WEDNESDAY, JULY 30, 1975

U.S. SENATE,
SUBCOMMITTEE TO INVESTIGATE THE
ADMINISTRATION OF THE INTERNAL SECURITY ACT
AND OTHER INTERNAL SECURITY LAWS
OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY,
Washington, D.C.

The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 12:30 p.m., in room 5110, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Senator Strom Thurmond presiding.

Also present: J. G. Sourwine, chief counsel, Alfonso Tarabochia, chief investigator; David Martin, senior analyst; Robert J. Short, senior investigator; and Mary E. Dooley, director of research.

Senator THURMOND. Terrorist bombings by Puerto Rican revolutionaries, in this country and in Puerto Rico, have attracted much attention because bombings are spectacular. But information gathered by the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee over the past several years points to the conclusion that the bombings may have concealed a much more important aspect of the Puerto Rican situation. If the word of the Communists means anything, what this evidence suggests is that international communism has been using Puerto Rico as a bridgehead to infiltrate, disrupt and ultimately bring about revolution in the United States.

The leading role played by Cuba in these efforts is self-proclaimed and well publicized, because Cuba has been the fountainhead of revolution in Puerto Rico since Castro took polder in 1959. .

Next month, on September 5-7, Havana will be the meeting place of a Conference of Solidarity with Puerto Rican Independence, sponsored by the Moscow-dominated World Peace Council.

Fermin Arraiza, leader of the delegation of the Socialist Party of Puerto Rico at the Nonalined Nations Conference in Havana made this statement on March 17, 1975:
 

Puerto Rico's independence is, perhaps, one of the strategic objectives of the world liberation forces and the world's anti-imperialistic forces, because the proclamation of our independence could be the spark that will start the victorious struggle for the second and true independence of the exploited and discriminated against people of the United States of America.
 

Arraiza left no doubts as to who was responsible for the revolutionary efforts. In the next paragraph he stated:
 

Cuba has been a vanguard in the international struggle of solidarity for independence of Puerto Rico.
 

The purpose of today's hearing is to look into this situation. We have with us today as witnesses Mr. Francisco Martinez, a dedicated Puerto Rican who has made an extensive study of the Socialist Party of Puerto Rico, which is the, political and 'action arm of the Marxist revolutionary forces in the Caribbean island; and Mr. Alfonso Tarabochia, chief investigator for the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee, who has investigated this situation systematically from its beginning.

Mr. Martinez, the subcommittee understands that, for reasons of personal security, it is imperative that you present the testimony you are about to give today under an assumed name. You have

identified yourself to the committee. The committee staff is satisfied with the integrity- of your testimony. Under these circumstances, and with knowledge of your true identity, the subcommittee will

take your testimony under the name you have assumed and you will be sworn under this name.

Mr. Martinez and Mr. Tarabochia, will you rise and be sworn. The evidence you are about to give the subcommittee will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God.

Mr. MARTINEZ. I do.

Mr. TARABOCHIA. I do.
 

TESTIMONY OF FRANCISCO MARTINEZ
 

Senator THURMOND. Mr. Martinez, will you tell us something about your background.

Mr. MARTINEZ. Yes, Sir. I work as a consultant and researcher for several private interests in Puerto Rico industrial companies in the field of labor relations and particularly as it relates to Communist infiltration in the labor unions. I have also worked as chief researcher for a nonprofit organization sponsored by local interests. And that is my relation with the subject of these hearings, sir.

Senator THURMOND. For how many years have you worked in this field?

Mr. MARTINEZ. About 5 years, sir.

Senator THURMOND. And since you first began working in the field, you have followed the activities of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party.

Mr. MARTINEZ. Yes, Sir.

Senator THURMOND. Is the Puerto Rican Socialist Party a socialist party in the sense of the European socialist parties?

Mr. MARTINEZ. No, Sir. It is a Marxist-Leninist party, which means it follows the line of the hard Communist parties.

Senator THURMOND. It follows the Moscow-Havana line?

Mr. MARTINEZ. Particularly the Havana line, sir.

Senator THURMOND. Right.

I believe you have a prepared statement, Mr. Martinez. It will help us, I think, if you will read your prepared statement first, and then we may have some questions, or staff may have some questions that they will want to address to you.

Mr. MARTINEZ. Thank you, sir. Just to put my presentation in the proper perspective, I would like to quote a statement made by Juan Mari Bras, the Secretary General of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party, when he was secretary of the Pro-Independence Movement.
 

The statement was made in January 1967, with Stokely Carmichael at his side, and it was not only significant but. very ominous, especially to those who knew of Juan Mari Bras' extremely close ties with the Communist regime of Cuba.

To quote him:
 

Just as imperialism uses Puerto Rico as a bridgehead for its penetration into Latin America, so will the MPI offer itself as a bridge over which world revolution can penetrate into the United States.
 

To what degree Mari Bras' threats have come to pass can be measured by a recent statement just before the terrorist act that killed four people at Fraunces Tavern in New York earlier this year. I am again quoting Mari Bras, from an editorial under his byline published in the December 3 issue of Claridad, the official newspaper of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party. It says:
 

Don't get scared, for this is just the beginning. You don't have to be a prophet to foresee that acts of sabotage and bombings of all kinds will take place with increasing frequency.
 

With these statements as a background, I will proceed to present a collection of facts that show that the Puerto Rican Socialist Party is not only a subversive organization, but an active instrument of a foreign government dedicated to the destruction of democratic principles on which the government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico is based.

Senator THURMOND. If I may interrupt at this point, Mr. Martinez, you said previously that the Puerto Rican Socialist Party follows both the Moscow and Havana line, but more the Havana line. Do you believe that it is also an instrument of Moscow?

Mr. MARTINEZ. I have no information in that regard, sir, but I have particularly detailed information about their relations with Cuba.

Senator THURMOND. And you are convinced that it is an instrument of the Castro Government in Havana?

Mr. MARTINEZ. Yes, Sir.

Senator THURMOND. Would you proceed.

Mr. 'NIARTINEZ. I will first present the history of Communist penetration in Puerto Rico.

The United States values political freedom as the highest of human rights and for that reason it has permitted, with very few restrictions, the existence of the Communist Party within the United States, though this party is committed to the destruction of the American way of life.

The Communist Party of the United States decided in 1926 to establish a branch in Puerto Rico under the cover of one of its fronts, the Anti-Imperialist League. In 1932, a Puerto Rican who had served as chief organizer for the CPUSA in Denver, Colo., was sent back to the island to establish an independent party, the Puerto Rican Communist Party. Ironically

Senator THURMOND. If I may interrupt, what was the name of this Puerto Rican?

Mr. MARTINEZ. I don't have it right now, sir, but, I believe it is contained in a previous Senate publication on the subject of violence in Puerto Rico.

Senator THURMOND. Could you provide the name for insertion in the record at this point?
 

Mr. MARTINEZ. I don't have it now.

Senator THURMOND. You can do it after the hearing.

Mr. MARTINEZ. Yes, sir, I will.

[The name of Alberto E. Sanchez subsequently was supplied by Mr. Martinez as that of the person referred to.]

Senator THURMOND. Right. Proceed.

Mr. MARTINEZ. Well, like I say, ironically, the Communist threat came to Puerto Rico from the United States.

The Puerto Rican Communist Party never had more than 200 known members, but it built the foundations for a Communist movement by recruiting, indoctrinating and training the first group of Puerto Rican Communists.

The next stage in the Communists infiltration was the creation of Communist fronts. It is well known that the Communists seldom initiate their offensive by publicly announcing their goals. They know that the Marxist-Leninist ideology is hard to understand and that very few persons will feel motivated to fight for it in a Christian democratic society.

But Vladimir Lenin, the great builder of communism, discovered that non-communists can be manipulated to achieve communist goals. He stated, in more or less these words, that:
 

There is no single segment of the industrial society, no class in the population without a circle, however small, of discontented and maladjusted and alienated individuals-predisposed target audiences for radical hate propaganda-who can be hooked up to a revolutionary mass movement.
 

Senator THURMOND. Is this an exact quotation?

Mr. MARTINEZ. No, as I indicated, it is approximate. It is very close to the original. I am very familiar with the original, but I came away without the text.

Senator THURMOND. Will you proceed.

Mr. MARTINEZ. In Puerto Rico it was relatively easy to find that circle of discontented and alienated individuals. With increasing Americanization of the island, a small group of intellectuals was getting increasingly worried by «-hat they thought was the total destruction of Puerto Rico's Latin cultural tradition and heritage.

This group soon formed a Pro-Independence Party, to persuade the Puerto Rican people to break their ties with the United States. Most of them tried to follow the democratic channels, but a very small group, led by Pedro Albizu Campos, lost faith in the democratic process when they saw that the great majority of the people voted repeatedly for continued union with the United States.

In 1950, this group, the Nationalist Party, staged an unsuccessful uprising that resulted in the death or imprisonment of many of their leaders. Frustrated by their failure, the next day t«-o nationalists attacked the official residence of President Harry Truman, Blair House, in Washington. The attack failed. One of the attackers was killed and the other was injured. A police guard was also killed.

In 1954, a group of four Nationalists attacked the U.S. House of Representatives, injuring with their guns five Congressmen. Four arrests followed this vicious terrorist act and the Nationalist Party virtually disappeared.

Senator TI3URMOND. If I may interrupt at this point, when you use the word "Nationalist," these are Nationalists with a capital N, not true Puerto Rican nationalists, but members of the "Puerto Rican Nationalist Party?"

Mr. MARTINEZ. Yes, sir, that is correct.

Senator THURMOND. So, when the record is typed, I would ask the official reporter to make note of the fact that the word "Nationalist" is to be spelled with a capital N, denoting members of the Nationalist Party.

Mr. MARTINEZ. Yes, sir. Thank you.

Meanwhile, an enormous majority of the Puerto Ricans repudiated the attack and pledged continued allegiance to the American Nation.

In the 1956 elections, the Pro-independence Party obtained only 12 percent of the votes.

The pro-independence activists were desperate. Then, the Communists came in to offer their help for the reconstruction of the independence forces. Two front organizations were formed by the communists - The Federation of University Students for Independence in 1956, and the Pro-Independence movement in 1959. By offering the pro-independence leaders a program for the island's independence, the Communists began their revolution in Puerto Rico, using non-Communist hands - that is, by creating front organizations.

The third important step was the recruitment of young people. The Communists have always selected the youth as the target for their hate propaganda, for many reasons. First, many young people are. idealistic and gullible. Second, most of the youth is unhappy with the present society. And finally, once the young people select a cause to fight for, they have the time and the energy needed to make a militant.

The best place to recruit young people is at the universities and colleges. In our free society , academic freedom is imperative, but this means that Communist. teachers cannot be excluded because of their ideas from the universities, and for this reason the State provides the ideal forum for the dissemination of their destructive ideology to the. young people.

Mr. MARTIN. Would you repeat that last sentence? The State provides what?

Mr. MARTTINEZ. Yes, sir. The State provides the ideal forum for the dissemination of the Communist destructive ideology to the young people.

Mr. MARTIN. Through the universities?

Mr. MARTINEZ. Yes, sir, that is correct.

Mr. MARTIN. Right, that makes it clear.

Mr. 1~I ARTINEZ. In Puerto Rico, like in many other countries, the State university was the birthplace of the first Communist front. It was called Federation of University Students for Independence. Originally, the group just called for Independence and was open to anyone who wanted to join it, but from the very beginning Communist leaders directed the organization and planned the radicalization of its members.

From 1964 to 1971, the FUPI leaders promoted a total of seven riots at the University of Puerto Rico. By 1967, with the increasing involvement of the United States in Vietnam, they picked the ROTC as their target and began disrupting its military activities.

In 1969, they launched a surprise attack against the ROTC building, destroying part of the structure and a fire department truck that was summoned to the scene.

After a day of rioting in March 1970, the State police had to send its riot squad to the campus and a student was killed by a stray bullet. The police were blamed by the Communists for this death.

On the first anniversary of the 1970 riot, the Students For a Democratic Society, SDS, called for demonstrations throughout the United States in support of the Puerto Rican struggle. Seven days later, the Communists again stormed the ROTC building at the University of Puerto Rico. This time, several snipers--

Mr. MARTIN. When you say "the Communists", was it the Communists openly demonstrating under the banner of the Communist Party, or are you referring to the student organization which was led by pro-Communist elements?

Mr. MARTINEZ. It was the Federation of University Students for Independence and some other organizations that were publicly identified as Marxist-Leninists. That is why I used the general term "Communists" referring to them.

Mr. MARTIN. Was this a demonstration that was made up solidly of Communists, or was it a demonstration in which the mass of the demonstrators were perhaps not Communists, but the leadership was Communist?

