i2025 RELEP S UNDE THE PRESIDENT JOHN F KENNEDY ASSASSINATION RECORDS ACT _OF ' jk J ' - if' ' - IAl 111 I IION DISPATCH I s E C R E T Chief Western Hemisphere DiViEiion IHto Attention Chief WH 1 --· ____ Chief __ WH MBSPAWN _c p v - PROCESSING ACTION 10 t f' - r l MH• ID 1011 1 rn xtNG _ x O l Y ' UAilf 1 0 Jf Sr t Hi lU JG INOl 1 ING IROM Chief of station exico City s w --OPERATIONAL LiANCHDlR - i rogress Report for December 1967 - a' uy 1968 ACTION l WljllD l IJll INlll '· Action Required References None FYI A B HMMA-33670 13 rlecember 1968 Mexico City-5688 25 May 1968 • SUMHARY 1 During the reporting period the LIANCHOR leftist writer press service produced 35 individual articles and serialized political feature articles which were distributed to 20 newspapers throughout Latin America and are known to have been published regularly by at least 12 newspapers Despite this acceptable production rate the project has not achieved the objectives set for it by the Mexico Station and in the Project Outline I 2 Prior to submission of a project renewal-request in late June 1968 the Mexico Station will attempt to convert the LIANCHOR operation into a more effective and politically more leftist operation Four oheix LIANCBDR press service writers will pe dropped and P A bINLUCK will be replaced hopefully by Identity-1 a respectedOlindependent leftist Mexican editorialist for the prestige center-left daily EXCELSIOR If by the end of June 1968 the operational Continued •••• Attactµaents A Identities u s c Translation Articles u s c c Handbill Brochure Open Letter u s c CS COPY Distribution - -- ' t - wo atts C WH 1 w atts A Band C u s c l - C WH MHSPAWN w atts A B --- u • 8 C • - C WHD l - I y ·- CROSS llfli-lN -1- 0--·-------- - --- --- - ---- -- OIIPAT MB'Qfo NUMB I ---- ------·----------------------- t- ---- '-- DATE _______·_ _·_' ------·•--'-·--I ---- HMMA-34792 · ·· ··-· ------------- - - - - - ------------ IAlllfl AIION S E C R E T --· 3 June l968 ----·-··· ---------- HQI Fill NUMBER 50-126-38 3 • lt l i r u - Cl 14-00000 t · f 11 • •• • •It'll ·s Iii u ulH I HMMA-347 2 ------ E C R E T mechanism of LIANCll R a cooperative and self-supporting preaa oervice not subsidized by WOFIRM does not seem operational_ly ---viable the LIANCHOR project renewal request will be submitted as an administrative Lnd financial roof project for the individual handling and exploitation of singleton leftist writer assets urrELL IGENCE PRODUCT ION 3 One information report was di Aeminated in May 1968 based on information acquired by INLUCY '° ' OPERATIONAL DEVELOPMENTS 4 Formal Organ Lzation of LIANCHOR Press Service a The Reference A project proposal reports all significant incidents in 6fhe development of the LIANCHOR press service by INLUCK and the Mexico p ation through the first week ot'December 1967 when -o INLUCK' set about bringing togeth r the candidates for member hip in the cooperative press service As Headquarters will recall the projec involved paying a salary of U S $700 per month t INLUCK in return for which he was to persuade a number of leftist and centerleft writers to join together as contributors to the · LIANCHOR Identity-2 press service The contributing writers or members of the press service were to agree to waive fees for a trial period during which the press service was to develop paying clients among Latin American newspapers and periodicals· l servle I b fi 1NLUCKJ held three meetings of candidate members of the BB during December in the home of Identity-3 The' etings were unruly but everyone at the meetings agre to contribute material to the press service and eubmi · to editing and con trol of the material by LINLUC O Howe r what with the 20 day Christmas festivities which aralyze all Mexicans from 15 December to 5 January of each year none of the LIANCHOR members other than Identity-4 submitted a manuscript to t1NLU of until late January · ' c bINLUCK dusted off the best and most timeless of his fall 1967 articles and mailed them out with a prospectus to newspapers suggested by third country stations throughout Latin America At the end of December INLUCK__ O became seriously 111 and the project was dormant until mid-January In the latter part of January INLUCK held a sober business meeting of the LIANCHOR preas91 group at his home and by the end of January the members began to submit manuscripts 01 5 The Search for a