Fulgencio Batista Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar (; ; born Rubén Zaldívar, January 16, 1901 – August 6, 1973) was a Cuban military officer and politician who served as the elected president of Cuba from 1940 to 1944 and as its U.S.-backed military dictator ...

Cuban Revolution The Cuban Revolution ( es, Revolución Cubana) was carried out after the 1952 Cuban coup d'état which placed Fulgencio Batista as head of state and the failed mass strike in opposition that followed. After failing to contest Batista in cour ...

Fidel Castro Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (; ; 13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban revolutionary and politician who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and president from 1976 to 2 ...

Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...

Havana Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

Lee Harvey Oswald Lee Harvey Oswald (October 18, 1939 – November 24, 1963) was a U.S. Marine veteran who assassinated John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, on November 22, 1963. Oswald was placed in juvenile detention at the age of 12 ...

in mid-1963. Immediately after the 22 November 1963

assassination of John F. Kennedy John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, was assassinated on Friday, November 22, 1963, at 12:30 p.m. CST in Dallas, Texas, while riding in a presidential motorcade through Dealey Plaza. Kennedy was in the vehicle wi ...

, it launched a campaign asserting that Lee Harvey Oswald had been acting on behalf of the Cuban government. The group lost its CIA support in December 1966.

History

The DRE was founded in 1954 as a Catholic student group opposed to the Cuban dictator

Fulgencio Batista Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar (; ; born Rubén Zaldívar, January 16, 1901 – August 6, 1973) was a Cuban military officer and politician who served as the elected president of Cuba from 1940 to 1944 and as its U.S.-backed military dictator ...

, defining its principles as political liberty, economic independence, and social justice. For a student group, the DRE made military contributions to the

Cuban Revolution The Cuban Revolution ( es, Revolución Cubana) was carried out after the 1952 Cuban coup d'état which placed Fulgencio Batista as head of state and the failed mass strike in opposition that followed. After failing to contest Batista in cour ...

by focusing on targeted plans. In 1957, the group coordinated an attack on Batista's Presidential Palace organised by DRE leader

José Antonio Echeverría José Antonio Echeverría (July 16, 1932 in Cárdenas, Matanzas – March 13, 1957 in Havana, Cuba) was a Cuban revolutionary and student leader. The President of the Federation of University Students (''Federación Estudiantil Universita ...

, who died the same day in a related incident, and the opening of a second front in the

Escambray Mountains The Escambray Mountains () are a mountain range in the central region of Cuba, in the provinces of Sancti Spíritus, Cienfuegos and Villa Clara. Overview The Escambray Mountains are located in the south-central region of the island, extending ab ...

, which was taken over by

Che Guevara Ernesto Che Guevara (; 14 June 1928The date of birth recorded on /upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/78/Ernesto_Guevara_Acta_de_Nacimiento.jpg his birth certificatewas 14 June 1928, although one tertiary source, (Julia Constenla, quot ...

. The death of Echeverría and other leaders led to the virtual collapse of the group, and its remaining membership largely joined the Escambray front under the leadership of the

26th of July Movement The 26th of July Movement ( es, Movimiento 26 de Julio; M-26-7) was a Cuban vanguard revolutionary organization and later a political party led by Fidel Castro. The movement's name commemorates its 26 July 1953 attack on the army barracks on San ...

. After the death of Echevarría, the leadership passed to

Faure Chomón Faure Chomón Mediavilla (15 January 1929 – 5 December 2019) was a Cuban historian and politician. He was one of the founding members and leaders of the Directorio Revolucionario Estudiantil. After the triumph of the Revolution he joined Fide ...

and

Rolando Cubela Secades Rolando Cubela Secades (19 January 1933 – 23 August 2022) was a Cuban revolutionary leader who played a vital part in the Cuban Revolution, having been a founding member of the Directorio Revolucionario Estudiantil and later the military lea ...

in the urban underground and the Escambray Mountain insurrection, respectively. In February 1960 a group of the newly reformed DRE at the

University of Havana The University of Havana or (UH, ''Universidad de La Habana'') is a university located in the Vedado district of Havana, the capital of the Republic of Cuba. Founded on January 5, 1728, the university is the oldest in Cuba, and one of the firs ...

and now opposed to communism, publicly opposed the visit of Soviet diplomat

Anastas Mikoyan Anastas Ivanovich Mikoyan (; russian: Анаста́с Ива́нович Микоя́н; hy, Անաստաս Հովհաննեսի Միկոյան; 25 November 1895 – 21 October 1978) was an Armenian Communist revolutionary, Old Bolshevik an ...

, leading to their expulsion from the university. Later that year the group moved its headquarters to

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at th ...

. There the group developed connections with the

Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...

. On August 24, 1962, the DRE carried out an attack in Cuba, with two speedboats firing approximately sixty 20-millimeter shells into the Havana suburb of

Miramar Miramar is a place name of Spanish and Portuguese origin. It means "sea-view" or "sea sight" from ''mirar'' ("to look at, to watch") and ''mar'' ("sea"). It may refer to: Places Africa * Miramar, Port Elizabeth, see St Dominic's Priory School ...