Mr. MARTINEZ. Well, I believe that in almost every riot situation only the hard-core are actually Communists, and they can manipulate the rest of the people into participating in the riot. As this riot developed, I believe that most of the curious people and pro-independence sympathizers moved out of the area, and, by the end of the riot, when the police came in, most of the demonstrators involved were Communists.

Mr. MARTIN. Would you proceed.

Mr. MARTINEZ. Like I was saying, this was in March 1971. The Communists stormed again the ROTC building at the University of Puerto Rico. This time, several snipers began shooting at the cadets, killing one of them. The police riot squad was summoned to quell the riot, but the Communists were prepared to face the policemen and opened fire on them with automatic weapons as soon as they dismounted from their cars. The commander of the police riot squad and another policeman were killed and several officers were injured.

These riots radicalized a number of youngsters. When they graduated from college, they took positions in every segment of society, and this gave Communism in Puerto Rico a broader base of power.

Mr. MARTIN. In the interests of precision, Mr. Martinez, unless you are certain that the entire body of demonstrators was composed of Communists, I respectfully suggest that it might be a bit more proper to speak of "Communist-led demonstrators."

Mr. MARTINEZ. Yes, sir.

Mr. MARTIN. But, you did seem to be reasonably satisfied that by the time the riots-toward the end of the riots, at any rate, those who were not hard-core Communists had drifted away, and those who remained were pretty well all hard-core Communists?

Mr. MARTINEZ. Yes, sir. I am convinced of that, sir.

Well, the next stage of Communist infiltration of Puerto Rico was, I would call it, the appearance of a rising struggle.

Even though the Communists had a very militant group at the university, their actual strength was quite small. Outside the campuses they had very little contact with the population. To make their presence felt more strongly, they resorted to a clever combination of tools: terrorism and the, news media. This tactic was quite simple. Only one person was needed to place a fire bomb inside a store. Perhaps that very same person would phone the newspapers while the fire was still raging and would transmit a press release stating that the bombing was done by a clandestine pro-independence group. The next day the news media would give a lot of free publicity to the terrorists, with articles and photographs of bomb damage.

From 1964 to 1971, many American stores throughout the island were destroyed by terrorists. The press, unwittingly, helped create the image of a rising struggle, when actually the group of terrorists never had more than perhaps 50 members

Mr. MARTIN. During this period, were the bombings directed primarily against American stores, or were American industries also targets?

Mr. MARTINEZ. At that time what we had in Puerto Rico was mostly destruction by incendiary devices against stores, but. we also had destruction against industry, particularly against petrochemical pipelines.

Mr. MARTIN. Would you be able to offer for the record a list of the bombings against American stores and business establishments during this period?

Mr. MARTINEZ. I can offer a partial listing. I will just name some of the stores involved.

The first major bombing was in 1964 at a Bargaintown Store in Bayamon. It is close to San Juan. During that fire in 1964 an employee died and the losses were estimated at about $1 million.

The big rush of terrorists attacks took place in 1968. In that year they bombed, among other targets, Drug Fair, Blackton's, Chez Bamboo, Ruby Gale, a gasoline pipeline company, the New York Department Store, Grand Union, Franklin's, again the New York Department Store, Pueblo Supermarkets, several hotels in the Condado area, the International Department Store, some movie houses, the Belk-Lindsay Department Store in Bayamon, the Kresge's Store in Bayamon, the VBargaintown Store in Carolina, the K-Mart Store in San Juan.

Then, in 1969, Woolworth's Store in Santurce, Lerner's, Franklin's, Kresge's, Woolworth and a Sears store in Ponce. Another Kresge store

Mr. MARTIN. Did many of the bombings do extensive damage?

Mr. MARTINEZ. Some of them destroyed the stores completely. For example, the fire at Woolworth's in September 1969 caused $1,400,000 damage.

Mr. SHORT. Were there any deaths other than the first one you mentioned at the Bargaintown Store?

Mr. MARTINEZ. No, not any that I can remember, because what they did was they placed small incendiary devices that would burn the store at night.And continuing, in 1970, we had one of the first instances of violence and bombings in a strike. In January of that year-January 12, to be exact-a bomb was placed at the General Electric factors- in Rio Grande during a strike. That same year, the Moscoso Drug Stores, two of them, Nvere burned on the same day with losses of a quarter of a million dollars.

Then, on March .5, as a reprisal for the death of the students at the University, the Armed Commandos for Liberation killed two sailors, two American sailors, in San Juan. This as not exactly the type of terrorist act that I was talking about, but still it was a terrorist act.

In April of that year, several bombs were found with a blasting at the main communications tower of the police department at El Yunque. Forty-eight bombs were found that day.

In May of that year, at the Burger King Store in Rio Piedras, a bomb was placed and a student was seriously injured by the explosion.

And I could go on with a long list up until 1972, which is the last date I have of this listing of terrorist acts, but one of the major acts was a bomb placed during the Miss Universe Contest in Puerto Rico and that was in May 1972. While the Miss Universe Contest was taking place, in Puerto Rico, a very powerful explosive bomb was placed at the hotel, apparently to give a publicity effect to their struggle.

Mr. MARTIN. Now, this is only a partial listing of bombings and other terrorist incidents?

Mr. MARTINEZ. Yes, sir. The bombings have continued since 1972. The only list I have ended at that time. But, for example, in November 1974, last November, we had 17 bombs exploding at several

Mr. Martin. In 1 month?

Mr. MARTINEZ. One day.

Mr. MARTIN. In 1 day.

Mr. MARTINEZ. Seventeen very-we are talking now about explosive bombs-17 very powerful explosive bombs were placed at different American banks and stores and industry as a reprisal for the mobilization of the Puerto Rican National Guard, Army National Guard, during a strike.

Mr. MARTIN. Would it be an overestimate to say that there have been 100 or more bombings a year during this period, or would that be on the high side?

Mr. MARTINEZ. I would say that in 1968, which was a very bad year, we had more than 100. Then we had more or less the same, perhaps less, up until 1971. Then we had what I would say- a cool period until 1973 or 1974. Since then, the number of bombs has been much lower. But the effectiveness has been much bigger, because they are using very powerful explosives.

Mr. MARTIN. What you are saying, in effect, is that, as we have been developing our detente with the Soviet Union, a lot of bombs-and more powerful bombs-have been going off in Puerto Rico?

Mr. MARTINEZ. I am not certain about the frequency of the bombings, but the situation has continued, only that they have changed their tactics. Instead of attacking commercial establishments, just for publicity's sake, now they are attacking specific installations and mostly during strikes. and that is a coincidence, just a coincidence, but a very strange coincidence. The Puerto Rican Socialist Party--

Mr. MARTIN. Does the Puerto Rican Socialist Party claim responsi6ility for these bombings?

Mr. MARTINEZ. No, I was going to say, it is a coincidence that the Puerto Rico Socialist Party changed its emphasis from general attacks to publicity attacks or propaganda attacks against Americans in Puerto Rico. They changed into direct participation in strikes, and t lie bombings followed the same pattern. The Puerto Rican Socialist Party and its predecessor, the Pro-Independence Movement, have never claimed direct responsibility for bombings, but they have lacked most of the bombings by even saying that they are useful for t lie Puerto Rican struggle.

Just to give you an example, I am going to quote from Juan Mari bras, a statement he made, and I am going to give you the date of the statement. He made this statement in flay 1971, and he went on to say: "We understand that armed struggle has been a very important i actor in the massive development of the proindependence forces."

As the acts of sabotage by the Armed Commandos for Liberation increased, there has been a similar increase in the Puerto Rican Independence Party and the Pro-Independence Movement and in the proindependence forces. I don't think that the Armed Commandos for Liberation believe that with their actions alone they are going to bring independence. If they believe so, it would be a mistake on their part.

In the last press release published in Claridad, we can get just the opposite picture. They say that to achieve Puerto Rico's liberation, in addition to the terrorist actions, many things are going to be needed, perhaps an electoral party getting thousands of votes or a known electoral movement, very militant, or both things, but that all this will not be enough for independence, and that there will be no liberty without the liberating army. The Armed Commandos for Liberation, according to Mari Bras, would take care of developing that army-. And Mari Bras says:
 

The Pro-Independence Movement has morally backed the Armed Commandos for Liberation because we consider them a very important ingredient in the development of the mass struggle.
 

I could offer many other quotations made by important Puerto Rican Socialist Party members that would shed more light on this.

For example, Angel Agosto is the secretary, or he was until recently a Secretary of Labor Affairs for the party. He stated once:
 

The Armed Commandos for Liberation are perhaps the most substantial and effective armed pro-independence organization in Puerto Rico. Their actions are framed within the conception of an armed struggle as the blasting cap and

supplement for legal, open struggle.
 

Mr. MARTIN. In using the expression "Armed Commandos for Liberation," Is this the name of an organization?

Mr. MARTINEZ. Yes, sir, it is. It is the name of a terrorist organization that claims responsibility for most of the bombings in Puerto Rico in the last decade.

Mr. SHORT. As a point of clarification there, you mentioned explosives, and then you said incendiary. Do you feel-is it your personal opinion-that the incendiary bombs were used for publicity purpose and the high explosives were used to maim, destroy or kill?

Mr. MARTINEZ. Well, probably what they had was an increasing sophistication. I believe it was much easier to prepare a chemical bomb than to produce or to have an explosive bomb. In Puerto Rico, although this is not a field of my competence, it is public knowledge that there have been several thefts of explosives and since that happened, they changed into explosives.

Mr. SHORT. The Armed Commandos for Liberation you are referring to now, primarily?

Mr. MARTINEZ. Yes, sir, although the last bombings in Puerto Rico have been on animals and no one has claimed responsibility for them.

Mr. MARTIN. Not even the Armed Commandos?

Mr. MARTINEZ. No.

Mr. MARTIN. Is there any evidence of direct ties between the Armed Commandos for Liberation and the Puerto Rican Socialist Party, other than the statement from PSP leaders which you have read approving the actions of the Armed Commandos? Have any Socialist Party members been arrested, for example, in connection with the bombings?

Mr. MARTINEZ. Well, I don't have any hard evidence in that direction, and I don't believe that there have been any arrests-arrests and convictions, I mean, of any Socialist Party member in connection

with these bombings. Several party members were arrested once, but they were acquitted. The thing is, and this is now my personal opinion, there is some sort of a relationship between both organizations. It is safe to say-it is very safe to say this. Like I just quoted, the party feels that they need a supplement to detonate the mass struggle, and this supplement is the armed struggle. The reason behind this is

that they don't have enough force to win elections, but the destructive power they can get by means of terrorism would strengthen their position.

There is some sort of a bilateral relationship, because, for example, Claridad, the Socialist Party's newspaper, has always been some sort of a press agent for the Armed Commandos for Liberation by publishing every communiqué or press release that they have issued.

Some people - I am not personally in a position to make this as a categorical statement - but some people go beyond that and believe that the members of the Armed Commandos for Liberation are merely secret members of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party structure, operating at a second level.

Does that answer your question, sir, about terrorism? .

Mr. MARTIN. For the time being. I may have some further questions to address to you as your evidence proceeds.

Mr. MARTINEZ. Thank you, sir.

Mr. MARTIN. Would you carry on with your prepared statement?

Mr. MARTINEZ. Now, leaving the field of terrorism, which is not exactly the field of my competence, the next thing would be how the party organized itself in every town. To be effective, the party needed a broad geographic base. A parts- group or cell had to be created in every town and city and in the rural communities of the island. But the Communists were not strong enough to exploit the local people everywhere and did not have the power for big national campaigns. To help them in the creation of the party structure, they used Lenin's favorite tool, the party newspaper. Lenin once said:

A newspaper is what we most of all need. The role of the newspaper is not limited solely to the dissemination of ideas, to political education and to the enlistment of political allies. A newspaper is not only a collective propagandist and a collective agitator, it is also a collective organizer.

With the aid of the newspaper, and through it, a permanent organization will naturally take shape. The more technical task of regularly supplying the newspaper with copy and of promoting regular distribution will necessitate a network of local agents of the united party, who will maintain constant contact with one another, know the general state of affairs, get accustomed to performing their detailed function and test their strength in the organization of various revolutionary actions.

This was a direct quotation from Lenin in his book, "What Is To Be Done." In Puerto Rico, the island-wide Communist front was called, like I said, Movimiento Pro-Independencia, or Pro-Independence Movement. When it first published its newspaper, Claridad, in 1959, the movement only had 30 cells, most of them located in the big cities. At that time, Claridad was a mimeographed newsletter. By 1968, the party had at least one cell in practically every town and Claridad was a four-page weekly tabloid.