Replacement for P A LINLUCi 9l ' a INLUCKJwas formally terminated in the sUJIUller of 1966 He spent much of his termination bonus on sending his family baok to France the wife is French and setting the family up there in an apartment and 2lacing hie sons in school Following the termination tINLUCK was again placed on salary while WOFIRM subsized the ' publication of a book which he bad written in support of 5 -- --R w J _ • - -- --1A • M•vir n and · 1 ' ll• • · 111 CONTh iuATION OF DISPATCH • • SECRET in South America accepted the book but would not send Oj i INLUaj his share of the salos which was' to be used to repay WOFIRM the cost of P Ublishing the book in the lnte fall of 1960l INLUC spent six weeks in Guatema a where he reached agreem nts with the Guatemalan Defense Minister Rafael ARRIAGA_lBosque whereby the Defense Ministry was to pay ILINLllCw U S $4 000 for the right to publish 10 ooo0fc p1f•B of _ his f rst book The U S $4 000 was to be paid b 1 l INLUCKJto WOFIRM as partU l reimbursement of the costs of· publishing the JMROD book During the visit to Guatemala O Q INLUCl 9 was told by ARRIAGA and nther Guatemalan government officials that he cou -i expect a consul 1' r ·appointment by the summer of 1963 1 r b Headquarters and the Mexico Station were agreed that as soon as he could organize LIANCHOR and find a suitable replacement 1 i INLUC should be terminated and leave Mexico Following the receipt of the LIANCHOR project approval in early 1968 the LIANCHDR case officer tol INLUCK that he was expected to find a replacement meeting WOFIRM approval and be ready to turn the operar ion over to his replacement by the end of March 1968 cof b INLUC 9 proposed · Identi ty-4 who bad shown the most interest in the LIANCHOR press service and had been the first to submit articles By accident the case officer was forced to· listen an hour's conversation between Identity 4 an 1 i INLUCKJafter Identity-4 came totINLUCK'sJ home interrupted a meeting between the case officer and ol 1 INLUCK and the case officer sat trapped in a separate room unbeknownst to Identity-4 From the co versation the case officer observed that Identity-4 was actually a political rightist believeq INLUC to be an LNHARP agent had grandiose plans f6r using LNHARP funds to mushroom LIANCHOR into a continent-wide anti-Communist movement and was marr l_ed to a neurotic woman who bad hired a private detective agency to check on her husband's activities li INLUCK was instructed to quietly ease Identity-4 out of Ll NCHOR to cease holding group meetings of LIANCHOR writers and to try to prevent further contact between Identity-4 and other members of LIANCHOR c Identity-5 was selected as the next candidate to replace hINLUCK as P A Identity-5 was techqically linguistically intellectually and professionally well qualified to head LIANCHOR During tpe period of development and assessment of Iden ti ty-4 by eINLUC19 0 11denti ty-5 wrote an excellent article on Soviet intellectual piracy However Identity-5 proved difficult to contact and control and turned out to be leading a personal life which would have detracted seriously from his ability to administer LIANCHOR 0 INLUCKJ was told to keep in touch with Identity-5 but to look for still ariotber candidate d In early April ARRIAGA Bosque0 as exiled to Miami With tbe Station's concurronce b_INLUCK went to Guatemala during Easter to confer with Guatemalan President Julio MENDEZ Montenegro and the new Defense Minister concerning his ow n future ·o The President said he had not forgottenU INLUgKJ but would not- be able to give him a consular post until the outset of 1969 The President al so said he would not be opposed to 1 INLUCK' s returning to Guatemala and entering politics · v j t • ti • Of ' e Upon bINLUCK - return to Mexi co Jie asked whether tbe e was any possibility that he could be kept on after 30 June 1968 for an indeterminate period as LIANCBOR P A until some outside job showed up The case officer said be would discu IB the matter with eadquarters t felt·• that in the inte1·ests oj _i INLUCK n amily aad his own · · career it was high time that INLUCJ ltrike out on his own Replacements· were again reviewed and it was decided that the best candidate would be Identity-1 who bad turned ·· down membership l' n LIANCHOR becau1u 1 he wanted immedi ate fees for anything he wrote Iden1t1 ty-6 of the LIANCOOR group