Félix Rodríguez (soldier)
Félix Rodríguez | |
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Republic of Vietnam |
Félix Ismael Rodríguez Mendigutia (born 31 May 1941) is a
Early life
Rodríguez came from a wealthy family of land owners in his native Cuba. His uncle was the Minister of Public Works during Fulgencio Batista's dictatorship.[2]
He attended the
The invasion of Cuba was a failure, and Rodríguez went back to Perkiomen. He graduated in June 1960 and went to live with his parents in
In September 1960, he joined a group of Cuban exiles in Guatemala, supported by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to receive military training. They were called Brigade 2506.[3]
Bay of Pigs Invasion
Rodriguez participated in the Bay of Pigs invasion as a paramilitary operations officer with the CIA's
Bolivia
In 1967, the CIA again recruited Rodríguez to train and head a team to hunt down Che Guevara, who was attempting to overthrow the US-backed government in Bolivia and to replace it with a communist government.[5]
The last photograph of Guevara alive includes Rodriguez standing by his side, but according to Dino Brugioni, a former senior official at the CIA's National Photographic Interpretation Center (NPIC), it is a photomontage.[6][7]
Vietnam
He became a US citizen in 1969. During his career with the CIA, he also went by the
During the
In 1970, after the Cambodian incursion,
Iran-Contra affair
There is extensive documentation of Rodríguez's ties to US Vice-President George H. W. Bush during the Iran–Contra affair from 1983 to 1988.[12] In September 1986, General John K. Singlaub wrote to Oliver North expressing concern about Rodríguez's daily contact with the Bush office and warned of damage to US President Ronald Reagan and the Republican Party. The Walsh Report (Chapter 25) stated that M. Charles Hill took notes at a meeting between George Shultz and Elliott Abrams on 16 October 1986 as follows:
Felix Rodriguez [sic] – Bush did know him from CIA days. FR [Rodriguez] is ex-CIA. In El Salv[ador] he goes around to bars saying he is buddy of Bush. A y[ea]r ago Pdx [Poindexter] & Ollie [North] told VP staff stop protecting FR as a friend – we want to get rid of him from his involvnt [sic] w[ith] private ops. Nothing was done so he still is there shooting his mouth off.[13] (brackets are in the original)
Rodríguez met with
On 5 October 1986, the
Allegations regarding Kiki Camarena
In October 2013, two former DEA agents and a pilot who allegedly flew for the CIA claimed to the Mexican journal Proceso and to the US network Fox News that the CIA had been "complicit" in the murder of DEA agent
In July 2020, the documentary
In 2013,
Activism
In 2004, Rodríguez became president of the Brigade 2506 Veterans Association, a group for Bay of Pigs Invasion survivors.[21]
During the
In 2005, Rodríguez oversaw the opening of the Bay of Pigs Museum and Library in Little Havana, Florida, and became the chairman of the board of directors.[22]
References
- ISBN 9789590100932. Retrieved 2014-05-12.
- ISBN 9780316441407.
- ^ ISBN 9780525505181.
- ^ Woodward, Bob. 2002. Bush At War, Simon and Schuester, p. 317
- ^ “It was tough giving the order to execute Che”
- ^ a b c Nordlinger, Jay (August 5, 2013). "The Anti-Che; Felix Rodriguez, freedom fighter and patriot". National Review. Retrieved November 7, 2014.
- ^ Documentary alleges last photo of Che is fake
- ^ 'We could have saved Che' from execution, says ex-CIA operative
- ^ Douglas Brook's MA thesis, "The Phoenix Program: a Retrospective Assessment", Baylor University, 1989, pp. iv, 38–40, 50, 57, 60, 114–18, 127, 140–44, and 148–56.
- ^ a b c Walsh Iran / Contra Report - Chapter 29 Donald P. Gregg Archived April 3, 2014, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Slow Burn: The Rise and Bitter Fall of American Intelligence in Vietnam by Orrin DeForrest and David Chanoff (1990) pp. 127–29
- ^ Walsh Iran / Contra Report Archived August 8, 2013, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Walsh Iran / Contra Report – Chapter 25 United States v. Elliott Abrams Archived April 3, 2014, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Walsh Iran / Contra Report – Chapter 17 United States v. Clair E. George Archived April 3, 2014, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Schager, Nick (July 31, 2020). "Did the CIA Torture an Undercover DEA Agent for a Mexican Drug Cartel?". The Daily Beast.
- ^ a b Norman, Greg (February 28, 2020). "US probing claims that CIA operative, DEA official betrayal led to murder of agent: report". Fox News.
- ^ Villamil, Jenaro (October 15, 2013). "Camerena, operation legend continues (in Spanish)". Proceso.
- ^ Nugent, Annabel (August 3, 2020). "Director of Amazon's 'The Last Narc' had a gun pulled on him during filming". The Independent.
- ^ Bowden, Charles (September 12, 2013). "The Pariah". Esquire.
- ^ "Brought to Justice: Operation Leyenda, DEA Museum Lecture Series" (PDF). October 29, 2013. pp. 39–41.
- ^ Brigada2506.com
- ^ "About Us." The Bay of Pigs Museum and Library.
Autobiography
External videos | |
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Booknotes Interview with Rodríguez on Shadow Warrior, November 12, 1989. C-SPAN. |
- ISBN 978-0671667214.
Cuba: Che Guevara, Bay of Pigs Invasion, Central America
- The Castro Obsession: U.S. Covert Operations Against Cuba, 1959–1965, Don Bohning, (2005)
- Bay of Pigs documents and 40th anniversary conference papers at the National Security Archive at George Washington University's Gelman Library.
- Detail Information on the Bay of Pigs Invasion — Includes maps of the Invasion and Documents.
- History of Cuba — Bay of Pigs Invasion.
- "The Panama Invasion Revisited: Lessons for the Use of Force in the Post Cold War Era", Eytan Gilboa, Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 110, No. 4 (Winter, 1995), pp. 539–62
- CIA man recounts Che Guevara's death
Iran-Contra scandal
- ISBN 978-0-671-66721-4.
- "Iran-Contra's Untold Story," by Robert Parry and Peter Kornbluh, Foreign Policy, No. 72 (Autumn, 1988), pp. 3–30