Memorandum from the Director for Federal Security, Cap. Luis de la Barreda Moreno

D.F.S.-27-II-71.

School for Guerrillas in Xalapa, Veracruz

At his interrogation today, Rogelio Raya Morales declared:

Since a very young age, in the middle grades in Michoacán, Raya Morales made known [his sympathy for] radical ideas from the left. Based on that affinity, in his second year of high school studies leading to the Michoacán University at the end of 1969, he was interviewed by Leonardo Isidro Rangel, who invited him to join a revolutionary group that later adopted the name Revolutionary Action Movement. Once Raya Morales had accepted that invitation, Isidro Rangel put him in contact with Felix Edmundo Mendieta Ramos, aka “Fidel,” and arranged for them to relocate to this Capital and be lodged in a furnished room at 77 Uruguay Street, where he put a comrade in touch with them who goes by the pseudonyms of “Arturo” and “Ramón.” This man told them that they should prepare the necessary documentation to obtain their passports, with the objective of traveling to Moscow, USSR; once he had these documents, “Arturo” or “Ramón” handled the process of getting the passports, and communicated to the men that they would travel by air to Brussels on the carrier Sabena on February 1, 1970. In effect, on that date, they made the trip with two other companions only known by the names or pseudonyms “Carlos” and “Jorge,” who would be identifiable from their photographs.

They made this trip on the date noted above, only remaining in Brussels for a few hours, since a little bit afterward, they boarded another plane that took them to East Berlin, where they stayed in a hostel. Shortly, another individual – now known to be Fabricio Gomez Souza, but whom they knew by his alias of “Luís” – came to seek them out at their accommodations and later took them to East Berlin, then Moscow. He not only supplied them with the plane tickets, but also gave them the money necessary for lodging and food in each of these places, as well as for their personal necessities. In Moscow, they only took time to stroll around, then took another flight, this time to the capital of North Korea, where a group of uniformed soldiers under the command of a general named “Mun” awaited them. The soldiers took them in a vehicle to a camp approximately an hour by car from said capital, which occupies a very large plot of land with houses intended for people who are taken there.

With the motivation of secrecy under which the group operates, Raya Morales then adopted the pseudonym of “Máximo,” changing later upon his return to the capital to “Romeo,” while Leonardo Isidro Rangel went by “Gustavo.”

Upon arriving at the camp, these individuals found, among other comrades, the following already present: Ramón Cardona Medel,[1] using the alias “Antonino,” and acted as a “Team Leader,” in other words, already considered an individual of greater aptitude and knowledge than the rest to serve as the group’s leader. Along with him, if memory serves right, Armando[2] Gonzalez Carrillo, aka “Cruz,” Angel Bravo Cisneros, aka “Eliezer,” Manuel Arreola Tellez, aka “Hector,” and supposedly “Carolina,” “Cristina,” “Javier,” “Cornelio,” “Ricardo Robles,” “Ruben Palafox,” “Saul,” “Arturo,” “Efrain,” “Mario,” “Uriel,”[3] who also would later use the name “Mario Fernandez,” but whose real name is Fernando Pineda Ochoa, and then more were added to the group: “Rita,” “Laura,” “Hilda,” “Catalina,” “Lorenzo,” “Ricardo,” “Felipe,” “Oscar,” “Salomon,” “Ulises,” “Braulio,” “Nestor,” “Ricardo Salgado,” “Salvador,” “[…]ulio,”[4] “Santiago,” “Joaquin,” “Pablo,” and “Martin,” all of whom together received instruction and training.

This instruction and training, given by North Korean soldiers, consisted of theoretical teaching on Marxist philosophy and economics, and the theory and practice of handling and using firearms, bazookas, grenades, ambush tactics, the preparation and use of explosives. The trainers consistently pointed out the best way to carry out acts of sabotage and the vital points at which to apply them, and taught general guerrilla war tactics, with the understanding that they always would use green military uniforms.

