Alpha 66

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Alpha 66 is an end in 1961 by Cuban exile guerrillas - veterans of the Cuban Revolution , founded paramilitary group with headquarters in Miami in the US state of Florida that the overthrow of the Cuban government under Fidel Castro and end the rule of the Communist Party of Cuba aims.

History and structure

Of the six leading founding members, four had held the highest rank of comandante ( major ) a few years earlier in the task force Segundo Frente Nacional del Escambray (SFNE) , when this force successfully waged the guerrilla war against the Fulgencio army parallel to Castro's movement of July 26th Batistas had led. Among them were the founder and commander-in-chief of the SFNE, Eloy Gutiérrez Menoyo , who was appointed military head of Alpha 66, and Andrés Nazario Sargén , who headed the group as general secretary until his death in 2004. With the combat experience from the war against Batista, Alpha 66 now wanted to overthrow Castro after he had disregarded essential political program statements made before the victory of the revolution and had concentrated power in his hands without democratic control since 1959. From the start, the group took a decidedly anti-communist political stance. Alpha 66 was formed to revive the spirit of war against Castro, which had sunk among many Cuban exiles as a result of the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion . The group was formally registered as an organization in Puerto Rico in September 1961 by its first treasurer, Antonio Veciana. In addition to its Florida headquarters, Alpha has 66 offices in New Jersey and California .

The current general secretary of Alpha 66 is Ernesto Díaz Rodríguez , a former trade unionist who has fought against Castro since 1959 and in 1991 as a political prisoner after serving 22 ½ years of a combined 40-year sentence from the French PEN Club and the then President of Costa Rica , Oscar Arias , was sacked.

activities

The group's activities had different priorities in different phases of its existence:

  • Initially, the exiles from Alpha 66 wanted to support the resistance fighters who remained in Cuba, who had started the guerrilla war against the Castro government in the fall of 1960, especially in the Escambray Mountains, without having succeeded in spreading the fight to other areas.
  • At the same time, Alpha 66 drew attention to itself from October 1962 through several selective acts of sabotage and attacks on economic targets in the form of commando attacks along the Cuban coast, in which merchant ships in particular were attacked and damaged. President John F. Kennedy responded to official Cuban and Soviet protests at the end of March 1963 by ordering the US authorities to stop future attacks by Cubans in exile living in the US, which was only partially successful. Against around twenty known Alpha members, he ordered a restriction on the freedom of movement to County Miami-Dade.
  • In addition, the group broadcast radio messages in Cuba via its own shortwave transmitter and also ensured the greatest possible publicity in Cuba.
  • The most ambitious project (“Plan Omega” from 1964) was to send our own invasion troops to Cuba to build a guerrilla army. The corresponding attempts failed miserably, however, for example in January 1965 when the group's then military chief, Gutiérrez Menoyo, was arrested together with three comrades around four weeks after their landing near Baracoa in the far east of the island, without any others insurgent fighters would have joined. In the last similar attempt in 1970, twelve of the 13 invaders were killed. Alpha 66 now had small bases in the Bahamas and the Dominican Republic , while the US government did not allow operations against Cuba from its own territory, even though Alpha 66 often ignored this ban.
  • Alpha 66 repeatedly pursued plans to assassinate Fidel Castro at various times .
  • From 1980 the group shifted the main goal of their actions to internal destabilization of Cuba ("Plan Máximo Gómez ").
  • In the 1990s, Alpha 66 shifted its main interests to international tourism to Cuba, which became a major source of foreign currency for Cuba. The group declared tour operators and Cuba tourists to be legitimate targets and was responsible for numerous bomb threats in hotels and other acts of sabotage. In March 1994, during a commando attack by speedboat on a hotel complex on the island of Cayo Coco on the Cuban north coast, there was a shooting between Alpha 66 members and Cuban security forces.
  • Since an armed fighter was last arrested in April 2001 while attempting to land in Cuba, the remaining members of the group have limited themselves to occasional paramilitary training, but do not rule out a return to armed struggle. According to their own statements, they want to remain ready for the time when the Cuban people rise up against their government to support them in their struggle for freedom. The group considers such an armed confrontation with the government to be inevitable sooner or later, but it also supports the non-violent opposition movement in principle.

effect

Although the activities of the group were relatively insignificant militarily and the declared aim of a violent overthrow of the Castro dictatorship had to appear completely unrealistic by around 1965 at the latest, the members of Alpha 66 gained a high degree of sympathy through their willingness to make sacrifices and the uncompromising attitude of the group and respect, political and financial support within the Cuban exile community. At the same time, Alpha 66 also served the Cuban government as a propaganda instrument to legitimize the suppression of all forms of opposition: Both in the image drawn by the Cuban media and in the self-portrayal of the group, Alpha 66 appeared for a long time to be far more threatening than was proven by actual successes. In many cases, activity has been limited to publicity threats and announcements on both sides of the Florida Strait. The Cuban state institutions present Alpha 66 as an "anti-Cuban terrorist organization" created and operating under the auspices of the CIA. According to their statements, actions by Alpha 66 cost a total of three local deaths in five decades: two fishermen and a soldier from the border guard.

