STATEMENT BY THE DIRECTOR FOR USE OF THE STAFF OF THE PREPAREDNESS INVESTIGATING SUBCOMMITTEE OF SENATOR STENNIS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP65B00383R000400080029-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 17
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 11, 2005
• Sequence Number: 29
• Publication Date: February 25, 1963
• Content Type: STATEMENT

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STATEMENT BY THE DIRECTOR FOR USE DF THE
S~AF`k" OF THE PREPAREDNESS INVESTIGATING
SUBCOMMITTEE OF SENATOR STENNIS
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25 February 1963
CUBAN SUBMERSION IN LATIN AMERICA
I. Introduction
The public pronouncements of Cuban leaders the
-
daily record of events in Latin America, and
all agree on one sa en conc us on, a el
Castro is spurring and supporting the efforts of Com-
munists and other revolutionary elements to overthrow
and seize control of the governments in Latin America.
Even before the October missile crisis--and with
increasing rancor since then--Cuban leaders have been
exhorting revolutionary movements to violence and
terrorism, and supporting their activities. Cuban
support tapes many different forms, but its main thrust
is in the supply of the inspiration, the guidance, the
training, and the cvmmunicat~.bns and technical assist-
ance that revolutionary groups in Latin America require.
In essence, Castro tells revolutionaries from
other Latin American countries. "Come to Cuba; we
will pay your way, we will train you in underground
organization techniques, in guerrilla warfare, in sab-
otage and in terrorism. We will see to it that you
get back to your homeland. Once you are then?, we
will keep in touch with you, give you propaganda sup-
port, send you propaganda materials for your movement,
training aids to expand your guerrilla forces, secret
communications methods, and perhaps funds and special-
ized demolition equipment." Castro is not, as far as
we know, promising these-other Latin Americans any Cu-
ban weapons or Cuban personnel--either leaders, ad-
visers, or cadres. But he probably does tell them;.
"If you succeed in establishing something effective
by way of a revolutionary movement in your homeland,
if your guerrillas come down out of the hills and con-
front regular armed forces, then we may consider more
concrete forms of assistance."
So far, it should be noted, none of the movements
in South America has reached this final stag?--and in
fact even Castra~?:s Sierra Maestra guerrillas never had
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to fight a pitched battle with regular military for-
mations which might have required mare advanced weap-
ons than small arms, grenades, mines, and machineguns.
In many ways, Cuba under Castro is the Latin version
of the old Comintern, inciting, abetting, and sustain-
ing revolution wherever it flourishes.
now a some un s move, genera y n cas y courier,
from Cuba to the revolutionaries in other countries. We
know that Cuba furnishes money to buy weapons, and that
some guerrilla forces 0 for instance, are equipped
with Czech weapons which most probably came from Cuba.
Venezaael~, is apparently number one on Cuba?s pri-
ority list for revolution. Fidel Castro said sv to the
recent meeting of Communist front organizations for
Latin American women. Che Guevara and $las coca both
emphasized the outlook for revolution in Venezuela in
s eeches in January.
Armed Forces of National Liberation (FALN). This or-
ganization is currently trying to publicize its exist-
ence by such acts as the hijacking of the freighter
ANZ~ATTGtTI, and by acts of sabotage and indiscriminate
shootings. These were also designed to dissuade Pres-
ident Betancourt from his trip to Washington. In thise
of course, they failed.
The violence in Venezuela should not be minimized.
The sabotage is the work of experts, and is being done
with advanced types of explosives. The shooting has
reached the point in Caracas where it is not safe to go
out at night in some sections of the capital. But it
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this level of activity is not the sort of thing that
will bring down the government unless the president
or other high officials are assassinated. The FALN
has not reached a point where it stands up to the
armed forces, or seizes and bolas government build-
s ngs .
We believe that Cuba has given guerrilla train-
ing to more nationals from Venezuela than from any
other country. ?ur estimate is that more than 200
yenezuelans received such training in 1962. Many of
these are engaged in terrorism in the cities, and
others were rounded up and given long prison sentences
when they committed themselves prematurely last spring
in a countryside where the rural population strop l
supports the Betancourt administration.
