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

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FROM: Mexico City

REPORT MADE BY: Dolores R. CASSAVETIS

REPORT APPROVED BY: Willard C. CURTIS

DATE OF REPORT: 15 December 1960

DISTRIBUTION: * 1-Headquarters * 1-EMB, PAO, NA, NA, AA, INS * 1-LA * 3-Files

Orally to: JIPUCK

SOURCE CRYPTONYM: LIFEAT

SUBJECT: Jose Xavier CORTES Hernandez

REPORT NO: 171-5348

NO PAGES: 1

NO. ENCLOSURES:

REFERENCES: 11-M-5321

Headquarters File No. 201

Field File No. P-7035

ID NO: KRYPTON: ☐ YES ☐ NO IG NO:

SOURCE, OPERATIONAL DATA, AND COMMENTS:

COMMENTS: Father Manuel PEREZ Alondo, Jesuit and contact of COS, was the source of field comment no. 2. According to Father PEREZ Alonso, CORTES was never a priest but had been a seminarian. Father PEREZ Alonso has been conferring with Archbishop Miguel Dario Miranda, Primate of Mexico, regarding CORTES Hernandez and possible actions against him.

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FIELD INFORMATION REPORT¶

EVALUATION OF SOURCE: APPRAISAL OF CONTENT:

COUNTRY: Mexico/Cuba

SUBJECT: Jose Xavier CORTES Hernandez

DATE OF REPORT: 16 December 1960

NUMBER OF PAGES: 1

REFERENCES: 17-21-5321

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REPORT NO: 10-01-5348

DATE OF INFO: 8 December 1960 PLACE AND DATE ACQ: Mexico, Mexico City (8 December 1960)

SOURCE EVALUATIONS ARE DEFINITIVE. APPRAISAL OF CONTENT IS TENTATIVE. NOTE FOREGOING EXPLANATION

SOURCE: Person with good connections in the Cuban Embassy (B). Appraisal of Content: 2

On 8 December 1960 Jose Xavier CORTES Hernandez, who represents himself as a priest told Jose Antonio PORTUONDO Valdor, Cuban Ambassador to Mexico, that he had information that "the thing they were working on" had gotten underway and had produced a tremendous reaction in Cuba. He said that a friend, who is Roman Catholic but very liberal, had returned from a visit to Cuba, where he said the Knights of Columbus were pretty well entrenched. For this reason, CORTES said he felt it would be necessary to "take the bull by the horns" and begin things or the Knights of Columbus would gain the advantage.
PORTUONDO said that the bombing of the church of Father BOZA in Cuba had definitely been an act of "auto-agression" and was clumsily done. He said a red flag with hammer and sickle was found in the debris. PORTUONDO told CORTES that Carlos OLIVARES, Under-secretary of Foreign Affairs, had not said anything, but, since he, PORTUONDO, was going to Cuba at the end of December, he believed that OLIVARES would wait until his visit.
CORTES said that he would like to go to Cuba and see for himself how things were going.

Field Comments:

According to an untested source in the Roman Catholic Church, CORTES Hernandez was never a priest. It was previously reported that Atisbos, Mexico City newspaper, had reported that CORTES was a Catholic priest and a member of the Jesuit order until 1950 when he left the order because of his "rebellious and anarchic spirit".
It is believed that CORTES Hernandez, who belongs to a schismatic Catholic church, called the Mexican Apostolic Catholic Church, is interested in establishing a schismatic church in Cuba.
Source Comment. PORTUONDO's remark about OLIVARES came after he and CORTES had been discussing German Lence, Castrista priest who has been stopped by episcopal sanction from his ministry in Oriente province.

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Date: 16 Dec 60