THE CIA FINDS A PUBLISHER

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00001R000100050013-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 1, 1998
• Sequence Number: 13
• Publication Date: November 30, 1968
• Content Type: NSPR

--`{;f'YRGHT
adi59 Approved For Release :
CPYRGHT Rcimp;arts
30 November 1968
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ti how the cIa had taken over command
of the search for Cho and hip ruerrrillas
since first pinpointing him in Bolivia in
February 1967, and how agents Felix
Ramos and Eduardo Gonzalez had made
several supervisory visits to the guerrilla
zone as the net drew tighter.
Miss Ray's article was widely criti-
cized when it first appeared, but subse-
quent events suggest that if anything,
she underestiroated the extant of the
vq~
we., A4
. Li. "V 1 0P-&-t-
eA t
C 04
cIA s vendetta against ..he and the scope
of its subversion in Bolivia. Dramatic
confirmation of her thesis came in July
after RAMP'Aa'rs and Bantam Books pub-
lished Chi's diaries, having obtained
rights from, Che's widow, Aleida March
do Guevara, and from the Cuban gov-
ernment. In the middy, of the month,
Antonio Arguedas, Bolivia's minister o:
the interior and a close personal friend
of President Reno Barientos, suddenly
disappeared from La Paz. He turned up
at l:cuique, Chile, a week later on July
19, and revealed that he had been work-
ing for the cu since 1964. Arg^aedas
also said that it was he who had sent
a copy of the diaries to Fidel Castro
and that he had been forced to flea
Bolivia because the c.,A had discovered
this act (See ll.. pmm, Nov. 17, 1963].
Mao crA's concern with Che's diaries,
however, began long before any copies
were passed to Arguedas. The moment',
Cho was murdered, Ramos and Con-
xalez began sifting carefully through.
the documents that had been captured.
with the guerrillas, ineludiny messages
sent from the Bolivian jungle to Cuba
and those returned from Castro to Cho.
"hit the ca was not the only one to
make use of tine diaries. The Bolivian
High Command claimed them as spoils
of war, and by order of the generals
they were also given to Andrew St.
George, a Hungarian refugee, now a
journalist. St. George's job was to ped-
dle the diaries to the American publish-
ing industry for the highest price he
.Could get and then split the take with
the generals.
The negotiations were truly bizarre.
With the CIA's encouragement, St.
George and the generals made a tenta-
tive deal with Magnutn, a photograph-
ers' news consortium. Magnum was to.
pay the Bolivians a $125,000 advance,
royalties of 33 per cent on the first
$100,000, 50 per cent on from $100,-
000 to $1 million and 55 per cent on
anything above $1 million. Ti s generals
were hoping that their profit on thu
documents would help recoup the $3
million of U.S. aid money it cost
them to capture Cisc. However, the
original deal which St. George set up
miscairricd when Magnum's French part-
ners decided that they didn't want to
trathc in Clio's remains and persuaded
a majority of the consortium's inemberr
to vote to discontinue negotiations.
Sanitized - Approved For Release : CIA-RDP75-00001 R000100050013-8