DONOVAN IS AT WORK ON IT RELEASE HOPES RISE FOR 20 A[ ] HELD IN CUBA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00001R000100370087-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 17, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 21, 1998
• Sequence Number: 87
• Publication Date: February 26, 1963
• Content Type: NSPR

'EB.2 6 19.63
ApproMed For`'Re'lease-2000/08/24: CIA-RDP7
CPYRGHT
/ iunovan Is at Work on It
Release Hopes Rise.
By George W. Cornell
There art 20 Americana,
languishing in Cuban prisons,
condemned there for years
ahead. But now their release
is expected shortly.
At least 18 of them are said
to be held -incommunicado.
Some ire reported .:weak
nervous, deeply despondent
Two are women.
The Swiss Ambassador It
Havana, Emil Stadelhoffer
who recently visited: some 0
them in the Isle of Pine
prison compound, said of. thei
mental outlook:
"An American without ho
is impossible."
Prospects that they may
freed within a, few week
were seen by James B. bon
van, the New York lawyer wit
arranged the. ransom bl' th
Cubans captured. In'the laa
of Pigs invasion attempt. a
d
Donovan said' . ;no...,goo
would be exchanged In tli
case of the Americans., "It :!
an entirely different matter
he said, en .route, t4 Q`41:14'1.,
it
FOIAb3b
or 20 A.:.
at stake were c ar ec i _ ,
galnat the Fidel Castro re? The facts remain un..... lr
I
\
r,.:
:
lme, and sentenced to long, but two alreadyrelra'e'
erms, 10 to 30 years. lean prisoners have tol?i --`i
tents and backgrounds--waritures.
eterans, a fireman, a youthiRundquist's Store
who never "liked fighting," a; One
of them.
-
U t her a boyhood'
0
c ?' N' W ro ~_ o
a ^t m C
.6
V
rlend of Castro, a flying Runclquist, 3R. "~; w M o C 0 c x a
-I T- `soldier of fortune." salesman an
June A :3 a v w m
Reports of cryptic and au-
t?~,r l1, e.oFo w ~.~ t7y o oor Er
8cious missions surrounded
Parents,?in some instance. i,
were mystified by the aifatr ''" ` V" [ a m w n, m ,may .. Ei.
"He had no business in am
ping like that," said ?h- r? '
r of one of them. 'i"i,? 1
Aker, 30, a Dotitar,,
rmy veteran and
river.
He and five nihr?-
n a yacht in Ian, '7, 1981? \retr;
f trying to .m-re
anti - Castro w ?.
sentenced Io A o.
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