Three years later, Claridad had become a 24-page weekly newspaper, as a result of the increasing circulation and news sources provided by the growing party ranks.

In 1972, it began to be published twice weekly, and in November 1974, it was turned into a daily newspaper with international news, sports, and other very attractive features.

Mr. MARTIN. What is its circulation?

Mr. MARTINEZ. I don't know exactly, but it amounts to more than 10,000 daily. Probably twice that figure.

A bilingual edition is now published weekly for Puerto Ricans who live in the Continental United States. This shows how a newspaper can help a Communist party improve its internal organization and propaganda tools.

The next stage in the Communist offensive in Puerto Rico was in placing members in the key positions. I would not say that these developments took place in distinct stages. They were perhaps simultaneous. But in a way ---

Mr. 'MARTIN. You are talking of chronological stages?

Mr. MARTINEZ. They were not chronological stages, because some of these actions occurred at the same time, but in a way one depended on the other. Like, for example, they had to create a parts- throughout the island. The newspaper and the distribution of the newspaper was the tool they used for this.

Now, the next stage was placing members in key positions, which is something they tried to do from the very beginning of the party.

A Communist party is a professional revolutionary group. It organizes a hard core of militants with a strict discipline, and a cellular organization. The party does not want to bring the masses into its ranks.

However, it claims to be a party of the working class, and to validate this claim it needs a large degree of control over the workers that cannot be attained by agitation and propaganda alone. They achieve this control with a variety of techniques. One of them is the infiltration of party members into legitimate organizations to gain control of these groups for subversive purposes and to obtain information.

Another technique is creation by the party of front organizations. A front is a group totally controlled by the party members who hold leadership positions, but composed of a wide spectrum of non Communists who, for one reason or another, helped the party achieve its long-range goals through the front's public goals.

Before a Communist party can launch its final offensive, it needs this type of contact with the masses. In Puerto Rico, the ProIndependence Movement devoted considerable efforts to the infiltration of its members in the most important labor unions and in several cultural, collegiate, and political groups. As I said before, this is very easy for a party that is doing most of its recruitment at the universities. The part has four years to train a member while his is a student. When the member graduates from college his is ready to assume a position from which he can help the party.

The regulations of the Pro-Independence Movement make it mandatory for all members to use their positions in the community for the benefit of the part- and to follow orders from the party leadership regarding participation in any organization. The-

Mr. MARTIN. Is there any documentation to support this statement?

Mr. MARTINEZ. Yes, sir. I have with me a copy of the regulations of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party, which was the party they formed from the. Pro-Independence Movement in 1971.

Mr. MARTIN. Would you be willing to offer these regulations for the record?

Mr. MARTINEZ. Yes, sir. It is only a copy of a page of the regulations, but the specific part I am talking about right now is contained in this page.

Mr. MARTIN. May this be accepted for the record, Mr. Chairman?

Senator THURMOND. Without objection, so ordered.

[The information referred to follows:]
 

(3) Membership
 

Article, 4.-The members of the Socialist Party- of Puerto Rico are classified as affiliates and militants.

Article 5.-Militants are considered those who abide by the following rules:

(a) Support the general declaration and the political thesis and other documents of the program of the PSP and abide by the dispositions of these regulations.

(b) Perform, according to their condition and according to their capacity in harmony with the steering organs of the party, the activities and tasks which the struggle for independence and socialism demand.

(c) To subordinate to party discipline and to the interest, of the working class, their affiliation and activities in any organization, be it labor union, student, cultural, civic, philosophical, or any other type. Their participation in any profession or business is also subordinate in the same manner.

CH-To be older than 16 years of age, except in certain situations which are determined by the Central Committee, and to have served a period no less than six months as an affiliate;

(d) To participate actively and contribute actually in the corresponding member organizations;

(e) To work actively in the syndicate labor or student organization corresponding to their office, profession or student level:

(f) To participate in all the meetings of the party when ordered:

(g) To spread the socialist doctrine, the political thesis and to fulfill the tasks ordered by the organizations of the Party;

(h) To be discreet in an absolute way regarding internal matters of the Party, agreements and resolutions approved, when this is demanded by the organization;

(i) To be loyal to all members of the party and to practice, solidarity and fraternal unity with the members of patriotic and or revolutionary organizations of Puerto Rico and with the members of the foreign parties and revolutionary movements;

(j) To maintain a personal conduct in accordance with the best interests of the Puerto Rican revolution and the Puerto Rican Socialist Party.
 

Mr. MARTINEZ. Since it is in Spanish, I could translate it. It is just very short. I am referring to article 3. "Members" is the title of the article-excuse. me. It is section 3, and now article 5.

Article 5. part (c), says:
 

That militants of the Party will have to subordinate to party discipline and (o the interests of the working class, their affiliation and activities in any organization be it labor union, student cultural, civic, philosophical, or any other type. Their participation in any profession or business is also subordinate in the wine manner.
 

This is the article I was referring to when I said the regulations of the Pro-Independence Movement and the Socialist Party made, mandatory for all members to use their positions in the community for the benefit of the party and to follow its leaders and to submit to the discipline of the party their participation in any organization.

Mr. MARTIN. Thank you for the documentation. Would you proceed.

Mr. MARTINEZ. You are welcome, sir.

The Pro-Independence Movement also created what is called the second level or secret party structure, whose members kept secret their part affiliation and obtained sensitive positions in government, in industry and other critical segments of society.

Now we are getting to the point where the party had the organization completed, the consolidation was done, and the Pro-Independence movement, which had not proclaimed itself Communist, was slated to become publicly what it always was-a Communist organization.

I call this stage unmasking the organization and proclaiming its Communist goals.

Once the Communist front organization has consolidated its structure and has placed its members in key position, it starts a process in which the Communist goals are proclaimed an J the rallying issue of the first period becomes a secondary objective. This happened in Puerto Rico in 1971 when the Pro-Independence-Movement changed its name to the Puerto Rican Socialist Party, Partido Socialista Puertorriqueño and announced it was in the process of transformation into a Marxist-Leninist party of the working class. A series of party documents openly admitted that the Puerto Rican Socialist Part was a Communist Organization.

Mr. MARTIN. Do you have some of these documents that you are in a position to offer for the record?

Mr. NIARTINEZ. Sir, I can offer some photocopies of the documents. Some I don't have here, but I have the most significant statements as part of my prepared statement.

Mr. MARTIN. That would be adequate for the record. Do you have them with you?

Mr. MARTINEZ. Yes, sir.

Mr. MARTIN. And can they be offered now?

Mr. MARTINEZ. Well -

Mr. MARTIN. Or would you prefer to submit them for the record subsequently?

Mr. MARTINEZ. I have them available, but I would prefer to submit them later and continue with my testimony.

Mr. MARTIN. Mr. Chairman, may these documents be accepted for the record when the witness provides them unless the Chair later rules otherwise?

Senator THURMOND. Without objection, so ordered.

Mr. MARTINEZ. Thank you.

Now, I would like to present a more detailed, ideological study of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party which, as we have seen, is the most important Communist organization in Puerto Rico.

January 11, 1975, marked the 16th anniversary of the Pro-Independence Movement, MPI. While in 1959 it was only a handful of dissident proindependence fighters, it was transformed years ago into a socialist revolutionary party, Puerto Rican Socialist Party, and now proclaims openly its Marxist-Leninist ideology, its backing of armed struggle and its close ties with Fidel Castro and his regime. If I may summarize the process of the last 16 years, these are the essential points in my opinion.

Puerto Rico has witnessed the birth and consolidation of a classic Communist Party. Until recently it was necessary to read between the lines to find V evidence to substantiate this statement. For that reason many people refused to believe the allegation that the MPI was a Communist front.

During the last few months, however, the Puerto Rican Socialist Party has chosen to speak clearly and today we have unquestionable evidence on this subject.

Consider, for example, the following quotation from the Puerto Rican Socialist Part' 1974 political thesis. This section I am going to quote right now is called "Programmatic Bases of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party." It states:
 

The General Declaration adopted at the Founding Assembly of our Party proclaims four basic rights that shape up the program of the Party of the Working Class.

First, the inalienable right of our homeland, Puerto Rico, to independence.

Second, the rights, also inalienable, of the Puerto Rican people to the complete rescue of all property that has been alienated by persons, corporations, governments or any foreign forces.

The right of the Puerto Rican workers to the progressive socialization of all means of production, regardless of who owns them now, foreigners or nationals, and to the construction of a socialist society where there will be finally no more oppressed nor oppressors.

Four, the right of the workers and of the rest of the patriots to use all available forms of struggle, including revolutionary violence, to oppose the repressive violence of the system and to validate the other fundamental rights already mentioned.

The first of these four basic rights, the right to national independence, is considered by us as inalienable, that is, that it cannot be renounced. To our Party, for that reason the political status of Puerto Rico is not negotiable by means of elections, plebiscites or referendums, nor through agreement, of any kind that may devaluate, restrict or qualify the full exercise of sovereignty and independence by our people.

The second of the aforementioned rights, which we also consider inalienable, represents our objective of National Liberation. We affirm that all property operated by foreigners in Puerto Rico has been obtained by the imposition of the colonial regime. We will not recognize, consequently, any property rights acquired under those circumstances, and by means of our struggle we will rescue for our people all of our national resources-the land, the subsoil the sea, the air, the vegetation, the animals and everything that the Puerto Rican men and women have created with their toil in ill aspects of our life.
 

Now, I am going to quote

Mr. MARTIN. This is the end of this quotation?

Mr. MARTINEZ. No, sir. I am going to quote now the most significant part of it. I just wanted to emphasize it.
 

The third of these rights proclaims our socialist ideology. It outlines our final goal, which is the construction of a socialist society, where there will finally be no oppressed nor oppressors. In other words, the socialist society which we envision will culminate in the Communist society, which is the only one that can guarantee that there will be no more oppressed nor oppressors.
 

Just one paragraph later, in the same document, it says:
 

The Communist society, which is our final goal, is that which is based on the principle "front each according to his capacity, to each according to his needs."
 

The next quotation I have in this same document states as follows
 

To reach Communism, we first have to build and consolidate socialism. The Socialist society is that which, by destroying in its roots the power of the capitalists and imposing the class dictatorship of the proletariat, prepares the material base for the full development of productive forces and the final leap to Communism.

The revolutionary change from one system to the other cannot be achieved by decree nor abruptly-, but by means of a process. The revolutionary power produces the qualitative change that provides the impulse for that process. The application of a correct. transition program that will consolidate the power of the working class and set the solid basis for the construction of socialism is required.
 

This is contained in the political thesis of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party, pages 110 and 111.

Mr. MARTIN. Does this document exist in both English and Spanish, or is this a translation from the Spanish that you have just given us?

Mr. MARTINEZ. I have given my own translation, as is the case with all translations I am offering here.

Mr. MARTIN. Would you be able to provide for the record a photostatic copy of the original?

Mr. 'MARTINEZ. Yes, sir. Not at this time, but later I will be able to supply it.

Mr. MARTIN. In reviewing your remarks, you will be able to provide this for the record.

Mr. MARTINEZ. Yes, sir.

Mr. MARTIN. May this be provided for the record, Mr. Chairman?

Senator THURMOND. Without objection, so ordered.

[The material referred to, in its Spanish version, may be found in the files of the subcommittee.]

Senator THURMOND. Off the record.

[Discussion held off the record.]

Senator THURMOND. Back on the record.

Mr. MARTINEZ. If this document leaves very little room for doubts of the Communist nature of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party, the following statement by Juan Mari Bras should be more than enough to dispel any remaining doubts.
 

If the other Pro-Independence Party wants unity with us, we will think about it, but only on some bases of principle on which we are not willing to compromise.
 

These are the following: Whoever seeks unity with us must not be anti-Communist or oppose armed struggle. That does not mean that our allies have to be Communists or advocates of armed struggle, but they must not be against any of these two things. And, logically, whoever seeks unity with us will be fully aware of the fact that he is dealing with Communists and revolutionaries.
 

This was published in Claridad on January 2, 1975.

Another statement by Juan Mari Bras says:
 

We are Communists because the objective of all the socialists around the world is the eventual transformation of the Socialist society into a Communist society. Communism is a phase in the social development in which scarcity and the class struggle,, will have been transcended. That objective has not been achieved anywhere in the world, not even in countries that have been building socialism for many years.
 

But, is the specific context of our national reality, we decided to call our party Socialist Party because it defines with sufficient precision our strategic objective for the foreseeable future.

This was contained in Claridad on May 5, 1975.

As I was mentioning, the available evidence makes undeniable the fact that the Puerto Rican Socialist Party is a classic Communist party.

The text question is, what is the real relevance of this fact? As a Communist party, several fundamental traits distinguish the Puerto Rican Socialist Parts- from any other pro-independence party.

