AM NOW RED CUBA'S MOST WANTED MAN....WILL FIGHT ON...

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00001R000200590024-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 12
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 23, 1999
• Sequence Number: 24
• Publication Date: August 1, 1964
• Content Type: MAGAZINE

CPYRGHT M e11.
r r - - - 7,1-~?KGM1-- - ? - - - MiCmg'U 1.9 r -
 1964.
 For the first time since Bellows had put in to shore, the tone of his' men, and . lAboriously' scrawled' a signature,'`;
little leader of the party spoke; "You are a Yanqui, noV a " passed it to Bellows.
: "Thanks," the American muttered and started toward
lie caressed the stock of his carbine. "I was not'expecting He had taken fewer than a dozen steps when the distant,,,
like Oliver Bontemps?" dark jungle backwater. Bellows .froze In his tracks, Behind
let's get this show over with. ? These are dangerous waters" Spanish, telling his followers to move the burros out, mu
Bellows was a, tall, rangy, sandy haired _man with the ,., rapido..A dozen rifle bolts clicked shells into place, : ;
make the concealment of. 'emotion. easy. But.
American revolutionary groups for nearly seven years..::
;:This was the first time the customers had greeted him;
COULD this nameless runt have guessed the' truth? he'[
'.inspire.d Venezuelan guerrilla movement?
not wren Oliver .liantemps himself r :, : ~
his p"04sk,Fo9;
The man's coffee-black'ejes hardened with suspicion andi;.1
RD C9 POST
WANTED MAN
uta
 CPYRGHT
Aproved For Release`999/09108 CIA-RDP75=0000'1 RG04200590024-6 '
LEADERS of Lake Maracaibo Red army-including female "support troops" (above)-were trained at Cuba's La Cabana fortress
Bellows threw himself on the ground, groping for the
butt of the holstered .45 automatic on his hip as he
crawled into a heavy clump of marsh grass. The guerrilla'
chieftain took shelter beside him. They could already
see the long, sleek form of the Venezuelan patrol boat
moving down the middle of the channel, its searchlights
probing both shores. A lookout's hoarse cry told him that
the Felicite had been spotted. .
The patrol boat veered toward the smaller, unoccupied.
vessel, its forward deck gun booming, heavy machine guns
banging away from amidships. When dealing with sus
petted gun runners, the crews never took chances. In sec-
onds the Felicite was a blazing pyre, settling into the chan-
nel mud like a dying rhino. 'In the trees. all around them,
parrots and macaws, roused from sleep by the noise and the
sudden wash of blistering light, set up a squawking, indig
nant chorus. With the boat knocked out, the gunners -'
turned their fire on the shore, emptying belt after belt.
into the shadowed jungle. Bellows crammed his face
into the dirt as slugs whistled over his bead like angry,
.buzzing insects. -
"They will not come ashore," the guerrilla chieftain
whispered. "Not at night. They never do ...".
His prediction turned out to be correct. After a quick
EX-GUNRUNNER Walt Bel-.;
lows (left) now owns a travel
agency in Detroit, Mich. 'T; always feel funny. recom-
mending a' 'restful Carib-
bean tour"' he said recently,.
"since I'm still high on Cas-
tro's revenge list. Even open
ing a can of supermarket
? tamales, I half expect a.
.:bomb to go off in my face"'."
clambered back aboard their own craft; it swung about'.
toward the Gulf. of Venezuela, half a mile away. Soon the
'only sound disturbing the air was the scream of parrots.
The guerrilla stood up and fastened a half-amused stare
on Bellows' sweating face. "It seems you will be with
us longer-:'than you thought, Yanqui. Unless you plan
to swim back to Haiti ...
1/ALTER Byron Bellows was not, by nature, a likely
u' recruit for a career in espionage. At the time of the
events described above, he was 32 years old-a cynical,''
r rather cheerfully amoral man ' who, before obtaining his
raftFr i e`fraif ratiN g a charter
 CPYRGHT
LV6Y'VJ e9~4N 49~~~
Trum page IV
Michigan, he had lived in various Caribbean countries
olitical id
li
t
p
ea
s
s were the worst swine on earth, not
since his teens. His father had been a notably unsuccessful to be trusted under any circumstances. I think he had a
nlanter who had rmmn thrnt,nh a a+-...f 0,,..4-..1 A.,,.....:_-_ ..
