176 10036 10058

176-10036-10058 2025 RELEASE UNDER THE PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY ASSASSINATION RECORDS ACT OF 1992

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AGENCY: NARA RECORD NUMBER: 176-10036-10058 RECORD SERIES: National Security Files AGENCY FILE NUMBER :

ORIGINATOR : CIA FROM : TO: Director, CIA TITLE: Activities of Cuban Trained Peruvian Guerrillas DATE: 4/11/1963 PAGES: 5 SUBJECTS: DOCUMENT TYPE : CLASSIFICATION : RESTRICTIONS : CURRENT STATUS : DATE OF LAST REVIEW : 9/10/2000 OPENING CRITERIA : COMMENTS: National Security Files, Box 51: Cuba, Subjects intelligence material 6/63-7/63. Box 1

Janitized NLK 09795 (SECRET

EYES ONLY CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY WASHINGTON 25, D. C.

11 April 1963 MEMORANDUM FOR: The Director of Central Intelligence SUBJECT: Activities of Cuban-Trained Peruvian Guerrillas

  1. The information in this memorandum comes from an extremely sensitive source who is currently a member of a group of Cuban-trained Peruvian guerrillas. No other dissemination has been made of the re- ports he has provided, in order to protect him and to insure that a channel is kept open to him. The information is being forwarded in this restricted manner at this time to furnish an insight into the extent of Cuban efforts to assist Latin American revolutionary move- ments. The Agency directed asset is working inside a network which is now assisting Cuban-trained Latin Americans to re-enter their own countries illegally, and to join with leftist revolutionary groups to overthrow the established governments.

  2. The Agency asset was a member of a group of more than 70 Peruvians trained in Cuba from June until December 1962. His contingent traveled in small groups by way of Mexico. He received his first special assignment when he was appointed to stay behind in Mexico temporarily and to act as a clandestine contact with a Cuban Embassy official there. The Cuban gave him instructions and funds, and he directed the later groups which transited Mexico.

  3. The Peruvian group was ostensibly in Cuba only to attend the July 26 celebrations. According to our agent, some of the members them- selves did not know in advance they were to be given training. The Cubans set the Peruvians up as self-contained units in secret train- ing sites in Habana, where they were given political indoctrination and weapons. Later they were moved to rural hill areas for guerrilla training. The agent has described in detail these secret training sites, giving address of the houses and the locations of the guer- rilla areas.

  4. The agent was removed from his group for several weeks to undergo special training in secret communications techniques, in preparation for his current assignment.

  5. At present, the agent acts as coordinator, helping the Peruvians to return illegally to Peru. He is in correspondence with SECRET

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2 persons in numerous points of entry in Latin America and with contacts in several European capitals who assist the group on their clandestine return. Although many left Peru openly on valid papers, they are coming back illegally. Some have false documentation from other countries, primarily from Colombia; some have Peruvian passports issued in the names of persons now deceased; some are crossing the borders from neighboring countries clandestinely without showing any papers; and some go by small boats to isolated areas.

  1. The agent is a member of the Movimiento Izquierda Revolu- cionario (MIR) of Peru which now plans to join with other leftist revolutionary groups to bring about a coup before the elections scheduled for June 1963. The agent knows of some 200 Peruvians who have received Cuban training, only a small percentage of whom are actually Communist Party members.

  2. Approximately 300 persons have been named by the agent as being connected with the ring helping the Peruvians to reinfiltrate secretly. Attempts are being made to learn whether some of these, particularly those used as "Co-ordinators" or "Correspondence points" in Europe and the United States, are also connected with the illegal return of Cuban-trained guerrillas to other countries.

  3. Paris has emerged as the center of the network. Groups of ten arrive weekly from Cuba to be sent on to various Latin American countries for eventual re-entry into Peru. The man in charge of the Peruvians is headquartered in Paris. From there, he has been direct- ing the travel, sending instructions to his scattered subordinates, and receiving reports and information from contacts throughout the world, and handling funds.

