14 April 1962 – KGB Chairman Semichastnyy’s report to the TsK KPSS on Valdez’s statements regarding Cuban support to the revolutionary movement in Latin America
Top Secret
14 April 1962 TsK KPSS
In addition to the previously briefed information (No. 796-S, dated 4 April 1962), I am reporting on the statements of the Cuban Minister of Internal Affairs Ramiro VALDEZ in his discussion with members of the KGB in Havana on the issue of training partisan groups on Cuban territory in order to establish a partisan movement in Latin American countries.
VALDEZ stated that Cuban friends have decided at this stage “to everything themselves,” possible errors due to inexperience notwithstanding. Later, when the matter takes a serious turn, and a position is identified in a given Latin American country and more serious assistance is needed, the Integrated Revolutionary Organizations (ORO) will keep the TsK KPSS informed.
VALDEZ further reported that, at Fidel CASTRO’s instruction, the training of partisan groups in Cuba is the concern of the secretariat of the ORO, each member of which has his own clearly defined tasks, and that consequently, he would be unable to inform the KGB representative of the work being carried out.
According to VALDEZ, F. CASTRO decided that, in order to safeguard secrecy, the training of partisan groups is implicitly entrusted to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and specifically to VALDEZ and to his two deputies, PINEIRO and ABRANTES. Up to a point, said VALDEZ, we took note of the suggestion from Soviet intelligence that the work in general will be supervised by the party, while the practical execution of specific tasks will be assigned to the intelligence service, since it boasts the capabilities necessary to fulfill them.
At the end of the discussion, VALDEZ touched on the challenges of peaceful coexistence. He said that the Cuban friends agree with the principles of peaceful coexistence; however, they believe that this does not mean that they should not give assistance to the national liberation movement and, above all, to their own Latin American brothers. “We have no intention of unleashing either a local or, moreover, a world war. For us this is most dangerous, since we are here – within spitting distance of imperialism, but we must help friendly nations,” VALDEZ asserted.
The KGB representative reports that, over the past three months, the primary attention of the leadership of the MVD intelligence directorate has been concentrated on training partisan groups arriving in Cuba from Venezuela, Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru, Paraguay, Panama, Honduras, Nicaragua, and other Latin American countries, and their return to these countries. Information on the numbers of trained partisans, the training program, and those who have completed the training is kept secret by the Cubans. Partisan training is conducted in quite a rush (3-5 days). Fidel CASTRO exercises overall supervision of the training, and personally briefs MVD leaders on these issues. The primary attention of the rezidentura of Cuban intelligence in the Latin American countries is currently concentrated on the execution of assignments to establish the partisan movement; therefore, efforts to recruit human intelligence assets for the purpose of obtaining information and carrying out active measures are scaling down.
CHAIRMAN, COMMITTEE FOR STATE SECURITY
V. SEMICHASTNYY
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