One of the Cubans, First Lieutenant Antonio Briones was killed by Venezuelan army units and Second Lieutenant Manuel Gil Castellanos and a militiaman, Pedro Cabrera, were captured. There was supposed to be a fourth man in the party, identified as Lieutenant Pico, who drowned during the landing that took place on a deserted beach some 130 miles east of Caracas. Shortly after their capture the two prisoners were presented at a news conference in Caracas and admitted they had left Santiago de Cuba with a small group of Venezuelan guerrillas.

Although the Havana radio and press reported news dispatches about the aborted landing, it was not until 6 days after the Caracas announcement that the Castro regime replied to charges that Cuba is actively intervening in the internal affairs of Venezuela. On May 18, a 5,000-word statement issued by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba admitted that Cuban "revolutionaries" have helped to infiltrate guerrillas into Venezuela. In the same statement, the committee not only expressed its "solidarity with that altruistic, revolutionary and heroic action," but also defiantly proclaimed as "morally right" and "of vital necessity" a policy designed to "stimulate and increase to the maximum the solidarity and assistance to revolutionaries, wherever they might be, who are fighting or willing to fight against imperialism."

The document denied that the three Cubans, mentioned by Caracas, were on the "active" list of its armed forces. It added, however, that they have been "engaged in other revolutionary activities." The statement said that Cuba was not only "disinterested in evading responsibility" for the actions of its officials, but also that "the Cuban Revolution does not need to ask permission or forgiveness to fulfill its duty of solidarity with all revolutionaries in the world, among them those of Venezuela."

After asserting that "our party and our people, therefore, do not shirk from their revolutionary responsibilities," the statement said: "we are being accused of wanting to subvert the established order in this continent and we, in effect, proclaim the historic necessity that the peoples subvert the order established by imperialism in Latin America and the rest of the world. We are being accused of preaching the revolutionary overthrow of the established Latin American governments and we, in effect, believe that all oligarchies and guerrilla governments should be swept away by revolutionary struggle. We are being accused of supporting revolutionary movements and we, in effect, are giving and shall give help every time it is being asked for, to every revolutionary movement that is fighting against imperialism in every part of the world."

The statement then added that Cuba would "redouble" her defense effort and said that "even a total blockade will be unable to destroy the revolution." The statement also criticized the United Nations which, according to the Central Committee, "has not served, absolutely, to provide small nations with the least security, since it has been, generally, an instrument for endorsing the crimes and villainy of imperialism." This was the reason, the statement added, why Cuba has not signed, "as a matter of principle," the nuclear test ban and the nuclear nonproliferation treaty.

The Havana document was equally critical of the Moscow-sponsored principle of peaceful coexistence which, it stressed, can be applied only when peace is enjoyed by large and small countries alike. "European security, peaceful coexistence and such idyllic phrases are meaningless for the Vietnamese and others subject to U.S. aggression," the statement emphasized.

PARTY STATEMENT ON VENEZUELA

Havana Domestic Service in Spanish 1100 GMT, May 18, 1967–F

(Summary of Cuban Communist Party Central Committee communique on "charges and maneuvers by puppet regime of Venezuela and its Washington masters")

"We will not-repeat-not refuse to fight. We will help and continue to help all those who fight against imperialism anywhere in the world," stresses part of a communique by the Cuban Communist Party in reply to the fallacious maneuver by the puppet regime of Leoni which has once again made Cuba the target of its scandalous lies by which it tries to deceive the world and thereby divert public opinion away from the tremendous problems it faces in the nation.

The communique of our party belies Lackey Leoni when he tries to involve the Cuban Army in alleged invasions of Venezuelan soil. On this point the statement says textually: "His statements also contain a number of lies. None of the three Cuban youths who are mentioned are members of the Cuban regular army.

"Antonio Briones Montoxto, 27, when he was almost a teenager took an active part in the clandestine struggle against Batista, later serving in various fields of the revolution, but he never belonged to Cuba's regular army.

"Manuel Gil Castellanos, 25, because of his age could not-repeat-not take part in the guerrilla war and hence was never in the Cuban regular army. "Pedro Cabrera Torres, 29, once a peasant, was in the army somewhat over a year between 1961 and 1963 (as heard) when he ceased to belong to it."

Referring to this question, the party central committee statement says that if the report were true that Cuban Youth Antonio Briones Montoxto fell from two gunshots to his head has been buried in the Machurucuto Cemetery because he helped the Venezuelan revolutionaries, our party and our people are utterly in solidarity with his altruistic, revolutionary, internationalist, and heroic gesture. The communique also goes on to deny the question of the alleged Soviet-made rifle supposedly confiscated and points out that such weapons supplied to Cuba by the Soviet Union are kept under perfect control by the armament section of the army and none of the weapons is missing.

