What's the package? Lee.

[Claude Barnabe]

During the summer of '63 LHO was in New Orleans probably working at the behest of the intel services. Infiltrating exile groups and reporting his findings. LHO was also doing something else in NO that summer. Attempting to enhance his portfolio to increase his appeal to the Castro Cuban revolutionaries. In the last nine months of LHO's deployment as a US Marine at Santa Ana CA he was learning to speak Spanish and was being taught the language by his friend Nelson Delgado. He obviously recognized the need to speak the language in order to be effective in the ranks of the revolutionaries. Delgado and LHO also discussed how appealing an honorable discharge from the MC would be as a means to hold a rank. That was 1959. Fast forward to early '63. LHO has purchased a rifle, is in contact with the Soviet embassy in an attempt to repatriate Marina and in that summer in NO contacts Arnesto Rodriguez of the Modern Language Institute to continue his education in the spanish language. This particular outreach has been viewed by most as another attempt at exile infiltration, however I view it as an honest inquiry. He also contacts Dean Andrews to enlist his aid in reversing his dishonorable discharge from the MC. I believe these were all efforts on LHO's part to reconstitute his dream of becoming a revolutionary. All this activity was conducted in parallel with his directed intel actions. LHO's trip to Mexico City probably had a lot to do with his desire to join the revolutionaries and repatriate Marina. Creating the tangled web that exist to this day.