a friend of Identity- waE queried as to Identity-l's personal life and as far as cant discovered Identity- lives a quiet life with his wife a ud family and is highly respected in Mexican intellectual circles both as an author editorialist arid as an independent leftist Reference B and PLANS below report the StatJnn 's plans for po isible recruitment and aubsequent utiliz tion of Identity-I as P A of LIANCHOR ' bf 6 Production of Articles and Features LIANCHOR U Separate cover attachment B 11 contains a trans ation of a lt INLUCY report written l May 1968 on articles and feature articles produced and distributed during the period 15 December 1968 to 30 April 1968 Case officer comments are included along with information about articles prepared and distributed in May r u 7 1i 1NLUCK1 Invo l vement in Covert Action O erations Tar etted Against Sov e Poe evgeny arc - pr ul a In March LINLUCig drafted an open letter to Soviet poet Yevgenyi YEVTUSHENKO asking the Russian to use bis influence to persuade the Soviet government to-end the persecution of Soviet intellectuals artists writers and poets O lbINLUCK managed to obtain the signatures of students professars actors dancers writers and intellectuals for his open letter and then persuaded the publisher of his books to print thousands of copies vhich were distributed by other assets of the Mexico Station A copy of the open letter was published in EXCELSIOR on the day of YEVTUSHENKO's arrival in Mexico for what was originally billed as a personal trip Because of the open letter and critical press coverage of YEVTUSHENKO's rude behavior towards the press on arriving at Mexico City airport the Russian Embassy called a special press conference the evening of the day of the poet's arrival At the press conference YEVTUSHENKO spoke with outrage of the open letter carefully dodging a number of questions asked by the letter and chided the signers of the letter for claiming there was absolute literary f eedom in Mexico asking how there can be freedom anywhere in the world as long as there is no freedom in Vietnam YEVTUSHENKO's remarks about the open letter left no doubt that he bad come to Mexico as a Soviet propagandist and not as a rebel poet _ I j 'elNLUC also produced a handbill quoting the telegram by Soviet intellectuals to the Consultative Conference of Communist Parties at Budapest asking for an end to Soviet persecution of intellectuals in the USSR The handbill featured two pen and ink drawings of imprisoned Soviet poets Binyavsky and Daniel He also arranged for the printing in Spanish of an authoritative study of incidents surrounding the Galanskov-Dobrovolsky trial in brochure form Thousands of copies of the handbill and _ ___ _ ____ - · - - - _ _ r1 inn A1 A durinll b r1 - ♦ - 'h I -- -1 oN' riNUATiO OF DISPATCH · l Qd the open letter are submitted as Separate Cover Attachment C to this dispatch Costs of the printing and distribution were chdrged to LILISP-X c Via I ent i ty-4 1NLtfJK prLssed guidance material to M xico's toµ female poet Margarita MICHELENA ·concerning YEVTUSHENKO MICHELENA published a series of profession al criticisms of YEVTUSHENKO as a poor·• 1 poet and opportunist in the Mexican press In April · immediat ely following YEVTUSHENX'l's departure a condensation of the MICHELENA cri tt· iues of YEVTUSHENKO were published in the leftist political illustrated magazine IMPACTO py LILISP-E • d Identttles 3 and 6 of t'n-e LIANCHOR group also publ i'shed art i cles against YEVT'TJSHENKO in the rightist dai 1 y EL SOL but the Station felt the articles were too vitriolic ar J unobjective to be a credit to LIANCHOR In fact because of these articles the Station plans to remove both Identities 3 ana 7 from LIANCHOR for it is obvious that both persons have long since lost all traces of th ir former leftism and are extreme rightists EFFECTIVENESS 8 Views on LIANCHOR Effectiveness by Owner Director of Guatemala Dally EL IMPARCIAL a DuringfLINLU Easter visit to Guatemala City he was told by 'the owner of ''EL IMPARCIAL that the - newspaper was only interested in publishing LINLUCK's articles The newspaper owner stated that INLUCK was a well-known personality in Guatemala and also wroftt' interestingly The owner also said that he had published one series by Identity-4 because Ideritity-4 was a Guatemalan who at one time bad been mportant However the owner pointed out