CASTRO THREAT NOT SO EMPTY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP73-00475R000101320002-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 6, 2014
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: August 16, 1965
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT WASHINGTON smut
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr 2014/01/06: CIA-RDP73-00475R000101320002-9
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ON THE SPOT
hreat Nit So
By MARGUERITE HIGGINS ,
Star Special Writer
? Until recently, Johnson ?
administration officials tended
? to shrug off Cuban? Premier
Fidel Castro's boasts of
? turning Latin American wars
of liberation into Viet Nam-
type conflicts.
And in its preoccupation
with Viet Nam, the American
public has failed to notice
very significant and troubling
developments south of the
border.
But events are not only
proving that Castro's threats ,
are not so empty, but are also
calling into question many of
the smug assumptions about-
developments in such places
as Venezuela.
Any comparisons to Viet
Nam area, are of course to
the earliest stages of that war
when victims of terror and
ambush were listed by the
dozens rather than by the
thousands.
Assumption in Venezuela
With regard to Venezuela,
it has been assumed in Wash-
ington that the success two
years ago ni holding free
elections in spite of opposition
from Communist terrorists
had more or less settled the
guerrilla problem.
After all, it was reasoned,
? the Venezuelan government
- was freely chosen, left of
center, and very progressive
, in social good works. More
? than most people on this
, earth, Americans cling to the
myth that good government is
;. of itself a defense against
' Communist guerrillas
[Very handily for the Corn-
. munists, we have been brain-
! washed into.'- assuming that
Communist terrorists can
thrive only if most of the
people are against a govern-
ment. It is a. very tuthistoric
assumption.
In Europe, the destruction
of Czechoslovakia's popular
and progressive government
by a Communist minority is
just one of many examples of
the fact that the Communists
? usually take over in spite of
? the will of the majority.
Venezuela Lesson
In Venezuela, the lesson is
-that terrorist guerrillas, if
"supported from the outside
(Cuba) can dangerously
increase their trouble-making
capacity in spite of good
government ? a government
that has among other things
effectively worked at matters
of land reform and helping
, the peasantry.
? As in Viet Nam, the peas-
ants of Venezuela may hate
the guerrillas, but they will
not expose them for fear of
torture and death.
The discovery of five tons of
armaments hidden in the San
Antonio Del Gauche region of
,Venezuela this week follows a
gun battle in the same area
between military forces and
guerrillas. A secret guerrilla
headquarters of the FALN
(National Liberation Armed
Forces) was even uncovered
in the petroleum center of
Anzoateguil state.
? Training For Guerrillas ?
But if Castro and company
have their way, this is but a
foretaste of far worse to
? come.
Accqrding to reliable re-
ports , reaching Washington,
Alnia
.?
guerrilla training ? once .
confined to Cuba itself ? is
going on in the Venezuelan
states of Lara and Falcon.
The guerrilla chieftain is a
former Venezuelan newspaper
man, Fabricio Ojeda.
The Venezuelan National
Liberation Front believes in
the formalities. It is officially,
represented in Cuba by Ger-
man Layret, who recently
went through the formality of
signing a "mutual aid pact"
with the Viet Cong representa-
tive in Havana.
?
Castro's press and radio
made much of this and openly
boasted that the pact heralded
the start of Viet Nam-type .
wars, not just in Venezuela
but in other parts of Latin
America. Clearly, the Corn- '
munist guerrillas, like their
counterparts in Asia, are
planning carefully and diaboli-
cally for the years ahead.
Weapons and central direction
are coming from Cuba and
will continue to do so ? as
long as the United States
permits this to go on.
The question is whether the
United States can afford to
look the other way while Cuba
provides the transmission belt
for weapons with which the
Communists plan to subvert
the hemisphere.
In Viet Nam, we waited
until almost the eleventh hour
before attempting seriously to
interrupt outside sources of 1,
supply of men and material.
Isn't there a lesson to be
? learned from that tragedy? Or
are we to be paralyzed intol
inaction by failing to take
seriously Castro's threats of
turning Latin America into
sei:ieS of Viet Nam's?
Newsdare 19?
'
Declassified in Part- Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @50-Yr 2014/01/06: CIA-RDP73-00475R000101320002-9
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