CUBAN SUBVERSION IN OTHER LATIN AMERICAN COUNTRIES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP79T00428A000200020045-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 29, 2004
• Sequence Number: 45
• Publication Date: October 4, 1962
• Content Type: MEMO

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OCI No. 3399/62
4 October 1962
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
MEMORANDUM: Cuban Subversion In Other Latin
American Countries
General summary
1, The Castro regime denies that material
support is being given any anti-regime group
outside Cuba. Castro claims that such assistance
is unnecessary since the people of these countries,
thanks to Cuba's example,: are becoming aware of
their revolutionary potential. The publicly stated
position of the Cuban leaders is that their country,
"the first socialist state in America," has become
the example, the "beacon". In fact, however, Cuba's
moral. and material support to Communist and Commu-
nist-influenced groups has been felt in varying
degrees in every one of the 19 other Latin American
republics, The Castro regime has become an effec-
tive instrument of the Sino-Soviet effort to weaken
and eventually destroy democratic political insti-
tutions in Latin America.
2, Cuban subversion has become more subtle
since 1959, when a Cuban-mounted expeditionary
force was launched against the Dominican Republic
and smaller "invasion forces" left Cuba for abor-
tive attacks on the governments of Panama,: Nicaragua,
and Haiti, Now Cuban subversive efforts generally
fall in three categories
a, the indoctrination and training of
hundreds of Latin Americans in Cuba;
b. the intensive propaganda beamed at
Latin America by Cuban radio stations and circulated
through printed material and the Cuban-subsidized
international "news" agency; and
c. the covert material support given
subversive groups in other countries * DOCUMENT No.
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II, Cuban subversive programs
A, , Training of Latin Americans in Cuba `4'
3, Fidel Castro announced on 9 June 1961
that his government would grant 1.000 scholarships
to "poor students" from other Latin American count-
ries for the next school term and 100 scholarships
to students from other countries of the world.
Hundreds of young Latin Americans have been subject-
ed to Communist indoctrination, In addition to
whatever formal training they receive in Cuba, many
of them receive training in guerrilla warfare and
other techniques of revolution.
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5, Much of the travel of Latin American
students to Cuba for training and indoctrination
is handled by the Instituto Cubano de Amistad
con los Pueblos (ICAP - Cuban Institute for Friend-
ship with Peoples).
S a. Cuba is also a major takeoff point for
Latin Americans traveling to and from the Sino?
Soviet bloc, Over 400 Latin Americans returned
from last July's Communist-sponsored Youth Festival
in Helsinki aboard a Soviet passenger vessel with
the 400-man Cuban delegation, They disembarked in
Havana and stayed in Cuba some weeks before some
of them began returning to their home countries.
Others may well be remaining in Cuba for some time.
B.
Cuban propaganda:
7. International broadcasts by Cuban radio
stations maintains relatively constant propaganda
level at all times, with regularly scheduled and
special broadcasts to specific countries as well
as general transmissions to all of Latin America.
The general theme of all these broadcasts is that
"the Cuban example" is awakening the "people" of
Latin America to the opportunity for revolutionary
action against the "corrupt" regimes in power and
against "Yankee imperialism" which allegedly supports
them
8, There are regular programs beamed by
Havana radio to Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic,
Guatemala, Peru, and Hond.ura s , They are all sub-
versive in content and frequently incite to rebel-
lion. These programs to specific countries are
apparently directed and produced with the guidance
of exiles from the countries concerned resident in
Cuba
9, The program to the Dominican Republic,
for instance, is announced as the program of the
Dominican Liberation Movement (MLD), and the program
is entitled Patria Libre, At present, Radio Havana
beams the 20minut'e is Libre program to the
Dominican Republic on s aT ys and Saturdays.
Just prior to the program, the Radio Havana announcer
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explains that the station is making its facilities
available to the MLD for its program. There are
some areas in the Dominican Republic where, due to
the absence of local radio stations, the Cuban
broadcasts are the only ones heard. Last July, the
subversive content of these broadcasts to the
Dominican Republic led the Dominican government to
protest to the Organization of American States.
10. The content of such broadcasts is exemplified
in the stated goals of the "Voice of Revolutionary
Nicaragua," the program which is regularly beamed
by Radio Havana to Nicaragua. On 31 August this
program celebrated its first anniversary by repeat-
ing its original statement of its purposes:
"The Voice of Revolutionary Nicaragua has
set itself the goal of contributing to
pointing out the real way to Nicaragua's
liberation from the dominion of Yankee
imperialism and the Somoza tyranny.
Elections (scheduled for next February
to choose President Somoza's successor)
with the Somozas in power, and under the
State Department's economic and political
control of Nicaragua, will be a farce.
Without ...a prior revolutionary overthrow
of the Somoza tyranny there can be no
free elections in Nicaragua i1or can a
popular government be established. This
program will be at the service of the
revolutionaries and against the electioneers
...The Voice of Revolutionary Nicaragua
will defend the Cuban revolution because
it is an important part of the Latin
American people?s liberating revolution"
11. Cuban propaganda is also disseminated
through the offices of Prensa Latina, the Cuban-
subsidized internat*ona news agency"" which has
close working relations with TASS, the New China
News Agency, and other propaganda media for the
Sino-Soviet bloc.
12. Cuban printed material is circulated
throughout the hemisphere; Che Guevara's book on
guerrilla warfare has received wide distribution.
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o Ca1h an covert support for subversive groups
1.;A Cuban covert support for Communist or pro-
Communist groups in other Latin American countries
is provided in a number of ways, In the five Latin
American countries; whe e Cuban diplomatic missions
are still resident; (Mexico, Brazil, Uruguay, Chile,
and Bolivia), these missions have often been the
to o'er instances,
assistance is provided through travelers coming
from Cuba and through Pronsa Latina representatives.
14. The assistance is usually financial. The
Cubans appear to have been careful since 1959 to
avoid being caught in a blatant act of subversion
that could be used to justify concerted inter-Amer-
ican action. Financial assistance is often just as
useful and much loss risky than actual weapons
deliveries, In a number of American countries,
small arms and other weapons are available for a
price. Unscrupulous or careless arms dealers in
the US have also contributed to the arms traffic
from which pro-Castro groups have benefitted,
directly or indirectly,
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