First, we are not talking about a group of intellectuals or dreamers whose only aspiration is some form of utopic independence. By adopting the Marxist-Leninist ideology, the members of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party have adopted some very concrete aspirations for the transformation of society.

Second, we are not talking either about a group of anarchist terrorists whose activity responds to impulse. The Puerto Rican Socialist Party is an organization with a very disciplined structure and whose tactics-inspired by Leninism-have been designed like a delicate and complex piece of machinery aimed at the specific and methodic achievement of their goals. This multiplies the individual efforts of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party member, making possible a combined power much bigger than would be expected of an organization of its size.

Just to illustrate this point, let me refer to one of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party's areas of activity-the labor movement.

In February 1971 the Pro-Independence Movement decided to intensify drastically its actions in the labor movement. According to a plan that was drafted at that time, the MPI - the Pro-Independence Movement-has promoted the following actions:

First, the popularization and radicalization of strikes, to the point that within the past 2 years the Governor of Puerto Rico has been forced to mobilize the Army National Guard twice to protect government installations affected by strikes against very destructive acts of sabotage.

Second, the placing of Puerto Rican Socialist members in key positions within the labor movement. In about 1970, Juan Mari Bras said:
 

We are not going to work in the creation of labor unions. That requires devotion of great efforts to sterile bureaucratic work. Our role as a vanguard dictates that we ego directly to the objective of politicizing and permeating the existing labor unions, all of them, with the presence and influence of our cadre, militants and affiliates. They must be clear as to their essential task, which is not to dilute themselves into the bureaucracy of the guilds, but to increase the combativity of the union's members and even to force the union to become an accelerating agent instead of a brake of the class struggle.
 

Just a few days ago, the Puerto Rican Socialist Party published a document on the role of the socialist labor leader. This document states on page 39:
 

The Socialist labor leader becomes a leader through a process of winning the confidence and the backing of all the workers. For that reason, he is a representative of workers who have a clear class consciousness and of workers with very little class consciousness. But, above all, he is a Communist leader. These two characteristics force him to act with great flexibility. He is a leader with a socialist preparation and with a trade-union preparation. He is, at the same time, a political leader and a labor leader. He is a leader that works on two complementary fields of the labor struggle. His socialist preparation strengthens his labor union activities, and his trade-unionist preparation strengthens his partisan work.

We stated that the Socialist labor leader is a Communist. Our Party regulations require that all militants and affiliates work actively in the labor union, guild or student association that corresponds to his job, profession or student level. As a result, for every socialist, it is a duty and a political responsibility to become a leader according to his capability.

The principal task of a Socialist labor leader is to organize the workers' party in his field of work, without detracting from the responsibilities of the position to which he was elected and designated by the mass of the worker.

Only the organization of the Party within the labor union will insure the decisive influence of the revolutionary movement within the labor movement.
 

That is the end of the quotation.

The regulations of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party are more revealing than the previous quotation.

Mr. MARTIN. Where did that quotation appear?

Mr. MARTINEZ. It is published in Nueva Lucha. Nueva Lucha is a Party magazine. It means "New Struggle" in English.

Mr. MARTIN. Do you have the date of that quotation?

Mr. MARTINEZ. Yes, sir. I actually have the original.

Mr. MARTIN. Mr. Chairman, may the original of the article in question, or a photostat of the original be accepted for the record at this point?

Senator THURNTOND. Without objection, so ordered.

[The material referred to, in its Spanish version, may be found in the files of the subcommittee.]

Mr. MARTINEZ. Article 5, paragraph c of the Regulations of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party states:
 

It is a duty of all militants to . . . subordinate to the discipline of the Party and the interests of the working class their affiliation and activities in any labor union, guild, student group, cultural organization, etceteras.
 

The Puerto Rican Socialist Party has been extremely successful in placing its members in the top leadership positions of many labor unions. Pedro Grant, coordinator of the United Labor Movement, is a member of the Central Committee of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party. Luis Nazario Baez, former vice-president of the very powerful Union of Electrical Workers, is also a member of the Central Committee. The National Worker's Union, which includes workers of about 20 factories is beyond any doubt a mere appendix to the Puerto Rican Socialist Party.

The third of the Party's activities is the creation of worker's cells in the different manufacturing companies, business enterprises and public utilities.

The fourth activity is the unification of the labor movement in a central movement (Central Unica de Trabajadores) capable of bringing to its knees the Puerto Rican economy with general strikes and other

means of pressure. The United Labor Movement, directed by members of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party's Central Committee, like Pedro Grant and Osvaldo Romero, is trying to achieve this goal.

Any well-informed and alert individual in Puerto Rico is aware of the fact that the Puerto Rican Socialist Party has made significant progress in this area and is greatly responsible for the bad labor relations that have plagued Puerto Rico during the past few years. The third of the traits that distinguish the Puerto Rican Socialist Party from our other independence parties is that it is not by any means an isolated group. Besides having a growing branch in the United States, about which I talked already, the Puerto Rican Socialist Party has very close relations with the Communist Parties of the world. The Party's relations with Cuba are so close that it has a permanent delegation and offices in Havana.

This is perhaps the most significant aspect of the Puerto Rican

Socialist Party. In fact, there is enough evidence on hand to make me

believe that this organization is operating as a branch of the counter

intelligence and espionage apparatus.

Can we go off the record?

Senator THURMOND. Yes.

[Off the record.]

Senator THURMOND. Back on the record.

Mr. MARTINEZ. The Puerto Rican Socialist Party has a very important continental branch, or mainland branch, which is the Party structure within the United States. In what we may call the "mainland front," the Puerto Rican Socialist Party is involved in the organization of Puerto Ricans for revolutionary action within the United States. By organizing all sorts of activities in the mainland, the Puerto Rican Socialist Party wants to achieve several goals. One .of them is the organization of the great Puerto Rican community in the mainland in support of Puerto Rico's independence. They feel that effective actions at the heart of the American society will force the United States to grant independence to Puerto Rico.

Another goal is the consolidation of the American left. The Puerto Rican Socialist Party organized a meeting of American radicals in support of Puerto Rico's independence. That took place in October 1974. Among the guests were Angela Davis, Jane Fonda, Cuban United Nations Ambassador Ricardo Alarcon, Pedro Albizu Meneses, Phillip Reer of the American Indian Movement, and Irwin Silber.

Hundreds of American radicals attended the rally, at the Madison Square Garden. The day before the rally, bomb blasts hit several New York City banks.

The Puerto Rican Socialist Party has been directly or indirectly involved in many violent actions, such as the 1974 Newark riots.

Mr. MARTIN. In the case of these bank bombings in New York, did the Puerto Rican Socialist. Party of any Puerto Rican radical movement claim credit for them?

Mr. MARTINEZ. Yes, sir. I believe it was the first time that the Armed Forces for Puerto Rican Liberation used that name. FALN, Fuerzas Armadas de Liberacion Nacional.

Mr. MARTIN. And what was the reaction of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party and the Puerto Rican Socialist Party sympathizers in the United States to these bombings? Did they criticize them as irresponsible actions which might compromise the revolution?

Mr. MARTINEZ . No, I don't think so, not at that time. I think they just gave publicity to the fact that there had been some bombings by the FALN. I don't think the party assumed any position against the bombings.

Mr. MARTIN. Would you continue?

Mr. MARTINEZ. Thank you.

Like I said, the Puerto Rican Socialist Party has been involved in many violent actions, such as in the 1974 Newark riots. It has threatened, and this is very important, to disrupt the Bicentennial celebrations if, by 1976, Puerto Rico is not independent. Juan Mari Bras has said:
 

The slogan of the Bicentennial without Colonies means that we are going to turn upside down the Bicentennial celebrations if, by that time, the United States has not ended its colonial regime in Puerto Rico. Thousands of Puerto Ricans, blacks, Mexican-Americans, Indians and other racial minorities will invade the ~ city of Philadelphia on July 4, 1976.
 

The Central Committee of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party's United States branch adopted in 1973 a very important document called Desde las Entranas, or From the Entrails, in which it outlines the strategy for the mainland front. This document has received great publicity in many forms. It states:
 

The PSP was organized to direct the struggle for our people's national liberation and to take power. In the United State,, its most important function is to unleash fully that National Liberation Struggle at the heart of those American
 

cities where a significant portion of our population live,, and to unite them to the general struggle for the revolutionary transformation of the United States-
 

Mr. MARTIN. What is the source for that statement?

Mr. M ARTINEZ. This statement is contained in Desde las Entranas. It means From the Entrails, and it is the official political thesis of the U.S. branch of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party.

I wanted to add something about this particular quotation. It uses the term "National Liberation" and this term might be understood by different persons to mean different things. I firmly believe that it is used in the standard Communist context, with its standard Communist meaning, and the "war of national liberation" is a term that the Communists have used specifically to refer to armed struggle against an imperialistic country. The term was first used probably in Algeria during the war against France. So my personal estimate is that they are talking about a. war for national liberation of Puerto Rico within the continental United States, which, of course, must include acts of sabotage. That is my personal estimate.

Mr. MARTIN. So the war of national liberation they are talking about is identical with the concept of wars of national liberation as this concept has been discussed and elaborated upon at repeated conferences of the world Communist movement?

Mr. MARTINEZ. Yes, sir. I believe that is exactly what they mean by war of national liberation.

Senator THURMOND. Off the record.

[Discussion off the record.]

Senator THURMOND. Carry on now. Back on the record.

Mr. MARTINEZ. Another quotation, this time from a supplement in Claridad published in November 1974, states as follows.

We are at the very center of the continental revolution. Every revolutionary process in the Third World and particularly in Latin America, deepens the contradictions in the heart of the American society. At the same time, the deeper the struggles in the heart of this society, the bigger will be the possibilities of victory for the Third World.
 

In the same article, as a caption to a photo of a bomb blast in New York City, it stated
 

Puerto Rice must be the spearhead to bring the anti imperialistic war to the very heart of the American society.
 

May we go off the record?

Senator THURMOND. Off the record.

[Discussion off the record.]

Senator THURMOND. Back on the record.

Mr. MAFTIN. What is the source of this quotation, the one you just read?

Mr. MARTINEZ. I just mentioned before the source of this quotation and[ of the caption that says that Puerto Rico must be the spearhead to bring the anti-imperialistic struggle to the very- heart of America

society, which is a supplement called Desde las Entranas, just like

the political thesis of the Party in the States. It was published in Claridad in late November 1!-974.

In addition to this branch within the United States which constitutes a means of attacking the United States from within, which no other party has ever had before, the Puerto Rican Socialist Part has very close relations with all the Communist parties of the world. The party's relations with Cuba are so close that it has a permanent delegation and offices in Havana. This is perhaps the most significant aspect of the Socialist party.
 

Mr. MARTIN. Does it maintain this permanent office and delegation openly? Is it a matter of public knowledge?

Mr. MARTINEZ. Yes, sir. There is enough evidence on hand to make me believe that this organization is operating as a branch of the Cuban Intelligence espionage apparatus.

Mr. MARTIN. Apart from the evidence of the very close ties between the leadership of the PSP and the Cuban Communist government, is there any evidence of a relationship between the leaders of the PSP and the principal figures in the Cuban DGI or the Soviet KGB?

Mr. MARTINEZ. Well, I intend to present in the next few minutes a detailed chronology of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party's relations with Communist parties and L countries. As I go through these pages, I intend to submit for the record several documents. In one of these documents ;here is a clear 1 picture that depicts the leaders of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party meeting with the leaders or directors of tithe DGI. So, if you `would please let me go through the next ; pages--
 

Mr. MARTIN. Right. Present your testimony in the order in which you have organized it.

Mr. MARTINEZ. Thank you, sir.

At this point, like I said, I want to present a chronology of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party's foreign relations and, simultaneously, I will submit for the record several exhibits that illustrate these relations.

In January 1966, in Havana, Cuba, there was a meeting called the First Tricontinental Conference. At that time, representatives ~~ all the Communist movements of Asia, Africa, and Latin America met in Havana with the purpose of creating an organization that would coordinate the world struggle against the United States and parallel struggle to spread Communism.

Mr. MARTIN. Did the 'I'ricontinental Congress not also contain representatives of other organizations than Communist organizations -- third world organizations, militant, radical organizations, that weren't Communist?

Mr. MARTINEZ. My understanding, sir, is that most of the organizations present were hard-core Communist organizations. The rest I should classify as Communist front organizations. At that time, t Cuba was a well-known Communist country and most of the meetings taking place in Cuba were Communist meetings, and besides the evidence that has been collected as far as. I know regarding that particular conference showed that it was a Communist conference. That is my personal opinion.

