Cryptonym: AMHINT-19
According to the Cuban Counterrevolutionary Handbook entry for RECE in October, 1964, Ramon Carona Villar was the Advisor for Commando Activities. His assistant advisors were Raul Villaverde Lamadriz and Jose J. Basulto Leon (famous in the 90s for his work with Brothers for the Rescue).
AMHINT-19 could possibly be his brother Rafael Villaverde, but the 4/12/77 document below shows that Raul was of interest to DDO/WH from 1960-67 and Rafael was only of interest for a few months in 1965. Brother Jorge was in Cuban prison from about 1961-1978 (201-859862). 104-10181-10007, p. 120. Therefore, it is probable that AMHINT-19 was Raul Villaverde.
A FBI report from Miami in November, 1965, stated that Raul Villaverde was working as a surveyor in the area, and was known as a demolitions expert (as was his brother, Rafael). The Cuban exile and member of Comandos L, Ramon Font Saumell, alleged that Raul Villaverde was a close associate of Tony Cuesta and himself, and apparently worked on explosives for them.
A dispatch in January, 1968, stated that AMHINT-19 was a CIA indigenous instructor exposed to AMHINT-56 (Juan Francisco Blanco Fernandez). Ramon Font Saumell, mentioned above, alleged that Raul Villaverde was a CIA instructor.
On a CBS evening news program in September of 1981, George Crile mentioned "Raul Villaverde, an eight year veteran of the CIA's secret war on Cuba, demolitions expert, key member of the infiltration team."
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/book/Ramon-Font-Saumell.pdf
Pages 103-104 (Spanish to English translation): ..."The sea kept getting worse, and we all decided to go back to land, and it was one of the great luck we have had, well once in Miami and after making another base to shoot the rockets, strong sea proof, and in anticipation that something was not right, we sent Dorta, the bazooka expert, to go with Lilo out to sea in a boat and try a projectile; they did it and fired it without problems but the rocket did not explode. Upon receiving that news we call our friend of the CIA, Mr. Raul Villaverde to examine us another of the rockets, to see why the one that had exploded had not exploded. Raul gave him several laps and in the end he took a knife, scraped the surface and under the green gray color came out a pale blue with which the American Army marks the artifacts of practice. Anyway, the fifty rockets were useless, and they had cost $50 each..."
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/book/Ramon-Font-Saumell.pdf
Page 109 (Spanish to English translation): "Chapter 14...Twenty-eight days after our attack on the Pontón San Pascual, the ship 'New Lane' and the 'Cuban San Blas', on October 5, 1962, Mr. Antonio Veciana called Tony Cuesta and me to tell us that another crew of 'Alpha 66' was going to make an attack. I said we were very happy, since there had to be many crews since there. We thought we were going to mess with the Castro government alone. Just like last time. In our attack on September 8, we let our friend Raúl Villaverde know that he I (?) was going to do an action in the next few days, and when Mr. Veciana told us that they been successful, and the things they had done, even before we studied them thoroughly, we communicate it to Mr. Villaverde, who due to the euphoria, did not analyze much what had passed and immediately communicated to their bosses, who at that time enjoyed every time something was done, no matter who did it...When the CIA knew what had happened, he sent his U-2 to watch, and learned that nothing they had said was true. Mr. Villaverde, as you might have guessed, came a rage to unbelieve us, and we explained what we thought had happened, since Mr. Veciana loved to do novels, he understood, and it did not happen from there, but, as we had doubts before on that part, we dedicated ourselves to study it, and in a few moments we realized that it was a huge lie..."
https://www.maryferrell.org/php/crypsuedit.php?type=crypt&id=AMHINT-19&action=review
Page 110 (Spanish to English translation): ..."Thirty-eight years after this action and on the occasion that the Cuban government was accusing the United States before the provincial popular court of the City of Havana, for the terrorist acts committed by exile organizations including 'Alpha 66', which they were confessed by commander Gutierrez Menoyo in his statements to Cuban television, is that we know what that four-man command actually did. (The) names are Nicolas Salado, known as 'Colo', Publio Ruiz, Julio Cruz and Zenen Castillo; although for what the CIA had reviewed before, through the mediation of Mr. Raul Villaverde, that war part was false..."