The document emphasizes that in pointing out these truths, no pretension is made to evade responsibility because so far as the aims of imperialism and its policy of repression of the revolutionary movement pursued against Cuba are concerned it is neither necessary to invent any lie nor to herald any truth.

The party communique also underscores that the justification of the actions by the revolutionaries lies in the very existence of imperialism, further on it says that the question before the peoples is: Either capitulate before imperialism or resist and fight.

Elsewhere in the statement, the central committee of the party asserts that we are helping and we will continue to help all those who fight against imperialism anywhere in the world.

In another part of the statement the central committee of the party points out that the concept of peace can only be honored if it is universal and reminds the puppets further on that against the revolutionary struggle, the imperialists' conventional, chemical, bacteriological, or nuclear weapons will be of no avail.

The statement concludes by saying that between the peoples of Venezuela and Cuba there will never be war, no matter what the OAS and its master decide in Washington.

(Statement released by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba.)

HAVANA, MAY 18.-The Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba released the following statement early this morning:

As our people have been able to learn from the cables released by all the international press agencies cables that have been published in textual form by our newspapers the lackey government in Venezuela, following the evident instructions of its masters in Washington, is trying to unleash a hysterical, violent, aggressive, and belligerent campaign against our country. They are using such really shameful terms as "naval and air blockade," "ultimatum," "collective armed attack," "economic boycott of the countries trading with Cuba,” and so forth. This means that they are threatening and are trying to intimidate our country in the crudest fashion.

What has caused this fit of belligerent hysterics, these frightful threats, and these outrageous cries of war? Is it perhaps that the illustrious rulers of Latin America are getting excited about supporting the dominican people, who are still under the occupation of the Yankee soldiers? Are they demanding a halt in the occupation of the Panama Canal and punishment for the massacre committed not-repeat-not long ago against the people of that country by the U.S. soldiers?

Are they condemning the barbaric and brutal air raids on North Vietnam and the genocide being committed against the people of South Vietnam? Are they protesting against the United States for the insolent participation of its special forces in the repression of the revolutionary movements in Latin America and demanding the closing of the military schools that have been set up in Panama and the United States itself by imperialism in order to train thousands of butchers (matarifes) of the oligarchic armies in the technique of pursuing and exterminating the revolutionary fighters?

Are they demanding that the territory of the Guantanamo Naval Base be returned to Cuba-territory from which, from time to time, they fire on our soil and murder Cuban guards? Are they condemning, even though belatedly, the Giron invasion, which was organized by the Central Intelligence Agency with bases in Nicaragua and Guatemala, or the bombing of our cities by Yankee planes

bearing Cuban markings, or the pirate attacks coming from the bases established around Cuba, or the thousands of infiltrations, or the mass parachuting of arms to supply counterrevolutionary groups, or the other crimes of the type that the yankee imperialists have been carrying out uninterruptedly against Cuba for 8 years?

Are they demanding that imperialism cease the criminal and cowardly economic blockade of a Latin American country-a blockade that is being carried out in violation of all international and human laws and with the repugnant complicity of all the Latin American governments, with the honorable exception of Mexico?

No! These and many other deeds of the kind are not-repeat-not important. They are absolutely unworthy of being taken into consideration. What incites their fury and their hysterics is the report of the presence of three Cubans one of whom was killed and two arrested when, according to their statement, they were trying to help a group of eight Venezuelan revolutionaries return to their country. These are precisely some of the Venezuelan revolutionaries who have been fighting for years to liberate their country from the tutelage and exploitation of the Yankee monopolies and for that they are murdered ipso facto when they fall into the hands of the repressive police of the regime. That, indeed, is reason to urge them to demand an immediate, fulminating, and exterminating action against Cuba. This is the philosophy, the concept of right and international law, the ethics, and the rules that the imperialists want to impose on the world.

The fact is that when these blessed boys (Santos Varones) speak of war against Cuba, they speak of a war that must be fought by the Yankee Army, Navy, and Air Force. In other words, they think in cowardly fashion about what, in their opinion, would be a simple and easy genocide of our people by the imperialists. This is what lies, after all, behind the melodramatic boastings of Senor Leoni. His statements contain a series of lies. None of the three Cuban youths he mentions belongs to the Regular Cuban Army.

Antonio Briones Montoto: 27 years old. When almost an adolescent, he participated actively in the clandestine struggle against Batista. Afterward, he served in several fields of the Revolution, but he never belonged to the Regular Cuban Army.