Mr. MARTIN. There is no question, I think, that it was Communist dominated. May we go off the record?

Senator THURMOND. Yes.

[Discussion off the record.]

Senator THURMOND. Back on the record.

Mr. MARTIN. However, you may be familiar with a study of the Tricontinental Congress, which was prepared by our subcommittee shortly after it took place. The several analysts who worked on the preparation of this study of the Tricontinental Congress in their analysis found that some of the organizations-the organizations, fir example, of the Afro-Asian Solidarity Movement-were not necessarily communist but basically radical third world organizations, and that part of the purpose of the Tricontinental Congress was to bring in use organizations into an international movement which was firmly 'n the control of the Communists so that they could more effectively manipulate them and control them for Communist purposes.

Would you be prepared to go along with this, or do you feel that there is evidence-have you come across evidence since then that suggests to you that all of the participating organizations may at that time have been solidly under Communist control?

Senator THURMOND. Off the record for a moment.

[Discussion off the record.]

Senator THURMOND. Back on the record.

Mr. MARTINEZ. Well, sir, I am well aware of that. Actually, one (,f my sources has been the subcommittee's own report. When I talk 0hout a Communist conference, I am using the word "communism" n' "Communist" referring to the Communist movement. I understand that the Communist movement is not only composed of hardcore communists, but of a wide variety of sympathizers, fellow-travelers, pseudointellectuals and all kinds of people that help the Communists,

with some degree of knowledge of the fact that it is a Communist organization. I believe that everyone who went to Havana was well aware of the fact that the leaders of the conference were Communists and they were serving the purposes of the Communists, regardless of their personal motivations.

Mr. MARTIN. You may have heard that Lenin, in speaking about fellow-travelers, stressed the importance of being able to utilize and exploit-these are Lenin's words-"these useful idiots." You would classify the "useful idiots" as an actual part of the Communist movement, broadly speaking?

Mr. MARTINEZ. Well, they are more or less a transmission belt with the masses and they are not actually a part of the motor of the whole thing, but as long as they move with the whole machinery, they are part of it.

Mr. MARTIN. I think we have an understanding. Will you proceed.

Mr. MARTINEZ. Thank you. At that meeting in Havana, the organizations that were founded were the Organization of Latin American Solidarity and Organization of Solidarity With the Peoples of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The Pro-Independence Movement sent delegates to the Tricontinental Conference, headed by Normal Pietri Castellon and integrated also by Dr. Ana Livia Cordero de Mayfield and Jose Luis Gonzalez, among others, and Narciso Rabell Martinez. Mr. Martinez on the 10th of February of that year, 1966, had been recognized by the Cuban Government as ambassador of

Puerto Rico, and he became a member on the 31st of May of that year of the Permanent Secretariat of the Organization for Solidarity of the Peoples of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. In representation

of that organization, lie participated in visits to African countries during 1967. Now, I am quoting from the Senate Report regarding the Conference.

In August of 1967, in Havana Cuba, the first conference of the Latin American Solidarity Organization took place. To that activity, a delegation of the ProIndependence Movement, headed by Juan 'Mari Bras, Secretary-General of the Movement, was sent.

Mari Bras pronounced a speech at the full session of the Conference, and I am going to quote several portions of this message that I consider particularly significant.

Now, I am quoting from Mari Bras' statement:

We represent the people of Puerto Rico. Our people reaffirms by these means its total solidarity with the Cuban revolution. Our country- is an integral part of the Latin America, exploited and starved, which is today regrouping its forces to fight the final battle for its liberation. As part of Latin America, we proclaim our solidarity with all the struggles which, in different stages of development, are taking place in our countries. We believe that, as the struggles continue growing and intensifying in each country, we will have a bigger obligation to refine and complete that solidarity. For tat reason we propose that in this conference precise plans should be made for solidarity with the heroic fighters who in Bolivia, Guatemala Venezuela, Colombia and other countries have initiated guerrilla warfare as the first line of confrontation with imperialism. We, the independence fighters in Puerto Rico, are willing to offer that concrete solidarity in any way it is requested to us.

This statement becomes very significant in the light of the recent arrest of three party members in the Dominican Republic who are now accused of transporting several guerrilla fighters into that country. My personal opinion is that back in 1966 in Cuba, Mari Bras said that he was willing to cooperate in anv way necessary with the guerrilla movements in the hemisphere. And ~I believe that can be safely concluded from his statements.

Mari Bras also said the following in the statement I have been quoting.

We believe, however, that the most effective solidarity we can offer to all of the Latin American revolutionaries consists of developing in our own homeland, facing up to the greatest adversities surmounting all obstacles, and fighting to the final conclusion our own struggle for independence. Based on his line of action of the new struggle for independence, we have come to this conference of the Latin American Solidarity Organization to contribute as much as we can to articulate the needed common strategy for the liberation of America.

So, in 1966, the Pro-Independence Movement had already pledged its support to Communist and Communist-backed actions throughout the hemisphere. Now, I am going to present some other evidence I have collected about their participation in international conferences and meetings and as I go through these pages, I will furnish the committee photo copies of the articles in Claridad and some other sources where this information is contained.

Mr. MARTIN. As he presents this testimony, Mr. Chairman, may copies of the articles in question be accepted for inclusion in the record?

Senator THURMOND. Without objection, so ordered, unless the Chair rules otherwise in some specific case.

Mr. MARTINEZ. Thank you.

I will start this chronology in November 1970. On the 6th of November, the secretary general of the pro-independence movement, Juan Mari Bras, was in charge of the closing statement of the informal meeting of socialist parties and national liberation movements that took place in Santiago, Chile. The meeting was under the auspices of the Chilean Socialist Party due to the inauguration of the new Socialist Government in Chile. At the informal reception for the delegates to this meeting, Juan Mari Bras was in charge of the closing statement.

That same day, the Minister of Foreign Relations of the new Chilean Government, Clodomiro Almeida, met with the Puerto Rican delegation, which was made up of the president of the Puerto Rican Independence Party, Ruben Berrios, and the secretary general of the proindependence movement, Juan 1Iari Bras; Dr. Jose Milton Soltero, of the committee for resistance against military service; and the secretaries of foreign relations of the pro-independence movement and the Puerto Rican Independence Party respectively, Carlos Padilla and Leopoldo Rivera.

I am going to furnish at this time the first exhibit which contains the photographs of the meeting and the article from which I got my information.

Mr. MARTIN. This exhibit will be incorporated in accordance with the chairman's previous order.

[The material referred to, in its Spanish version, may be found in the files of the subcommittee.]

Mr. MARTINEZ. Thank you. sir.

Next, in January 1971, on January 22, a delegation of the Communist Party of the United States, made up of its president, Gus Hall and Pat Toohey, met with representatives of the Puerto Rican Independence Movement and the Puerto Rican Communist Party in San Juan. In addition to Mari Bras, the Pro-Independence Movement was represented at the meeting by Julio Vives Vasquez, Pedro Baiges Chapel, Jenaro Rentas, Manuel de J. Gonzales and Angel M. Agosto, members of the political commission.

At the end of the conference, several agreements were signed to coordinate activities of the three participating parties regarding the elimination of U.S. Navy activities in Culebra, the liberation of Angela Davis, the backing of Puerto Ricans who refused to serve in the American Army, and the development of closer relations between the participating parties. Here, I am referring to an article published in the Communist World ':Magazine of February 13, 1971. This article was reprinted by El Mundo, a Spanish language newspaper in Puerto Rico on May 12, 1971, and it is a summary of the agreements made at that meeting of the CPUSA, the Puerto Rican Socialist Party, which called for an independence movement at that time, and the Puerto Rican Communist Party.

Mr. MARTIN. Do I understand you correctly, that it is a summary of an agreement reached between the CPUSA, the Puerto Rican Independence Movement., and the Puerto Rican Communist Party the three of them?

Mr. MARTINEZ. Yes, sir. The three met in San Juan and they

prepared a communiqué of solidarity and I am offering it for the

record. It is in English.

Mr. MARTIN. Right. With the chairman's approval, this exhibit will be incorporated in accordance with the chairman's previous order.

[The material referred to follows:]
 

[From the El Mundo. Dia 12, 19711
 

MAGAZINE SAYS GUS HALL MADE HISTORY IN PUERTO RICO
 

SAN JUAN PARLEY-PARTIES ACT TO I;ND IMPERIALISM
 

Puerto Rico was tile scene of remarkable developments when Gus Hall, general secretary of the Communist Party, visited it last month. I-fix week there, heading a delegation from his party, made history. Friendly and fruitful discussions were held by the representatives of the Communist Party of Puerto Rico, the MPI (El Movimiento Pro-lndependenein de Puerto Rico) and the CPTTSA.

U.S. authorities and reactionary groups (in the island mobilized in advance to harass Hall and Pat Toohey, the other member of the U.S. delegation, and to try to intimidate Puerto Ricans from seeing them, including the use of bombs. The presence of the delegation rya, headline news in fill newspapers, radio, and TV every day of their stay.

The island's authorities, carrying nut U.S. imperialist instructions, even went to a Federal court and :applied for nn injunction to bar Hall ;And other, from going to the island of Culebra where the residents :ire fighting valiantly against U.S. naval destruction. Culebra is being used as n naval honibing range.

Hall was met ;it San Juan's Isla Verde international airport by Felix Ojeda, general secretary of the Puerto Rican Communist Pnrtv. ,And half <t dozen comrades. More than 20 reporters from ;ill media crowded around the U.S, Communist leader, who held an impromptu Dress conference. El. MT-N1)0 right-wing organ in San Juan, admitted that Hall was "very friendly and gave articulate answers" to the reporters' questions. El Mundo reported that Hall, in answering questions about Culebra, said the recent promise wrested from the U.S. Navy to restrict it. activities was omlv a "partial gain." He declared: "We will not be satisfied until the Navy has cleared out of Culebra and out of all Puerto Rico."

On the adjacent page, we print an interview with Hall conducted by Joseph North, editor of Morld Ifagazine.
 

COMMUNIQUE' OF SOLIDARITY
 

The conference in Son Juan January 22, between the top leaders of the AIPT (El Movimiento Pro- Independencia de Puerto Rico), headed by its general secretary, Juan Mari Bras, the top leaders of the Communist Party of Puerto Rico headed by its general secretary Felix Ojeda, and the IT.S. Communist delegation, headed by Gus Hall, issued the following statement:
 

In the spirit of internationalist anti-imperialism and in an atmosphere of friendship and cordiality- a meeting took place in the office of the National Mission of the MPI.

Present were Juan Mari Bras, general secretary of the MPI; Gus Hall, general secretary of the Communist Party, U.S.A.; Felix Ojeda, general secretary, Communist Party of Puerto Rico. Others present were Julio Vives Vazquez, Pedro Baiges Chapel, Jenaro Rentas, Manuel de J. Gonzalez and Angel Agosto, members of the Political Committee of the MPI; Gertrudis Mellendez de Perez, and other members of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Puerto Rico, and Pat Toohey, member of the national committee of the Communist Party, U.S.A.

The talks focused on the struggle for Puerto Rican independence, and for the elimination of U.S. military, economic, and political domination and influence over Puerto Rican life. All parties agreed that Puerto Rico is subjected to direct, classic form of colonialism by the U.S. imperialists.

The talks included a discussion about the developments in the struggle for national liberation throughout the world. The meeting tools note of the new and ominous steps of escalation in Southeast Asia by the Nixon Administration. Because of this, all parties present agreed to intensify and heighten the struggle to end the U.S. aggression in Indochina.

The discussion dealt with the movements and struggles for independence in Puerto Rico, and in the U.S., with the various struggles against imperialism and war; with the struggle for black liberation, and against the special oppression of 1,600,000 Puerto Rican people now in the U.S. The talks took note of the serious nature of the present economic crisis and its severe and damaging effect upon the working people of our two nations.

The meeting developed a number of concrete forms and actions, especially around the following issues:

A. To eliminate the U.S. naval presence and its criminal bombardment of the Island of Culebra. We see this struggle as the initial stage in eliminating the presence of U.S. imperialism's forces in Puerto Rico.

B. To heighten the struggle for the freedom of Angela Davis. We see this as a struggle to save the life of a beautiful human being and symbolic of the struggle against racism and all other forms of imperialist ideology. We see it symbolic of the need for unity of all victims of imperialist oppression.

C. To expose the hypocrisy of U.S. imperialism in now proclaiming that Puerto Rico is not included iii the Tlaltelolco Treaty for Nuclear Free Zone in Latin America. This only shows that the criminal intentions of U.S. imperialism are to continue the economic, military, and political oppression of Puerto Rico; to continue it as it regional military staging area and to have, in Puerto Rico, nuclear weapons bases from which it can threaten the independence of all nations in our hemisphere.

