Third part of the series for demonstrating that Cuban defector codenamed AMMUG-1 knew nothing at all valuable about Oswald in Mexico City

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Dr. Brain Latell's assertion that "Rodriguez-Lahera's knowledge that Castro had lied apparently was not shared with the Warren Commission [WC]," entails a downright lie: there wasn't any knowledge at all to share with anybody.

Vladimir Rodriguez-Lahera defected from the General Directorate of Intelligence (DGI) in Canada around April 21, 1964. He was codenamed AMMUG-1 and his initial debriefing included "that the only possible fabrication known by the source was the specific denial by Fidel Castro, on a television program, of any Cuban knowledge of Oswald." Dr. Latell surreptitiously turns the conjecture of "possible fabrication" into knowledge worthy of being conveyed to the WC.

The day after the assassination, Castro referred to Oswald thusly: " We never in our life heard of the existence of this person ." Dr. Latell ascertains that AMMUG-1 "was convinced that Fidel had lied" and told it to "his handlers in May 1964." The reader is left in the dark because Dr. Latell omits that, on May 8, 1964, the handler himself, Harold Swenson, memoed to CIA Headquarters the information given by AMMUG-1 "paraphrasing his explanations and comments." What matters most is:

        I have no personal knowledge of Lee Harvey Oswald or his activities and I do not know that Oswald was an agent of the [DGI] or any other directorate or department of the Cuban Government

        I first heard of Oswald after the assassination (") Personnel in the DGI first commented about the case, so far as I can recall, one day after lunch when a group of officers, of whom I was one, were chatting

        Manuel Vega-Perez previously had been assigned to Mexico in the Cuban Consulate, where he was the principal intelligence officer of the DGI. Vega mentioned that Oswald had gone to the Cuban Consulate two or three times in connection with a visa application during the time that Vega was in Mexico. I gathered, although I do not know that Vega made any specific statement to this effect, that Vega personally had seen Oswald. I well could have reached this conclusion because normally Vega and his assistant in Mexico for the DGI, Rogelio Rodriguez-Lopez, would see personas applying for a visa to go to Cuba.

        This is because DGI officers are charged with expediting the granting of visas of agents of the DGI. Such agents, on appearing at the Consulate, use a special phrase to indicate their relationship with the DGI (I do not know the particular phrase used in every case") The DGI officers at a Consulate interview visa applicants to find out if they are agents. If the visa applicant does not use one of the indicate phrases, the DGI officers, instead of granting the visa immediately, tell the applicant to return in a few days. The officer then notifies Havana and requests authority for the visa.

        I cannot recall if Vega even made the statement that he had requested permission to issue a visa to Oswald, but I feel sure that he would have done so because Vega has said that Oswald had returned several times and this would be the usual procedure.

        I believe that Rogelio Rodriguez-Lopez also would have seen Oswald because he worked with Vega and also would have screened visa applicants.

        I thought that Luis Calderon might have had contact with Oswald because I learned about 17 March 1964, shortly before I made a trip to Mexico, that she had been involved with an American in Mexico.

        The information to which I refer was told to me by a DGI case officer named Norberto Hernandez (") I had commented to Hernandez that it seemed strange that Luisa Calderon was receiving a salary from the DGI although she apparently did not do any work for the service. Hernandez told me that hers was a peculiar case and that he himself believed that she had been recruited in Mexico by the [CIA] although Manuel Piñeiro, the Head of the DGI, did not agree.

        As I recall, Hernandez had investigated Luisa Calderon. This was because, during the time she was in Mexico, the DGI had intercepted a letter to her by an American who signed his name as Ower (phonetic) or something similar (") It could have been Howard or something different.

        As I understood the matter, the letter from the American was a love letter, but indicated that there was a clandestine-professional relationship between the writer and Luisa Calderon. I also understood from Hernandez that after the interception of the letter she had been followed and seen in the company of an American. I do not know if this could have been Oswald.

