Home/ Resources / Projects / CIA Cryptonyms / bigram: AM / cryptonym: AMLIGHT-1

Cryptonym: AMLIGHT-1

Return to Main Crypts Page

Definition:
Huber Matos Benitez, important Cuban military leader in Camaguey province until his purge in 1959 for challenging Fidel Castro. Imprisoned until the 1970s.
Status:
Documented
Sources:

104-10217-10136: CABLE RE: IDENTITIES FOLLOW ON CRYPTS USED IN REF B

4/30/71 memo from WH/Miami to Caracas (Info: Director): (Sadelly Acting): "Identities follow in (following cable): AMLIGHT-1 (Important political prisoner in PBRUMEN/Cuba who former high military officer under AMTHUG-1)."

104-10217-10137: CABLE RE: FOLLOWING IS KEYED TO REF

4/30/71 memo from WH/Miami to Caracas (Info: Director): (Sadelly Acting): "Following is keyed to (previous cable): C. Huber Matos Benitez (201-266260)."

104-10217-10139: CABLE RE: ON 25 APRIL 1971 AMSIGH-2 MET WITH AMECRU-1 IN THE LATTER'S HOME

"AMLIGHT-1 would not necessarily have to be included (in the ransom) inasmuch as AMTHUG-1 simply does not want to release him."

104-10301-10004: OFFICIAL HISTORY OF THE BAY OF PIGS OPERATION, VOLUME III

In mid-summer 1959, "Anibal Escalante laid it on the line that there was a struggle between the left and the right, and he emphasized that the conservative element was trying to take advantage of remarks that Castro had been forced to make while in the United States...(things) came to a head in mid-October 1959 when Hubert Matos, a military leader in Camaguey province and formerly a strong supporter of Castro, broke with Fidel over the increasing number of leadership positions which were being turned over to members of the Communist oriented PSP rather than to members of the 26 July Movement. Matos resigned as military leader of Camaguey on 19 October 1959 and was arrested on 20 October." He received 20 years at trial. Other anti-Batistianos broke with Castro at this time: "Faustino Perez, Minister for Recovery of Illegally Acquired Property; Rufo-Lopez Fresquet, Minister of Finance; Manuel Ray/AMBANG-1, Minister of Public Works; and Felipe Bazos, minister of the national bank...this was the second civil war for Castro."

124-10286-10226: [No Title]

6/12/62 from SAC, Tampa to Director, FBI: "...one Napoleon Baker is mentioned as being the organizer of (anti-Castro) activities in the Tampa area. Baker and the other mentioned leaders are said to be all close former associates of Major Hubert Matos...(Manuel Cruz advised) that Napoleon Becquer was formerly a captain in the revolutionary forces of Castro and the aide of Hubert Matos...Matos' right-hand man...one of 14 individuals who escaped from the Isle of Pines, where they were incarcerated..."

HSCA Report, Volume V Current Section: Narration by G. Robert Blakey, Chief Counsel and Staff Director

In a memo to the HSCA, Castro's government wrote that "Nino Diaz participated in the conspiracy (to kill Fidel Castro) hatched by traitor Huber Matos."

Peter Dale Scott, Deep Politics II, "The Three Oswald Deceptions: The Operation, the Cover-Up and the Conspiracy" http://www.assassinationweb.com/scottd.htm

Scott writes, "Other right-wing sources, often explicitly hostile to the CIA, kept alive the phase-one specter of a link between Oswald and either Soviet or Cuban intelligence. From as early as December 1963, the CIA itself was blamed by such sources, either implicitly or explicitly, for its part in the President's murder. John Martino, an active plotter against Castro with a mob background, surfaced one such story in December 1963. blaming the President's death on Castro's response to a plot between Kennedy and the Soviets to have Castro replaced in Cuba by Huber Matos, a former Castro ally now detained in a Cuban jail. This alleged plot was a veiled allusion to the AMTRUNK plan mounted by the CIA and Robert Kennedy in 1963 to use old allies of Matos to overthrow Castro. But Martino the source is perhaps more interesting than his story. In 1963 he had been receiving support for his own anti-Castro operations from Julien Sourwine, Chief Counsel for the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee. It was this Committee, the reader may recall, whose phase-one interests were Johnson's reason (or pretext) for setting up the Warren Commission."

104-10320-10070 REPORT: JUNTA REVOLUCIONARIA CUBANA; SEGUNDO FRENTE DE ESCAMBRAY (OPERATION ALPHA 66); DIRECTORIO REVOLUCIONARIO ESTUDIANTIL; MOVIMIENTO REVOLUCIONARIO 30 DE NOVIEMBRE; FAIR PLAY FOR CUBA COMMITTEE

5/28/64 letterhead memo from FBI, Dallas division: Dallas group of JURE organized in late June/early July 1963 by Jorge Rodriguez Alvareda, employed by Curtis Mathes Manufacturing and living in Arkansas. Dallas unit of SNFE formed June 1963 and headed by Manuel Rodriguez Orcarberro, also employed by Curtis Mathes Manufacturing and living in Dallas. "(Rodriguez) advised he served in Fidel Castro's army under Humberto Matos from February 1958 to October 21, 1959. He subsequently took asylum in the Brazilian Embassy at Havana and entered the United States as an exile in Miami on November 29, 1959. Immediately following the assassination, information was received from (the CIA) that a source had furnished information indicating that Rodriguez was violently anti-President Kennedy." One of the members of Rodriguez Orcarberro's group was Jorge Salazar, whose home at 3126 Harlandale was where the members met - there are reports that Oswald was seen at this house.

Contributors:
Bill Simpich

© Mary Ferrell Foundation. All Rights Reserved. |Site Map |MFF Policies |Contact Us