_ ~v us,u vi., 4ue nubsxans flaunt started pouring cheap
one quality that made him invaluable to the CIA-he munitions into Cuba yet, so Castro was still forced to
hated Communism with a bitter vengeance. His feeling , use com
i
l
tfi
'
merc
a
ou
ts like Oliver
s to supply his 'libera-
stemmed from the Korean War, when he had been a PFC 1: - tion armies'.. Helping one gang of crooks throw out an-
in an infantry 'nrnnanar -,#,-A h.. 4L.., n_A_
~..~ 4 a4u 1-4 V G4. ne bi.7eut naraware to tea forces in half a dozen countries was
the rest of the war in a POW camp near Pyongyang. something else again. I was on the verge of
g quitting when
"All my life nersonal freedom had hen ac ;moor+a?+` : 4h.. !,TA ._ 0.
to rgckless and undisciplined behavior,often moti- ,.`;, .:uu.u `earn aoout Venezuelan arm shipments. Although
vated blind the outflow of weapons was accomplished in batches cap
to cap-
y greed and exhibit anearly are pathological ,i ~able of being transported by small, fast boats, the total
distrust of organized human society." Then he stood up, ; .,.was frighteningly impressive: more than 200 heavy aria
smiled broadly and extended his hand across the desk: r ' chine vnnc An non rn...,.1 -f en .._,
THAT PAYS CASH IS ALWAYS RIGHT."' -- -'-`-" "?b4ueb Lime money, a ,uess i-a become pretty sick of the
After Rellnwc en+arnrl TI-+-- 1....4 '4.:< business I was in .'
e
pp air They talked for nearly an hour. "He pulled out all
hinted that he was more than seventy years old. Above the stops" Bellows was to recall several -years later.
''~
?his desk was a sampler, hand embroidered by Madame "Waved tie flag, went over my war record even offered.:`
Bontemps. On it was stitched the wnr1d-famn?c mn++.. .'.' e., eon - _ , _
n
ea ure , near-starvation to cooperating with the Communists. I
superlatively ugly man with skin the color of ripe egg- .',",-'can't see you helping them now
!ant. Only the gray-white of his close cro
d h
urb r-_-. --~ ==F...- ~-a~ aeabt wane tneyre still in the custody of
on a mountainside overlooking Port-au-Prince.
;;r, Bontemps' employees? Will that help ease your con-
Oliver Bontemps received Bellows in his mahogany- -' science? In Korea, as a POW, you preferred torture and
panelled office. He was a broad shouldered blu
t f t d
C?/ "??`?-`?b" `^-' A III 44vm, abnumg you to,-- Wiasscock said. "We're not in--
tests, an idea Bontemps had imported from the States.;'': } terested in Bontesust a few of his clients. Suppose I .r
Two days after. taking the exams he wad cummnnarl fn ..r. "Good God, no l" Bellows snorted. "I'll be in and out
rebels. Although the movement's Communist leanings in less than ten rnl
t G
is ne wor ?
k
of bribed This is the break we've been waiting for," the agent said
official s that enabled his "fleet' to operate almost?,' excitedly. "What I'm really after, are the names of the
with impunity. Except for a few run-ins with hi-jackera, ,: Venezuelan group's leaders, where'their headquarters Is
Bellows rarely heard a shot fired. located ... Is there some way you could manage to stay
Disillusion began to set in durin +h 1 t 4"1
---b --b=? ___~~?4~ou ;' mat ne was to ferry a load to Lake Maracaibo, Venezuela's
on a field of clover green. His profitable new career wasn't;:'.:; main oil production area. As soon as he received his or
as dangerous as he'd expected. Bontemps had 'contacts in? ders he met with Roger Glasscock in er hotel room.
