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.

  • p. 21 Alejos's position from the Cubans -- his role would be as a private Guatemalan citizen, cooperating…
  • p. 23 …Cover, Security and Latin Pride A high degree of cooperation between the President of Guatemala and…
  • p. 39 …Agency training programs were developed with the full and complete cooperation of the President of Guatemala…
  • p. 48 …This witness recalled Headquarter's instructions to cooperate with Alejos and also the authorization for Seigrist…
  • p. 84 …was marked by a spirit of close cooperation between the Government of Guatemala and the Agency…
  • p. 85 …it was reported that there was close cooperation be- tween~and Roberto Alejos with regard to…
  • p. 91 …Once again Ydigoras lectured the Cuban political leaders about the need for unity and cooperation with…
  • p. 115 …office with the rest of State, the cooperation of which we need. It is incumbent upon…
  • p. 116 …American country, receiving his full support and cooperation. Somoza volunteered to foot the cost of the…
  • p. 149 …ever, is that Somoza gave his full cooperation to the Agency effort to mount the operation…
  • p. 153 …Somoza himself was characterized as continuing to be quite cooperative with the Agency representatives but fearful…
reasons alone. The present democratic
and constitutional government of Guate-
mala is duty-bound to defend itself from
extracontinental forces based on Cuba,
which are determined to overthrow it by
force. Nobody can deny Guatemala the
immemorial right to self-defense, recog-
nized as such by the Charter of the
Organization of American States and the
Charter of the United Nations. 76/
The training facilities in Guatemala also had
other visitors during the early part of 1961 -- the
leaders of the FRD, Tony Varona, Antonio Maceo, and
Manuel Artime. The FRD visit was precipitated in
large part because of charges that were filtering
back to Miami that the Batistiano .factions were trying
to penetrate "-- or perhaps had even captured -- the
leadership in the training camps at JMTRAV and JMADD.
In mid-February 1961, the FRD leaders were moved to
Guatemala by black flight; and they were met by Roberto
Alejos, who played host for a s~ssion at which Ydigoras
was ip attendance. Prior to the meeting Ydigoras had
indicated to 1 1 and to Jake Esterline who
was in Guatemala, that "he [Ydigoras] will handle
meeting any way Agency desires, i.e., stressing need
for Cuban unity, need to keep military leadership
apolitical based on ability, etc." 77/

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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.