.
0 A letter from a now unemployed maid in Cuba is revealing. She says: "I am
getting along, thank God, and am sewing two dresses for the lady next door. She is good
to me. No one wants to work any more, and I felt sorry for her. There is absolutely
nothing in the stores to purchase. Please, please, send me a pair of shoes. But mail
me first the right foot, and then the left foot Lto make it difficult to determine that shoes
are in the package; they would be stolen by the authorities]. The medicines that you
sent arrived, but the boxes and bottles had been opened at the censors, and all of the
medicines were stolen. "
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INSIDE LATIN AMERICA
Soviet ships develop phoney disorders to have an excuse for docking at Latin
American ports and purchasing enormous quantities of critical foodstuffs, which are
then carried to Cuba. Reliable sources say that that is one way Cuba is getting vital
foods which Russia cannot supply.
Two Soviet ships, the Glenninj and Ochotsk, recently docked at the Mexican
port of Veracruz allegedly for repairs. But while in the harbor, the Glenninj bought
up 35, 000 cans of condensed milk and its companion a staggering amount of various kinds
of foods. Both ships headed for Cuba after the "repairs" were done, and there turned
their food cargoes over- to the Castro Government.
Both ships have been known to carry arms, ammunition and subversive propa-
ganda to Latin America from the Russian storage depot on Cuba's Isle of Pines. To
escape detection, they usually transfer their illicit cargo to smaller vessels, while at
sea, then put in at some Latin port for "repairs" and pick up food for the return voyage
to Communist Cuba.
In a sequel to a story published by Free Cuba News (see "Nab Ecuador Red with
Subversive Plans, " FCN, June 22), four Ecuadorian Communists tried to hijack a plane
in a desperate attempt to force President Carlos Julio Arosemena of Ecuador to free
three Reds in a Quito jail. They had intended to hold the pilot and passengers while
radioing Arosemena giving him 45 minutes to act, but were foiled by alert police officials.
Among the three imprisoned Communists was Jose Maria Roura, who had been
nabbed upon returning from Cuba carrying plans for subverting Ecuador and four other
South American republics, and $27, 500 in cash to finance the operation.
The unsuccessful hijackers included a parachutist formerly in Castro's air force,
one Humberto Encalada. Roura's two jailmates are also parachutists. Both groups of
Communists had planned to fly to Cuba with the plane -- the would-be hijackers were
found with plenty of cash in their possession -- or, failing that, to bomb Quito and rain
propaganda down upon it.
A flyer they were prepared to drop over Quito, read:
"Revolutionary people of Quito: Go to the Plaza of Independence to demand of
Dr. Arosemena the liberty of the unjustly imprisoned parachutists. " It was signed,
"Lenin Torres. "
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BIGGER CUBAN CONSULAR SERVICE AIDS SUBVERSION
Cuba's consular service in Latin America is being enlarged for the purpose
of expanding the Castro-Communist subversive drive throughout that continent. Such
is the interpretation diplomatic observers make of an order issued, on June 7, by
Cuban Foreign Minister Raul Roa, which decrees:
"Each Cuban Embassy and Legation must include a consular section, in most
cases headed by a consul general. "
The new and beefed-up consular sections, the decree continues, will report
directly to the Foreign Ministry in Havana. It will be staffed by men specially trained
in subversion and espionage, according to diplomats with experience in Communist
overseas operations.
The decree expanding Cuba's consular activities in Latin America is expected
to result in an increase in legalized travel, to and from Communist Cuba, of all sorts
of subversives, spies, saboteurs and mischief-makers in general, under official Cuban
protection. Among other things to look forward to is a probable increase, in particular,
in the number of false passports and other false documents for Communists to facilitate
their movements in and out of non-Communist countries.
The decree, it is worth noting, has been issued in time to be of great use in
helping international Communist agents filter into Latin America ostensibly to attend
the Second Latin American Youth Congress, to be held in Santiago, Chile, next month.
CITIZENS COMMITTEE FOR A FREE CUBA
142 6 G St. N. W.
Washington 5, D. C.
Central Intelligence Agency
John S. Warner
2430 E St.
Washington, D. C.
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