.. ,
-every Latin American government a s stemat t
pntf t1ue
 CPYRGHT
Even a time eIlows was am s s i i i - toe - e brows
Glasscock,s casualness-in accepting his refusal. However, above them and his great hooked nose would have hum--
his doubts weren't confirmed until, on the night of July bled a vulture. Incongrously, an American filter tip cig-
6, a Venezuelan patrol boat blew the Felicite to pieces, .. arette dangled from his heavy lips. Turning his formidable
stranding him with the guerrilla band that had unloaded - gaze on Bellows, he said: "I have no fear of uttering my
the guns .. , name. It is Felix Ordonez. Elsa does not understand that
uns are more important than political slogans. Now come.,
AS soon as the pint-sized guerrilla leader was sure that have a drink!"
the patrol boat wasn't going to return, he gave the order - Felix Ordonez, Bellows thought as an enthusiastic,
to move an. Without being told, Bellows joined the column rump-roast-sized palm crashed down on his back in a
of men and burros. Sure that he had been double crossed friendly slap. Like everyone else familiar with the Cuban
r by Glasscock his mind seethed with anger. Since the CIA revolution he recognized the name. Next to Che Guevera
man knew the spot where Bellows was to deliver the himself, Ordonez was the chief military strategist of the .
Castro movement, a master of guerrilla warfare. He had
acted as chief judge at many of the `war crime' trials that
as though the patrol boat had merely chanced 'across = had followed Castro's victory, pronouncing the death sen-
them. Like it or not, Bellows was now the CIA's "inside tence on hundreds, of Batista officials. Born in Peru, holder
man" with the Venezuelan Reds. He wasn't too worried of a doctorate in law' from the University of Lima, he
? about being shot-not at 'the moment, anyway. Oliver had been a power -in Latin American Communism for'
Bontemps' reputation was better protection than a bullet- nearly 20 years. His very presence in Venezuela was
proof vest, since anyone who harmed a Bontemps' em= i proof that a major uprising against the legal government
ployee was automatically scratched off the firm's list of 'a7 was forthcomingg.
'?
acceptable clients. Bellows was dragged almost bodily into Ordonez' hut
By dawn the column was out of the belt of coastal.` ;a: pushed on to a reed matted-reed chair. The bearded gggiyiani
shoved a bottle of rum at nd -our
t o e Bontemps, hens a great mhim an. aHe willenot'make
of Lake Mar caibo.gThe view of the giant lake was ast nt p
ishing. Thousands of off shore oil derricks poked up out ,. consignments on credit but he is a great man nonethe-
of the brownish water and countless more wells dotted '- less." He held up the half-inch butt of his filter cigarette.
the land itself as far as the eye could see. Directly east "Next time you come you should bring along a carton
lay the Lagunillas field, a forest of derricks extending all. ; of these-the mentholated kind. Very. hard to get in the
jungle."
the way to the towering Northern Andes. Even though it -".jungle."
was barely light, trucks and cars-toylike at this distance
r -were moving along the roads criss-crossing the fields. FOR the next three hours, Bellows was treated like the
} The stoop-shouldered jefe-who had, finally relaxed guest of honor at a political banquet. Food was brought
enough to introduce himself as Julio-grimaced. "All that by the half-dozen plump, white-teethed little Cuban girls
oil going to run Imperialist Cadillacs instead of Socialist who lived with the guerrillas. Dressed in the inevitable
threshing machines! Disgusting, no?" war surplus fatigues, they were called "support troops"
Bellows didn't answer. The further he kept away from ''..a fancy term for camp followers-by the Fidelistas. Or-
politics, maintaining his front as a'mercenary, the safer - donez,. grinning wolfishly, refilled the American's glass
he would be in the days.tocome. "How soon can you get ' with rum again and again. Elsa,, the tall blonde, was a
Colombian border.-For Bellows, unused to such physical
ended in a Motilone village, atop a heavily wooded hill. clearing. The weapons he had smugggled from Haiti had
The Motilones were an Indian tribe that had fought the been heaped under a palm shedroof. Every half hour or
incursions of the oil industry for decades.' Bellows had so a party of a' dozen or more men broke out of the brush
heard rumors that many of them had been enlisted in the and hefted gun and ammo cases, returning the way they
Communist cause, after being falgely assured that the ?' - had come. The newcomers were dressed in civilian clothes
Reds' purpose was to drive the hated oil men out of the , ? either peon garments or the khaki pants and cotton plait{
Drown skinned natives even bothered to look up when
the burro train moved in.