For the past year Cuban spokesmen have been push-
ing the line that Cuba provides the example for Latin
American revolution, with the implica~on what nothing
more than guidance needs to be exported. Castro ac-
tually sounded the keynotes for Cuban subversion on
July 26, 1960, when he said, "We promise to continue
making Cuba the example that can convert the Cordillera
of the Andes into the Sierra Maestro of the American
continent." In his speech on 15 January 1963 Castro
said-that if "Socialism" in Cuba had waited to over-
turn Batista by peaceful means, Castro would still be
in the Sierra Maestro. For the past three months,
Che Guevara and Education Minister Armando Hart, bath
slating that what they call "Socialism" can achieve
power in Latin America only by force.
The Cuban effort at present is far more serious
than the hastily organized and ill-conceived raids that
the bearded veterans of the Sierra Maestro led into
such Central American countries as Panama, Haiti, Nic-
aragua and the Dominican Republic during the first
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eight or nine months Castro was in power. Today
the Cuban effort is far more sophisticated, more
covert, and more deadly. In its professional trade-
craft, it shows guidance and training by experienced
Communist advisers from the Soviet bloc, in~l~iding
veteran Spanish Communists.
The ideas move fairly openly in a massive propa-
ganda effort. The inflammatory broadcasts from Ha-
v~,na and the work of Prensa Latina are matters of
public record.
The know-how is not only imparted to the guerrilla
trainees who come to Cuba, but is exported in the form
of booklets. There are thousands of copies of the
texts on guerrilla warfare by Mao Tse-tong and b Che
Guevara scattered over all of Latin America.
All of these textbooks stress that the guerrilla
must be self-sustaining. They not only tell him how
to make Molotov cocktails,. explosives, and incendiary
preparations from materials that he can obtain easily
and sometimes even openly at home.' they stress that
his weapons, his equipment, and supplies should come
from "the enemy"--that is, from the security forces
in his homeland.
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III . 7,'raining
We estimate that:at least 1,400, grad perhaps
as many a,s 1,5UQ persons came to Cuba during 1962,
from all the other Latin American countries with
the paassible e~cception of Uruguay, to receive ideo-
logical indoctrination or guerrilla warfare train-
ing or both. Nlox?e have gone in 1963 despite the
limited facilities for reaching Cuba at present.
The largest contingents have some from Vene-
zuela, Peru, Ecuador, Argentina,, a,nd Bolivia.. Same
of the courses are as short as four weeks, designed
to let it appear that the trainees had merely at-
tended some conference or cel?bration and done a
little sightseeing. t7ther courses last as long as
a year, and may include intensive training in such
things as sabotage, espionage, and psychological
wax?fare.
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Under the cireumstances we consider that our
estimate of 1,ODU to 1,544 guerrilla warfare trainees
in 1962 is reasmnably accurate. We also believe that
the scope and volume of this training is being stepped
up, gust as we knew that it incresed in 1962 over 1961.
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such countries as Colombia, Venezuela, and Peru,
where there are indigenous guerrilla forces either
in action or in being in the hills, there are Cu-
bans among the bands acting as leaders instructors
s f r h se forces
In some cases, i as erne
out that a reference to "a Cuban?' with the guerrillas
referred to someone who has been trained in Cuba and
was training others,. rather than a Cuban national.
However, we know positively that three Cuban nationals
were involved in the strike violence
I1I. Weapons
In general, the Cubans appear to be following
the textbook far uerrillas in regard to prevision
of arms .
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they are telling the guerrilla warfare
s u ens anc eir leaders to obtain their own we~p-
ona at home.
e o.+~no eve a s ng a case w ere we are cer a n
of the Cuban origin of captured arms.
This is not to say that we are positive weapons
have not been sent from Cuba. Latin America has a
long tradition of smuggling, a long coastline, in-
numerable isolated landing fields and drop zones,
and inadequate securit forces to control all such
channels.
