The Cuban Revolutionary Council (, CRC) was a group formed, with CIA assistance, three weeks before the April 17, 1961,

Bay of Pigs Invasion The Bay of Pigs Invasion (, sometimes called or after the Playa Girón) was a failed military landing operation on the southwestern coast of Cuba in April 1961 by the United States of America and the Cuban Democratic Revolutionary Front ...

to "coordinate and direct" the activities of another group known as the Cuban Democratic Revolutionary Front. Both groups were composed of

Cuban exile A Cuban exile is a person who has been exiled from Cuba. Many Cuban exiles have various differing experiences as emigrants depending on when they emigrated from Cuba, and why they emigrated. The exile of Cubans has been a dominating factor in C ...

s dedicated to overthrowing

Fidel Castro Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban politician and revolutionary who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and President of Cuba, president ...

's communist government in

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

. José Miró Cardona, former

Prime Minister of Cuba The prime minister of Cuba (), officially known as the president of the Council of Ministers () between 1976 and 2019, is the head of government of Cuba and the chairman of the Council of Ministers (cabinet). The prime minister is the third-hi ...

, was chairman of the Cuban Revolutionary Council. On its board of directors were: Antonio de Varona, Justo Carrillo,

Carlos Hevia Carlos Aurelio Hevia y de los Reyes-Gavilan (March 21, 1900 – April 2, 1964) was the interim President of Cuba, serving for less than three days. During the third week of 1934, Hevia was President from 5:00 p.m. on Monday, January 15, unt ...

, Antonio Maceo, Manuel Ray, and Manuel Artime. The

floundered and Miró Cardona, whose son had joined the invasion force, blamed the

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

for the failure. Miró Cardona concluded that the CIA had disregarded resistance groups within Cuba, ignored the paramilitary groups led by Manuel Ray, and misled the

s over the role of the U.S. military in the invasion. After the October 1962 missile crisis, the Kennedy administration withdrew much of its support to the Cuban Revolutionary Council and other militant exile groups. In April 1963, Miró Cardona resigned as chairman of the CRC, claiming that Kennedy had chosen a path of peaceful coexistence with Castro's government. In 1961–62, the New Orleans chapter of the Cuban Revolutionary Council occupied an office in the Newman Building at 544 Camp Street.Cuban Revolutionary Council (CRC): New Orleans Chapter
House Select Committee on Assassinations - Appendix to Hearings, Volume 10, 5, p. 61. This was the building where anti-Castro activist and accused

JFK Assassination John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), also known as JFK, was the 35th president of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. He was the first Roman Catholic and youngest person elected p ...

conspirator Guy Banister also had his office. During this period, Banister associate Sergio Arcacha Smith was the "official delegate" for the New Orleans chapter of the CRC.David Ferrie
House Select Committee on Assassinations - Appendix to Hearings, Volume 10, 12, p. 110.

Footnotes

Anti-Castro organizations in the United States {{paramilitary-org-stub 1961 establishments in New York (state) Organizations based in New York (state)

See also

Footnotes