Documents / FOIA release
This is a compilation of Department of State Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR) briefing notes to the Director of INR, mostly dated June 12, 1968, with some from June 6, 1968. The notes cover world events, including student riots in Paris, East German passport and visa rules for West Germans, a UN resolution on South West Africa, a change of Komsomol leadership, Sino-Nepalese relations, and the Colombian presidential resignation crisis. Unrest in Senegal and Somalia is also covered. None of the notes discuss UFOs.
“Cooper”9 pages
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GIST: VENEZUELA: Five Soldiers Killed in Guerrilla Ambush; Recent Guerrilla Initiatives Attributed to Renewed Cuban Support for Luben Petkoff's Band in Western Venezuela DATE: June 11, 1968 TIME: 02:15 P.M. COMMENTS CONTAINED IN INR BRIEFING NOTES ARE INITIAL AND TENTATIVE. SOURCE(S) CLASS./CONTROL(S) Caracas 6186 6/10/68 Conf. On June 8 in Falcon State in Western Venezuela guerrilla group ambushed moving convoy placing more than fifty machine-gun rounds in one jeep according to press reports. Five soldiers killed, seven wounded. Presumably there were no guerrilla losses. This was first incident in immediate vicinity in four years, though area was once an active insurgent area. TDCS DB-315/02027-68 6/10/68 S/NFD/CD/NDA EMBASSY COMMENT: Previous engagements in Falcon-Yaracuy area during past several months were the result of government initiatives which resulted in significant loss to insurgent FAIN forces. Present guerrilla initiative proves that though battered, insurgents still active and continue to pose a threat in the west. A member of the MIR guerrilla group who said that he was a member of the MIR delegation which made the first contact with MIR FAIN leader Luben Petkoff to arrange unification of Petkoff's forces with the MIR said that the meeting site was guarded by some seventy well-uniformed and equipped guerrillas. Among the Petkoff group were various Cubans who had joined the group shortly before the start of the series of encounters between the Venezuelan military and the guerrillas in the west, which began on April 17. Morale in Petkoff's group appeared high and supplies to sustain combat for four months were reported to be on hand. The MIR member also said that FAIN leader Douglas Bravo has recently lost a great deal of power and now spends most of his time in Caracas. FIELD COMMENT: The figure of seventy men comes very close to recent estimates of the total number of guerrillas in the FAIN. INR/RAR COMMENT: Several points of previous speculation regarding the guerrilla situation in Venezuela appear to be clarifying themselves. A long interview with Luben Petkoff over Radio Havana in late March of this year appears now to have signaled his new status as Castro's chosen leader of the guerrillas in western Venezuela in place of Douglas Bravo, who apparently is at odds with the Cuban leader. The interview followed closely a reported visit by a Cuban Army major to Venezuela to inspect the guerrilla movement. There are also unconfirmed reports of as many as two landings off the western coast of Venezuela in mid-April which could account for Petkoff's new provisions. Despite the above reported guerrilla success, government forces have had the best of the increased number of encounters with the guerrillas in recent months.
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FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. The text was read from the page images by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word. 132 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.