SECR E T
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In summary, we have evidence that in principle
Cuba is not sending identifiable quantities of weapons
to Latin American insurgents at present. But we have
no reason to believe that they will not or cannot do
so, when so doing serves their stated purpose of creat-
ing uprisings in Latin American Countries. Deedless
to say, this is a matter that we consider of must ser-
ious concern and we intensively trace every rumor that
comes to us of the importation of arms from Cuba to
Latin American Gauntries.
V. Funding
Cuban financing of subversive operations in Latin
America is easy to ascertain and hard to document. Qur
evidence shows that it is generally effected by couriers
carrying Gash. The following are a few examples of
'these operations.
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The principle that guerrillas must be self-sus-
taining has obviously been applied to finances as well.
Communist guerrillas have staged numerous bank rob-
beries in Peru, Venezuela, and Argentina. The roost
spectacular hold-up was that of a bank in a Lima sub-
urb last year which netted almost $140,0?0. From
n e ruary a an
in an outlying Venezuelan town was robbed of $25,x00
by men wearing FALN armbands.
VI. Cuban Propaganda Broadcasts
International broadcasts by Cuban radio stations
maintain a relatively constant propaganda level at all
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times, with regularly scheduled and special broad-
casts to specific countries as well as general trans-
missions to all Latin America. The general theme
of these broadcasts is that the "Cuban example" is
awakening the "people" of Latin America to the op-
portunity for revolutionary action against the "cor-
rupt" regimes in power and against "Yankee imperialism"
which allegedly supports them. Within the last two
months there has been an increase in the aggressive-
ness with which the broadcasts incite revolt.
The official Cuban international service called
Radio Havana Cuba is the chief radio propaganda out-
e ore commonly known as Radio Havana, this sta-
tion broadcasts weekly a tots o ours and 5~
minutes of propaganda in languages which include
Spanish, English, French, Arabic, Portuguese, and
Haitian Creole, to listeners in Europe, the Mediter-
ranean area, and the Western Hemisphere.
Radio Havana's international service was in-
augura a on ay Day in 1961. It has grown rapidly
since that time and is now Latin America's first in-
ternational broadcaster in terms of program hours.
Its time on the air is as follows, in hours per week:
English to Europe
English to the Western Hemis-
phere
French to .Europe
French to Canada
French to Mediterranean
Portuguese to Brazil
Spanish to Europe
Spanish to the Americas
- 9 hr 20 min
- 3 hr 2U min
- 3 hr 3D min
- 7 hr
- 16 hr 55 min
- 1Q6 hr 30 min
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In addition to the regularly scheduled inter-
national service, Radio Havana has been known to
broadcast special programs n order to take adva?n-
tage of unique political situations. When serious
Radio Havana states that it makes its facilities
availa e o po tical groups from other Latin Ameri-
can countries so they can beam programs to their home-
lands. These programs, which have the evident intent
of encouraging subversion and inciting revolt, are
presently beamed on regular weekly or twice a week
schedule to Guatemala, Peru, and the Dominican Re-
public. Similar programs were beamed to Nicaragua
and Honduras until last September when they were
replaced by a single program with wider targets now
programmed nightly. These special programs are ex-
emplified by the programs transmitted to the Domini-
can Republic on 2S January. One was a "manifesto"
by Dominican Communists (who are based in Cuba) on
the recent election of the ''demagogic imperialist
agent" Juan Bosch as President of the Dominican Re-
public. Another was allegedly by a pro-Communist
group of Dominicans in Cuba called the t'National
Liberation movement." It appealed to Dominican
university students to demonstrate against the Con-
stituent Assembly meeting in Santo Domingo.
There are also two special programs beamed to
the United States. "Radio Free Dixie" is a one
hour a week transmission in English aimed at US
Negroes. The other program, "The Friendly Voice
of Cuba," is somewhat mare subtle and aimed at a
wider audience. Both programs can be heard well in
Florida and also in many parts of southern United
States.
The technical facilities of Radio Havana are
at a transmitter site at Bauta, some mi es
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southwest of Havana. At present, no more than four
shortwave transmitters are being used, but in the
past as many as five have been observed on the air
at the same time. These transmitters range in power
from 10 to 100 kilowatts, enabling Radio Havana to
be heard alI over the world. Programs are a ng
sent from studios to the transmitter site by means
of microwave relays.
