CUBAN OUTBREAK OF SWINE FEVER LINKED TO CIA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-01208R000100220019-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 22, 2011
• Sequence Number: 19
• Publication Date: January 9, 1977
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
V
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/22 : CIA-RDP90-01208R000100220019-9
,/ARTICLE A..t'PLARED?
ON P.?1 GI!
nation. African swine fever is a highly ; T U.S. intelligence source said Montt
wwn~n.rim.n end ..m.ally t eh.1 vibl din- - .e ,that early In 1971 he was given the vi-'
LiWicki ,source sai e- was, gven.,
instructions ,io turn : the container with
the virus over'. to members of an anti
: Castro `group. ,.The container then was`, `
given. to a. peteon in the Canal Zone,
;.who took it by boat-and turned' itover?;
to a fishing trawler'oft the. Panamani-
.an'coast. The source said the substance .k
wa not identified to him. until.months'
-`after the outbreak in Cuba.:He would:
not elaborate further.:.' r~r F
y ti ' ;Another man; intiolved.1n . the opera
tion, a?Cuban exile who-asked rlotto be:'
ease that infects only pigs ann, unlike , .;-.,.. ~- - -- ' -I
i., swine flu, cannot be transmitted to hu- 5: ?Ft. Gulick, an Army base in the Pana-
. mans. There were no human deaths in- '.j ma Canal Zone. The CIA also operates
STAT volved in the outbreak, but. all produc-:x reer training center for ca-
Lion of pork, a Cuban staple, came to a eer personnel and mercenaries at ?'',
halt, apparently for several months.'tl
g
ere
04 4:12 - A-
. '
alarming event" of 1971 by the United leading up to the outbreak. '"
Nations Food and- Agricultural Orrani `y, ? .
has been a mystery-to animal investiga- stopover> tire, container was take p to A
le
ver tyirue into Cuba In 1971.` se weep , tors since the outbreak. Informed spec- Cuba and *given. to other operatives tin
.later ar outbreak of the disease forced,--
.;
the slaughter of 500,000 pigs to prevent ulation assumed the virus entered the southern coast neair the U.S.,Navy
a? nationwide animal epidemic. Cuba -either in. garbage from a corn- _' base at. G. u`a n tan a m'o Bay in late ,
mercial airliner or in sausages brought March, ': according to the source. o'n the
A U.S. Intelligence source told ?in by merchant seamen. However, on ;trawler.'The base is 100 m i Fe s. due:
i s Newsfty.he -iM4 given the virus in a
sealed, unmarked container at a U.S the basis of numerous interviews over north of Navassa
four months with U.S. intelli -The'-source? on the '.trawler said he
Army base and CIA training ground In genes ~
nama Canal Zone; with instrucsources, Cuban exiles and scientists , had lid direct kngwledge of whether the
the Pa .t
..concerning the outbreak-which oc- L- virus, that came from Ft. Gulick was re ;t.
-:,.dons to turn it over.to the anti Castro
curred two years 'after then President sponsible -for the outbreak in Havana r
,:..group..
Richard Nixon had banned the use of 4 500 miles` northwest of Guantanamo: A
. 1971 ,outbreak, the, fast end inoffensive' chemical and bio.ogical wat?- pa p e? r.prepared by: the Cubans ? for .a
only ly time the disease has hit the West- -' t>
fare-Newsday was able to p i e c e .o } scientific`; conference in Mexico City:;:
ern Hemisphere; was labeled the most ' . gether the followin
account of events k' 'Id t `' i r s t ' A- i
fo d
and John Cumrriingi -.,In, response to a Newsday request for
With at'l e a s t the tacit backiii'g cgmtaent, said: -';We don't comment on
U.S. Central Intelligence Agency nffi information from unamed and, at beat
"
dais, operatives linked' to ' anti-Castro ' ? ~?urces.
terrorists introduced African `swine fe- * ' Why the virus turned up in Cuba
identified,. said he,was on the ? trawler:.
b
t1EWSDAY
9 JANUARY 1977
oard at a,.
when the virus-, was :put a
prearranged 'rendezvout point 'i'ff ? B
cag,del. T o r o',_ Panama: He said the 4
trawler carried the vi>;us to Navassn Is- '
land, a dederted, tiny, U.S.-owned
land between Jamaica and Haiti. Frorti.
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about "May 6 but :no prec:sa location , c l u d e bombings and assassination at area' the "disease Could have existed
.was.given;'A ilon-Soviet bloc*'agricul :tempts in the United States and Vene- months before it was found;" thetechn-
zuela."`Trained griginally% by 'the' CIA said, adding that it wag impossi-
tural'techniciait then iri`Cuba said-the ,:
disease easily could have .gone :unde- for' operations against Cuba, the exiles ;i-ble to pinpoint the source of the .epi-
tected for months.`. The" v?i r u s' can be have become: more restive' as they, view demic,
.transmitted rapidly through'the"food or .what they believe to be ail, increasing in a~speech on July.26, 1971, Castro i
move toward rapprochement-: between said: The origin "af the'eaidemic has
water.., suPp1Y ;' 4 1. ; ? ' rr .i
Fidel Castro and the United States, not yt been ascertained. It could be
The source: on the~,trawler, who had Congressional sources with access t? accidental. of it could have been the re-
''been trained by:the, CIA and: had car- some CIA records said the swine fever'~.`,sult of enemy activity. On' various occa-
ried out previous' missions:fof the agen- operation was not mentioned. in ' the list sions - the CO u n t e r r e y o 1 utionary
cy, said he'saw. no CIA officials aboard; of approved "dove r t operations. But,: .'-wormpit [an ti-Castro ? groups based in
;the boat that deliVered the virus to the ; Congress'. efforts: to probe 'CIA .achvi iami] has talked of plagues and epi-
_~ trawler: off. 1