i . The village was dominated by its great central house,
was a tall young woman clad in .the standard Fidelista
trying to get him drunk but he was too tired to_care. An
the Fidelistas' vaunted "night soldiers"-seemingly re-
sectable farmers and laborers by day- after dark, homi-
cidal terrorists. Ordonez' group served as the hard core `J
formed for major missions. The guns Bellows had brought
would now be moved on to dozens of arsenals scattered
throughout the countryside. _
the shadowed cleft between swelling perfectly formed . "KEEP DOWN," the guerrilla lender told Bellows, "A g
breasts and the too-tight pants emphasized the full-fleshed 'w gun
{}. tp~erfection of her hip s and rounded thighs. Her lopg{ -runner with his head full 'of holes is no good to us ~--`--~-r-- --_ ?_ _.... - .. .:~-'.
0
"Who is this?" she asked Julio, pointing at Bellows.
"The ,Yenqui who delivered the guns
" Julio stam-
,
mered, going on to tell what had happened at, the. inlet.
L7 Ubr. to O
here, damn-it! Idon't ~seeyanything worth fighting over."
The argument was ended by a single shouted phrase:
w: "Cetis-tel Shut up!"
It was uttered by a burly man who had stepped out
of a small hut near the entrance to the ---- k
..
,.
------
-
-
{of that hung over his low slung pants, ike Julio -_
b
eard but one
that c amlilete outdia_ its, rivals. -V a
Coal black, curly` -arid
LA
 OIL
Approved For Release 1 9 9 910910 ..: tY67~T00001 R000200590024-6 1
eyes. She calmly unbuttoned her blouse, pulled her fatigue
want to," Bellows murmured drowsily "Not sure I'm up to
ering,as' he felt the weight of her swelling, olive-skinned';
EVEN before he was fully awake the next morning,
f, though someone had crammed it full of dusty- desk blot
tribe used to kill game, sat in the gray dust near the hut
1 , to hut, looking for Felix Ordonez and his followers. There
Then, in the fourteenth but he tried, he discovered Julio `'.
o with us to pick it up and return aboard the boat.?>1;
J$W so
h vt e k at d -_
w0hki
ed up i et',
- Onl o
e po>!si/ bihS
`made sense. Julio was going to kill'him but in such a way-,
that the guerrillas would seem blameless, thus averting --
given me his real name if he thought I'd live to repeat it..
He soon had the answer, Later in the morning, Julio '?.
visited him. "Tonight we go on a raid," he announced. "It
Is a rule of Comrade Ordonez'. Whenever we use an Indian
village, we do them a favor in return. About 15 miles
.from here is an. oil company camp that has intruded on
delivering guns, not firii them. None of my business. " ;
` The oily smile left Julio's skinny face. "I must insist.
It l text you here alone, one or them might kill you just',.
because your skin is too light. How would I explain such '
Since? too vehement an opposition would make Julio ::
realize that he was wise to the plot against him, Bellows,"
finally agreed,
"It is best this way," Julio said as he left the hut.
Now the last piece was In place. Bellows knew that'-.'
petroleum exploration parties venturing into this part of
Venezuela were heavily armed and ready for any eventu-
ality. During the guerrillas' "attack," the American would
be deliberately placed in the oil camp's line of fire. He
could imagine the type of message Ordonez would send '
to Oliver Bontemps: 'It was a most regrettable accident. =';
Your agent Bellows--whom-1 grew to like inmensely ;;
during his short time among us-met with death at the
hands of the trigger-ha py Imperialists. I have already
disciplined the officer who, without my knowledge, per-
mitted
Senor Bellows to accompany him on such a dan-
gerous mission .
