Official History of the Bay of Pigs Operation- Volume 2- Part 1

troops was apparently rescinded, for on 22 April a
cable from Managua to Washington indicated that Presi-
dent Somoza had approved delaying the removal of the
Cubans until 24 April. Somoza himself was characterized
as continuing to be quite cooperative with the Agency
representatives but fearful that with the reopening to
commercial air traffic of Puerto Cabezas that the de-
tainees in TIDE would be discovered and consequently
his cover story for TIDE activities would be exposed. ~/
In any event, the Cubans who were being held prisoner
were returned to the United States aboard the Atlantico
which, upon the collapse of the invasion, had returned
to Puerto Cabezas and thence to the US via Key West,
Norfolk, and Baltimore. From the last port, the
prisoners were then sent to Washington, and from Wash-
ington on down to Miami and thence to Cuba. 68/*
* The Agency's relations with Nicaragua also became \
somewhat strained because Miro Cardona was never brought
to Nicaragua to meet with President Somoza, despite
the fact that this had been requested by Somoza on
several occasions. Why Headquarters was so reluctant
to approve such a meeting is, in hindsight, difficult
to understand. Just prior to moving the operation from
Guatemala to Nicaragua, Miro Cardona was completing a
tour of the TRAV/MADD installations. Why he could not
have been taken on to the JMTIDE area at that time is
not made clear in either the cable traffic or other data
that are available. 69/
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