, damaging a beachfront hotel, the Rosita Hornedo, which housed advisers sent to Cuba from the Soviet bloc. The attack had been planned by the CIA's station in Miami, though the

U.S. State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other natio ...

maintained the attempt was independent of U.S. government knowledge or support. In mid-1962 the DRE passed on early reports of missiles being stationed in Cuba to its CIA connections, not long before the presence of missile was confirmed by U-2 photographs and the ensuing

Cuban Missile Crisis The Cuban Missile Crisis, also known as the October Crisis (of 1962) ( es, Crisis de Octubre) in Cuba, the Caribbean Crisis () in Russia, or the Missile Scare, was a 35-day (16 October – 20 November 1962) confrontation between the Unite ...

of October 1962. Afterwards, the DRE claimed some missiles had been hidden in caves, a claim the CIA discredited. The group expressed disappointment that the missile crisis was resolved without the forceful ousting of Fidel Castro. In mid-1963 the CIA financed the DRE with $25,000 per month, under a CIA program named AMSPELL run by

George Joannides George Efythron Joannides (July 5, 1922 – March 9, 1990) was a Central Intelligence Agency officer who in 1963 was the chief of the Psychological Warfare branch of the agency's JMWAVE station in Miami, and in 1978 was the agency's liaison t ...

, the chief of the

psychological warfare Psychological warfare (PSYWAR), or the basic aspects of modern psychological operations (PsyOp), have been known by many other names or terms, including Military Information Support Operations ( MISO), Psy Ops, political warfare, "Hearts and ...

branch

JM/WAVE JMWAVE or JM/WAVE or JM WAVE was the codename for a major secret United States covert operations and intelligence gathering station operated by the CIA from 1961 until 1968. It was headquartered in Building 25 at the former Naval Air Station Ric ...

station in Miami. The money went to Luis Fernandez Rocha, the DRE's leader in Miami, and supported the DRE's activities in a variety of cities, including

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

"What Jane Roman Said"
Marquette University Joannides also provided non-financial support, reviewing military plans and briefing the DRE leadership on managing press relations. Joannides worked with the group from December 1962 to April 1964; CIA monthly reports on the group from 1960 to 1966 have been declassified, except for this period. In August 1963 the DRE had several significant contacts with

Lee Harvey Oswald Lee Harvey Oswald (October 18, 1939 – November 24, 1963) was a U.S. Marine veteran who assassinated John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, on November 22, 1963. Oswald was placed in juvenile detention at the age of 12 ...

. Oswald had approached a member,

Carlos Bringuier Carlos Jose Bringuier (born June 22, 1934)"Hearings before the President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy", Government Printing Office, 1964, Vol. 10 p. 33 is a Cuban exile in the United States of America who campaigned against ...

, and pretended to be sympathetic to the DRE's goals. When DRE members later saw him handing out pro-Castro leaflets, their confrontation became physical and resulted in Oswald's arrest. The

Warren Commission The President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, known unofficially as the Warren Commission, was established by President Lyndon B. Johnson through on November 29, 1963, to investigate the assassination of United States ...

interpreted these contacts as a successful attempt by Oswald to attract attention as a left-wing activist;

Gerald Posner Gerald Leo Posner (born May 20, 1954) is an American investigative journalist and author of thirteen books, including ''Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of JFK'' (1993), which explores the John F. Kennedy assassination, and ...

, on the other hand, believes the DRE's harassment of Oswald helped provoke the assassination. Later the same month, Oswald took part in a local radio debate with DRE members. The day after the

assassination of John F. Kennedy John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, was assassinated on Friday, November 22, 1963, at 12:30 p.m. CST in Dallas, Texas, while riding in a presidential motorcade through Dealey Plaza. Kennedy was in the vehicle wi ...

the DRE, defying orders from Joannides to await instructions, launched a public campaign asserting that

Lee Harvey Oswald Lee Harvey Oswald (October 18, 1939 – November 24, 1963) was a U.S. Marine veteran who assassinated John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, on November 22, 1963. Oswald was placed in juvenile detention at the age of 12 ...

had been acting on behalf of the Cuban government. Members communicated their claims to

Paul Bethel Paul may refer to: *Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name) * Paul (surname), a list of people People Christianity *Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chri ...

, a former CIA employee active in Cuban exile politics, and

Clare Boothe Luce Clare Boothe Luce ( Ann Clare Boothe; March 10, 1903 – October 9, 1987) was an American writer, politician, U.S. ambassador, and public conservative figure. A versatile author, she is best known for her 1936 hit play '' The Women'', which h ...

. On 23 November published a seven-page brief on Oswald as well as a special edition of the DRE's monthly bulletin, a four-page broadsheet which ran the headline "The Presumed Assassins" above photographs of Oswald and

Fidel Castro Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (; ; 13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban revolutionary and politician who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and president from 1976 to 2 ...

. The group held a press conference where pressed their case using accurate information about Oswald as well as the claim, never documented, that he had lived in the Moscow home of the Soviet foreign minister for two months. DRE members later said that the aim was to create public pressure for a U.S. attack on Cuba. The CIA began to cut back its support for the DRE at the end of 1962 and ended its support in December 1966 when it characterized the group as inactive. In the intervening years, the DRE members had supported the CIA with its publishing and radio programs and by sending delegates to international student conferences.

Notes

Gallery

File:José Antonio Echeverría Bianchi.jpg, Jose Antonio Echevarria. Dead on March 13, 1957. File:Faure Chomón Mediavilla-DR-13-M.jpg, Faure Chomón. File:Rolando Cubela Secades.webp, Rolando Cubela Secades. File:Version flag of the Student Revolutionary Directorate.svg, Another flag used by the DRE

References

{{Authority control Cuba–United States relations Cuban Revolution Opposition to Fidel Castro

History

See also

Notes

Gallery

References