For the rest of the day Bellows des erately tried to
'figure a way out of his dilemma. Simply making a run
for it would be senseless. They'd nail him ten minutes...
after he left the village. Then, suddenly it was too late.A greasegun cradled in his right arm, Julio reappeared in ,"',t';'
the hut doorway. "We leave in five minutes!, ;}?
Bellows nodded and strapped on his useless .45. He still
had one slight advantage over the guerrillas-they weren't,
aware that he had detected the doctored bullets. But it ' ,r
wasn't the kind of edge that inspired a rash of confidence.'.'_';
JJARKNESS had fallen by the time the' party-Bellows
the six guerrillas and about a dozen Indians-had de- '-i''
scended the steep hillside below the village and were
swallowed up by the thick pocket of bungle below. It was . x!
like entering a coalbin blindfolded but somehow the silent
?viotilones swiftly found their way along trails little wider'~;yi
,than a city sidewalk. Bellows' spot' was about midway in'
the straggling column, sandwiched between Julio and a.',
stocky, scar-faced- guerrilla named Pepe. He had con-,
trived to fall in behind the man when he noticed that he
wore a .45 pistol on his hip. The sight of the bullets looped
on the bandolier-style gunbelt was as tantalizing as a y
bottle of 150 proof rum to a member of Alcoholics Anony--.';
moue. Somehow he had to get some of those cartridges.
His chance came when they were walking down a rough,';;
gravelly incline. Pretending to lose his. footing, Bellows f;,;j
stumbled forward and crashed into Pepe. They fell to the':.)
ground in a heap, the guerrilla cursing angrily. "Sorry,"_
Bellows murmured as he helped the other man to his feet. ',,
A .45 cartridge, skillfully slipped out of Pepe's belt, was
clutched in Bellow's sweating fist when they began mov- -
ing again. One lousy bullet, he thought, but better than
nothing .. ,
It was nearly midnight before they reached the area 'i
where the oil exploration camp had been erected. Julio'
held a quick final briefing. The layout was simple-three
prefab buildings surrounded by a barbed wire fence.;`
There were only about 10 men inside, Julio said-three
American .geologists and a gang of Venezuelan laborers
Since such camps had often been attacked by Indians in-'.:,
the past, at least two or three guards would be osted
"But they will only be expecting arrows or maybe old'
we can cur, we piace to pieces irom niaing . , , Senor Bel-
lows ou will sy with me: I am responsible for you . , .
.q~(yp 4Mpe~the pretense-,
'ms"au inserted his ,
Cntinuea
 8, ;CPYRGHT
u u PQQInr~QQa~c*ained conscious-
JUST Keep. aown,-- Julio mutterea. -xnen the guerrilla You mean I killed two of them," Bellows grunted. "I
uf.tarPd n cnvada valninu cional and n hail of nufnmofin'`. e.a nricnnan -f -# aR fl,., ..-:A:> Lhel> h1--A., .,.,,>u A- >.,.. ,.a -h--A
?~'~,: Y?/11CS LlL: SCLV011L-LCll All U ULLCl-. LIILCC UI111VrIIICU VUCr-,-;'
way gate, was the s tingnin+the thad he seat of ? E sa sire rillas were on her in an instant, machetes swinging. A,-,-
Triumph sports car. The blonde girl scrambled behin howl of rage-inaudible even to his own ears-was a
h d f B ll H d h.
ti t'?
,a~n~~ywhere. ' [if; tacle into a ? ghastly pantomime, smotherin
_ng the crackle r'?A
~l7ALVANIZED.by the des1?eration in her voice, he'leaP, a of small arms fire. Directly in front of the house a woman."z
., _. .__ ?'in a billowing Indian dress-probably a harmless
well-coordinrated mounted by the Fideiista forces in Vene fatigue jacket. A cigarette, smoked nearly down to the '+!
