ALLEGED DELIVERY OF WEAPONS FROM CUBA TO VARIOUS LATIN AMERICAN INSURGENT GROUPS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP79T00429A000400040023-7
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 12, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 14, 2002
• Sequence Number: 23
• Publication Date: March 1, 1963
• Content Type: MFR

Approved For Release /p Ir CIA-RDP79T00429A000400040023-7
DRAFT 1 March 1963
MEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD
SUBJECT: ,Delivery of Weapons from Cuba to Various Latin American
nsurgent Group Alleged
1. This memorandum is to attempt to put into context the
current rash of reports alleing the delivery from Cuba of sig-
nificant quantities of weapons to various Latin insurgent groups
under either Soviet or Cuban direction. This staff believes that
all such reports thus far received are probably false and that they
will probably continue to be false.
2. Insurgent groups do not require bulk logistic support.
Insurgent groups in theory and in practice procure weapons locally
through either commercial channels or, more usually, from the forces
of the government which they oppose. This has been true in Laos,
in Vietnam, in Colombia, in Algeria, in Ireland and almost anywhere
else in the world. It was largely true in the American Revolution
and in the Indian Wars. The reasons are simple in the extreme--
it is a cheap, effective, and convenient procedure. This is true
enough in a highly developed country. It is even more true in an
Approved For Release 2002/01 79T00429A000400040023-7
 Approved For Release 20Q*ItI : clA-RDP79T00429A000400040023-7
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underdeveloped country where explosives are more conveniently 2/
used in construction and in agriculture and where hunting is more
common. The normal procedure is to take the desired weapons,
first from the individual policeman or soldier, and later from
the group of police or soldiers,.c
3. These procedures are explicit in Cuban taught doctrine
and exercises for Latin American guerilla trainees. In Cuba,
,, n l9 la students are trained with US weapons
-Argentine Army was until recently equipped
with German weapons and, consequently, trainees from Argentina
are trained with German madeveapons. Cuban published handbooks
for guerilla operations, like those of Southeast Asia emphasis the
Mao thesis of the guerilla being a fish which must live in the
water of the civil populace. Bulk deliveries of monitions from
Bloc countries via whatever intermediaries do not fit into such
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