D. The talks canvassed the meaning of the unprecedented mass militancy of the youth of our two nations. The meeting agreed on special steps that are needed to render assistance and mass support to the hundreds who have been arrested or indicted because of their courageous stand against the U.S. military draft.

17. The meeting took special note of the centrality of the need to promote unity and a fighting, militant, fraternal relationship between the working class and trade union organizations of our two nations. We will seek ways to put an end to the ability of U.S. corporations to use the working class of one nation against their class brothers of the other.

The conference concluded, strengthening comradeship between us in spite of the different views that each party may hive about a number of things, as symbolic of the future tics and friendship that will grow and deepen between our two peoples: based on ,tit end to U.S. imperialist oppression of Puerto Rico, as neighbors in independence, equality and mutual respect.

Mr. MARTINEZ. Thank you, sir.

In November 1971, three members of the Federation of High School Students for Independence and the Federation of University Students for Independence, both organizations affiliated with the

Puerto Rican Pro Independence Movement, participated in two activities in Cuba, representing their respective organizations. Julio Antonio Muriente and Jose Boscue represented the Federation o

'University Students for Independence in the second consultative meeting of the Continental Latin American Organization of Students. That is, the Organization Continental Latino Americana de Estudiantes. It is a Communist students' organization based in Havana.

The Federation of University Students for Independence is a member of the secretariat of that organization since 1966. Luis represented the Federation of High School Students for Independence as an observer in the Congress of the Federation of Junior High School Students in Cuba that took place from the 26th to the 29th of November. Muriente and Coss are now members of the Central Committee of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party.

Mr. MARTIN. May we go off the record?

Senator THURMOND. Yes.

[Discussion off the record.]

Senator THURMOND. Back on the record.

Mr. MARTINEZ. In December 1971, to be exact on the 29th, Juan Mari Bras and Julio Vives Vazquez, arrived in Cuba on the first leg of a trip through three continents in which they participated under orders from the central committee of the recently created Puerto Rican Socialist Party. According to Manuel de J. Gonzalez, the cardinal purpose of this trip was to tighten relations with the parties and the friendly governments of the struggle for Puerto Rican people's independence and to get international support for their cause and for the international campaign to make the United Nations discuss Puerto Rico's colonial case. And I am furnishing at this time the next exhibit in which there are several pictures of the leaders of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party that were in Cuba at that time.

Mr. MARTIN. This exhibit will be incorporated in accordance with the chairman's order.

[The material referred to, in its Spanish version, may be found in the files of the subcommittee.]

Mr. MARTIEZ. Going to 1972, in January on the 5th of Januaryaccompanied by Perez, the permanent delegate of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party to the government and the Communist Party of

Cuba, Juan Mari Bras and Vives Vazquez met with Cuban Prerner Fidel Castro. After the interview, the Communist leader accompanied the delegation to Jose Marti International Airport where the group

departed on a flight to Chile.

The delegation stayed in Chile from the 9th to the 12th of January 1972. Because the country was in the midst of elections in two provinces, the Puerto Rican delegation could not meet with the highest leaders of the nation. It met, however, with members of the Political Commission of the Chilean Socialist Party, with the secretary general and other members of the Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria, or Movement of the Revolutionary Left-initials 'IIR-with a member of the Political Commission of the Communist Party of Chile, and with Julio Benitez, Minister of Housing in Allende's regime. The group also had an important meeting with Clodoiniro Almeida, Minister of Foreign Relations and a group of members Of his ministry to discuss in great detail the Puerto Rican case before the United Nations.

At this time, I am submitting another document. In this exhibit I am submitting right now, we have a picture of Juan 'Mari Bras and Alberto Perez meeting with Fidel Castro and then a complete description of the three-continent trip that the Puerto Rican Socialist Party members initiated in 1972. I will make reference to the same exhibit later, because it has pictures of the delegation in several other Communist countries.

Mr. MARTIN. May these be accepted for the record, in accordance with the chairman's orders?

Senator THURMOND. Yes.

Mr. MARTINEZ. Thank you, sir.

[The material referred to, in its Spanish version, may be found in the files of the subcommittee.]

Mr. MARTINEZ. On the 13th of January, the Puerto Rican Socialist Party delegation, departed for the People's Republic of China. It stayed in that country for 13 days, meeting with Y ao Wen-yuan, member of the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party. According to Mari Bras-and now I am quoting:
 

He asked us to express to the leaders of our party and to the people of Puerto Rico in general, in the name of President Mao Tse-tung and the central committee of the party, the total, inviolable and active solidarity of the People's Republic of China with the liberation struggle of the Puerto Rican people.
 

The picture of the meeting in China is contained in the same exhibit which I just submitted for the record.

In addition, Juan 'Mari Bras held a conference under the auspices of two organizations, the Association of Friendship of the Chinese People With Other Peoples; and the Association of Chinese-Latin American Friendship.

After Mari Bras had explained the Puerto Rican case in an hour and a half before several hundred Chinese, principally experts in Latin America and students of Latin American affairs, the person in charge of the Association of Friendship of the Chinese People With Foreign Peoples, Wang Kuo-chuang, made an intervention expressing the solidarity of the Chinese people with the struggle for liberation of the Puerto Rican people.

This, again, is in the same exhibit.

From China, the delegation departed for North Korea. To make the trip possible; Marshall-Kim Il Sung, the Prime Minster of that Communist country, prepared and sent a special plane to Peking that picked up the Puerto Rican delegation and transported them directly to Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea. In North Korea, they, had conversations with Kim 11 Sung and other leaders of the party during their stay of 1 week. Again, the same exhibit I just submitted for the record contains a picture of the Puerto Rican delegation with Marshall Kim 11 Sung.

In February of that same year, 1972, Mari Bras and his delegation arrived in Moscow, the capital of the Soviet Union, in the last-stage of his trip. They stayed for 3 days in the Russian territory and obtained there a renewal of backing from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and an assurance of the cooperation of the Russians for the discussion of the Puerto Rican case in the United Nations.

May we go off the record?

Senator THURMOND. Yes.

[Discussion off the record.]

Senator THURMOND. Back on the record.

Mr. MARTINEZ. In March 1972 a delegation of leaders of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party and the Federation of University Students for Independence traveled to Cuba to participate in the Second Congress of the Union of Young Communists of Cuba. Representing the Puerto Rican Socialist Party was Nestor Nazario Trabal, member of the Central Committee, and Secretary of Student Action of the

Party. Representing the Federation of University Students for Independence were Jose Sanchez Lugo, vice president, and Rosa Mari Pesuera,, the daughter of Mari Bras, who is a member of the executive council of that organization.

I present for the record another document which contains the information about the delegation to Cuba.

Mr. MARTIN. This will be accepted in accordance with the Chairman's previous order.

[Discussion off the record.]

[The material referred to, in its Spanish version, may be found in the files of the subcommittee.]

Mr. MARTINEZ. May we go off the record.

Senator THURMOND. So ordered.

[Discussion off the record.]

Senator THURMOND. Back to the record.

Mr. MARTINEZ. Next, in April, the Congress of the Union of Young Communists of Cuba approved a resolution on Puerto Rico which expressed the Cuban solidarity as a historical duty given by Jose Marti toward the Puerto Rican people. The same Congress approved the resolution stating that armed struggle is the main way for taking power, and alerting the youth against any so called "reformist" tendencies that might tend to develop in the continent.

I am submitting for the record another exhibit with the pictures of the two delegates and a summary of their participation in the meeting.

Mr. MARTIN. This will be incorporated in accordance with the previous order of the Chairman.

[The material referred to, in its Spanish version, may be found in the files of the subcommittee.]

Mr. MARTINEZ. The members of the youth delegation of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party and the Federation of University Students for Independence to Cuba participated in different public acts in that country. Nestor Nazario was the main speaker during an act at the Medicine School Victoria de Giron and Rosa XTari Pesquera was invited to speak in an act of solidarity with the people of Vietnam.

During the same month, a week of solidarity with the Puerto Rican political prisoners took place in Cuba. In an act promoted by the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, Alberto Perez, delegate of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party before the government and Communist Party of Cuba, gave a speech. With him were the two men presiding over the demonstration, Raul Gonzalez and Fermin Arraiza, members of the Political Commission of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party.

I am submitting for the record this cartoon.

Senator THURMOND. Without objection, it will be incorporated in the record.

[The material referred to follows:]
 

The cartoon printed by Claridad, April 16, 1972, is by Cuban cartoonist Nuez and is captioned: "Cuba and Puerto Rico are the Wings of a Bird" and says "I have one wing free… Soon I will have both."
 

Mr. MARTINEZ. In May 1972, the Secretary for International Affairs of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party, Pedro Baig6s Chapel, and Dr. Jose Milton Soltero, who is the leader of the Committee of Resistance against Military Service, traveled to several Latin American countries seeking support to bring the Puerto Rican case before the United Nations. I am also submitting for the record an exhibit dealing with the matter.

Senator THURMOND. It will be incorporated.

[The material referred to, in its Spanish version, may be found in the files of the subcommittee.]

Mr. MARTINEZ. In that same month of May, members of the Federation of University Students for Independence and other organizations from the Rio Piedras campus of the University of Puerto Rico participated in a march through the campus and streets of Rio Piedras in support of the Vietcong and North Vietnam. The students were carrying flags of the Vietcong, destroyed store windows at several business establishments during the activity, and met in the sector of Santa Rita, where they burned an American flag. Julio Muriente, who at that time was President of the Federation of University Students for Independence, stated, and I am quoting:
 

Today we made a march. We broke some windows and we burned a flag. Soon we will throw out the Yankees from Puerto Rico with some other things that won't be speeches.
 

On the 27th of May, at the Rio Piedras town square, an action in support of the Vietcong and North Vietnam was sponsored by the Puerto Rican Independence Party and the Puerto Rican Socialist Party. The words of Ruben Berrios, President of the Puerto Rican Independence Party, during that activity, were significant. So, I want to include them here-with the caveat that Ruben Berrios is not a member of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party and is not identified as a hard-core Communist. According to Claridad, the President of the Puerto Rican Independence Party, Ruben Berrios, referred to Ho Chi Alinh, the (lead North Vietnamese leader, as one of the most important historical characters of the century and he stated that Ho Chi Minh was a thousand times more Puerto Rican than any of the colonial politicians.

Referring to the war in Vietnam, Berrios stated that the Pro-Independence and the Socialist activists are not neutral, that all are against Yankee imperialism and in favor of the Vietnamese people.

I am submitting for the record the two exhibits on the actions in favor of the Vietnamese.

Senator THURMOND. They will be incorporated in the record.

[The material referred to, in its Spanish version, may be found in the files of the subcommittee.]

Mr. MARTINEZ. During this act in support of the Vietnamese Communists, several messages were read. One of them came from the National Union of Vietnamese Students and the other one from the Vietcong. The message from the Vietnamese Communists was sent by the counselor of the Embassy of the Provisional Government of South Vietnam in Cuba-the Vietcong's Embassy-and it reads as follows:
 

We demand the total liberty of the heroic Puerto Rican fighters that have been jailed for fighting imperialism and we demand that all accusations against the young people that have refused to act as accomplices of the criminal aggression against our people he withdrawn.
 

I am furnishing at this moment two more exhibits that cover the North Vietnamese messages.

Senator THURNIOND. They will be accepted.

[The material referred to, in its Spanish version, may be found in the files of the subcommittee.]

Mr. MARTINEZ. Still in that same month of May, a delegation of the Federation of University Students for Independence participated in the 8th Congress of the Federation of Students of Panama, a leftist group in that country, a congress that took place from the 24th to the 27th of May. In June 1972, Rafael Anglada, delegate of the Federation of University Students for Independence, before the International Union of Students, sitting in Prague, Czechoslovakia, participated in a reception offered by the Ministry of Foreign Relations of Cuba to the Czech Government, celebrating the visit to Prague of Fidel Castro. Anglada posed together with Castro and some other leaders for a picture that was later published in Claridad. I am submitting this picture for the record.

Mr. MARTIN. May it be accepted, in accordance with the previous order of the Chair?

Senator THURMOND. Yes.

[The material referred to, in its Spanish version, may be found in the files of the subcommittee.]

Mr. MARTINEZ. Still in June, Dr. Jose Milton Soltero left on a flight from Havana to travel through several countries in Africa. The trip was made on behalf of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party, to request the backing of these countries for the case of Puerto Rico before the United Nations. In Algeria, he met with high leaders of the National Liberation Front of Algeria. Then he visited Guinea, Tanzania, and Senegal.

I am submitting for the record a report on this meeting.

Senator THURMOND. It will be accepted.

[The material referred to, in its Spanish version, may be found in the files of the subcommittee.]

