EXILES vs. CASTRO—A Relentless Pursuit

On Jan. 1, 1959, Fidel Castro took power and the first wave of refugees fled Cuba. A small number of the 600,000 exiles who settled in the U.S. have become extremists who settled in the highlights of events in those 18 years, some involving law-abiding exiles, others involving the extremists:

• 1961: A 1,300-man Cuban Brigade, armed and trained by the U.S. in Florida, Guatemala and Nicaragua, landed at the Bay of Pigs on Cuba's south shore. The invasion was a failure.

• 1962: Survivors of the Bay of Pigs were released by Castro after payment of a 53-million-dollar ransom in drugs, food, medical equipment and other supplies from "private contributions." President John F. Kennedy, in Miami, pledged to the Cuban exiles that the Brigade flag would one day fly over a liberated Cuba.

• 1963: U.S. launched secret "Operation Mongoose"—a plan to use Cuban exiles in paramilitary war against Castro while U.S. maintained an economic blockade to shake the island's economy. The attacks generally failed.

• 1964: Cuban extremists in New York City fired a mortar shell at United Nations on Cuba's Che Guevara addressed the General Assembly.

• 1967: Cuban exile specialists and U.S.-trained bomb troops transport and killed Guevara and some of his Communist guerrillas in Bolivia.

• 1968-72: Cuban exile extremists bombed ships of nations considered to be friendly to Castro, or required other exiles to keep them in line.

• 1972: Cuban exiles trained by Central Intelligence Agency took part in Watergate break-in, later testified that they thought it would help their anti-Castro campaign.

• 1973: U.S. and Cuba signed agreement aimed at stemming hijacking of aircraft and piracy of ships at sea.

• 1974-75: Cuban extremists exploded more than 100 bombs in Miami area in one-year period, hitting offices of the FBI, a State Attorney and the Miami Police department.

• 1975: Extremists attacked offices of nations and consulates of governments that have diplomatic relations with Castro. Bombings took place in Jamaica, Mexico, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Colombia, and Venezuela.

• Fishing boats based in Cuba and Soviet cargo ships were attacked by high-speed motor launches manned by exile extremists.

• Terror reached its peak with the bomb sabotage of a Cuban airliner and the death of 73 passengers and crew last October 6 near Barbados. Police in Venezuela arrested two Cuban exiles, suspected of involvement in the sabotage. Castro charged U.S. exiles with carrying out a systematic campaign of terrorism against his government.

CUBAN EXTREMISTS (continued from preceding page)

• a former Cuban Ambassador in Washington, D.C., on September 21.

• Kidnapping two Cuban officials in Argentina.

• Attempting to kidnap a Cuban consul in Mexico.

Who are these terrorists? What motivates them? How do they operate? And what are U.S. officials so concerned about what they may do in the future?

To answer such questions, Dr. Kelly and Carl J. Migdail of the U.S. News & World Report staff dug deeply into the records, interviewed Cuban refugees who share the hope—though not the methods of the terrorists, and talked to law-enforcement officials who are trying to stem the violence.

BREEDING GROUND FOR TERRORISM

Fidel Castro took over Cuba in 1959 and it became apparent that he intended to establish a Communist state. 800,000 Cubans "voted with their feet" and fled their homeland. Some 600,000 of them settled in the United States. They and their children now total 750,000. Most of them live in the Miami area.

The majority of these immigrants are law-abiding. But Miami's "Little Havana" provides a climate in which the virus of violence can grow.

"In Miami," explains one refugee leader, "the Cubans keep their national identity, their heritage, traditions, hatreds—and their hopes of going back to their homeland. And they know they can't go back until Castro is gone. So they dream of toppling Castro. What is clearly unrealistic in other places in the United States seems very possible in the atmosphere in Miami."

In the early 1960s, the overthrow of Castro seemed to the Cubans in exile to be not only possible but almost inevitable. It was U.S. policy to drive him from power. There was an attempt to invade Cuba at the Bay of Pigs in 1961 with an army of Cuban exiles recruited and trained in secret by the CIA. The invaders were not given the air cover necessary for a successful attack, and the operation was a disaster. About 150 of about 1,300 invaders escaped death or capture. The Cubans felt betrayed.

Then came other American moves against Castro. There was a secret "Operation Mongoose," which included efforts to assassinate the Cuban leader. The United States backed an economic blockade of Cuba in an attempt to prevent Castro from obtaining needed supplies and equipment from abroad. Later, Cuban refugees were used to carry out secret operations not only in the Caribbean but also in other parts of Latin America—and even in the U.S.

To many Cuban refugees, attacking Castro and Communist influence anywhere became a way of life.

Since then, however, American policy has failed to match the refugees' sense of urgency. The passion of the more militant refugees has received only lukewarm measures of U.S. support. For instance, in 1973, Cuban exiles hijacked a Western United States to Cuba. The airplane hijackers who had been using Cuban airspace for refuge were thrown in with both sides to neutralize air piracy. There have also been numerous arrests of Cuban exiles for terrorist acts.

As their hopes of American action against Castro ebbed, some Cuban refugees turned to violence on their own. The...

TERRORIST LEADERS AND TACTICS

Thus the more militant Cuban exiles have formed themselves into many groups. Some of these groups called themselves by no name. Some groups have openly bragged about their acts of violence. Others have hardly begun to take the walls—"Little Havana"...