The subcommittee of the Committee on Internal Security met, pursuant to call, at 10:20 a.m., in room 311, Cannon House Office Building, Washington, D.C., Hon. Claude Pepper, chairman of the subcommittee, presiding.

(Subcommittee members: Representatives Claude Pepper of Florida, chairman; Richard H. Ichord of Missouri, chairman of the full committee; Richardson Preyer of North Carolina; John M. Ashbrook of Ohio; and Roger H. Zion of Indiana.)

Subcommittee members present: Representatives Pepper, Preyer, and Zion.

Committee member also present: Representative John G. Schmitz of California.

Staff members present: Donald G. Sanders, chief counsel, Richard L. Schultz, associate chief counsel, and Albert Solomon, investigator. Mr. PEPPER. The committee will come to order, please.

In continuing our hearings and inquiry into the theory and practice of communism, we will hear this morning Mr. Ismael Suarez, a former member of the Castro government and an active participant in the July 26th movement in Cuba.

We will also hear this morning Mr. Gustavo B. Marin, a Cuban national who now teaches high school in New York City and is the founder of ABDALA, a student movement composed of Cuban students in the United States, Latin America, and Spain.

Assisting Mr. Suarez in his testimony will be Mr. Francisco M. Lanza, a professional interpreter for the United States Department of State.

Gentlemen, it is a pleasure to welcome you this morning, and I would ask that you both rise and be sworn prior to your testimony. Mr. Lanza, I will swear you first.

Do you solemnly swear that you will accurately and truthfully interpret the questions put to the witness and answers given by the witness before this committee?

Mr. LANZA. I do.

Mr. PEPPER. Now will you please interpret to Mr. Suarez as I administer the oath to him?

Do you solemnly swear that the testimony you are about to give in this hearing will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?

Mr. SUAREZ. I do.

Mr. PEPPER. You may be seated. Mr. Counsel, would you begin your inquiry.

Mr. SCHULTZ. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

TESTIMONY OF ISMAEL SUAREZ DE LA PAZ, AS INTERPRETED BY FRANCISCO M. LANZA

Mr. SCHULTZ. Mr. Lanza, I hand you a typed document. Would you identify and describe this for us, please?

Mr. LANZA. This is a statement of Mr. Ismael Suarez de la Paz. He is sitting here on my left.

Mr. SCHULTZ. How many pages does it contain?

Mr. LANZA. Thirteen pages. I counted them just a few minutes ago, so I believe there are still 13.

Mr. SCHULTZ. Did you assist in the preparation of this statement? Mr. LANZA. Yes, sir, I did.

Mr. SCHULTZ. Would you describe for the committee the manner in which it was prepared?

Mr. LANZA. On October 5 and 6, the witness, Mr. Suarez, was asked a number of questions by Mr. Albert Solomon, sitting here on my right, and I acted as an interpreter during this interrogation. This information has been furnished by Mr. Suarez.

Mr. SCHULTZ. What efforts did you make to insure its accuracy? Mr. LANZA. I was very careful in the interpreting. In addition to that, we went over the whole text sentence by sentence. I read it back to him in Spanish, and we made a few corrections. Some of the corrections were matters of typing, for one thing.

Mr. SCHULTZ. If I understand, then, Mr. Lanza, you interpreted the questions and answers and prepared this statement in English in response to Mr. Solomon's questions. Mr. Suarez had the opportunity and in fact did read the entire statement, or you read it to him in Spanish, and he made such corrections as he deemed advisable; is that correct?

Mr. LANZA. Yes, that is correct.

Mr. SCHULTZ. Are you satisfied, sir, that this is an accurate statement based on the information given to you by Mr. Suarez?

Mr. LANZA. I am satisfied that this is the correct statement given by him, yes.

Mr. SCHULTZ. Would you ask Mr. Suarez, please, if this statement is correct according to what you have interpreted to him?

Mr. LANZA. Yes, sir.

Mr. SCHULTZ. And the corrections noted in there in pencil were made at his direction; is this correct?

Mr. LANZA. That is correct.

Mr. SCHULTZ. Mr. Chairman, I would ask that this statement be inserted in the record at this point.

Mr. PEPPER. Without objection, it is so ordered. (The statement of Mr. Suarez follows:)

STATEMENT OF ISMAEL SUAREZ DE LA PAZ

I was born July 8, 1921 at Matanzas, Cuba and attended primary and secondary schools in that city. For the years 1942 to 1956 I worked as a salesman in Cuba. In 1955 I joined the political movement of Fidel Castro, the July 26th Movement. In 1956 I became a member of the Provincial Directorate for the Province of Havana of the July 26th Movement. In that year also I became an active member of the underground movement working against the regime of the Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. I was in hiding from Government forces and was in charge of obtaining supplies for the July 26th Movement in Havana. Later I was Coordinator for the Province of Havana for the July 26th Movement.

In January, 1959, at the time of the take-over of the Government of Cuba by Fidel Castro, I served for one week as Deputy Chief of the Militia in Havana, Cuba. From March to November, 1959 I was a special assistant to Minister of Public Works Manolo Ray in the new Cuban Revolutionary Government. From November. 1959 until 1965 I worked as National Manager for the Cuban Government of the bus terminals in Cuba. In August, 1965 Fidel Castro appointed me General Manager of the first commune in Cuba which was located at San Andres de Caiguanabo. There were 3000 people in this commune and I served as its administrator.