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/book/Ramon-Font-Saumell.pdf
Page 119 (Spanish to English translation): "Chapter 16: Many days without knowing what to do. Indecisions of President Kennedy. Luck of the non-intervention of the Americans in the liberation of Castro's Cuba. Again Andrew Saint George. Purchase of Chrysler engines. Odyssey with its installation. Two Carpenters with one stone, as in the coroto. Starter motors ?: one yes and the other no. Three bilge pumps and at the moment of truth, none. Cold blood and courage from Tony Cuesta. The house of the seventeen phones: 'I am not going to give you any coffee,' Mr. Planas said later. Salad and beers. Making a bomb with the direction of Raul Villaverde, agent of CIA. Tony gets Santiago Alvarez's mother ship captained by himself. Count Dracula pulling weapons..." - - - Page 122: ..."We started manufacturing that pump with the essential help of our friend Raúl Villaverde, and for them we get Pentolite, C-3, C-4 and TNT, detonating cord and a table of plywood that agreed to our purposes. We were putting the Pentolite, a hard explosive, in round pieces on the sides. Then, the TNT which is square and also hard, and when we had covered the plywood with the C-3 and the C-4, which are malleable, we filled the curvature of the Pentolite and we leave a space without explosives. We took a stretch of detonating cord and we made a tight ball, put it in the center and left two more pieces of one foot or less, where we would put the detonators. We spent more king tape and electrical tape around over and over again, until we made sure that the interior didn't move at all. We had the idea of put the bomb in a small boat of about a meter (three and a half feet) that would explode by contact with the target, an electric detonation system had to be added, and for that our friend Villaverde was there again...."
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/book/Ramon-Font-Saumell.pdf
Page 137 (Spanish to English translation): ..."One morning at eleven o'clock the mail arrived and in a letter came twenty money orders, one hundred dollars each. That really came from heaven, because we have never known who he sent, but he also gave us a break, because two nights before they had reached our office two very jovial and cordial Americans who entered the room and inquired what we were doing there and what were those small desks for, and other questions that they were honestly answered because we thought they were sympathetic to our cause of that happened daily. But they really were two spy agents of the Government who were checking because in that area we couldn't have offices since it was a residential section, and the next day we received a notification that we had to move, and thanks to those two thousand dollars from the money orders opened the doors of a house that the lord had just left Raul Villaverde, whom we already know, CIA instructor, who had addressed me at the manufacture of the pump that we also know with knowledge of the Agency that never He supposed we were going to use it..." - - - Page 139: ..."Trying to finish the bombs without affecting us, their threats get 2 fans and we put them on the dynamite, which solved a problem, but not another. He introduced us by chance to a neighbor, a retired miner, who knew the smell of dynamite and he dedicated himself to watching us through his window that apparently always remained closed, I imagine that so that the air conditioner did not go out. The man notified the authorities of his suspicions about the house next door and it took several days, because they had the information that he lived there, Villaverde who worked for the CIA, but when they looked for information they knew that he no longer lived there and decided to storm our office..."
10/29/64 cable from JMWAVE to Director. AMHINT-19 informed by brother, Father Francisco Villaverde, O. P., that Cuban Major Almeida was going to meet Mrs. Jose Ventura in Switzerland during October 64…Villaverde probably identical Francisco (Villaverde) Lamadris, Dominican Order priest reported loyal AMTHUG-1 (CS 3/481, July 19, 1961) arrived Miami Aug 61 following three months asylum Brazil Embassy Habana, was National Chaplain for Catholic Youth Organization in Cuba. One of the brothers sentenced 30 yrs by revolutionary tribunal, another in 1961 awaiting trial for participation Bay of Pigs invasion (OO-A 3, 199, 172 Oct 16, 1961). AMOT Report AA 1376, Jan 24, 1963 identified subject Director of Centro de Juventudes Catolicas de Miami without further info...he in Mexico under forged Vatican passport name Francisco Villa Lamar; controlled small student group Pueblo University…"
1993.08.05.10:41:34:710005: HSCA MATERIAL REVIEWED AT HEADQUARTERS -- CUBAN COUNTERREVOLUTIONARY H
10/30/64: Cuban Counterrevolutionary Handbook entry for RECE: Ramon Carona Villar was the Advisor for Commando Activities. His assistant advisors were Raul Villaverde Lamadriz and Jose J. Basulto Leon (famous in the 90s for his work with Brothers for the Rescue).
