The history of the various cuban exile groups

[Jon Banks]

Does anyone have a subscription to the online NYTimes newspaper and could post that article here in this thread for viewing?

Leader of Exile Group Tells of Spying for Cuba

The commander of one of the most militant Cuban exile organizations stunned the anti-Castro movement this week by announcing that he had worked as a spy for Cuba since 1979.

But equally surprising, the man, Francisco Avila Azcuy, also says he has been providing the American Government with information on the Cuba's spy network in the United States and on the activities of various anti-Castro exile groups.

Mr. Avila, who is chief of operations for Alpha 66, a paramilitary group that has organized attacks against Cuba from American shores and that advocates the overthrow of the country's Communist regime, discussed his role as a double agent with a Spanish-language television station in Miami in interviews that are being broadcast this week.

In the interviews, Mr. Avila said that among other things he had organized Alpha 66 attacks on Cuba at the behest of the Cuban Government with money supplied by Cuban intelligence agents and that he was asked to monitor the activities of prominent Cuban exiles in Miami.

He said he had decided to make his role public rather than wait for it to become known if the Castro Government fell. Embarrassment to Castro

Mr. Avila's account, if true, of how Havana created its own enemies to justify its repressive policies is a major embarrassment for the Castro Government. It also tarnishes the image of exile commando groups that portray themselves as the Castro Government's most-feared enemies but who may have been sustained by it.

United States Government agencies have so far refused to confirm or deny the details of Mr. Avila's tale of espionage and betrayal. But the State Department today told a Cuban diplomat who was videotaped by the station while discussing spy missions with Mr. Avila in a Queens restaurant last month that he must leave the country within 48 hours. The tapes are to be broadcast as part of the television station's series.

The Cuban official, Carlos Manuel Collazo Usallan, is assigned to the Cuban Mission to the United Nations in Manhattan, with the nominal rank of third secretary. Richard Boucher, a State Department spokesman, said today that Mr. Collazo was being expelled because of "activities inappropriate to his responsibilities at the United Nations," a phrase typically used to describe espionage.

In six hours of interviews with reporters from WSCV-TV, the Miami affiliate of the Telemundo television network, Mr. Avila said the Cuban Government had given him money to help finance the activities of Alpha 66, including thousands of dollars to buy a boat that was used in attacks on Cuba. Reports Lead to Trial.

As early as January 1981, Mr. Avila said in an interview to be broadcast later this week, he helped organize an Alpha 66 raid on Cuba, with the knowledge and support of Cuban agents. But he said he also informed American officials of the planned attack, and they moved against organizers of the raid before it could be undertaken.

As a result, seven people were convicted of violating provisions of the Neutrality Act that prohibit the organization of attacks on foreign governments from American soil. "Better 18 months in an American prison than to be shot or jailed in Cuba," Mr. Avila said in justifying his reporting the plan.

More recently, Mr. Avila said, Cuban intelligence agents operating under diplomatic cover had asked him to gather information on the personal lives and habits of 40 prominent anti-Castro figures in the United States. He said he had also been asked to gather intelligence on a site in the Florida Keys used by the United States Government to broadcast anti-Castro news and entertainment programs by television to Cuba, perhaps for an attack on the source of the broadcasts.

The broadcast on Monday night of the first report based on interviews with Mr. Avila had immediate repercussions among Cuban exile groups here. His confession that he was a Cuban spy was the main topic on Spanish-language radio stations here, with reporters and panelists arguing that the 40 names were part of an assassination list and wondering how many other spies could still be operating inside exile groups.

Mr. Avila told the television reporters that he came to the United States from Cuba as a teen-ager in the early 1960's, and soon afterwards joined Alpha 66. In 1967, he was sent to Cuba on an infiltration and sabotage mission, but was captured, tried and sentenced to 25 years in prison.

While serving his sentence, Mr. Avila said, he was approached by the D.G.I., the Cuban intelligence agency, and asked to become a spy. He said he readily agreed, to gain his release. "Getting inside them was one way to continue the struggle against them," he said.

