CUBAN REFUGEE ACTIVISTS IN DISARRAY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000200340009-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 23, 1999
• Sequence Number: 9
• Publication Date: September 17, 1967
• Content Type: NSPR

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A? ;(";:d Eve's ersonall y for Miami
Exiles Si ce That Day in 1962
y
By Richard Harwood /
washincton Post Staf: writer '
-ire rea an e special / Jorge Mas, an intellectual born
a,'Y1_ brilliance of the sunlight matched thrower who runs the largest of t
the,mood of the huge crowd of, Cuban extant exile organizations-RECE (C
exiles In the Orange Bowl on Dec. 29, ban Representation of Exiles)-broo
in a windowless back room on Wesit
ID62. ? Flagler Street over the hostility of
The cadenced roar from 40,000 American officialdom.
throats was like a heavy surf beating "They give Castro a sanctuary," he
in the great stadium:
"Guerra (wax)! Guerra!
They were caught up
Guerra!"
in an emo-
tional frenzy touched off by President
John F. Kennedy, who had,' a moment
earlier, received the only thing, of
-value the survivors of the Bay of Pigs
invasion attempt had to give-the flag
of Brigade 2506.
Deeply moved, the President de-
nl , nA ? "T 4%- . 4 4t.;
flag will be returned to this brigade
in a free Havana!"
To the Cubans, that impulsive prom-
ise was a liberation pledge. It gave
birth to extravagant hopes. But those
hopes, the brigade's -biographer,
Haynes Johnson, has written, began
?to die when Mr. Kennedy died. The
process was accelerated by America's
preoccupation with Vietnam. Today,
the hopes have all but vanished, like
.the Brigade itself. The exile commun-
ity is splintered, leaderless, disillu-
sioned and impotent.
U.S. as Adversary
THE FEW REMAINING activists for
It the most part now regard the Gov-
ernment of the United States more as
an adversary than as a friend.
we Felipe Rivero, who drank scotch
with a beer chaser on the beach at
the Bay of Pigs, is in jail in Miami
awaiting action on charges of plotting
"violent acts against Cuba."
V Orlando Bosch, head of the Insurrec-
tional Movement for Revolutionary
Recovery, is under indictment for at-
.tempted piracy of ships in the Cuban
trade, attempts:.. :in-running and con-
complains bitterly. "But they harass us. "have three separate 'governments' in,
They seize our boats and our guns. exile. That's the history of all exile.
Their agents (from the Immigration, movements. They break up into spun-:
and Naturalization Service) spy on us 1 ter groups like the Cubans, who have
ll
h
"
i
a
e t
me.
t
i no effective leadership and no ability
Ramon Donestevez, a chubby boat to work together."
builder who dreams of a "sail-in" to Another officer of the Federal bu-
Havana to plead for the release of reaucracy who is engaged in what is:
11 It
political prisoners, is threatened with
a five-year prison sentence If he car-
ries out is p an. uovernmmr agents
follow him 24 hours a day to frustrate
his scheme.
"S does your government perse-
cute me?" he asks. "We have waited.
eight years for them to get our pris-
oners released and they have failed.
Are they afraid we will make them
ridiculous if we show them how to get
the prisoners out?"
A Dismal Roster
THE MORE SUBSTANTIAL figures
associated with the Bay of Pigs-
many of them military heroes-have
dropped out of sight. At least two
were committed to mental hospitals.
Others have been discredited by time
and events.
Manuel Ray, who was to have been
the Minister of Sabotage .and Internal
Affairs if the Castro regime had fallen
In 1961, lost face and influence in 1964
when he botched a new invasion
scheme. Manuel Artime, civilian leader
of the Bay of Pigs contingent, suffered
spiracy to blotiv "anItFi ugl?Cp OI/1ed Fbl q-i
. r . v .c es afRl uti
c
Eloy Guttierez Menoyo, a guerrilla
warfafe theoretician, was captured and
jailed' in Cuba when he attempted to,
translate his theories Into practice
against the Castro government.
I ve Only Erneido Oliva, second in coil-,
mand of Brigade 2506, retains his o)d
in the exile organizations. He has his
own dreams of' military conquest and
they do not involve the United States
directly.
known as intelligence work is equal-
ly. harsh and equally clinical in his
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