Cmidte. Ernesto Casillas Palenzuela. Cmdte. Belarmino Castilla Mas.

Cmdte. Angel Joel Chaveco Hernández. Cmdte. Manuel Díaz Gonzáles

APPENDIX V

VENEZUELA

Havana in Spanish to the Americas March 11, 1967-E

(Feature: "Havana Cuba radio comments.")

(Excerpts) The Venezuelan press and Yankee news agencies have unleashed a scandalous press campaign around the execution of Julio Iribarren Borges aimed at creating an atmosphere of hysteria throughout the American Continent and blaming it on the Cuban revolution. The campaign, replete with intrigue and slander against Cuba, has used as a point of departure the statements made in Havana by Venezuelan revolutionary leader Elias Manuit Camero, who is president of the national leadership of the Venezuelan National Liberation Front and its armed forces.

Manuit Camero, whose statements were published by Havana's Granma, the Cuban Communist Party organ, said that the Venezuelan Revolutionary Organization which he heads assumed all responsibility for Julio Iribarren Borges' execution. Manuit Camero also pointed to the link between Iribarren Borges and the Venezuelan dictatorship. Leoni's Press has been noisy, though neatly organized, in divulging the statements made by the Venezuelan dictatorship which is trying to link the Cuban revolutionary government with the events in Caracas.

The Venezuelan regime is trying to label Iribarren Borges' death a "political crime." The Venezuelan Regime's Press points out that Iribarren Borges had served as a technical official, scarcely involved in Venezuelan politics. However, it is true that Julio Iribarren Borges had close connections with the shady general police administration (digepol). Iribarren Borges' accounts and reports were useful to Leoni's repressive forces in murdering countless workers. As director of social security, Iribarren Borges was intimately linked with labor and was able to supply the government with data, making possible the Digepol's repressive action against them. (Passage omitted.)

Venezuela, its regime, and its press for a long time have been involved in the deplorable task of serving yankee imperialism and the American Continent's native obligarchies. Its main objective is to create difficulties for the Cuban revolution. If we look at the statements made by Venezuelan officials and the articles appearing in the subsidized press, we can see that every single incident occurring in Venezuela-which are really a product of the intensive revolutionary struggle which jolts the very foundation of the dominant obligarchy in the country is being used to establish a close link with the Cuban revolution.

The failures of this sort of campaign are of public knowledge. The Cuban revolution is here, firm and vigorous, it has come to stay. The people are well acquainted with the background of farcical maneuvering. The people, whom we address, are aware of something that is much more important. They know that they carry within themselves the force which today gives thrust to the revolution in Latin America. For many years they have kept count of their martyrs murdered by the Digepol. Imperialism trains these murderers to operate throughout the continent. The people are only too well acquainted with the repressive forces' terror tactics practiced on them in some cases for over a generation. Day after day they have watched their wealth shipped out of the country while their children and they starve to death. Hence, they have decided to take up weapons to change the state of affairs and penalize those who up to now believe themselves to be all powerful.

[Prepared by USIA Special Projects Office, 1518 Federal Office Building, Miami, Fla. 33130]

MAY 25, 1967.

UPDATE ON CUBA No. 3-THE POLITICAL SCENE

Castro Defiant After Being Caught Red-Handed in Venezuela

The capture in Venezuela of Cuban army officers, while infiltrating the country, announced in Caracas on May 12, appeared to have jolted the Castro regime.