Pseudonym: Cesar
1994.04.26.09:46:28:100005: Reel 52, Folder J - REINOL GONZALES
"In late 1960, there was a series of meetings designed to unify the opposition to Castro. (Reinol Gonzalez) met at one time or another with the following people: Alberto Cruz of the Rescate Organization...David Salvador of the 30 November Movement - Octavio Barroso Gomez (201-900356), the only credible leader of the small UR group. He was shot after being arrested and tortured - Juan Falcon/AMFOX-1 of the MRR - Alberto Muller/AMHINT-1 of the DRE..." 1979 memo of Carl Jenkins interviewing Reinol Gonzalez, also known as Reynoldo Gonzalez/AMCALL-1.
1994.06.02.15:11:24:620005 Reel 61, Folder F: UNIDAD REVOLUTIONARIA
December 1960: The founders and leaders of the Unidad Revolucionaria (UR) included "Rafael Diaz Hanscom (Rafael), Humberto Sori Marin, Marcial Arufe Delgado (Tovarich), Octavio Barroso Gomez..."
104-10166-10226: UNIDAD REVOLUCIONARIA
March-April 1961: "The UR leadership in (Cuba) received its most damaging blow during the period following the landings at Playa Giron when wholesale arrests were ordered throughout the island. Of the 13 coordinators named, eight obtained asylum and are now in (the USA). Rafael Diaz Hanscomb and Humberto Sori Marin (arrested in March) were executed in April. Arufe and his wife were killed 21 April in a gun battle with G-2 members who had come to arrest them. Barroso, arrested at the time, was executed later in the year. Betancourt and Borron are serving 30 adn 20 year sentences at the Isle of Pines. Many other members of UR were also arrested and sentenced to prison terms. Among them: Robert Geddes, Cosme de la Torriente, Dr. Raul Villasuso, Capt. Felix Castro Guevara, Maj. Gonzalo Miranda, and J. M. Mendiola. Jose Rodriguez (Pepe) continued to function with UR, later Intelligence Coordinator, and was ultimately arrested in another roundup of UR leaders on the morning of 30 August 1962. The primary reason for so many G-2 arrests of UR personnel in April 1961 was its denunciation by a G-2 collaborator or penetration agent named Pedro Sergio Cuellar (aka Sergio Alonso), member of a (CIA) infil team. Cuellar was sent in to serve as the UR radop.
4/17/61: Octavio Barroso described as "Cesar" within the UR. Served on National Executive Council in Cuba with Piccolino/Luis Sanchez and Capt. Eduardo Sotolongo Medina.
Fabian Escalante, The Cuba Project (Ocean Press, 2004), pp. 86-88, 92, 161
"After the defeat at the Bay of Pigs, the internal counterrevolution, encouraged by the US government, began almost immediately to regroup to carry out a new campaign of terrorism and psychological warfare. This campaign was to have culminated on July 26, 1961, with the assassination of Commanders Fidel Castro and Raul Castro and a simultaneous provocation at the US naval base at Guantanamo. This was to initiate a conflict between the two countries and provide the pretext for an open military intervention by US troops, which would be ready and waiting at military bases in the southern United States. It was an operation which the CIA had been developing since 1959, and which they considered an alternative to Sori Marin's conspiracy. The groups involved in these plans had salvaged their forces from the Bay of Pigs debacle, and had highly trusted agents, including Alfredo Izaguirre de la Riva (AMPUG-1), Jose Pujals Mederos(AMCOAX-1) and Octavio Barroso (Cesar). These elements were divided into three groups, one which operated in the former Oriente province, and the other two in the nation's capital...Luis Toroella y Martin Rivera/AMBLOOD's mission consisted of coordinating the counterrevolutionary organizations in the eastern provinces that had survived the Bay of Pigs...On July 12, Jose Pujals Mederos slipped out of the country to Miami, for the purpose of reporting in detail on the progress of Operation Patty...AMBLOOD, who operated in Santiago de Cuba, was arrested (in that city during mid-May)."
Fabian Escalante, The Cuba Project (Ocean Press, 2004), pp. 94-95
1961-1962: "(After AMPUG-1/Izaguirre was arrested), CIA officials Harold Bishop and Frank Bender met with agent Jose Pujals, who had been in Washington when he was caught unaware by the Operation Patty setback. Pujals was ordered to assume command of the CIA agents on the island and particularly to determine the state of the MRP's plans...If everything was normal, he was to coordinate an operation whose code name would be Liborio, which would include assassinating the Cuban leader (and) launching an extensive sabotage and terrorism campaign, and orchestrating, in conjunction with the Catholic hierarchy, a psychological warfare project designed to discredit the revolution in the eyes of the people...Pujals arrived in the capital in late July, 1961, after a risky voyage in which the CIA infiltrated him back into the country...a few days later he met with Reynold Gonzalez, Veciana and the spy Octavio Barroso, and explained to them the plan as instructed by his CIA controllers. The idea was to ignite Havana - to burn down the big clothing stores and the electrical and transportation facilities - and at the same time to assassinate various members of revolutionary organizations. This would provoke public indignation, and surely end in a mass demonstration in front of the Presidential Palace...the opportunity to assassinate Fidel. At the same time they would coordinate with the Catholic hierarchy the dissemination of a supposed Patria Potestad law, which they themselves would write, saying that the state was going to take away parents' power over their children. The conspiring priests would then proceed to spread the lie from their pulpits, in such a way that the population, eminently religious, would challenge the revolution and thus create the internal conditions which, together with the physical elimination of Fidel, would produce the fall of the government. On August 8, Pujals and Barroso were arrested by Cuban security forces who...captured them in Barroso's home."
104-10226-10212: DISPATCH: UR; MONTHLY REPORT
Ileana Diaz Zubizarreta was Barroso's wife. Baldomera Gomez Suarez was Barroso's mother. Both women described the "brainwashing" he endured during January 1962.