Manuel Gil Castellanos: 25 years old. Because of his age, he could notrepeat-not participate in the guerrilla warfare, and he was never a member of the Regular Cuban Army. Like Briones, he engaged in other revolutionary activities.

Pedro Cabrera Torres: 29 years old. He comes from peasant stock. He was a member of the Army for a little over 1 year between 1961 and 1963, when he left it.

Moreover, they exercise all types of pressures over the rest of the national industries by threatening them with economic reprisals to make them participate in their criminal policy. They do the same thing with banking, trade, and shipping enterprises.

The United States does not-repeat—not even hide its objective of using economic relations to penetrate, weaken, demoralize, corrupt, and divide the Socialist countries of Europe. There is not-repeat-not a single act of Yankee international policy that is not-repeat-not based on this moral, this policy, on these strategic objectives.

The army coup promoted by the United States in Greece demonstrates that not-repeat-not even Europe is immune to the schemes used by Yankee imperialism in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. It is in the small and weak nations, the so-called third world, where imperialism's policy shows itself more savagely aggressive and belligerent. There is no system which can provide guarantees to these nations against imperialism's vandal acts. Even the United Nations has not-repeat-not provided nations the least security. Far from it, generally it has been an instrument to validate the crimes and misdeeds of Yankee imperialism. It cannot be any other way, since in this organization the same law which imperialism has imposed on the world represented there is in effect. This fact is overly clear, above all, for those regions of the world which have more directly felt the heavy hand of imperialism and which have been compelled to wage, under difficult conditions, A decided and determined struggle against imperialism. This fact determines our international policy.

Therefore, we, the Cuban revolutionaries have not-repeat-not signed and shall not-repeat-not sign any agreement on the cessation or ban on nuclear tests or against the proliferation of weapons of this kind, such as those agreed upon under the auspices of the United Nations, although at the present stage of

our technical development this means nothing but a position taken as a matter of principle.

The yankee imperialists are not-repeat-not only continuing to develop their nuclear weapons, they are also developing at full speed deadly instruments of chemical and bacteriological warfare. What result can the renunciation of the peoples of the development of their means of defense have other than to facilitate for the imperialists the ideal conditions under which they can subject the world to their terror and blackmail; until there exists for all of humanity a system which will give the peoples, without exception, equal, effective guarantees of security, without privileges for anyone, the right of the nations threatened by imperialism to develop their means of defense, whatever they may be, cannot be renounced. This is why we refuse to accept any international U.N. force which would serve only as one more instrument of aggression in the hands of the yankee imperialists. This is why we refuse to accept the right of the United States to impose, as occurred in the October crisis, what kind of weapons our constantly threatened country shall possess. Even less would we consent to the inspection of our territory, because this would amount to endorsing the right of the aggressors to decide on what weapons its future victims are or are not-repeat-not to possess. This is why we consider that it is not-repeat-not only a moral, revolutionary duty, but a vital necessity for the peoples of the world of today, faced by the imperialist policy of repression and internationalization of punitive wars against the revolutionary movements, to encourage and to increase to the maximum solidarity with and help for the revolutionaries who, in any part of the world, are fighting or are ready to fight against imperialism.

Some people believe that the adoption of a consistent, resolute, revolutionary policy against imperialism would lead inexorably to a nuclear conflict. This is to suppose that the Yankee imperialists are suicidal. The Yankee imperialists are powerful, but they are not-repeat-not invincible nor suicidal. The road which, by the laws of history, will lead to the solution of the conflict between the interests of this imperialism and those of the rest of humanity is the revolutionary struggle of the peoples. In this struggle the imperialists' conventional, chemical, bacteriological, or nuclear weapons will do them no good.

To defeat imperialism is not-repeat-not to defeat the U.S. people or the U.S. nation. The small groups who control Yankee monopolistic capital are a tiny minority inside the United States. The people of the United States, in the immense majority, consist of thousands of workers in industry, farmers who cultivate the land, intellectuals, and students. Among these millions are considerable groups of the Negro population who are fighting arduously for their rights.

Very seldom is it taken into account that the people of the United States are one of the great victims of Yankee imperalism. It is the people who, to a great extent, pay with the sweat of their toil and the blood of their sons, for the unjust, repressive wars of the imperialists.

Recently, the Pentagon declared, perhaps trying to answer the revolutionary rallying cry of Maj. Ernesto Guevara, that it was in a position to wage simultaneously several wars similar to the war in Vietnam. This is what the Pentagon thinks, but it is not-repeat-not what U.S. mothers think. It is not-repeatnot what the U.S. Negro population, deprived of the most elementary rights, thinks. It is not-repeat-not what the workers who work for a living nor the immense majority of the students and U.S. young people can logically think.

