CUBAN PRISONER RELEASE PUSHED

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00001R000100390068-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 29, 1999
• Sequence Number: 68
• Publication Date: December 5, 1962
• Content Type: NSPR

DE 1962
unitized - Approved For Kelease5 : CIA-
CPYRGHT
CPYRGHT
Cuban Prisoner R`
By Mary Hornaday
Staff Correspondent of
The Christian Science Monitor
New York
come by Christmas to the 1,11
prisoners of the Bay of Pigs
invasion held by the Castro re-
gime in Cuba.
This, at least, is the hope o
the Cuban Families Committee
which has appealed to the
American people to urge Presi-
dent Kennedy to give theN,"go-
ahead."
Alvaro. Sanchez Jr., na onal
chairman of the com ttee,
who recently spent nine Weeks
in Havana, in negotiatio and
visited the Isle of .Pile,, aid
sists that everything is tat
the Cuban end, where Pr mier
t e ch i f ~! FM alf s` r-ved
Fidel Castro has agreed to ac-
cept food and medicines aq bar-
ter instead of the tractor that
were his first asking prie.
the New
York lawyer who has acd s
Christmas, the tradit"io sea-
son of political amnes a and
humanitarian acts, woulde an
appropriate time for the ex-
ciange. 7
C a here are spially
prod of the fact that tq date
not W 'sgle one of the pris-
tmet has defected to the Com-
muri sts though the meri have
lost 40 't`o 65 pounds in the 19
months of their imprisonment.
Pleading for the "brave vet-
erans whose belief in the dem-
ocratic way of life led them to
risk their lives in fighting
communism in the Western
Hemisphere," the families
committee called on, "all
Americans" to appeal to the
United States Government to
support our efforts for mme-
diate action, so that the pris-
went up with the o k of
the Cuban missile en
He is pushing the i that
~Ka at 6 lJ0,'b~ is ent-
ly in Washington to smo out
roadblocks to the exc tI at
FOIAb3b
-ase Pushed
oners may be freed before
Christmas.
"The Cuban Government," it
said, "has agreed to accept
medicines and drugs, surgical
instruments and baby foods
from the American people to
the Cuban people to be offered
in payment for the fines im-
posed by military tribunals.
This has been made possible
by the generous response of
private Americans, European
and Latin-American people to
our moral qad hun ,itarian
cause."
j~at Mr.
Information here as V,
Donovan has received strong
support for his exchange ef-
forts from the White House,
including a ,;,promise of funds
that cannot be raised privately.
He still is finding it necessary
1961 on parole. Two of the 10
"defecteu"-refused to go u .c.:.
The others, amid cheers and
tears at Miami International
Airport, returned voluntarily
to imprisonment.
Subsequently, 63 captives
have been released, on pay-
ments of cash ranging up to!
$50,000.
The exchange would not of-
feet some 84,000 anti-Castro
apolitical prisoners still held
I captive in Cuba.
to fight off the pressures ofl
those who feel it still is too
early after the Cuban crisis
to do anything that might
bring the two countries closer
together.
The President's sister-in-
Iavt, Princess Stariislas Radzi-
will, heads an international
co mittee seeking to raise the
mosey needed for the ex-
ch' ge.
In. June, 1961, a committee
set up to exchange tractors for
the prisoners was established
with White House encourage-
ment, but this brought politi-
cal, and psychological comli-
cations that led to its beping
disbanded. On July 5, 1961, the
Cuban Families Committee for
Liberation was formed.
In connection with its ef-
forts to raise the $62,000,000
demanded by Premier Castro,
a group of 10 prisoners went
to Miami in the summer of,{
Sanitized - Approved For Release : CIA-RDP75-00001 R000100390068-1