that the other LIANCROR writers were unknowns and did not write well He singled out Identity-3 as being a menace to journalism because much of what she wrote amounted to libel or slander b The ''EL IMPARCIAL owner said that he received the newspapers EL DIA of Honduras LA PRENSA GRAFICA of El Salvador LA PRENSA of Nicaragua ''LA REPUBLICA of Costa Rica LA ESTRELLA of Panama and ''ULTIMAS NOTICIAS of Caracas and had noted that these newspapers all publisheg1 NLUCK' articles but had not to bis knowledge published articles by any of the other LIANCHOR writers ' - l ill oI c When _ INLUC explained the coo erati nature of LIANCHOR the ''EL IMPARCIAL man told LINLUCKJ that he · could never hope to collect fees for tis news service until the service became both famous an sought after The ''EL IMPARCIAL owner advised INLUCIS to find writers petter known in Latin America 01 ue suggested that if • o Q INLUC could not afford to pay hi writers fees he should persuade first class writers to contribute to LIANCHOR pure1y·tor the prestige of having their material published around Latin America r 01 9 Effectiveness of· LIANCHOR Writer Grou andl LIKLUCK as a Covert c on ro uc on n a L_INL8tK learned quickly that it was best not to allow m tings of members of the LIANCHOR cooperative • C6NTINUATION OF DISPATCH I S E C RE T HMMA-34792· press group Of nine persons w o belonged to the group as of 15 January three subsequently dropped out because of differences of opinion which developed at group meetings In addit ion i INLUCK leaJ'l ed that persons hie bad selected partly because of their leftist records Identities 3 4 7 and 8 had long aince ceased bei g eftists and were prone to submit manuscripts with texts politically harmful to the image of LIANCHOR Confused political thinking and poor writing resulted in re jection of over 20 manuscripts during February-AtJril by lLINLUCl_9 allld the case officer Rejection of manu8criptdlin turn angered and insulted some of the writers i l l ll l I I 1 l i I j J l f ' b Th personalities and c Rracter of some of the writers have presented problems to LINLUCJ in directing and developing the LIANCHOR group intora productive unit Idep tities 3 5 6 7 and 8 bad 'l o be goaded continually by LINLUCK to turn in manuscripts on assigned themes Botho ldent ty-3 and Identi ty-7 turned out to be emotional extremists suffering at times from deep melancholy and at other times from inexplainable rages which were reflected in their writings As of this writing the Station feels that the only reliable members of the group are Identities 6 and 9 who should be kept as members of the group as long as LIANCHOR is run as a group cooperative press service The unreliable but brilliant and versatile poet writer lexicographer Identity 5 should be continued as a contact of LJANCHOR for occasional emergency use provided LINLUCK's replacement can obtain any cooperation from Identity-5 10 In summary the LIANCHOR group composed of Identities 3 4 5 7 and 8 has proved ineffective and not too productive and the ineffective membe s should be replaced 0 10 Effectiveness of P A r INLUC - oJ a Tbe list of articles and features by INLUCK under Separate Cover Attachment B ie by no means the measure of the agent's writing and production capability • After the agent dusted off and mailed out several of his old article series in December 1968 the case officer instructe1 i 1NLUCl9 to reduce his production in ratio to the manuscripts of other LIANCHOR writers which were mailed out The case officer was concerned that LIANCHOR would appeard fo potent l client newspapers to be primarily a vehicle forl INLUCK's lengthy political essay1 1 in contrast to the statement· n the LIANCHOR prospectus that LIANCHOR was a press service combining articles on cultural educational conomic and social as well as political topics by many writers During the agent's two final months of service he has been given authorization to write as much as he can on the Vietnam issue and other topics for the purpose of buildi g up his name in Guatemala before he returns there to enter politics -a I b While production of articles was not bINLUCK'sj weak point his sel ction and handling of the LIANCHOR press service writers appears to have been weak He has been too long on the fringes of the foreign exile group in Mexico and his contacts among leftists in Mexico are no longer