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

be dissuaded from making any press release which
would be critical of the British for it was pointed
out to 1 1 that the British had been most
helpful in terms of getting the C-54 released and in
cancelling the original flight plan without any 'further
publici ty. 801*
J. GOG - J~~TE and the Kennedy Administration
Even though President Ydigoras had already assured
the Agency that the training activity could continue,
he felt some concern about the change of administrations
in the US; and an EMERGENCY cable from I--------
on 25 February 1961 indicated that c==Jhad been called·
to a meeting with Ydigoras. c==Jwas told that Ydigoras
was writing a personal letter to President Kennedy
* At the end of 1961, in his New Year's Eve speech
of 31 December 1961, Ydigoras for the first time ac-
knowledged that his government had participated with
the exiled Cuban leaders, and that Guatemala had been
used as a training site for the Bay of Pigs invasion.
In that same speech he reportedly said that as a fair
price the "friendly government" that was supporting
the Cuban exiles -- the US -- had agreed lito request
good offices to convince Britain to return Belize to
us under certain conditions, acceptable to a majority
of tfiat colony's inhabitants." Reportedly the train-
ing activity did not begin until after this agreement
with the US had been reached. 80al