New York Times
April 18, 1961.

Rebel Aid Denied by Guatemalans
Regime Says Country Was Not Base for Cuban Raid

By Paul P. Kennedy
Special to The New York Times

        GUATEMALA, April 17--The Guatemalan Government categorically denied today that it was participating in the attack on Cuba.
        An official statement published at noon in the Government newspaper Diario de Centro America dealt principally with a charge that part of the invasion of Cuba had been launched from Guatemalan bases. The statement denied this charge.
        The Government statement concluded with the declaration, "Guatemala, faithful to her international obligations and invariable policy, has not intervened and will not intervene in the internal affairs of other countries, including Cuba."
        Referring to the charge that the invasion had been launched from Guatemala, the Government statement declared, "Any one interested in proving the inaccuracy of those accusations may inspect the seventy kilometers (about forty-four miles) of Guatemalan Atlantic coastline and the cities of this shore, including Puerto Barrios, Matias de Galvez, Livingston, etc."
Peten Base Mentioned
        Meanwhile, there have been persistent reports here that part of the military strike against Cuba originated at a training camp in the Guatemalan Department of Peten, which lies between Mexico and British Honduras.
        The Government, before today's statement, has repeatedly denied that Guatemala has been involved in the action against Cuba. President Miguel Ydigoras Fuentes declared in an interview that Guatemala was not going to send "anything or anybody" against Cuba from Guatemala.
        The reports on the training camp wholly unconfirmed, maintain the camp is in southeastern Peten, the largest and most isolated of Guatemala's twenty-two departments. The reports maintain that the camp is near the town of Sayaxche. This town is on the Pasion River, about thirty miles west of the Mexican border, between Honduras and the Mexican State of Chiapas.
        Flights of private planes recently have been forbidden over this area. Last week an anthropological expedition from the National University of Guatemala had to postpone flights over the area on the orders of Government authorities.
Students Score Government
        Reports that the airfield at the Caribbean port of Puerto Barrios had been closed to all except military traffic were confirmed here this morning. There is no other Guatemalan airport on the Caribbean coast. All traffic for the port, about 200 miles from Guatemala City, now must go by highway or rail.
        The Association of Engineering Students at the Guatemala National University issued a statement last night criticizing the Government for what it alleged was the toleration of foreign military bases on Guatemalan territory. The statement declared that the association was "greatly preoccupied by the gravity of the existence of foreign military contingents on our soil."
        The statement also "repudiated whatever type of aggression operated against the Cuban Government from our territory." It demanded that the national army "maintain national sovereignty, avoid the installation of foreign military bases on Guatemalan territory and repel any type of aggression against this country."
        A statement charging the United States with an "offensive" against Latin-American sovereignty in the Cuban invasion has been issued by the Association of Students in Economics Sciences at the National University. This statement declared that the attack on Cuba was "by North American imperialism at a time when the wounds of aggression by these same forces against the Guatemalan people in 1954 has still not healed."
        The Cuban invasion was the chief topic of conversation in the streets and in stores and cafes here. The morning newspapers and radio news broadcasters devoted many words to the event. The morning newspapers, however, did not react editorially to the situation.

Guatemala Opens Maneuvers

        GUATEMALA, April 17 (Reuters)--The Guatemalan Army announced today the immediate opening of week-long military maneuvers. However the Defense Ministry said the maneuvers were not connected with the Cuban situation.
        The Ministry said army guards surrounding the United States embassy and residence were also a routine preventative measure.