CASTRO ALLEGES MORE SUBVERSION

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30277, 1 November 1963, Page 13

CASTRO ALLEGES MORE SUBVERSION

(N.Z. Press Association —Copt/ri<>ht) MIAMI, October 31. The Cubap Prime Minister, Dr. Fidel Castro, asserted yesterday that Cuban troops captured several members of a landing party sent by American intelligence to infiltrate Cuba’s south coast on the night of October 21.

Tlie landing was attempted in two small boats from a “mother ship” at about the same time and in the same area where the Americanowned freighter J. Louis reported it was attacked by Cuban planes.

Dr. Castro denounced what he called “the hypocritical policy of the United States.”

He changed the United States was trying to picture Cuba as an ‘'aggressor" nation in the attack on the J. Louis, he said. Cuban planes were actually trying to stop a landing party organised by the Central Intelligence Agency. The expeditionary force went toward the Pinar Del Rio coast in two small boats from a 200-foot long mother ship named Rex, he said. The vessel, painted blue, was docked in West Palm Beach, Florida, and had been used on 10 previous C.I.A. attacks or infiltration expeditions against Cuba, Dr. Castro said.

The ship carried a crane on its deck to launch the smaller boats and was armed with “several cannons and .50 calibre machine-guns.” Dr. Castro said developments on the night of October 21 “uncover the policy of the United States and the procedures which they employ and the cheap ideology with which they try to defend their social system. “The United States Government is lying to the world and to the American people, ’ he said. “The news agencies and State Department tried to picture Cuba as being in a bellicose and aggressive position, violating international laws and endangering the lives of innocent sailors.”