Documents / FOIA release

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

Central Intelligence Agency · 179 pages · text from the file's own layer

This is Volume II, Part 1 of the CIA History Staff's Official History of the Bay of Pigs Operation, a Top Secret history dated October 1979 and approved for release in July 2011. It looks at how the Agency took part in shaping US foreign policy toward Guatemala and Nicaragua during the anti-Castro program. It covers dealings with President Ydigoras Fuentes and Roberto Alejos, training sites such as Retalhuleu, cover stories, and negotiations with the Somoza brothers for an air base and port. It contains no UFO material.

Because he played such a significant role in
the Agency's relationship with his gove~nment, a
special word should be said here about Roberto Alejos
who was Ydigoras's alter ego in practically all matters
concerning the Agency's Guatemala program. Alejos was
informed on even the most minute details -- or if he
was not informed, he let it be known that he was dis-
satisfied, displeased, and disagreeable. Where on
the one hand he was almost solely responsible for
covering the death of the first Cuban trainee, Carlos
Rafael Santanya, whose dog tag number would be used
to identify the exiles as the 2506 Brigad~ on other
occasions Alejos could behave as though he, rather
than the Agency, were in charge of the training oper-
ation in Guatemala. with reference to the accidental
death of the Brigade trainee, a cable from Guatemala
to Headquarters noted that after the recovery of the
body, the autopsy, and t~e burial, that:
Alejos moved quickly to cover incident
with local officials, from Governor down
to adjoining finca manager. Thank God they
all belong Government Party and he can con-
trol them. Believe total costs ops gifts
no more than $1,000. 27/
In the early part of October 1960, Alejos was
one of the principals in a potentially explosive

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About this file

FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 179 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.