Alpha 66 was at least as dangerous for representatives of different opinions within the Cuban exile community regarding the most promising policy towards Castro as it was for the Cuban government: especially during the 1970s and 1980s, when parts of the exile were subject to a dialogue promoted by US President Jimmy Carter got involved with Castro and the opinion leadership of the proponents of the armed struggle began to break down, Alpha 66 was involved in acts of violence such as bombings against representatives of moderate positions in Miami. The former military chief Menoyo was branded a “traitor” by the group after he declared the path of violence a failure in Miami after 22 years in prison in Cuba and spoke out in favor of negotiations.

The group was infiltrated and monitored both by informants working for the US Federal Bureau of Criminal Investigation and by spies from the Cuban secret service . In 1992, the then military chief of Alpha 66, Francisco Avila, who had spent in Cuban custody from 1968 to 1979, identified himself as a double agent : he had informed both the Cuban government about the group's activities and the FBI with information about in South Florida serving Cuban agents. According to his own statements, he had received from Havana, among other things, 12,000 USD for the purchase of a boat for Alpha 66 and instructions for attacks on Cuban targets. From 1962 until his surprising move to Cuba in 1985, the Cuban secret service officer Enoel Salas Santos was an undiscovered agent in the ranks of Alpha 66. He informed the government in Havana of numerous actions and spent at the side of Eloy Gutiérrez Menoyo from 1964 Until 1976 in Cuban prisons, in whose infiltration squad he was involved. US authorities were able to thwart several actions by Alpha 66 due to a lack of secrecy - for example, the US Coast Guard illegally arrested armed boats in US territorial waters in 1993 and 1997.

In 1994 a small group around Rodolfo Frómeta split off from Alpha 66 in order to pursue an even more militant course under the name "Comandos F4".

Alpha 66 has not reported any actions since 2001. However, members of the group continue to gather for paramilitary training and camaraderie meetings, especially on weekends.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Alpha 66: Our History ( Memento of April 4, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Self-presentation from October – December 2003 on alpha66.org, accessed on November 22, 2011 (Spanish)
  2. ↑ Antonio Veciana: La verdad histórica de Alpha 66 ( memento of October 6, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) on the website of the Cuban Political Prisoners Foundation (undated), accessed on November 23, 2011 (Spanish)
  3. ↑ Former Political Prisoner Seeks Change in Cuba in: Washington Post, August 4, 2006, accessed October 17, 2011 (English, with video)
  4. ↑ Ernesto Diaz-Rodriguez (Vice President) ( Memento of November 20, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) on the New Cuba Coalition website (undated), accessed on October 17, 2011
  5. ↑ Castro won in: Der Spiegel from April 10, 1963, accessed on November 23, 2011
  6. ↑ Jane Franklin: Cuba and the United States. A Chronological History. (PDF; 2.1 MB) Ocean Press, Melbourne and New York 1997, ISBN 978-1-875284-92-4 , page 64 (English)
  7. ↑ a b Alpha-66 in the official Cuban online encyclopedia EcuRed , accessed on November 22, 2011 (Spanish)
  8. ↑ a b c Hector Florin: The Fight Club in: Palm Beach Post of August 8, 2006, accessed via FindArticles.com on November 22, 2011 (English)
  9. ^ A b Jane Franklin: Cuba and the United States. A Chronological History. (PDF; 2.1 MB) Ocean Press, Melbourne and New York 1997, ISBN 978-1-875284-92-4 (English)
  10. ↑ Duvy Argandoña and Antonio Mestre: Alpha 66 (Organization) University of Miami Finding Aids, accessed on November 26, 2011 (English)
  11. ↑ Tracey Eaton: Alpha 66: Won't rule out military action as legitimate tactic in the blog Along the Malecón from June 2, 2009, accessed on October 17, 2011 (English)
  12. ↑ ALPHA-66, Luchadores Contra la Dictadura Castro Comunista Interview with the Deputy Chairman of Alpha 66 from October 2, 2011 (YouTube video, 2 parts), accessed on November 23, 2011 (Spanish)
  13. ↑ Alpha 66 militants reunite, look to Cuban dissidents in: Miami Herald of February 23, 2008, accessed via LatinAmericanStudies.org on November 23, 2011 (English)
  14. ↑ a b Cuban Ministry of the Interior: The Essential Terrorist Acts against Cuba (1990–2000) 2001, accessed on October 17, 2011
  15. ↑ Terroristic Activity, Part 8: Terrorism in the Miami Area ( Memento of May 16, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) United States Government Printing Office , Washington, DC, 1976, 56 pages
  16. ↑ Spy Reveals Exile Intrigue Cuban Double Agent Betrays Castro`s Foes In Miami in: Sun Sentinel from November 22, 1992, accessed on October 17, 2011 (English)
  17. ↑ Juan Carlos Fernández: La historia que nunca se supo in: Granma Semanal of April 26, 1987, accessed via LatinAmericanStudies.org on November 26, 2011 (Spanish)
  18. ↑ Guillermo Fariñas : Total falta de consideración in: Ascociación Pro Libertad de Prensa of April 9, 2009, accessed on November 26, 2011 (Spanish)
  19. ↑ Jane Franklin: Cuba and the United States. A Chronological History. (PDF; 2.1 MB) Ocean Press, Melbourne and New York 1997, ISBN 978-1-875284-92-4 , page 335 (English)
  20. ↑ Tristram Korten: The coddled “terrorists” of South Florida in: Salon from January 14, 2008, accessed on October 17, 2011 (English)
  21. ↑ Tracey Eaton: Alpha 66: Won't rule out military action as legitimate tactic in the blog Along the Malecón from June 2, 2009, accessed on October 17, 2011 (English)