The out-of-the-dark reader could understand why Swanson concluded: AMMUG-1 did not have "any significant information." His guesswork ["I gathered, although I do not know;" "I well could have reached this conclusion," "I cannot recall ("), but I fell sure;" "I believe," "I thought""] turned significant in Dr. Latell's book only because the author is obsessed with Castro foreknowledge of Oswald.

More than four decades after being debriefed by Swanson, AMMUG-1 provided Dr. Latell with an unheard-of argument: the most routine matters at the Cuban diplomatic venue in Mexico City were reported directly to Castro. Dr. Latell and AMMUG-1 should know that neither Castro nor any other Head of Government has time for being informed about ordinary people applying for visas.

What AMMUG-1 thought in 1964 about Calderon's contact with Oswald is pure nonsense. Her presumed American lover "signed his name as Ower or something similar," like [Oscar] Cower, who called Rodriguez-Lopez from Los Angeles on November 7, 1963. The CIA intercept center LIENVOY tapped the call .

Dr. Latell also does not notice that "it could have been Howard" or somebody else, but never Lee Harvey Oswald, because he would have been detected by the CIA. Calderon was the secretary of the Commercial Office at the Cuban Embassy. The Cuba Desk officer at the CIA Station, Bob Shaw [Lawrence Baker], had her under tight surveillance at least since July 19, 1963, when LIENVOY intercepted the phone call from Texas cattleman Eldon Hensen contacting her to do business. A CIA agent impersonated a Cuban official and met with Hensen, who ended up being arrested by the FBI.

What AMMUG-1 believed in 1964 about Rodriguez-Lopez and felt sure about Vega-Perez inevitably falls down like a house of cards. Oswald was not told "to return in a few days." Unlike "the usual procedure," he came three times on the same day --September 27, 1963-- to the Cuban Consulate. Its secretary, Sylvia Duran, personally took care of him and asked the outgoing consul Eusebio Azcue-Lopez for help. The latter spoke English and was training the incoming consul Alfredo Mirabal-Diaz, who didn t.

Oswald applied for an in-transit visa to Cuba on his way to Russia. He wished to travel next Monday, September 30, and to in Havana one or two weeks. He didn t bring the photos and left to get them in a commercial facility. He returned with the photos and also produced some documents for proving his membership in both the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) and the Fair Play for Cuba Committee (FPCC), his stay in Russia and his marriage with a Soviet citizen.

Duran made up the form and Oswald signed it in her presence, but was clearly told that the in-transit visa couldn t be granted before the entry visa from Russia. He left for the Soviet Consulate and returned saying there wasn't any problem. He was denied by the Soviet consul after the Cubans called to discuss the case. Oswald tried to force the visa granting anyway and it led to an altercation with Azcue-Lopez, who finally asked him out of the office.

Along with Duran and Mirabal-Diaz, who got the application from Azcue-Lopez for standard processing, there were two additional eyewitnesses of the incident. An official at the Commercial Office, Antonio Garcia-Lara, went downstairs as soon as he heard the dispute. He was able to see Oswald leaving the consulate. And the Commercial Attaché, Guillermo Ruiz, was going to his office when Azcue-Lopez asked him --since he spoke better English-- to explain the American applicant again why the Cuban visa couldn't be granted.

AMMUG-1 didn't hear "any specific statement [that Vega-Perez] personally had seen Oswald" because he wasn't at the spot. No extra DGI officer was needed for "the granting of visas" since the new consul Mirabal-Diaz arrived on September 2, 1963. His CIA index card shows he was also the incoming "Chief of Intell." Let's see next Dr. Latell unabashedly crosses the lines between "the Center chief" and the consul positions for supporting a conspiracy theory without paying attention to the key conspiracy fact of Oswald's impersonation in Mexico City.

Authors Bio:

Former Professor of Law at the University of Havana
Former Instructor of Journalism at the University of Miami
Contributor to CTKA on the JFK assassination
Contributor to History Today and The Miami Herald