Mr. MARTINEZ. In July 1972, Rafael Anglada, representative of the Federation of University- Students for independence to the International Union of Students, who, at that time, lived in Prague, Czechoslovakia, a seat of the UIA, also represented his organization in two international seminars organized by the International Union of Students. From July 5 to July 11, he was in Tunis at a seminar called the "Universities at the Service of Economic, Social and Political Development of the Developing Countries." From July 15 to July 20, he participated in a seminar on the social and economic impact and political consequences of the imperialists penetration in the developing countries. This seminar took place in Kerala, India.

Also, in July, on the 14th, Raul Gonzalez Cruz, member of the political commission of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party, and at that time, vice director of Claridad, returned from Cuba. Supposedly, his stay in Cuba was prolonged for a number of months, because he suffered an automobile accident, and fractured one leg, having to stay in the hospital for more than a month.

Upon returning to Puerto Rico, Claridad reported the following:

The Assistant Director of Claridad participated in many exchanges of experiences on revolutionary journalism with the faculty and the students of the Journalism School of the University of Havana. He also made a long tour of different provinces of Cuba and gathered information and impressions that are going to be used for a series of articles and reports on the Cuban revolution that will soon be published by Claridad.
 

I am submitting for the record the report on his return to Puerto Rico.

Senator THURMOND. It will be accepted.

[The material referred to, in its Spanish version, may be found in the files of the subcommittee.]

Mr. M ARTINEZ. At this time I would like to add for the record that Raul Gonzalez recently died in a car crash in Puerto Rico. Apparently, he was accidentally prone.

During the time that Gonzalez staved in Cuba, he sent several reports to Puerto Rico for publication in Claridad. In March 1972, one of these articles, captioned "It Is Worthy To Fight for Socialism," stated:
 

If what we want for Puerto Rico is what we are watching in Cuba, and certainly that is what we are looking for, today we state it with much more confidence, it is worth the effort. Yes, it is worth the effort and the sacrifices. It is worth making whatever is necessary to destroy our corrupt society and create a new one. The society that is now being constructed successfully in Cuba is a free society where there are no oppressed, no oppressors, the socialist society. To that goal we are marching in Puerto Rico.
 

I am submitting the article for the record.

Senator THURMOND. Under the previous order of the Chair, it will be accepted.

[The material referred to, in its Spanish version, may be found in the files of the subcommittee.]

Mr. MARTINEZ. Just a few days after his return from Cuba, it was announced that Raul Gonzalez had been appointed by a political commission as a director of the Claridad. This article, published on August 6^th, make me think that the trip to Cuba was made for the specific purpose of preparing him for the job of directing Claridad. I am submitting for the record the article on his appointment as director of Claridad.

Senator THURMOND. It will be accepted.

[The material referred to, in its Spanish version, may be found in the files of the subcommittee.]

Mr. MARTINEZ. Still in July, the Voice of Vietnam broadcast from Havana reporting the following, and I am quoting:
 

We are very aware of the struggle of the Puerto Rican people. «e have a deep admiration and understanding of the long and firm struggle that the Puerto Ricans have been carrying on over the years.
 

This was a North Vietnamese broadcast originating in Havana, and I am submitting this article for the record.

Senator THURMOND. It will be accepted.

[The material referred to, in its Spanish version, may be found in the files of the subcommittee.]

Mr. MARTINEZ. In August 1972, a delegation of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party presided over by Pedro Baiges Chapel and Florencio Merced Rosa of the Political Commission, together with Carmen Ortiz Baerga of the International Affairs Secretariat of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party, participated as observers in the Conference of Third World Countries that took place in Georgetown, Guyana. The Conference, from the 8th to the 11th of August, accepted the delegations, granting them the right to speak in the deliberations, and it later approved the resolution requesting United Nations intervention in the Puerto Rican case.

I am submitting for the record the documents relating to this conference held in Georgetown.

Senator THURMOND. They will be accepted, in accordance with the previous order.

[The material referred to, in its Spanish version, may be found in the files of the subcommittee.]

Mr. MARTINEZ. In September 1972, Flavia Rivera Montero had just substituted for Alberto Perez as a delegate of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party to the Cuban Government and to the Organization of Solidarity with the Peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America to return to Cuba with Alberto Perez after 2 weeks of vacation in Puerto Rico. During this sojourn, they received instructions from the Puerto Rican Socialist Party to develop the next phase of the international offensive planned by the Party. Alberto Perez, who lived in Cuba for 132 years as delegate of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party, returned to Puerto Rico with his family and with the wife and son of the subdelegate of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party to OSPAAL, Miguel Cabrera Figueroa. In the meantime, Manual de J. Gonzales and Cabrera Figueroa stayed in Havana, participating in the campaign of solidarity of the Cuban people with the independence of Puerto Rico.

I am submitting-the article for the record.

Mr. MARTIN. It will be accepted, in accordance with the previous order of the Chair.

[The material referred to, in its Spanish version, may be found in the files of the subcommittee.]

Mr. MARTINEZ. In October 1972, a delegation of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party traveled to Chile to participate in a meeting of the presiding board of the World Peace Council, an international Communist-dominated organization, with central offices in Moscow. The delegation of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party included Pedro Baiges Chapel, secretary for international affairs of the party, and Miguel Cabrera Figueroa, subdelegate of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party to OSPAAL. During the meeting of the World Peace Council, a resolution in favor of Puerto Rico's independence was approved and a trip by two party leaders through the Socialist countries of Europe, to

take place in 1973, was approved. I am submitting for the record the article related to that.

Mr. MARTIN. May it be received?

Senator THURMOND. So ordered.

[The material referred to, in its Spanish version, may be found in the files of the subcommittee.]

Mr. MARTINEZ. Bishop Antulio Parrilla Bonilla, a Catholic bishop, and the leader of the Young Christian Workers, Francisco Garcia, represented Puerto Rico together with some 300 a ega"'£es_from_T9 nations in a Congress that met in Quebec, Canada, from the 6th to the 9th of October in support for the liberation war of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. The Congress was sponsored by an organization called Christians for Peace in Indochina. In the report published in Claridad, there is a picture of Bishop Parrilla together with Vo Tranh'I'rinh of the Hun Gae Parish of North Vietnam. I should state at this time that Bishop Parrilla has never identified himself as a member of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party. However, he has a weekly column in Claridad and has been cooperating with the party since a long time ago.
 

From October 15 to October 18, a delegation of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party participated in a meeting of the executive committee of the World Federation of Democratic Youth that took place in the Soviet Union. During the meeting an event in solidarity with the struggle of Puerto Rico was approved to denounce Puerto Rico's colonial situation and to request the liberation of political prisoners in Puerto Rico. The meeting was attended by Nestor Nazario, secretary of student affairs of the party, and Rafael Anglada a delegate of the Federation of University Students or Independence before the Permanent Secretariat of the International Union of Students based in Czechoslovakia. On October 23, a campaign called "Vietnam Will Win" was sponsored in Puerto Rico to collect funds for the construction of the Nguyen Van Troi Pediatric Hospital in Hanoi, North Vietnam. The fund drive was promoted by the Puerto Rican Socialist Party, the Federation of University Students for Independence, and some other organizations. The funds that were collected were earmarked to join those of an international campaign for the hospital, directed by Communist organizations of other countries.

On that very same day, in Chile, a Congress called Today's Women in Latin America, started. It was promoted by the International Federation of Democratic Women, and the objective of the Congress was to analyze the problems of Latin American women and study ways for the more effective integration of women through a revolutionary process in Latin America.

I am going to submit for the record the documents regarding these meetings.

Senator THURMOND. The documents will be made part of the record, in accordance with the previous order of the Chair.

[The material referred to, in its Spanish version, maybe found in the files of the subcommittee.]

Mr. MARTINEZ. In this international meeting of women, delegations from several Latin American countries participated together with guest delegations from North Vietnam, Laos, North Korea, and several Socialist European countries. Representing the Puerto Rican Socialist Party was Flavia Rivera, a member of the Political Commission and delegate of the Political Commission and delegate of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party of Cuba. There is also Carmen Ortiz Baerga, member of the Secretariat of International Affairs of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party, and Doris Pizarro, member of the central committee and secretary of the Mayaguez zone of the party.

Mr. MARTIN. Mr. Martinez, you are working here from notations in the Spanish language. In the interests of expediting the hearing, because time is running short, would it be possible for you to leave with us your Spanish language notations, together with the corresponding exhibits, so that with the help of Mr. Tarabochia, who is fluent in Spanish, we will be able to insert both the notations and the corresponding exhibits into the record at the appropriate point?

Mr. MARTINEZ. Yes, sir. I think that would be most appropriate.

Mr. MARTIN. Is this acceptable, Mr. Chairman?

Senator THURMOND. Without objection, so ordered.

Mr. MARTINEZ. Then, sir, I would just like to cover two or three very important documents, with some explanation, and I am going to skip the rest of the documents.

Mr. MARTIN. Please proceed.

Mr. MARTINEZ. I am going to talk now about a very important activity that took place in December 1972. It was a reception for the diplomatic corps in Cuba to which the Puerto Rican Socialist Party invited representatives from all the embassies and missions. The activity took place at the gardens of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples and was presided over by Cmdr. Manuel Piñeiro and Lazaro Peña, members of the central committee of the Communist Party of Cuba.

Off the record, please.

Senator THURMOND. Off the record.

[Discussion off the record.]

Senator THURMOND. Back on the record.

Mr. MARTINEZ. As well as Flavia Rivera, permanent delegate of

the Puerto Rican Socialist Party in Cuba, and Florencio Merced Rosa, member of the Political Commission of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party.

Commander Manuel Pineiro, who, according to the information published in Claridad, presided at the reception, is the First Vice Minister and Technical Vice Minister of the Ministry of the Interior in Cuba.

Senator THURMOND. Off the record.

[Discussion off the record.]

Senator THURMOND. On the record.

Mr. MARTINEZ. On January 26a 1973, the Puerto Rican Socialist Party inaugurated its permanent offices in Cuba located on 29tTi Street of Vedado. The Puerto Rican Socialist Party offices can be seen in a 'photograph that illustrates the article and it can be seen that they are located in a very elegant mansion in what before the Cuban revolution was one of the most exclusive sections of Havana.

Mr. MARTINEZ. On July 26, 1973, a delegation of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party was invited to Cuba, invited by the Cuban Government to participate in the celebration of the 20th anniversary of the assault against the Moncada Barracks. The delegation was headed by Julio Vives Vasquez, president of the party. With him were Pedro Baiges Chapel, international affairs secretary, and Alberto Perez Perez,

who is a member of the Central Committee and an employee of that secretariat. The delegation participated in all the commemorative acts, including the observations at Moncada Barracks and the official reception given by the Government on July 27 at the presidential palace in Havana..

During that reception, they posed for a photograph, together with Adalberto Quintana and Manuel Pifieiro, identified as Vice Xlinister of the Interior in Cuba. I am going to submit three pages of Claridad No. 496 of August 19, 1973, which covered the meetings that took place in Havana, including a front page photo of a meeting with Julio Vives Vasquez and Cuban Defense Minister Raul Castro.

Senator THURMOND. They will be incorporated in the record in accordance with the previous order of the Chair.

[The material referred to may be found, in their Spanish version, in the files of the subcommittee.]
 

Mr. TARABOCHIA. Mr. Chairman, may I interject for a moment with regard to the identities of the individuals just mentioned by the witness?

Senator THURMOND. If you have some information that may be useful at this point, Mr. Tarabochia, please present it.

Mr. TARABOCHIA. Yes, sir. Commander Manuel Pineeiro Lozada, at the time Vice Minister of the Interior, was also at one time the head of the Cuban General Directorate of Intelligence, the equivalent of the KGB and -

Mr. MARTIN. The Soviet KGB?

Mr. TARABOCHIA. The Soviet KGB. Adalberto Quintana, who is

the Director of the Cuban Institute of friendship with the Peoples is also a member of the DGI, and has been identified by one of our witnesses in testimony before the subcommittee as the individual who

traveled to Paris in 1967 to prepare the recruiting of European leftists

for the Cultural Conference in Havana.

It is of interest, Mr. Chairman, that the exhibit just offered contains a statement regarding the activities of Adalberto Quintana with the Puerto Rican delegation. During the conversation, Vives, underlined on various occasions the impression that was left by Adalberto Quintana, the director of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with Peoples, who was the escort of the Puerto Rican delegation during its whole stay in Cuba. "There is no doubt," said Vives, "that Quintana is a great friend of Puerto Rico. On many occasions he reiterated his offer to help our cause in any way possible-"
 

The fact that these two individuals are so closely connected both with the Cuban subversive and espionage apparatus and with the Puerto Rican Socialist Party, is one more indication of the subservience of the PSP to its Cuban directors.