Mr. Avila asserts that not long after his return here, he contacted what he described as an "American counterintelligence agency" and was almost immediately put to work as a double agent. The programs' producers said Mr. Avila led them to believe that he was speaking of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, whose responsibilities include monitoring foreign spy activities in the United States. A spokesman for the agency, Bill Carter, declined to comment on Mr. Avila's story.

https://www.nytimes.com/1992/11/11/us/leader-of-exile-group-tells-of-spying-for-cuba.html

[Gerry Down]

Thanks Jon. What a confusing mess these groups were.

[Gerry Down]

The wikipedia pages on the topic of cuban exile groups seem confused.

Take the case of Eloy Gutiérrez Menoyo. This guy was part of the cuban revolution but then became disenchanted when Castro began to turn communistic. Then his wikipedia page reads as follows:

While being on the outside and looking in, Eloy grew dissatisfied with the Castro Administration and in September–October 1959, Eloy and some of his men from the old 1st Version of the Second National Front - which was formed in 1957 as a pro-Castro group - formed the 2nd Version of the Second National Front - which was an anti-Castro group.
SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eloy_Guti%C3%A9rrez_Menoyo

Fair enough. So in Oct 1959 Eloy Gutiérrez Menoyo was now leading an anti-Castro group. However if you then go to the wikipedia page for William Alexander Morgan, it shows a photo which is captioned as March 1960 showing Eloy Gutiérrez Menoyo marching alongside Castro:


SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Alexander_Morgan

So you have Castro (who presumably was pro-Castro himself) marching alongside a leader of an anti-Castro group.

That photo is in commemoration of the La Coube dock explosion which killed 100 people. From the wikipedia page (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Coubre_explosion) there is not any suggestion of any joint effort that would cause Castro to march alongside an anti-Castro leader for example in solidarity with the memory of the deceased. But maybe i'm wrong.

[Steve M. Galbraith]

The wikipedia pages on the topic of cuban exile groups seem confused.

Take the case of Eloy Gutiérrez Menoyo. This guy was part of the cuban revolution but then became disenchanted when Castro began to turn communistic. Then his wikipedia page reads as follows:

While being on the outside and looking in, Eloy grew dissatisfied with the Castro Administration and in September–October 1959, Eloy and some of his men from the old 1st Version of the Second National Front - which was formed in 1957 as a pro-Castro group - formed the 2nd Version of the Second National Front - which was an anti-Castro group.
SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eloy_Guti%C3%A9rrez_Menoyo

Fair enough. So in Oct 1959 Eloy Gutiérrez Menoyo was now leading an anti-Castro group. However if you then go to the wikipedia page for William Alexander Morgan, it shows a photo which is captioned as March 1960 showing Eloy Gutiérrez Menoyo marching alongside Castro:


SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Alexander_Morgan

So you have Castro (who presumably was pro-Castro himself) marching alongside a leader of an anti-Castro group.

That photo is in commemoration of the La Coube dock explosion which killed 100 people. From the wikipedia page (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Coubre_explosion) there is not any suggestion of any joint effort that would cause Castro to march alongside an anti-Castro leader for example in solidarity with the memory of the deceased. But maybe i'm wrong.

Antonio Veciana, who along with Menoyo led Alpha 66, has Menoyo fleeing Cuba in January of 1961 with eleven supporters. Eleven. So, if this was accurate his attempt to form a second front wasn't going too well (although I guess the other supporters couldn't get out with him). I'll guess - again if that's true - that Menoyo was covertly trying to form another group, failing miserably and that Castro wasn't aware of it at the time of the above photo. Castro really did start to crack down on his opponents in late 1960; that was when East German and other Soviet bloc agents were going to Havana to help him. So Menoyo made have seen the proverbial writing on the wall and got out of Dodge. Lot of guessing here.

This excerpt below is from Veciana's book which, admittedly, I have a lot of doubt about.

[Jon Banks]

I personally find it highly plausible that Cuban intelligence agents impersonating Cuban exiles were with Lee Harvey Oswald at certain times in New Orleans, Mexico City, and at Sylvia Odio’s home in 1963.

Former CIA officer, Bob Baer, basically settled on that theory in his History Channel series about Oswald and the Kennedy assassination.

https://time.com/4753349/oswald-kennedy-declassified-documentary/