THE HEMISPHERE CUBA CAN'T ANYONE HERE PLAY THIS GAME?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000600420003-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 26, 1999
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: June 12, 1964
• Content Type: NSPR

C
CPYRGHT CUBA
Can't Anyone here
Play This Game?
Fidel Castro must -have laughed till
he split his fatigues. Incredibly, disas-
trously, Manolo Ray, the Cuban free-
dom fighter who had promised to be
operating inside Cuba by May 20, was
exposed as a bungling amateur. Worse,
Fidel did not have to lift a finger. The
British, with an assist from the U.S.
Coast Guard, put the damper on what
was surely the most ludicrous act yet
in the endless, tragicomic opera of anti-
Castro moves.
Five days before the May 20 dead-
line, the exile leader had quit his job
f plastic explosives were un oa e
final check at the Anguilla Cays,
here Ray planned to make a last radio
ansmission.
The good thing about the Anguilla
ays is that they are only 40 miles off
e Cuban coast. The bad thing is that
verybody knows it. Castro watches
hem; so do the British who own them,
nd the U.S. sends over numerous re-
onnaissance flights. So it was hardly
urprising that Her Majesty's destroyer
ecoy steamed up to look around. But
t surprised Ray and his group. Franti-
ally, they tried to hide their equipment.
hen five of the party, including two
reelance 'photographers, gunned away
n the catamaran, hoping to decoy the
Decoy away from the island while Ray
tayed behind.
A Green Lump. It didn't work. The
quite-competent-thank-you British cap-
lain saw the launch departing and sent
landing party to see what it might be
caving. "I found a shallow hole," re-
ated Ray, "and I threw myself down
n it and covered myself with a green
loth. I crossed my arms and put my
gad down and hoped they wouldn't
nd me. They almost didn't." But on
he second search of the island, one
British sailor noticed the green-covered
lump and hustled Ray to his feet.
Meanwhile, back at the launch, the
Cubans were holding their own against
the pursuing destroyer. But it was all
over when two U.S. planes showed up
and began dropping messages, the thir
RAY BOUND FOR TRIAL
Hiding in a hole.
in Puerto Rico and ? dropped out of
sight. For two weeks, nothing was heard
from him. Miami tingled with stories
that Ray was in Cuba, carrying out a
,cleverly conceived plan to harass and
eventually topple Castro. As it turned
out last week, Ray did not start until
May 24 and never set foot in Cuba.
Everybody Knows. Following stand-
ard procedure, Ray and his seven com-
panions, including a woman radio
operator, were launched from a ? CIA-
sponsored "mother ship" that obligingly
runs exiles to within striking distance of
Cuba. As Ray and his men later told
it to TIME Correspondent Ed Reingold,
the weather was terrible the first few
days, and Cuban patrol boats were
everywhere. "Big, fast boats," recalled
one of the infiltrators. "We saw ten in
all." So the small band zoomed around
tiny keys that lie between Florida and
Cuba, testing their 24-ft. catamaran
and tinkering with their boat's two
100-h.p. Volvo inboard-outboard en-
gines. The Volvos were gobbling gas
.and running hot at high speed. Never-
and decidedly last of which ordere
them to heave to or risk a barrage o
4.5-in. shells.
And so Ray and his party were carte
back to Nassau to stand trial for illega
entry into the Bahamas. At first, whe
police discovered Manolo's identity, th
group tried to arrange for another Cu
ban to take his place at the trial. Next
a CIA type showed up, gave a differen
name to each newsman present and pre
pared to pay whatever fine was levie
against the culprits, explaining that h
was a "friend." At the trial, the Cuban
were all so busy jostling around Ray t
conceal him from photographers tha
no one could have missed him, and on
newsman happily snapped Ray frame
under a protecting armpit. The terribl
understanding Nassau judge meted o
$14 fines to each of the eight, plus
warning never to trespass again.
Aside from the CIA's less-than-glor
ous role, the depressing thing about th
whole sorry business was that Manol
Ray up to last week was considered
small but genuine threat to Castro.
former Castro ally, he had the bearde
one so worried that Cuba went on
full-scale military alert; scores of s -
had come. The fliq r J ` ?(~ri~r~
with flash suppressors , i, 0 roun s - I
F01Ab3b
CPYRGHT
ceedingly devious ploy, Ray's dunce cap
for failure seemed all the bigger. "We
have experience, and we are just as
determined as we were," he said after
the Nassau trial. "We think it will be
easier next time. Fidel knows me, and
he knows I'm coming." That may be
&0044 '0 t98Vft&M bdel
may not care.
ammunition, and grenades and masses Unless the whole thing, was some. e -
Sanitized - Approved WW se : CIA-RDP
THE HEMIrYPHTERE