From the Journal of A.I. Alekseyev, 'Record of a Conversation with Fidel Castro Ruz, Prime Minister of the Republic of Cuba, 20 February 1963'

Top Secret Copy Nº 1

22 March 1963

Outgoing Nº 70

from the journal of

A. I. ALEKSEYEV

RECORD OF A CONVERSATION

with Fidel CASTRO RUZ Prime Minister

of the Republic of Cuba

20 February 1963

I met with F. Castro, who told me how the operation was conducted to seize a group of Cuban counterrevolutionary pirates who had fired on two Cuban fishing boats in the open sea and had then tried to take them away.

After this attack by counterrevolutionaries became known the Cuban Air Force conducted aerial reconnaissance and detected the fishing boats and the pirates’ boats in the region of one of the British islands situated not far from Cuba. Cuban patrol boats were sent to this island. As a result of the rapid military operation, four of the eight men who took part in the pirate attack were seized and the boats in their possession were taken away. The counterrevolutionaries were delivered to Havana, and an investigation has begun. The remaining four continue to remain on the island and evidently they will be taken in the near future.

F. Castro said further that, according to preliminary interrogation information, it had become known that the group of counterrevolutionaries who had taken part in the operation belong to the “30^th of November” organization. It arrived in Cuba from Miami. It had the task of transporting weapons and men to reinforce the bands operating in the province of Las Villas. The participants of this operation were undertaking piratical attacks on fishing boats at the same time. It is interesting that among the weapons seized from the counterrevolutionaries were two Soviet semi-automatic rifles of the period of the Second World war.

At the end of the conversation Fidel Castro reported that the Cubans intend to build several high-speed boats and install powerful engines on them and use them to combat pirates. At the same time he asked whether it was possible to get such boats from the Soviet Union.

USSR AMBASSADOR IN THE REPUBLIC OF CUBA (A. ALEKSEYEV)