CUBA

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 00132755
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 28, 2022
• Document Release Date: January 31, 2017
• Case Number: F-2015-02757
• Publication Date: February 23, 1961

Approved for Release: 2017/01/24 C00132755
CURRENT INTELLIGENCE WEEKLY REVIEW
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CIA HISTORICAL REVIEW PROGRAM
RELEASE AS SANITIZED
1997
CUBA
High Cuban officials have
on severalreeentl:occasions pub-
licly expressed willingness to
resume "normal" relations with
the United Stated, although
these statements clearly imply
prior acceptance by the United
States of Cuba's ties with the
bloc. The controlled press and
radio contrast Cuba's "concilia-
tory gestures" with what they
interpret as increasing signs
of US intransigence.
The Castro regime is, court-
ing the newly inaugurated Quadros
administration in Brazil, but
there are indications that
Quadros thus far prefers a neu-
tral position and that the Bra-
zilian military would strongly
oppose close ties with Cuba.
Cuban media have lauded Quadros
for his "indppendence" of the
US, and Fidel Castro on 16 Feb-
ruary spent several hours with
the departing Brazilian ambas-
sador, Vasco Leitao da Cunha--
"23 Feb 61
the first time in over a year
he is known to have talked alone
with a Western diplomat. The
ambassador, who left later the
same day to assume :the second
most influential post in Brazil's
Foreign Ministry, told the
Brazilian press on his return
home that "Fidel Castro empha-
sized to me that Cuba cannot
withdraw from the American com-
munity" and that Castro expects
President Quadros to visit Cuba
shortly.
Leitao da Chnha was one of
the more knowledgeable diplo-
mats during his nearly three
years in Havana, and it is doubt-
ful that he succumbed to Castro's !
blandishments: his private re-
port to high Brazilian officials
will probably be pessimistic
concerning Cuban developments.
Quadros, who visited Cuba last
year as a presidential candidate,
is not known to have expressed
an intention to return.
WEEKLY REVIEW
23 Feb 61 SPECIAL ARTICLES
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CURRENT INTELLIGENCE WEEKLY REVIEW
Other Brazilian offiCials
are known to be pessimistic on
the prospects of mediating US-
Cuban differences. The first
secretary of the Brazilian Em-
bassv in Havana
] expressea
Ine pellet txiaC Lhe Guevara's
22 January speech had implied
that Cuba no longer belongs to
the Western world and, in effect,
linked any settlement of US- �
Cuban differences
East-West A
Ecuador's attempts to pro-
mote an inter-American effort
to "conciliate US-Cuban differ-
ences" appear to have met with
little favorable response. The
Castro's.regithe!s,;enthusiastic
endorsement: 60 .E.uador4v:effort7
was apparently
urisIgneo to encourage any Latin
American move that could be
used to demonstrate "US intrans-
igence." Castro's recent threat
to support antigovernment groups
in other Latin American coun-
tries--in retaliation for US aid
to Cuban refugees--has led to
bitter anti-Castro reactions
23 Feb 61
23 Feb 61
elsewhere in the hemisphere and
serves to undercut Cuban efforts
to appear desirous of maintaining
normal relations with other hem-
isphere countries.
Cuba's recognitionof the
Gizenga regime in the Congo on
16 February was accompanied by
propaganda blasts at the United
States, as well as at the UN
and Belgium, equaled in virul-
ence only by Communist China's.
Inside Cuba, government
forces continue to. try to
liquidate anti-Castro guerrilla
forces in the Escambray Moun-
tains of Las Villas Province,
but there is still no indication
that the operations are nearing
success. It has been over six
months since the government
initiated this effort and nearly
two months since it. announced
the launching of a J'malor of-
fensive."_
the Castro forces
have succeeded during the past
week in capturing several air-
drops of arms and supplies in-
tended for the guerrillas. .
'ATthough-large'-scale land-
ing. in Oriente-Rrovince':bYr
anti-Castro'groups-have been-re-'t
ported in the US Dress'.
no reference_to them.
-- con-
*-----
tinuing ac.s or sabotage in
Oriente as well as other prov-
inces.
WEEKLY REVIEW
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