This assertion by the Pentagon may be true as the quantitative expression of the sum total of its technical resources, but it is very far from being true in terms of human, moral, and political resources. These are not-repeat-not enough to win in even one country, Vietnam, far from being enough to wage several Vietnamtype wars. Such a road would lead to an awakening of unpredictable dimensions in the conscience of the people of the United States. Therefore, in this contemporary development of history, the peoples fighting for their liberation and the people of the United States will be coming increasingly close to one another and will be called upon one day to live in sincere peace and friendship on the ruins of an imperial policy which can only try to survive by resorting to crime and the genocide of entire peoples.

The question for the peoples presents itself as follows: Either they must surrender to imperialism or resist and fight. To resist and fight in all periods of history implies facing the risks which resistance and struggle involve just as to surrender means simply to surrender.

Fear of nuclear blackmail leads to an inexorable result which is surrender without resistance and without struggle against imperialism. So the fiction and

the lie that the imperialists are ready to commit suicide becomes for them a much more effective weapon than their atomic arsenal. If we want peace, this peace must be for all peoples equally. In the world today, lashed by an empire whose claws extend to all the continents, the concept of peace can be honest only if it is universal.

In the same way, the concept of peaceful coexistence between states of different social systems, if it does not-repeat-not guarantee equally the integrity, sovereignty, and independence of all countries, small and large, is essentially against the principles of proletarian internationalism. What peace do the Vietnamese enjoy? What kind of coexistence is that practiced by the U.S. Government with this country? The men, women, old people, young people, and children die there daily-victims of the most modern military technique. They see falling on their country so many bombs that they shortly will exceed the total weight of the bombs dropped on Europe during the second world War-they are of an accumulated destructive power greater than that of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

What (?do) the words "peace," "European security," "peaceful coexistence," and other similar idyllic phrases mean?

Our party and our people, therefore, do not-repeat-not reject their revolutionary responsibility before the world, nor will they flee from combat, with its consequences and sacrifices, in whatever form and in whatever field imperialism may decide to initiate it against us.

They accuse us of wanting to subvert order on this continent. We do, indeed. proclaim the historic necessity that the peoples must subvert the order established by imperialism in Latin America and in the rest of the world.

They accuse us of preaching the revolutionary overthrow of established governments in Latin America and we do, indeed, believe that all the oligarchical governments of guerrillas, in uniform or out of uniform, servants of imperialism and accomplices in its crimes, must be swept away by the revolutionary struggle of the peoples.

They accuse us of helping the revolutionary movement and we, indeed, are giving help and we shall continue to give help as many times as we may be asked to do so to all the revolutionary movements fighting against imperialism in any part of the world.

We shall never accept the status quo which imperialism wants to impose on humanity, nor its draconian laws, not-repeat-not its unscrupulous mercantile morality.

Our right is the right of the peoples to emancipate themselves from exploitation and slavery. It is the right of humanity to rebel against the aggressions and crimes of imperialism, the principal bulwark of reaction in the world. Our laws are the laws of the inevitable revolutionary development of human society. Our morality is the morality of revolutionary fighters, one of whose most inescapable and sacred principles in the world of today is international solidarity.

Against the threats looming over our country today what we shall do is redouble our defensive effort without abandoning our ardous and increasingly successful work on the path of the cultural, technical, and economic development of our country under the present conditions of economic blockade and, if it should be necessary, even under conditions of total blockade, because at this stage no force in the world will be able to destroy our revolution.

The Yankee imperialists and all of their accomplices in the aggressions against Cuba will have to accept the consequences of their (?crimes)

It in no way surprises us that the corrupt, servile, clique of men who have sold out their country and who now rule in Venezuela should incite the imperialist war against our people. For several years they have been making war against the people of Venezuela, and their impotence to crush the revolutionary movement explains their desperation. Today they are asking for imperialist intervention against Cuba. Tomorrow they will ask for the intervention of the marines in Venezuela itself.

If the report that the young Cuban Antonio Briones Montoto was killed by two bullets in the head and lies buried 60 meters from the beach in the Machurucutu Cemetery because he wished to help the Venezuelan revolutionaries were true, our party and our people would deeply sympathize with his altruistic, revolutionary, internationalist, and heroic gesture. (Two lines garbled.) But it also fits in with the finest traditions of Bolivar and the Venezuelan nation, whose sons fought and died for the independence of many other sister-peoples of this continent. Bolivar once wished to fight for the independence of Cuba. Let those who incite the imperialist war against our homeland cease to invoke his name. Between the peoples of Venezuela and Cuba there will never be war. It does not-repeat-not