CUBAN REFUGEE ACTIVISTS IN DISARRAY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000500200010-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 17, 2004
• Sequence Number: 10
• Publication Date: September 17, 1967
• Content Type: NSPR

C
71 /n 0 177 Al
-rl 771")
tlqmood of the huge crowd of ",nr
, , bin
exiles in the Orange Bowl on Deb
It Has Been All t ' o VV'aTL ~I fl ?L Si~?+,,rrya ~'1,l q
Tit .,-
And ....1 v en ..;.`?~7e1 sonall y .for.. M'iami
Ex es Since That Day in 1962
By Richard Harwood /
WashJnaton Post Staff Wrier
l,I1-The heat and the speial
throats was like a heavy surf;'
in the great stadium:
Glared: "I can assure you that this
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
rt, HE FEW REMAINING activists for
' the most part now regard the Gov-
ernment of the United States more as
-value the survivors of the Bay of Pigs
invasion attempt had to give-the flag
of Brigade 2506.
Deeply moved, the President de-
"Guerra (war)! Guerra! Guerra!"
They were caught up in an emo-
tional frenzy touched off by President
John F. Kennedy, who had, a moment
earlier, received the only thing, of
an adversary than as a friend.
be Felipe Rivero, who drank scotch
with a beer chaser on the beach at
the Bay of Pigs, is in jail in Miami
Eloy Guttierez Menoyo, a guerrilla
warfare theoretician; was captured and
jailed in" Cuba when he ?attempte4 to
translate his theories Into practice
I mand of Brigade 2506, retains his old
thrower who runs the largest bo the. in the exile organizations. He has his
own dreams of' military conquest and
extant exile or(yanizaiiona-A'???f~n
C
-
(
u
Flaglcr Street over the hostility of gi'''n ruperrcan automatic ofssCi~
the disarray, compares }tla
American officialdom. ? ; ;ij
--"-'- w'"" "'?y "'?
They seize our gnats and "have three separate 'governments''n
.,.,,. ..,
en (fr
th
ei a
o .a
g
-
e ~mmigratiion 1 movements. They break up into splin
and Naturalization Service) spy on us' I ter groups like the Cubans, who have
all the time."
Ramon Donestevez, a chlrbby boat no effective leadership and no ability
._ _. - i to work together."
builder who dreams .of a "sail-in" to Another officer of the Federal bu-
known as "intelligence work" is equal..'
political prisoners, is, threatened with ? _ , _ ? ? _. _ _ TAT
.... vgwr-.,, www..wwww wU w...T 1
a five-year prison sentence if he. car- judgments: f1{
i
t hi
l
G
v
es ou
s p
an.
overnment agents
follow him 24 hours a day to frustrate
his scheme.
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
i the prisoners out?"
A Dismal Roster
-~` rHE 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
:aar fate. He is now said to be
L'onfl Rued
spiracy to blow up a Cuban. sugar mill.
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, attempt;:. _;;