After six months of training, at the end of August 1970, they began their return trip to this city, passing through Moscow, East Berlin, West Berlin and Paris, from which they took an Aeronaves de México flight to this city, again with all fares and expenses paid on their behalf. On this return flight, Raya Morales was accompanied by Rubén Palafox and Ricardo Flores, and upon arrival at Mexico City International Airport, Raya Morales gave 950 US dollars that he had been carrying to Flores, unaware of the purpose or use for that money. Another comrade, only known by the alias “Lorenzo,” brought Raya Morales to live in an apartment located at 172 Oriente Street, whose number he did not recall, in Colonia Escuadrón 201.

Previously, according to another member of the group that uses the pseudonym “Joaquín,” Raya Morales had gone to Puebla, where he occupied a furnished room on North 11th Street, number 103, to which other comrades were supposed to arrive, but in October, nobody came, so he returned to this capital. In November, he began living at the above [Mexico City] address. There, in the company of new comrades Paulino Peña Peña, aka “Esteban Castillo,” Antonio Vargas Molina or Francisco Rodríguez Muñoz, aka “Victor,” they rented house number 90 on Díaz Nirón Street. From there, in January of the next year, they moved to the room that they presently occupy, in house number 32 on Orizaba Street, in Colonia Roma of this city. When they made this last move, however, Raya Morales was not in Mexico City, having been sent to Celaya, Guanajuato with Elisa González Trejo to wait for other members: Bertha Vega Fuentes, aka “Victoria,” and Carlos González Navarro, aka “Emilio” or “Hector,” with whom they traveled to San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato; Querétaro, Querétaro; Pachuca, Hidalgo; Mexico City; Puebla, Puebla; and Xalapa, Veracruz, where they made contact with Mario Fernández, who had already rented house number 121 on Victoria Street in that city, to set up a guerrilla school.

Paulino Peña Peña aka “Esteban” paid Raya Morales $2,500.00[5] for all of these movements. Once he had returned to this capital, Esteban introduced Raya Morales to another comrade only known by the name “Antonio,” and yesterday these two men directed Raya Morales to accompany them to the city of Xalapa, Veracruz, in a recent model of Datsun car, painted pistachio green, driven by Esteban. When they arrived in front of house 121 on Victoria Street, the plan was for Esteban to turn over $5,000.00 to Mario Fernández, but instead, he was arrested when he got to that address.

In Mexico City, they were using […][6] with license plate number NR-725 from the state of Chihuahua, registered to the name of Ignacio González Tejeda.

Raya Morales also said that when they lived in house 90 on Díaz Mirón Street, he heard a conversation between Victor and Esteban about how an “expropriation” would be necessary because they lacked money, and that Angel Bravo Cisneros and Oscar would participate in this. He also confessed that Esteban had told him that in some location in Nayarit state, another guerrilla training school had been (or was going to be) set up, and that Raya Morales would be an instructor there.

Today, a Volkswagen car from 1971 was picked up from a parking facility, which appears to belong to Angel Bravo Cisneros. Also today, a police search occurred at 32 Orizaba Street in Colonia Roma, which turned up several photographic cameras manufactured in Russia, switchblades and utensils for eating, gloves, a lantern, boxes of ammunition cartridges, two pairs of boots, a radio, a typewriter, two electric shavers, communist propaganda, a few notebooks of the “Guerrilla Manual,” photographs of Che Guevara, women’s clothing, many books in Russian, a mimeograph machine, an air gun, hypodermic syringes, and a stethoscope.

Lastly, in the evening, the person under arrest named Ramón Cardona Medel aka “Antonino,” who from the beginning has refused to testify, has accepted [responsibility for] his participation in activities with the group being discussed, including his travel to North Korea, where he was the Team Leader and stayed for the time between January and August 1970 at the training camp.

Respectfully,

Federal Director of Security

Captain Luís de la Barreda Moreno

[1] Translator's note: The type is very light here and difficult to read.

[2] Translator's note: A hasty underline ended up inadvertently blocking out most of this name, so Armando is my best guess.

[3] Translator's note: Another best guess at very light type.

[4] Translator's note: Light type and pencil markings make the first few letters illegible.

[5] Translator's note: One of the few times in these documents that the currency is not named explicitly; I am not sure whether this amount is in pesos or dollars.

[6] Translator's note: Two or three lines here are so light as to be illegible. The names “Antonio and Ramón” are handwritten in ink at the bottom right of this third page of the document.