104 10061 10053

2025 RELEASE UNDER THE PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY ASSASSINATION RECORDS ACT OF 1992

TO: Chief of Station, Paris

INFO.

FROM: Chief, MB

SUBJECT: Liaison/UNION Report on Antonio RODRIGUES Echanabal

ACTION REQUIRED REFERENCES: REF: DIR 39176, 1 February 1962

  1. As stated in reference, attached for passage to UNION are two copies of a report on Antonio RODRIGUES Ecbasabal, the original of this report was given to UNION/11 on 6 Fobaruary 1962.

  2. The last paragraph of attachment contains our request for the results of the debriefing of Subject.

Attachments: Report (2 es u.s.c.)

Distribution: 3 - Paris

MORIDER F. BINGHAM

2- WE/3 w/att 1 - RI w/att

DATE TYPED: 7 1962 DATE D: 12 DISPATCH SYMBOL AND NUMBER: 8776-38716 HEADQUARTERS FILE NUMBER: 201-244916 CROSS REFERENCE TO

CLASSIFICATION: SECRET

OFFICE: WE/3 OFFICER: Anne Silbert ORIGINATING TYPIST: nes COORDINATING OFFICER'S NAME: OFFICE SYMBOL: DATE

5 Fev.uary 1962.

MEMORANDUM FOR: M. de Vosjell SUBJECT: Report on Antonio RODRIGUEZ Echasabal

Antonio RODRIGUEZ Echazabal was born in Cuba on 17 August 1913. He has a master's degree in agriculture, professedly has no religion but is a Mason. RODRIGUEZ is married to Edith JONES, who was born in Cuba on 10 March 1917; she is, however, of Haitian origin, being the daughter of a former Haitian Ambassador to Belgium, and she is a devout Episcopalian. The couple is known to have three children: a son who was last reported to be in Havana, Cuba; a daughter married to a man of German birth who was employed in the Castro land-reform organization until his departure for Germany in December 1961; and a son, Antonio RODRIGUEZ Jones, bora 24 August 1943 at Havana, who was studying at the Ecole Francaise Internationale in Washington, D. C. in 1961. This son has been reported to be anti-U.S. and to have requested permission of his father to go to Cuba or to another "socialist" country to continue his education.

Antonio RODRIGUEZ Jones resided in Washington, D. C. with Yvonne JONES, his aunt and sister of the wife of Antonio RODRIGUEZ Echasabal. Miss JONES was born 10 April 1910 at Antwerp, Belgium; she was unmarri and was a secretary at the Pan American Health Organization. She became a U.8. citizen in 1959. Since the Castro zegime has come to power, Miss JONES is said to have spoken quite openly for Castro and against the U.S. Government.

RODRIGUEZ lived in Haiti for about eighteen years prior to the commencement of his diplomatic career, having been barred by the Batists: government from returning to Cuba. He became a Haitian citizen and was the owner of a Port-au-Prince meat market called "El Ose Blanco". Wher Castro assumed power in Cuba, RODRIGUEZ took over the Cuban Embassy in Port-au-Prince in January 1959 after the Batista-appointed officials had fled to the Dominican Republic. Soon thereafter he was named Ambassado to Haiti.

Following his appointment to the diplomatic post, RODRIGUEZ continu to maintain contact with persons in opposition to President Duvalier of Hal: Citizen of Cuba

In late July 1959, Haiti was invaded by a small group of Cubans, supposedly as a prelude to an invasion of the neighboring Dominican Republic. The incursion was successfully repelled by the Haitian Government, which publicly charged RODRIGUEZ with complicity in the raid. RODRIGUEZ ther closed the Cuban Embassy and returned to Cuba after selling his private property in Haiti.

While RODRIGUEZ was still in Haiti, two attempts were made on his life. He accused the Trujillo regime in the Dominican Republic and, indirectly, the Haitian Government of complicity in those attacks.

In November 1959, RODRIGUEZ went to Guatemala as Cuban Ambassado There, he appears to have associated freely with pro-Communist groups. I March 1960, he was requested by the Guatemalan Goverament to leave the country on the ground that he was engaging in activities laimical to the best interests of Guatemala.

In November 1960, RODRIGUEZ reported to Karachi, Pakistan, as Cuba Ambassador. His wife accompanied him there and served as his chief secretary. During the initial months of his tour there, his closest relation in the diplomatic colony were with officials of the Belgian Embassy, presumably as a result of the fact that Belgium had represented Cuba when there was no Cuban representative in Karachi. During 1961, however, his social contacts were almost exclusively with Soviet, satellite and Chinese Communist diplomatic personnel.

In late 1961, when RODRIGUEZ apparently had decided to defect, he confided to an acquaintance in the diplomatic colony that he was finished with politics and wanted to devote the rest of his life to agriculture. He he at the time to go to the Dominican Republic or to another, unspecified Souti American nation. At the time of his departure from Karachi by air for Germany in early 1962, RODRIGUEZ reportedly made only a very limited statement at the airport regarding his defection. The event apparently received very little, if any, press notice in Pakistan.

Insufficient information exists at present to permit a determination as the genuineness of RODRIGUEZ', disaffection with the Castro regime. Fo reasons which have not as yet been fully reported, the Department of State denied a visa to RODRIGUEZ, apparently after he had made the decision te resign his post in Pakistan. We understand, however, that, following his Citizen of Cuba

arrival in France in January 1962, he received permission from French authorities to travel to and reside in Martinique. It appears that he left France on 31 January 1962 en route to Martinique.

This service would appreciate having the results of any dobriefing of RODRIGUEZ by French authorities, with particular reference to the reasons for his resignation and his plans for the future.