Mr. MARTIN. There has been some evidence from time to time, Mr. Tarabochia, that the Cuban Government has shown some independence-a limited independence-from Moscow's orders. Is this also true of the DGI in its relations with the KGB?

Mr. TARABOCHIA. To a very small degree. The Cuban DGI as of 1969 has been under the strict control of the Soviet KGB, and there is a KGB high official who is actually the co-Commander of the Cuban DGI alongside its Cuban chief-but the Cuban chief has to clear all his actions with the Soviets before he acts. It is through the Central Committee's Department of America that the Cuban Communist Party exhibits some independence in matters of subversion and revolution in Latin America.

It is this Department that maintains the official liaison with the

Puerto Rican Socialist Party. The DGI naturally, despite the Soviet control, is bound to assist the Department of the Americas in matters within its purview.

Mr. MARTIN. Would it be an exaggeration to view the DGI as a direct instrument of the Soviet KGB?

Mr. TARABOCIIIA. It would not. On the contrary, it would be a statement of fact.

Mr. MARTIN. Returning to Mr. Martinez-unless you have some thing else at this point, Mr. Tarabochia. Mr. Martinez, would you continue with your statement.

1VIr. MARTINEZ. Thank you, sir. I wanted to add, just like 1 mentioned, at that time of the meeting in Cuba that we are now talking about, the president of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party met with Defense Minister Raul Castro, the brother of the dictator Fidel Castro, who acts as a second secretary of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party and Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces.

After his trip, Julio Vives Vasquez made the following statement in Puerto Rico
 

The attentions that our delegation received in the festivities of the 26th of July in Cuba reflect the way in which the fraternal relations between our Party and the Communist Party of Cuba are being cemented.
 

In the meantime, Fermin Arraiza, Assistant Secretary General of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party, was in Cuba participating in a preparatory meeting for the Congress of Peace supporters that would take place in October 1973, sponsored by the World Peace Council. During the meeting that took place in Moscow Arraiza requested that the Puerto Rican case be included in the Congress.

After his meetings in Moscow, Arraiza traveled to North Vietnam where he met with the top leaders of the Communist Party. He participated in an interview with Nguyen Duy Trinh, First Vice Minister and Secretary of Foreign Relations of North Vietnam, who, at that time, was Acting Prime Minister of North Vietnam. During his stay in Hanoi, Arraiza visited the People's Achievement Exposition and posed for a picture close to the wreckage of a B-52 Air Force plane that had been shot down over Hanoi.
 

On October 20, 1973, a Puerto Rican delegation left for the Soviet Union to participate in the World Congress of the Forces for Peace, Security and National Independence, to take place in Moscow from the 25th to the 31st of that month. Delegates of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party and the Puerto Rican Communist Party participated together with the pro-independence legislator, Carlos Gallisa and Attorney Noel Colon Martinez. The delegation was presided over by Fermin Arraiza. Representing the PSP together with Arraiza were Luis Escribanno member of the Central Committee and the Labor Affairs Secretariat, and Carlos Rivera of the Political Education Secretariat. Escribano traveled to Moscow from Varna, Bulgaria, where he was representing the Puerto Rican Socialist Party at. the 7th Congress of the World Federation of Labor Unions.

I have one more point, and this completes this part, of the testimony.

In June 1974 the Secretary General of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party met in Havana, Cuba with Prime Minister Fidel Castro. The meeting, according to Claridad, was called to consolidate even more the mutual solidarity between both parties and the peoples of both countries and particularly to strengthen the international solidarity for the struggle of the Puerto Rican people. The meeting between the two leaders was a highlight of the official visit of the PSP delegation headed by Mari Bras and Fermin Arraiza that traveled to Cuba to participate in a meeting of vice ministers of foreign relations of the socialist countries. Mari Bras and Arraiza arrived in Cuba through the Santiago airport where they were received by Commander Juan Almeida, member of the Politburo of the Cuban Communist Party; and in Havana the delegation was received by Manuel Pineiro, member of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party.

Later, the delegation met with the Minister of Foreign Relations of Cuba, Raul Roa, to discuss the case of Puerto Rico before the United Nations. During their stay in Cuba, Mari Bras and Arraiza participated in many activities, the most important of them being the one that established the Cuban Committee of Solidarity with the Puerto Rican Political Prisoners, headed by Jose Lopez Pime-tel, a director of the Cuban Daily, Juventud Rebelde, or Youth in Rebellion.

Also, Mari Bras' speech in the solidarity act that took place at a sugar cane mill named Puerto Rico Libre in Matanzas. This speech was published completely in the Cuban Daily, Granma, official organ of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party.

Mari Bras also participated in a conference at the University of Havana, a press conference with Cuban journalists. In many of these activities, according to Claridad, the Puerto Ricans were escorted by Commanders Jesus Montane and Manuel Pineiro.

After this delegation, Fermin Arraiza remained in Cuba to participate in other activities for the party.

Senator THURMOND. Off the record.

[Discussion off the record.]

Senator THURMOND. Proceed.

Mr. MARTINEZ. I believe that the evidence that I have presented on the international activities of the Socialist Party should be

Mr. MARTIN. The Puerto Rican Socialist Party?

Mr. MARTINEZ. The Puerto Rican Socialist Party, should be enough to convince anyone that this party has very close ties with the Cuban Communist government and, like Mr. Tarabochia pointed out, with the Cuban intelligence apparatus.

Mr. MARTIN. I have a question here, Mr. Martinez. Your documentation, if I remember correctly, goes up until about the middle of 1974?

Mr. MARTINEZ. The one I have here, yes, sir.

Mr. MARTIN. Some 14 months have passed, approximately, since that time. Have there been any changes in the situation? Are you aware of any changes that would suggest that there may have been a reduction in contacts with Cuba or in DGI influence in the Puerto Rican Socialist Party-or is there reason for believing the pattern which you describe continues to this day?

Mr. MARTINEZ. Sir, the evidence that has been collected after the exhibits I have just furnished the committee demonstrates that it is just to the contrary, that the relations between the Puerto Rican Socialist Party and the Cuban Government and Cuban intelligence apparatus are ever increasing. Just to give you several examples, quite recently the Cuban Film Institute prepared, together with Teatro Tirabuzon Rojo, the Graphic Arts Workshop of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party, a film called "Puerto Rico." This film was a Cuban- Puerto Rican coproduction.

Mr. MARTIN. Cuban-Puerto Rican or--

Mr. MARTINEZ. Puerto Rican Socialist Party coproduction. It was-part of it was filmed in Puerto Rico and the technical production of the film `vas done in Cuba.

Mr. MARTIN. When did this film come out?

Mr. MARTINEZ. It is quite recent. The article I have about. this film in Claridad was published on the first of July of this year.

Mr. MARTIN. Could you tell us some more about the film?

Mr. MARTINEZ. Well, I have a complete exhibit that I am willing to submit for the record. But, according to the article I have here, it is a film of misinformation. By that, the Cubans mean that they want to present just the opposite picture of what the United States is trying to present in the Puerto Rican case. If the United States is trying to present evidence to the effect that Puerto Rico is a country that has exercised its right to free determination, well, the Cubans are just trying to project the opposite image, and this is a coproduction of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party and the Cuban Institute of Graphic Arts in film making.

Mr. MARTIN. You are offering this article for the record?

Mr. MARTINEZ. Yes, sir.

Mr. MARTIN. May this be accepted for inclusion in the record by reference, Mr. Chairman, with the understanding that the Chair will later determine which paragraphs should be printed in English translation because they appear to be the most pertinent to the subject of this hearing?

Senator THURIIOND. Without objection, so ordered.

[The material referred to, in its Spanish version, may be found in the files of the subcommittee.]
 

Mr. TARABOCHIA. May I interject again, Mr. Chairman?

Senator THURMOND. If you have some observations that are pertinent to the matter under discussion, go ahead.
 

Mr. TARABOCHIA. Yes, sir, I do. I have good reason to believe that this Cuban-PSP coproduction of a film responds to a pressing need of the Cuban propaganda apparatus, since Cuba is going to be the seat of an international conference which is to take place from September 5 to September 7 and is to emphasize solidarity with Puerto Rico. It is sponsored by the World Peace Council, which has been identified previously as a Moscow dominated organization. This film will undoubtedly be used to impress even more the captive audience that will be attending the conference.

Senator THURMOND. Mr. Martinez?

Mr. MARTINEZ. Yes, sir. I was just going to mention the Conference of Solidarity with the Puerto Rican people which, I believe, is the most recent and most important indication.

Mr. MARTIN. This is the conference to which Mr. Tarabochia just referred?

Mr. MARTINEZ. Yes, sir. It is the most important indication of the very close relations of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party with Cuba. This conference that is going to take place in Havana in September is going to gather together all the Communist parties of the world, including those that are leaning to Russia and those that are leaning to China. It seems it is going to be a major issue in the attack on the United States. I mean that the Puerto Rican case is going to be used, like Mari Bras said before, as a bridgehead to attack the United States from within and from the international front.

In this respect I believe that it is no coincidence that this conference is being held just prior to the Bicentennial year. I strongly believe that the Cubans have decided to use all means available to disrupt the Bicentennial celebrations in the United States. This is my personal -

Mr. MARTIN. Why do you say the Cubans have decided? Do you mean the Puerto Rican Socialist Party-or the Cuban Government-or both of them?

Mr. MARTINEZ. No; the Cuban Government has decided. And if the Puerto Rican Socialist Party is working so closely with tile Cuban Government they are working together in this effort. What I think is that the Cuban Government has decided to use the Puerto Rican case as an excuse for disrupting the Bicentennial year in the United States and I believe that there is strong evidence in that respect.

Mr. MARTIN. You have already presented some documentation on that precise subject.

Mr. MARTINEZ. Yes sir and this

Mr. MARTIN. Some quotes from Juan Mari Bras.

Mr. MARTINEZ. In which he threatened to disrupt the Bicentennial celebrations on July 4, 1976, but I feel this goes even beyond that. The conference will provide the ideal excuse for international publicity to the Puerto Rican case, and I would not be surprised-and this is just an expression of opinion-I would not be surprised if, together with the conference we would have some acts of sabotage and terrorism in Puerto Rico and in the United States. That has been the case before, to get publicity for their activities. As a matter of fact, my personal opinion regarding the terrorist acts that have taken place in New York City and in Chicago is that they are part of a Cuban operation specifically designed to disrupt the Bicentennial, and that the Puerto Rico issue is just an excuse.

Mr. MARTIN. What you are suggesting in effect, Mr. Martinez, is that the Puerto Rican Socialist Party functions as an adjunct of the Castro government--

Mr. MARTINEZ. Well

Mr. MARTIN [continuing]. That the Castro government at least has a very large degree of control over the Puerto Rican Socialist Party.

Mr. MARTINEZ. I believe the evidence 1 have furnished-which is not exactly a superficial analysis of this situation-is enough to indicate that if we go beyond what they have printed in their newspapers and we analyze what has really happened in those meetings in Cuba, which is something I don't precisely know, most likely we are going to find more information of a very strong relationship, probably a relationship of subservience.

Senator THURMOND. Do you have anything else you wish to say in your testimony?

Mr. MARTINEZ. Well, sir, I would like to conclude my testimony by presenting a brief statement about the final offensive of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party because I believe that it is a very notable theory that had not been adequately understood.

Mr. MARTIN. When you say the "final offensive," are You using an expression that they themselves use? Do they talk about a "final offensive?"

Mr. MARTINEZ. Well, not exactly in these terms, but

Mr. MARTIN. Are these your words, in short, or are they the words of Juan Mari Bras and the Puerto Rican Socialist Party?

Mr. MARTINEZ. When I say the "final offensive," I am referring to a final strategy that the party has proclaimed. These are my own words, in short. But, what I am talking about is the final stages of the plans that the Puerto Rican Socialist Party has made for Puerto Rico's independence. And here again these international relations are going to be very important.

After the Communist Party is firmly organized, it launches its final offensive, aimed at the destruction of the established order. Communist techniques for take-over vary from participation in elections to violent revolutions. In Puerto Rico, the Puerto Rican Socialist Party has already launched its offensive, using a clever strategy that combined elements of each technique. This strategy is called the theory of the crisis.

The logic behind this theory is the following. Puerto Rico is a colony of the United States, an imperialistic capitalist country. The United States stays in Puerto Rico because it obtains great profits

from the exploitation of the Puerto Rican people. If, for any reason, the United States ceases to derive profits from Puerto Rico, it will grant independence to the island. Thus, the role of the Socialist Party is to create a crisis aimed at making Puerto Rico a headache instead of a source of