New York Herald Tribune
April 9, 1961, page 19
Cuba Ex-Senator, A Batista Aid, Seized in Miami

MIAMI. Apr. 8 (UPI).-Cuban ex-Senator Rolando Masferrer Rojas, head of the hated "Tiger" police of ousted dictator Fulgencio Batista, was arrested by immigration officials here today at the request of the State Department.

Edward Ahrens, district immigration director, said Mr. Masferrer's immigration parole had been revoked and that hey was picked up at his home-in-exile here.

"Because of his allegation that he wasn't feeling well and particularly in view of his past medical history, he was taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital and held in custody," Mr. Ahrens said.

The State Department asked that Mr. Masferrer be taken into custody because his "continued presence at large . . . in the United States and particularly in . . . Florida is prejudicial to the national interests from the point of view of our foreign relations.

Mr. Masferrer, who fled to this country with a number of his followers after Fidel Castro ousted Gen. Batista in 1959, has been living in Miami, an outcast among other anti-Castro Cuban exiles who are as much opposed to Gen. Batista as the Castro regime.

A State Department spokesman in Washington declined to elaborate on the statement, but anti-Castro groups in the United States have been trying to get Mr. Masferrer out of the Miami area for fear he would become identified with the movements trying to oust Mr. Castro.

When anti-Castro movements began to crop up in Miami, the Castro regime started to use the name of Mr. Masferrer and other former Batista officials as examples of the type of criminals opposing Mr. Castro.