MEMORANDUM FOR: BRIG. GEN. CHESTER V. CLIFTON

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80B01676R000800050012-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 9, 2003
• Sequence Number: 12
• Publication Date: May 8, 1961
• Content Type: MF

Approved For Release 2003/04/24: CIA-RDP80B01676R000800050012- '/ / 3 7f
8 y 1961
RANDUM FOR:
Brig. Gen. Cheater V. Clifton/
Executive Officer
cc: Mr. McGeorge B
O/ DCI~
1 - DCI w/attachment
1 - ER --W/attachment
1 -Ow/o attachment
Orig. - Hand-carried to White House
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 (SECR1 pi-ocec o*citessa200120&,24o~GiAgp8RAO0i676R000800050012-8 May 6, 1961
25X1
Cuba is now in the grip of totalitarian terror, mass persecution and
arrests.
It is estimated that approximately 200, 000 people were arrested
in all of Cuba during the first two weeks. 50, 000 arrests were made in
Havana alone, and in one small town of about 6. 000 inhabitants, between
Havana and Matanzas, 2. 000 have been placed under arrest.
Cl the 50, 000 arrested in Havana. a total of 33, 600 have been
accounted for as of May 1. 1961:
6, 000 in Principe Prison
5, 000 in Cabana Prison
5.000 in Castillo Morro
4. 000 in Blanquita Theater
10, 000 in Palacio de Deportes
600 in Cuban G-2 headquarters
2, 000 in various police posts.
Jail facilities have been completely overrun as a result of the vast
number of arrests, and the government is a st ablishing concentration areas
where the people are treated like animals.
Prison facilities at Morro Castle could not accommodate the 5, 000
prisoners assigned to it. An overflow of several thousand was jammed
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 Approved For Release 2003/04/24: CIA-RDP80BO1676R000800050012-8
into the castle moat where they were unable to lie down and where there
were no sanitary facilities. Twice a day the militia sprayed this human
moat with DDT. At another temporary concentration point, the Blanquita
theater, 4, 000 were held for 6 or 7 days under conditions resembling
the "black hole of Calcutta". Sanitary facilities were limited to the
three available theater toilets and the prisoners were fed only twice in
six days. When the prisoners threatened to riot against these conditions,
the guards paraded bloodhounds across the stage. The prisoners were
finally moved from the theater to an unknown jail because after four of
the imprisoned had been shot, some of the prisoners took guns away
from the guards and attempted to burn the theater down. At Cabana, a
fort across the bay from Morro, formerly used by Guevera as Headquarters,
a Consular official said he had seen 60 people shot and that the Director
of Cabana himself had shot 17. At the Principe Prison 86 women were
crowded into one room. As a result of the packed conditions, two
pregnant women suffered miscarriages
Even the G-2, Caetro's Secret Service, and the militia headquarters
were unable to find out whether or not certain individuals were in jail,
dead, or if in prison, where and why. One Cuban, for example, told a
Western observer that he had just been released from jail (at midnight
so that the Cubans could not see what shape he was in) and had returned
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home to find that his wife had also been arrested when the G-2 found
weapons in his garden. It was obvious that there was no coordination
among Government departments as he would never have been released
if his guards had known he had been hiding weapons.
oreigners including other Latin Americans, Europeans
as well as Americans and Cubans were arrested. One European prisoner
who was released on Saturday, the 29th of April. was completely bewildered
when questioned as to the reason for his arrest. He had spent fifteen days
in jail but no charges were made against him so he did not know why he was
there. He had been photographed. given a number and fingerprinted.
He confirmed the report that those prisoners who were freed have been
released during the hours of darkness because the Cuban Government does
not want the people to see the wretched condition of those who have been
fined.
(It is estimated that there are several hundred U. S. citizens
remaining in Cuba, although a precise figure is not possible because
many are not registered). The number of U. S. citizens under arrest is
unknown and their identification is made extremely difficult because they
normally deprived of their passports and other papers when arrested.
Informed observers on the island believe it will be increasingly difficult
for U. S. citizens, to dgpa',t
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