PLAN OMEGA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000600420018-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 26, 1999
• Sequence Number: 18
• Publication Date: May 15, 1964
• Content Type: NSPR

Sanitized - Approved For Release : CIA-RDP7
RICHMOND NEWS LEADER MAY 15, 1961+
Richmond, Virginia
CPYRGHT
Plan Omega
Plan -Omega is in operation. The
first major offensive for the liberation
of Cuba since the Bay of Pigs struck
the sugar mill at Pilon Wednesday, de-
stroying the plant and about a third
of the season's, production of sugar
there. The ultimate showdown with Fi-
del Castro which was apparent two
weeks ago [Editorial,. April 30] is
here.
But.this showdown is to be quite
different from the Bay of Pigs." The
strike against Pilon is the kind of
action to expect; within the next few
weeks there will be many more Pilons:
small guerrilla forces swooping down
from the mountains, touch-and-go. in-
vwsion craft based in Central America,
assisted by spontaneous aid from peas-
ants who no doubt have been trained
by. the underground. The strikes will.
.be made against diverse targets, faster
than Castro can deploy his militiamen.
The sabotage is being directed with-
in Cuba by Manolo Ray, an architect
engineer who directed the anti-Batista
underground at a time when he was
supervising such projects as the con-
struction of the Havana Hilton. Ray's
exact whereabouts are presently un-
known although there is no doubt that
be has been in Cuba for at least three
weeks. Last Tuesday Ray's position as
exile chief in Miami was assumed by
Rogelio Cisnoros:..Ray is no longer in,
exile.
At no tithe have the prospects for
the overthrow of Castro been more
favorable. The .Soviet troops have been
withdrawn, and the Cuban population
is seething. Clothes, food, and medi-
cine have all but disappeared. In IIa-
vana,' water supplies are cut off eight
hours . a clay, and electricity it ra-
t foiled. Refugees arrive daily in Miami
to escape, the forced-labor draft, and
they toll of churches packed daily to
overflowing? to flout the atheistic re-
gime.
Last week Castro executed two
army captains who allowed their regi-.
mcnt:s to desert to the freedom fight-
ers in the hills. And Raul Castro has
not been seen. since he announced the
draft last November. Rumorsays that
he was killed out of revenge, when he'
had his-top-communist brother-in-law
Rivero Pupo liquidated. Castro floats
along supported only. by the scum
which he dredged up from the depths
of society.
And who sanctions the exile at-
tacks? Who supplies the arms and am-
munition, which are supposedly of the
finest? Who supports the wives and
children of the Commandoes? Few ob-
servers imagine that it is anyone but
the government of the United States,
of course. Plan Omega is by all in-
dications a CIA operation, organized
jointly with the State Department.
For two weeks U. S. spokesmen have
been preparing the alibi. Secretary
Rusk, Undersecretary Ball, Undersec-
retary Harriman, .. Undersecretary
Mann have all been demanding a re-
newal of economic blockade of Cuba.
They have emphasized the strength of
Castro and the impossibility of in
vasion, and have warned the Cuban
exiles that no raids will be counte-
nanced from U. S. territory. The Voice]
of America emphatically repeated it'
all after the attack 'on Pilon. And yes- ?,
terday, the U. S. Department of Com-'
merce, for no reason at all, suddenly
decided it wanted a close accounting of`
all drugs and medicines shipped: to-,
Cuba.
It is almost a certainty that no }
Americans. will appear, in the exile.;
raids, and no expeditions will leave
from American territory. The U. S.
wants to be dissociated officially with
the, plan, probably to avoid embarrass i+
ing the Soviet Union. The Cuban ex-
iles, for their part, will want to con-
trol, as much of their own' destiny as
they can; with all gratitude, they will
never fully' trust the U. S. again. Nov-.
ertheless Americans will be relieved
that their government is doing some-
thing at last. Not only has Castro been,
a subversive force in the Caribbean,
but. our toleration of his regime has
been a moral error ~ sapping the
strength of our foreign policy. With
Plan Omega, -the fted star over ' Cuba
begins to decline.
Sanitized -Approved or Release: 018-4