On October 23, 1966 I left Cuba for Mexico at the personal request of Fidel Castro to head a special mission for the buying of coffee, banana and pineapple seeds, and seedlings. During this time I returned occasionally on trips to Cuba. I was working directly under Fidel Castro the Prime Minister. From September 1968 to April, 1969 I was in Paris. France where I headed a Cuban Government Office designed to promote the sale of Cuban made crafts and furniture. This project was an economic effort by Fidel Castro and was of personal interest to him. In June, 1969 Prime Minister Castro sent me on a special mission to the French Island of Martinique where I headed a Cuban Government project to buy young pineapple plants for shipment to Cuba. In the period June, 1969 to June. 1970 I arranged for the purchase and shipment to Cuba of over forty million pineapple plants. On June 27. 1970 I defected with my family to the United States. Since July. 1970 I have lived and worked in Puerto Rico. I am employed as a sales representative for a wholesale import firm in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Over a period of many years beginning in the 1940s I became convinced that Cuba had suffered under a long history of dishonesty and poor administration in Government. I therefore became opposed to the Government's power. This feeling intensified in 1952 when Fulgencio Batista took over the Government of Cuba and set up a dictatorship. I became more active personally against the regime at this time. In 1953 I met Fidel Castro at the University of Havana. I was not a student there at that time. In time Fidel Castro became a national figure based on his anti-Batista activities. In 1955 I joined the July 26th Movement, the politica' organization of Fidel Castro.

At that time the July 26th Movement involved members of all social and economic levels. All the members of the July 26th Movement at that time were strongly pro-democratic and followed the doctrines of Jose Marti, the father of the Cuban independence movement. Never within the ranks of the July 26th Movement did I hear any espousing of the Marxist-Leninist philosophy. In fact the Socialist Popular Party of Cuba, the traditional communist party of Cuba, often attacked the policies of the July 26th Movement.

I should like to interject at this time that I am convinced that Fidel Castro is a traitor to the Cuban Revolution. He is a rank opportunist who turned a popular movement into a personal plaything.

In the period 1956 to 1958 I was devoted full-time to underground activities on behalf of the July 26th Movement. While I visited the July 26th headquarters in the Sierra Maestre, I never lived in the Sierra Maestre nor did I participate in military operations directed from that point. I was considered to be more useful as a member of the underground movement in Havana. Cuba and received my orders from the National Directorate of the July 26th Movement in the Sierra Maestre, that is to say direct from Fidel Castro.

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My main responsibility in Havana was to gather and deliver to the mountains supplies of arms, food stuffs, military clothing and similar materials contributed to the July 26th Movement by the Cuban people. There was large support for the idea of a democratic revolution in Cuba at the time and the people of the cities made major contributions to the efforts of Fidel Castro. I was also involved in the dissemination of propaganda for the July 26th Movement and in obtaining financing for its operations. The majority of the Cuban people were totally willing to contribute to the July 26th effort. Some of the very wealthy persons in Havana even offered their homes so that the July 26th members could hide there from Government officials.

The idea of a democratic revolution in Cuba was adhered to generally by students, intellectuals, professional people, and the clergy. While organized labor did not take action to oppose building the revolution, labor as an entity did not materially participate in these efforts. Some individuals in the labor movement did, however, cooperate with the July 26th effort. It can be stated that practically everyone in Cuba was solidly behind the revolutionary movement which was more anti-Batista than pro-Fidel Castro.

As an official of the July 26th Movement I wore a military uniform and was in effect a soldier. However, with the exception noted below, I was not a participant in military raids or activities. Men more experienced in military matters conducted these operations. Fidel Castro and his followers came down from the Sierra Maestre in December, 1958. At that time I actually joined a military force having linked up with its leader, Ernesto "Che" Guevara, on December 24, 1958. I took an active part in the Battle of Santa Clara which lasted for four days, December 27-30, 1958. The revolutionary forces were victorious in this battle and immediately thereafter they moved from Santa Clara into Havana where Fidel Castro took over the Cuban Government. Fulgencio Batista fled Cuba to the Dominican Republic on January 1, 1959.

The revolutionary movement in Cuba prior to the Castro take-over was divided into segments. One group was with Fidel Castro in the mountains and a second was composed of underground operations in the major cities in Cuba. I was one of the leaders of the movement within the city of Havana and acted as a supplier of materiel and equipment to the military forces in the mountains. At a later date Fidel Castro took much of the credit from those working within the cities stating that he had successfully made a revolution from his military operations in the mountains. Castro considered that the true revolutionaries were those who were with him in the mountains: that they were the real radicals; and that the revolutionaries in the Cuban cities were thus not due credit upon the successful take-over of the Cuban Government.

We who supported the revolution in Cuba were believers of freedom, democracy, and democratic government. We also believed that Cuba must nationalize some of its industries such as the communications, transportation, and electric power industries and, possibly, the oil refineries. There was to be free enterprise for all other industries, however. The supporters of the revolution believed in good relations with all nations of the hemisphere including the United States, and I can truly say there was no anti-U.S. feeling among those who worked toward the revolution in Cuba. Those in favor of revolution thought the state should run some of the major industries, not because they were being poorly operated, but because they felt that a country truly governs itself when such major industries are state owned. Many of these industries were owned by United States' interests and one petroleum enterprise was controlled by the British. However, the reason for working toward state ownership was not related to an antiforeign feeling, but rather one of nationalism.

The July 26th program also called for land reform on a major level, the higher development of education aimed at the eradication of illiteracy, and also the matter of profit-sharing by workers in industries and enterprises. Most of the Cuban people in the late 1950s were in favor of such programs.

I joined the July 26th Movement because I thought of Fidel Castro as a man who had the ability to free Cuba from Batista's dictatorship and to fulfill the program outlined by the July 26th Movement. At that time I considered Castro to be a true liberator who believed in religious freedom and freedom of speech and who could correct many of the economic ills of Cuba.

Much has been said concerning why Cuba launched on a road to communism. The reasons are varied. It has been stated that Fidel Castro was not handled with due tact by his neighboring governments or by the press. It was indicated