11/10/65 report from SAC, Miami to Director, FBI. "On November 9, 1965, Rafael Villaverde La Madriz advised Special Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation as follows: He currently resides at 3840 Northwest 186th Street, Miami, with his father, Francisco Jose Villaverde Blanco, and his mother, Cira Maria La Madriz. He has a brother, Francisco, who is a priest in Mexico. Another brother, Raul, resides in the Miami area and is employed as a surveyor. Rafael is currently employed at Marsden, Inc., A. E. duPont Building, Miami, as a general contractor. He is a Reserve Lieutenant in the United States Army Airborne Rangers. He received training in the Army Special Forces. His serial number is C2312347. He and his brother, Raul, are both demolitions experts. He last manufactured bombs in 1961 and 1963 in Cuba. He believes his brother, Raul, is the best demolitions expert in Miami, and both he and his brother are well known in Cuban exile circles. He, Rafael, is not currently engaged in the manufacture of bombs or demolitions of any type. He has never constructed any explosive devices or engaged in the use of demolitions without the knowledge of representatives of United States government agencies. He in the past has worked for other government agencies...Neither Rafael nor his brother, Raul, is presently connected with anti-Castro Cuban exile organizations. He does not know Orlando Bosch personally and has no connection with the MIRR. Another brother, Jorge Salvador Villaverde La Madriz, is currently imprisoned on the Isle of Pines, Cuba. On November 10, 1965, MM T-3, another government agency which conducts intelligence investigations, advised as follows: Rafael Villaverde is a Reserve Lieutenant in the United States Army. He was an intelligence officer in the Cuban Brigade 2506...MM T-3 advised no information had come to his attention...that Villaverde has ever conducted anti-Castro activities outside the sponsorship of US government agencies."
104-10215-10145: DISPATCH: TYPIC/OPERATIONAL/AMLILAC/TERMINATION OF AMHINT-56.
01/26/68, Dispatch from COS, JMWAVE to Chief, WH Division: Page 5: ..."Indigenous Instructors Exposed: ...AMHINT-19/true name..."
Gaeton Fonzi, The Last Investigation (Thunder's Mouth Press, New York, 1993), p. 357
"(In 1976) some time prior to the Letalier assassination, (Ed) Wilson had gotten another assignment from Khadafy. The Libyan leader wanted one of his principal enemies, hiding in Cairo, assassinated. Wilson decided to dip into the pool of anti-Castro Cubans in Miami trained as experts in the field by the CIA. He called Rafael "Chi Chi" Quintero, a veteran of a number of JMWAVE's sabotage and assassination missions...and gave Quintero the impression it was an Agency job...Quintero called Tom Clines, his old case officer, at the Agency to check out Wilson's request. Clines gave Wilson a ringing endorsement. Quintero recruited two brothers, Rafael and Raoul Villaverde, who had worked for him in the old days, and all three flew to Geneva to meet Wilson and (Frank) Terpil and get the details for the hit...(when CIA director Stansfield) Turner read about the Justice Dept.'s investigation of Wilson in the Washington Post...he called Clines and (Ted) Shackley into his office and demanded an accounting of their relationship with Wilson. Their explanation didn't satisfy Turner and he reassigned them to what he thought were less sensitive posts. Both Clines and Shackley eventually left the Agency to go to work for one of Edwin Wilson's export companies. Clines eventually became the first participant in the Iran/Contra scandal to go to jail."
104-10110-10584: JUSTICE DEPARTMENT INQUIRY REGARDING RAFAEL QUIINTERO ET AL
4/12/77 Justice Dept. inquiry about five individuals: Rafael Quintero (AMJAVA-4), Rafael Villaverde, Raul Villaverde, Jesus Lazo, Valentine Hernandez, and Anthony Nestor Izquierdo Diaz, aka Tony Izquierdo (no identifiable information on Izquierdo due to lack of biographical data). Quintero was of interest to DDO/WH from 1959-67; Rafael Villaverde from Feb.-Sept. 1965, and Raul Villaverde from 1960-67. Based on this finding, Raul Villaverde is more likely to be AMHINT-19.
https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP90-00552R000505280005-8.pdf
9/8/81 CBS Evening News program: Subject: CIA CONTROVERSY: "DAN RATHER: The Central Intelligence Agency, subject to considerable bad publicity in recent years, finds itself embroiled now in another controversy, one that may not be of its making. This one involves a former agent named Edwin Wilson, who has fled this country to avoid an indictment for illegal explosive sales to Libya. And Wilson has been linked to an attempt to kill an enemy of Libya's leader, Colonel Qaddafi, an attempt that involved the hiring of hit men with CIA connections. George Crile has been investigating. GEORGE CRILE: These were the hit men recruited by Ed Wilson. Rafael "Chi-Chi" Quantero (?), recruited by the CIA before the Bay of Pigs and, for several years after, a leader of the infiltration team running terrorist operations to Cuba. Raul Villaverde, an eight year veteran of the CIA's secret war on Cuba, demolitions expert, key member of the infiltration team. His brother, Rafael Villaverde, Bay of Pigs veteran, another of the CIA's longtime infiltration agents..."