  4. Correspondence between members of the group is by cable and by letter. The security of communications is protected by several alternate systems of code and secret writing. Each of the trainees has been assigned a number, and letter and number designations are given to hotels and pensions. In cable correspondence, the ring uses these numbers to indicate which persons are traveling and where they may be reached. The content of the messages appears to relate to business matters, covering shipment dates and invoice numbers for example. Letter correspondence contains secret writing with relatively sophisticated systems, interspaced between lines of innocuous friendly or business letters. A dictionary is used for coded mes- sages in either cables or letters, with page and word number refer- ring to clandestine key words. SECRET

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  1. The ring takes great precautions to prevent tracing of the addressees. One of the important links is a woman whose Paris home has entrances on two different streets. She and her husband use the principal street address for their normal lives, but the back street address for the receipt of clandestine correspondence.

  2. In this Cuban-sponsored subversive operation, routes of travel are planned to escape easy detection of the fact that a person has left his home, been trained, and returned to his country. Most of the travel has been by way of Mexico and thence to Cuba, since it was possible to escape detection of the travel. The Cubans issued loose leaf inserts for the travelers' passports, rather than stamping a record of the travel in the document itself. The Mexican Government has recently begun measures to control this travel, but a large number have managed to enter and leave Cuba for Mexico without detection. Some of the travel to Cuba is by way of the Dutch and British West Indies.

  3. Many of the returning trainees go through Paris and Prague. From Paris, the travelers fan out to a number of different Latin American countries, from which they attempt clandestine re-entry into Peru. Ecuador, Colombia and Brazil have been used extensively as Latin American entry points as the travelers leave Paris.

  4. The agent reports that money for this extensive travel program has been deposited in Swiss banks by the Chinese Communists, via Cuba. MIR trainees were told not to ask for aid from the Soviets to avoid straining relations with China, "since it is backing them". Our asset was responsible for the safekeeping of approximately $15,000 when he arrived in Paris. The money had been parceled out among a number of trainees during the trip, and they handed it to the Paris coordinator there. Our asset was given $1,000 when he left Paris, which he was to use for documentation when he was ready to re-enter Peru. He reported that the cost of the travel of his group from Peru to Cuba was approximately $25,000, and that this money was brought to a local leader from Paris by courier before the trip.

The MIR plans to establish a cover importing company repre- senting a French firm which exports cheap agricultural equipment. The branch in Peru will serve as a cover for activities involving the travel of MIR members and the transfer of funds. It will also be a clearing house for information and instructions. When the current group of trainees is back in Peru, another group will be sent out, and funded through the cover firm. The agent reports that SECRET

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the next group will number approximately 100 men and that they will receive instructions in Algeria, North Vietnam, Laos, and China. The top leader of the Peruvian group has told his lieutenants that he will soon go to Algeria to start arrangements for this training.

  1. The MIR has planned four fronts in Peru in its proposed revolution. One is in the south with headquarters in Cusco, another is in the central region in the Sierra, a third is in Lima, and the fourth is in northern Peru. The agent has named the leaders in charge of each of the four fronts.

  2. Our asset makes frequent reference to internal disputes in the MIR between the old line Communists and those referred to as Trotskyites. The MIR leaders in Cuba felt that some of their own groups had joined with the Trotskyites and they discussed this problem with Fidel Castro. Castro promised not to let the so-called Trotsky- ites return to Peru until the others were already in place and in command of the several fronts. Some of the avowed Trotskyites were among the first to be sent back, however, and the MIR leaders are highly incensed. The leaders fear that the Trotskyites will endanger the movement, and they have been especially disturbed to find that two Cuban officers, who are known to be Trotskyites, had accompanied them from Cuba.

  3. The Agency asset had first estimated that it would take at least two months for all of the Peruvians to return. The re-entry program had fallen approximately a month behind schedule because of unexpected problems of transferring funds and obtaining documents. Moreover, a Communist group in one of the neighboring countries which was to help them began to charge exorbitant amounts for its assistance. The Peruvians were obliged to wait until additional money was brought to them by courier.

  4. The agent also estimated that at least another month or two would be required to complete plans for the revolution after all of the trainees were back. The leaders of the trainees complained that the MIR had not made adequate plans to receive the groups and had not developed its revolutionary plans soundly.

  5. Recently, however, the operation has been increasing in tempo. The leaders of the MIR have been putting additional pressures on our asset and on others in the chain to speed up re-entry. A number of the trainees have spread out to small neighboring towns, ready to cross the border into Peru clandestinely. False documenta- tion of these nearby countries is also being procured to assist others to cross into Peru "legally." SECRET