significant In addition the agent appears to have gone the way of many former Latin American Communists in that his theoretical solution to some of the political economic Rod social problems of Latin America can no longer be termed leftist 00 oNTINuAT 9 No F 'Dl'SPATCH ·• SECRET IDtMA-34792 1 c • As a penetration of a Communist Party i' 1NLt c was a singleton Al though as a former Commucist leader he has had experience in handling people he has not had experience in handling sub-agents for WOFl M There was evide J ce du1·ing the reporting EJeriod that INLUCK_ O was having real trouble managing k is co-workers in LIANCHOR However hnndicapped by the fact that he was not paying his co-workers fees or salaries INLUC o probn bly did as well ns he could in controlling his co-workers The real fault J ay ir his poor selection of co-'1·orkers I - 11 Effectiveness of LIANCHOR Arti les-0lnd Fe tures in the Station's opinion tho5a articles wh chQ INLUCKjwrote were · forceful and effective but too long The articles written by i INLUCK' s co-workers apparently were in• iffecti ve to the point that they were not considered worth pu'Jlishing '91e Caprtles newspaper chain Venezuela apparently felt that INLUCK's ot articles were well worth running despite the fact that they bad to be published in installments The leading newspapers in each of th Central American republics appeared to believe tlfJt LINLUCK'aJ articles _merited automatic publication It is assumed thP tU INLUCK' articles were published regularly in _ c Bolivia due0 to La Paz Station assistance However because no o newspaper felt like paying fees to LIANCHOR or answeringlLINLUCK'0 correspondence it has not been possible to ascertain whether LIANCHOR articles have been published with any regularity in Brazil Argentina Chile Colombia 9r Ecuador It is too much to ask third country stations to scan the press daily for a ticles by seven different people The Mexic2 s tation h -s appreciated the assistance received from the ard il J ad 11 idse @nd Guatemala CitY Stations whic have been the principal source of the clipping-s of i INLUCK's_JLIANCHOR articles submitted as _Separate Cover 1 B to this dispatch Attachment ol of SECURITY 12 - There have been no incidents of security nature hazardous to the LIANCHOR project during the reporting period FINANCE AND SUPPORT 13 Finance During 1 October - 30 May the LIANCHOR project expensesJ ave consisted of_U S $5 600 in salary payments to INLUCKJat U S $700 per month and U S $119 in cost of mailing out ANCHOR articles 14 Sutport Reproduction of the LIANCHOR articles for mass distri ution to Latin American newspapers was done by the Station using a Xerox machine 1 • ' L I 1 E l •--··l _ ·1 't - · · i v ·· PLANS ·- 15 J Q l Replacement of LINLUC '-- a Provided Hea dquarters grants POA and Iden ti ty-1 accepts recruitment by a Station case officer LINLUCK will be directed to approach I fntity-1 some two weeks after the recruitment ol LINLUCKJwill tell Identity- that he has come to Identity-I on the advice of Identity-6 LIANCHOR member and friend of Ideqtity-1 0 INLUCK will explain that he is returning to Guatemala to seek·a political career and must give -UP the direction of LIANCHOR 14-00000 'Ir •• • I VNIINUAIIVl'O DISPAYCh vr S E C• R E T • HMMA-34792 -· 16-2 · 0f · beca se LI NCHOR cannot properly be run from@uatemalaJ · tINLUC will describe to Identity-1 the problems which tte has had in developing LIANCHOR and in asking Identity-I to take over control of LIANCHOR will suggest that Identity-I use the LIANCHOR name and established publication outlets to broadon his prest-1 ie in Latin America without any thought of trying to o irn fees 0 l INLUCK will also suggest that Identity-1 re-ta n Identities 6 and 9 to help fill out the service ut th t he gradually try to draw in personal writor friends or' definite leftist fame and persuade them to contribute to LIANCHOR purely for the reward of increased prestige Finally f INLUCKJ will offer to continue to contribute m teri-1 from time to time from Guatemala which ld6ntity-l through his good standing in the Mexican press perhaps can publish in Mexico b If Identity-I rejects recruitment the next candidate for LIANCHOR chief is IdentHy-10 who has already told tIJ'Tl UCK that he is prepared to take over LIANCHOR on a pro c0 ionary basis to see whether i t will enhance his reputatio The Station feels