Pseudonym: Atilaco, Hermano
Summary of DCD (Domestic Contact Division) documents: 5/17/61: Rodriguez Quesada questioned. "One of national leaders of underground movement known as 30th November formed mainly by members of labor unions. He has also been a leader of the labor movement among sugar and agricultural workers in the Province of Las Villas for many years. Member of underground against Batista and national leader of the Confederation of Cuban Workers, CTC, represented by Eusebio Mujal. Had contact with US agents in Havana while underground. Once he took asylum, resumed contacts with US agents but disagreed over utilization of underground members within labor and peasant organizations"..during the autumn of 1963, Paulino Sierra gave Rodriguez Quesada and Felipe Rivero Diaz funds and $700 in travel expenses to purchase arms in New York...Security Office number 317402 OS/SAG. DPOB: Province of Las Villas, Sancti Spiritus, Cuba, 9/25/30...Arrived in US 7 March 1961, aboard fishing boat...9 March 1961, appeared at Miami office of FBI. To be general coordinator of 30 November Movement to replace Raul Rodriguez...formerly in Castro's Rebel Army. Address: 218 NW 15th Avenue, Miami or 220 SW 18th Road, Miami. For more details, also see 1993.07.21.16:49:23:530280
Circa 1961-1963: Carlos Rodriguez Quesada was the general leader of the Cuban underground. He defected in March 1961, and was expelled from the CRC in March 62 for staging a hunger strike in Bayfront Park in Miami when JFK came to town, resulting in a melee and 152 arrests. A few weeks later, Rodriguez Quesada split from the CRC, while some of the 30th of November stayed with the CRC. His new faction was called the MRFP (Movimiento Revolucionario de Frank Pais). Many continued to call the MRFP the 30th of November anyway. By April 1962, an FBI report stated that Rodriguez Quesada's group no longer trusted the US government. In March, 1963, he wrote JFK a letter asking for immediate armed intervention in Cuba. "You are either for or against America" he wrote. In 1963, Rodriguez Quesada and his followers joined Paulino Sierra's JGCE, with Rodriguez Quesada serving as the minister of internal affairs. In early 1964, after the JGCE had ceased activities, Rodriguez Quesada was expelled from the MRFP for financial misappropriations.
11/20/61, PASSAVOY memo No. 44: "Carlos Rodriguez is a distinctly different type of person from the other group leaders, who are largely well educated lawyers, doctors, etc. Rodriguez is more of the 'hard boiled' labor leader type: forceful, set in his views, unflinching in action, unsmiling, thoughtful...Rodriguez said that he had given plans some time ago to (Bernard Barker/AMCLATTER-1) to pass to the Agency, and that Barker was the only one with whom 30 November had had contact...Rodriguez claims about 100 or more militant members of his group in the Miami area of whom 50 or 60 are available but that about 20 could be counted on for operations against Castro at this time...the group has two radio sending-receiving plants here which they use very little (one belongs to Juan Mesa). About 35 of 30 de November group were lost in action last April - many now prisoners...Carlos Quesada is the military coordinator of the 30 de Nov group within Cuba. He described further its internal organization and the manner in which it could exercise effective direction of sabotage action against Cuban factories, plants, refineries, etc...sabotage and commando action must begin in the country...and then progress to the cities. Otherwise Castro can suffocate the actions too readily. He cannot cover all the small places..."
124-90090-10036: [ RESTRICTED ]
6/28/62 NSA memo, re Rolando Masferrer "An article by Dom Bonafede, which appeared in a Miami newspaper, entitled 'Clandestine Network Carries Rumor of a Blow Against Castro'. The message was sent to Hermano Atilaco, the cover name of Carlos Rodriguez Quesada, the Miami director of the 30th of November movement. The plan, called Operation Aurora, will have international repercussions...The report stated that groups throughout the island are accomplishing the work of killing militiamen and informers, attacking small barracks, ambushing and destroying crops, equipment, and machinery and collecting arms."