2unla-r?ame totally ..,;+hn?+ ,L.nrn;nn ~i ...rn+e nnrrna,.nnA ...'filter. dangled from his cruel. heavy lies. Elsa sat'
April, 1962 issue of Pe troleuQuarterly, an industry trad~' Comm 'munist leader's long, heavy beard was gray with soot,
intl. 1... IIIG I.IIIG I.G W1IS JtLt LILa I./ILL tilt IIIV S+JVL
The best description of the now famous July 14, 196. He was about to move on when he heard the roar of a-
of given his soul t ' ,.' guessed that most of the victorious r tdelistas had congre-
The poor son o a bitch would have ;! gated in the center of town,.where there might still be a
find out where Ord.onez was doing to hit next. Bellow .. . _ . ,!
it was too late to tip off Glasscock. If he didn't know b Y"`a'.v ` - ,...... r..-- VL ,,1LV ucnL n
now what was happening it meant he was already den house. The entire street was empty of the living, He
ducingQ(/ oil wells around Jaxco went up-turned into u1c LLVL1L aLC,1.LV L11C SIIIV1UVh111Jj IUIIIS V1 ./u]ClV. nC CU~CU ?C
~;? fiery Matt hV n rtvnnmi+n-nnA-+hermite ehnroe Ana ++,o .11, past the decapitated body of-the Indian-woman, dashed
under Walt Bellow's feet. On the northern horizon a 500 balustrade had already revealed that the fighting-what
fnn+-high -h- of An- a --A ,,,, +h rn?Irh +ho was left of it-had- moved out of the neighborhood. His
lion tiny hammer blows per second. from the blazing wells. Eventually some of the guerrillas
?{
Then the first explosion came shaking the tiled floe would check the house, he told himself. A glance over the!
t
axco to o a we in y sea, a wa o ropic rain a lightening except for the black billowing smoke clouds
ounded down on the dusty earth at a rate of ten mil
full force of the lake storm had hit, turning the sky ove -, " w113 LICULly 11a11 CAI LIVUI IOLCr W1Ie11 sit: IIIVVCU UUI.....
41. The rain had already stop ed; the sky toward the east'?
,
J t t ' k 11 f
,, r even months earlier, plans for the massacre had bee f` game. t;roucning sown rurtner benina a rubble pile, tiei-
carefully laid. It was later determined that nearly 30 ne '.lows cursed himself for expanding all his ammo in a,(:
4~ J CMo? - ?~ .+c-ac VA wac ?oo* (,c ti r V AA%,J DV%MkACU LLy 141C Syr ClCU4 J1155=%1-CU8WU 11CC1[ Vi ^ Man%;
graphical distance they had to cover, the ,yenezuelan arm - 4 bottler He was straightening when a'short, fat man in oil-'
~. ~. Lo's
y.,
'h~~S'c P~kl' I~ SRS d~ dRgt l~11R~P v ? +i~B7l Art nl~lt>ar1Ml~tr4r#raalalwral~Jofc~ cantina he_:?
are beyond the northern edge of . town, will :move o N througg the ruins, silent now except for guns being fired ,?
their assigned targets . , ,' ,;' gleefully into the air' by celebrating rebels blocks awa
~
flomrades' in the oil fields, upon the firing of a amok ;::.Feeling as isolated as if he were on the moon, he skulked
roan any otner, insurea the rattlers' success-the perfec that ne was going to mill i1?etix Vraonez, even if it meant''
timing. A captured directive issued by Felix Ordonez - adding his own corpse to the massacred. hundreds now.
chief of the Maracaibo Red force. stated: 'The unrisin lying in Jaxco's smoking skeleton ... .
P.1-131 cent of the native workers employed in the Jaxco of senseless gesture ...
 `CPYRGHT
Appruvey F11''' F_ Muluiibu -I VVVIUVIULA :111-
Bellows
'7M eT n?g 1-111 - ,
1, wil I !1 6#%
shoulder, rounded the corner, only a few feet away. l lie . guided th -- - -
man's jaw dropped and he fumbled at the strap of his crashing through a wooden barrier. A work party of
+ --t .. g.,e