S~.nce the actober crisis, Fidel Castro has ob-
viously been trying to straddle the rift between Mos-
cow and Peiping over global Communist strategy. It
has been aptly put that Gastro's heart is in Peiping
but his stomach is in Moscow. This same split be-
tween all-out militancy and a more cautious policy--
ca11 it coexistence or ''two steps forward, one step
back''--is reflected on the extreme left in. many Latin
American countries. Thus Cuba at present not only
seeks to serve two masters, but to choose among rival
servants in its Latin American subversion.
Castro's views on what is good for socialism
and revolution in Latin America are more in line with
those of the Chinese Communists than the Soviets.
Only the Cuban and Venezuelan Communist parties are
totally committed to terror and revolution. In spite
of differences over tactics and timing between var-
ious Communist groups, all intend eventually to de-
liver the Latin American countries into the Comma-
nists-socialist bloc. The so-called Soviet "conser-
vative" view, as it is now espoused, is more intent
on trying to achieve power by legal means if possible
and by subversion rather than by force.
Direct Soviet interest in Latin America is clearly
increasing. An excellent example of this was the set-
ting up early in 1962 ?f a Latin American Institute in
the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. The avowed purpose
of this institute is to raise the study of the prob-
lems of Latin America, which in their own statements
the Soviets claim they have neglected, to the highest
possible level. Teaching of Spanish and Portuguese
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languages is to be stressed in the institute and
throughout the school system. A list of subjects
on which this institute intends to publish shows
that it is to be used to attack the Alliance for
Progress; it has already attacked the.. Alliance pro-
gram in Colombia_-a showpiece of the Alliance.
posters have been
placed in some Colombian universities referring to
the problems of the "national liberation and work-~
ers? movements in Latin American countries" as top
ics which will be studied by the institute. Re?
salts of these studies will be published in the
near future in a magaziwne called America Latina,
intended especially for distribut ~o~nLat~America.
A pamphlet, apparently to be distributed by the in?
stitute, and entitled Alianza era e1 Pro reso, will
in the words of its here sa ''unmas a economic ex~
pension of the USA" in Latin America. The institute
also expects to enter into close contact with leading
Latin American scientists and academicians during
1965.
One of the most important Communist assets in
Latin America is a large number of Bloc diplomatic
and Cuban missions. These missions are used to fur
Cher Communist subversive activities even in coun-
tries where there are na Bloc diplomatic missions.
The USSR, and in some cases some Satellites as well,
have diplomatic missions in Mexico, Brazil, Argen?
tine, and Uruguay. The USSR maintains relations
with Bolivia, but has no resident mission there. Cuba
maintains embassies in Mexico, Brazil, Bolivia,
Uruguay, and Chile, The Chinese Communists have no
diplomatic ties in Latin America except with Cuba.
That fact alone would make Cuban missions important
to the Chinese. Only seven Latin American countries~-
Chile, the Ifominican Republic, Ecuador, E1 Salvador,
Guatemala, Paraguay, and Peru??have no official ties
whatever with any bloc country.
Uruguay offers a good example of how the Com-~
monists misuse diplomatic missions and the impor~
tance the Communists attach to them. We have found
that Communist subversive activities in Uruguay are
not now aimed at promoting revolutionary activity
against the government. In this case even the Cu?
bans appear to be much more interested in retaining
the good will of the government so that they can con
time to use the country as a-base df operations
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against Argentina, Paraguay, etc. Communist diplo-
matic missions, however, are active in supporting
local Communists and other pro-Castro groups to re-
tain enough leverage within the country so as to
prevent the anti-Castro groups from forcing a
break in relations. The badly split Uruguayan
government itself is anti-Communist, but is highly
tolerant of the activities of these missions and
of the Uruguayan party Itself. The USSR, most of
the Satellites, and Cuba all have diplomatic mis-
sions in Montevideo--some 70 or so bloc personnel.
In addition, couriers and travellers can go back
and forth between this city and the bloc countries
and Cuba at any .time.
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