CASTRO SAYS C.I.A. USES RAIDER SHIP
New York Times
November 1, 1963
Page 1
He Asserts Cuba
Captured Small Boats From Vessel – Miami
Owner Denies It
By The Associated Press
Premier Castro described the Rex as a 150-foot diesel vessel flying the Nicaraguan flag. He said she was based in
A vessel called the Rex, 174 feet long, returned to Palm
Beach Monday and was tied up today in the Port of Palm Beach. She flies the
Nicaraguan flag and carries large searchlights, radar and a crane on the stern.
Two motor launches were missing from their davits.
The port director, Joel Wilcox, said, “The dockage is paid
by the Sea Key Shipping Company from a post office box. I know nothing of the
Rex’s activities. “
Oil Man Claims Ship
J.A. Belcer, a Miami
oil company executive, told The Miami Herald that the Rex belonged to him, but
denied hat it had participated in raids against Cuba .
He said he bought the vessel from the Paragon Company,
identified by The Herald as a Nicaraguan firm formerly owned by the family of
Luis Somoza, an ex-President of Nicaragua .
Mr. Belcher told The Herald that for most of the year he had
leased the Rex for electronic and oceanographic research to the international
division of the Collins Radio Company of Dallas .
He said the ship’s captain, identified as Alexander Brooks, had told him the
Rex had never been in Cuban waters.
Premier Castro, in a radio and television broadcast, said
that the captured agents might face death sentences.
In his three-hour speech, the Premier accused the C.I.A. of
“stepping up its activities against Cuba
in the wake of the devastation caused by Hurricane Flora.”
He accused the Central Intelligence Agency of murdering
workers, landing weapons and infiltrators in Cuba ,
hiring saboteurs and using postal packages to send explosives into Cuba .
“This was the kind of aid the United
States sent to Cuba
after the hurricane,” he said. “They thought they had their opportunity after
the hurricane. This explains and justifies Cuba ’s
rejections of the United States
offer to aid.”
There are two other mysterious vessels of Nicaraguan
registry operating out of ports of Florida ’s
southeast coast. One sometimes changes color.
The Leda is tied up at Port Everglades and the Port
of Fort Lauderdale , 45 miles south
of Palm Beach . She is registered
from Greytown , Nicaragua ,
which is now known as San Juan del Norte.
A Miami man who
knew a crewman on the Villaro said today, “She was a funny ship. She changed
colors all the time. Sometimes the hull would be blue with a green deck. Other
times it was gray with an orange deck. My friend said she was working in oil
exploration.
Coast Guard headquarters in Miami
said it had no listing for any of the ships or their companies.
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