Tony Cuesta and the JFK Assassination

[John Simkin]

Tony Cuesta was captured during a mission at Monte Barreto in the Miramar district of Cuba on 29th May, 1966. A member of his team, Herminio Diaz Garcia, was killed during the raid. Cuesta, who always vowed that Castro would never take him alive, attempted suicide by setting off a grenade, which blinded him and blew off his right hand. Cuesta spent a long time in hospital as a result of his serious injuries.

In 1978 President Jimmy Carter arranged for a group of imprisoned exiles to be released. This included Cuesta. Just before leaving Cuba Cuesta asked to see General Fabian Escalante, the head of Cuba's G-2 Spy Agency. Cuesta told Escalante that he had been involved in the assassination of JFK. He also named Herminio Diaz Garcia and Eladio del Valle as being involved in the conspiracy. Cuesta asked Escalante not to make this information "made public because I am returning to my family in Miami - and this could be very dangerous."

After leaving Cuba, Cuesta returned to Miami. It is believed that with the help of his friend, the journalist Tom Dunkin, Cuesta was working on his memoirs. Both Cuesta and Dunkin died in 1994. Gordon Winslow later recalled: "A month after his (Tom Dunkin) death in 1994, we were given access to his home where he worked. His files had been ransacked and most covered two to three inches on the living room floor. Luckily there were about ten boxes of salvageable records which included about 5,000 sleeves of negatives, around 300 cassettes, a few reels of movie film, numerous slides and a few photographs. Most of the negatives were made for local news stories but many also had been taken in the Cuban rebel area and later in the anti-Castro camps in South Florida."

In 1995 Wayne Smith, chief of the Centre for International Policy in Washington, arranged a meeting on the assassination of JFK, in Nassau, Bahamas. Others in attendance were: Gaeton Fonzi, Dick Russell, Noel Twyman, Anthony Summers, Peter Dale Scott, Jeremy Gunn, John Judge, Andy Kolis, Peter Kornbluh, Mary and Ray LaFontaine, Jim Lesar, John Newman, Alan Rogers, Russ Swickard, Ed Sherry, and Gordon Winslow.

Some high-level Cuban officials attended the conference. This included Fabian Escalante, Carlos Lechuga, former Cuban diplomat, and Arturo Rodriguez, a State Security official. Escalante revealed details of Cuesta's confession. He also informed the group they had a spy in the anti-Castro community in Miami and knew about the plot to kill Kennedy.

This is what Escalante told the conference on 7th December, 1995.

Eladio Del Valle worked for two police services - military intelligence and the traditional police. He was in charge of narcotics. He was also a legislature in the government - a representative. He was from a little town from the south of Havana. He was a captain in the merchant marines. In 1958 he was doing business dealings with Santos Trafficante in a little coastal town south of Havana. There he brought in contraband whose destination was Santos Trafficante. When the revolution triumphed, he went to Miami. Eladio Del Valle went to Miami. He settled in Miami, we don't know the address and he allied himself with Rolando Masferrer and other Batista supporters and they formed an organization called the Anti Communist Cuban Liberation Movement. From that moment on, Eladio was involved in many project against Cuba. But as I told you yesterday, we managed to penetrate this organization. And we came to know of a lot of projects, efforts, for an invasion of Cuba in secret. In order to provide arms to internal rebel groups, they needed David Ferrie as the pilot on these flights. In 1962 Eladio Del Valle tried to infiltrate Cuba with a commando group of 22 men but their boat had an English key - a little island. In the middle of 1962. Of course, we knew this. I tell you about this, because one of our agents who was one of the people helping to bring this group to Cuba, was a man of very little education. They talked English on many occasions on this little island with Eladio Del Valle told this person, on many occasions, that Kennedy must be killed to solve the Cuban problem. After that we had another piece of information on Eladio Del Valle. This was offered to us by Tony Cuesta. He told us that Eladio Del Valle was one of the people involved in the assassination plot against Kennedy. As you know, he was taken prisoner and he was very thankful to be taken back - he was blind.

He asked that this information not be public. I am only saying it here, because he is already dead. It is finished. We didn't have any other kind of information to give. There are some things you must respect. He gave us this information and in 1978 we didn't know if it was true or not. In 1978, we were not aware of the participation of Eladio Del Valle. We didn't know who he was. Remember that I explained to you yesterday that when the Select Committee when they came to Havana - they didn't give us any specific information. They just came to question us. We didn't know the relationships.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKcuesto.htm

[Michael Hogan]

The name Andrew St. George is familiar to those that have studied these topics. The April 12, 1963 issue of Life Magazine contained an article and photographs by St. George that featured Tony Cuesta:

http://books.google.com/books?id=VkkEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA18&dq=tony+cuesta&hl=en&ei=tvptTsmSNKPL0QHqscXxBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CFAQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=tony%20cuesta&f=false

In January 1968 St. George would write an article for True Magazine that profiled Mitch WerBell. Years later, St. George gave Gaeton Fonzi and Hinckle and Turner a lot of information that appeared in their books.

St. George had actually participated in some of the Cuban raids. He was a very well-connected journalist, to put it mildly.

Here is a brief account of Cuesta's release from Cuban prison:

http://books.google.com/books?id=mbFtlVsHrtIC&pg=PA119&dq=tony+cuesta&hl=en&ei=tvptTsmSNKPL0QHqscXxBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8&ved=0CFoQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=tony%20cuesta&f=false

[John Simkin]

The name Andrew St. George is familiar to those that have studied these topics. The April 12, 1963 issue of Life Magazine contained an article and photographs by St. George that featured Tony Cuesta:

http://books.google.com/books?id=VkkEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA18&dq=tony+cuesta&hl=en&ei=tvptTsmSNKPL0QHqscXxBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CFAQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=tony%20cuesta&f=false

In January 1968 St. George would write an article for True Magazine that profiled Mitch WerBell. Years later, St. George gave Gaeton Fonzi and Hinckle and Turner a lot of information that appeared in their books.

St. George had actually participated in some of the Cuban raids. He was a very well-connected journalist, to put it mildly.

Here is a brief account of Cuesta's release from Cuban prison:

http://books.google.com/books?id=mbFtlVsHrtIC&pg=PA119&dq=tony+cuesta&hl=en&ei=tvptTsmSNKPL0QHqscXxBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8&ved=0CFoQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=tony%20cuesta&f=false

I agree about the importance of Andrew St. George. I am in contact with his widow who has been very helpful in the past.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKstgeorge.htm

[B. A. Copeland]

Ahhh, leave it to good ol' Doug Campbell to bring up some very relevant characters and events regarding this most tragic murder. Newest episode from The Dallas Action up:

TDA #173~July 13, 2020: "Identifying The Dealey Plaza Shooters: What Did Tony Cuesta Know?"