that Identity-IO would be easier to recruit than Identity-1 However Identity-IO is not too well known in Mexico and is totally unknown abroad One of Identity-lO's virtues is the fact that he never formally quit the Communist Party and has done nothing to irritate the Party As economic and ·general reporter for EXCELSIOR he offers placement potential If Identity-I • does accept recruitment the Station still intends to try to recruit Identity-10 as a singleton under Project LIANCHOR possibly steering Identity-lo to Identity-I and tbe LIANCHOR press service after due consideration The Station is also interested in the possibility of recruiting Identity-IO in order t o send him to the World Youth 'Fee ti val at Sofia since it is believed b IQ INLUCK that Identi ty-1 still bas· access to some worthwhile contacts in Central American -· _ · young Communist circles 0 16 Testing for Indications of Effectiveness to Determine Future Direction of LIANCHOR Project a It is estimated that it will not cost over U S $200 to hire clipping services in Buenos Aires Montevideo Santiago and Bogota for a three month trial period to test whether newspapers which receive LIANCHOR material in those cities are publishing the LIANCHOR material The clipping services will be asked to watch for articles with the LIANCHOR by-line the by-lines of LIANCHOR writers and the headlines or titles which are assigned by LIANCOOR to the ar icles mailed to the newspapers b If the clipping service tests show that newspapers or periodicals in two of the above cited countries are publishing LIANCHOR material Station will continue to pursue the development of a small and responsive leftist writer group as one phase of the LIANCHOR operation The rationale behind this decision is that there is little justification in operating a press service even a cheap one with a readership limited to Mexico Central America Venezuela and Bolivia However if the press service can acquire or has acquired readership in any two of the countries in 16-a above then tis felt that the total are coverage is significant and worth maintaining 17 Conversion of LIANCHOR to Temporary Roof Pro ect for Singleton Leftist Writer Assets If as a result of c ipping 1 ki l_l' f'·f ·• 14-00000 • • I • CONTINUATION DISPATCH Or l ' ' I i II•• •• •• 1 SECRET se rvice tests the decision is reached not to continue development of a leftist writer group press service LIANCHOR will be converted to a roof project for the administration and funding· of singleton writer n gents Idcntity-1 if recruited will be told to use the LIANCJ R stationery and list of publi hing newspapers to develop Ii j 'l own prestigEl a nd readership abroad' but he will not be ash· to find addittonal writers for the press service At the u1 i of FY 1969 the LIANCHOR project will be terminated as such arid its fu ds and such agents as have been developed under LIANCHOR will be documented under Project LILISP-E for FY 1970 l ' J fo1 ' Wil lard C CURTIS • i '·• £ it r ' - -· - t - · _ I SEPARATE COVER A ITACHMENT to HMMA-34'T92 i IDENTITIES I r i vCo ' l - icllrdo GARIBAY Ort1 -r a ndependent Mexican socialist pni tical udi tori al ist in EXCELSIOR and p _ - e-winn _ g_ au Lhor of political books • ' · 1 2 - GREN SA SELECTA INTERNACIONAL J Z- °t 0 1 cftJ 3 -aunice ODIO Infante a _n_l_ltural ize - J temaian of Costa Rican origin who resides in Mexico City ·nd I'ites for ''EL SOLttallc _''_F DI - ·_ _ 4 'I· Alfonso li MARTINEZ Estevez ½ '1_110 ' personal secret lu y_ to_ deposed iuatemal I Cq_ ni_ J pre _9 _ent Jacob RBENZ 5 - rnlfo • de la X PENA y Munoz - J _ x _ c g_ _ ler and lin1 ui- st e1_11ploy l__ y_J n_c yc J 9 dia Brita_ - _ panish language edition He has a rep _tati Q s_ f'air poet n Mexico and write __for_ the e_ftj et ''EL DIA'' and the e t _ ' left ''EXCELSIOR_' _ 6 - 7 - 0 _£ l ✓ Manuel CALVILLO U ex can author and editorialist i_l_ _ the Su_n_d l lit _i -ary_ se - ii_s _of Mtl_ - - °- E - 2 'S • J II ' icia REYJaS writer for the newspapers ' L SOL _c __ __UNf R - On_c a m mber·· of-the Mexican_ n r e 'f 'ent 0 1 Moscow _ 11 o 1oYJ 8 Francisco •ZENDEJAS book critic for ''EXCELSIOR M xicg__ _i_ y_ _y __ channel #4 an _ Radio Sta ti n_ XEW He was or1ce_ ·sonal -secretary to Leon TROTSKY•_ Chronic ulcohol L · 9 - rigo JARCIA Trevino Mexican_political author h tori an J fil l 1 terary critic J ·t J· ' i ob u f · ·' ' l- CS COPY ' • I •