Introduction

The goal of this blog will be to document the militant activities of Orlando Bosch Ávila (1926-2011) during the period from 1963 to 1968 mainly using archived news articles from that period. Additional sources will be used to provide context to Bosch's illegal attacks and provocations against the Cuban government from United States territory. (Caution: The documentation should not be considered exhaustive.)

Since his exile to the U.S. from Cuba beginning in 1960, Orlando Bosch was determined to attack and overthrow the Cuban government using many forms of sabotage. His activities throughout the 60's repeatedly ran afoul of the law, especially with the 1962 founding of his group Movimiento Insurrecional de Recuperacion Revolucionaria/Insurrectional Movement of Revolutionary Recovery (MIRR) and Poder Cubano/Cuban Power in 1967, but ended with his arrest on October 11, 1968.

During this period, Miami, Florida was the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency's clandestine operations against the Cuban government (JMWAVE), and considered "the largest CIA station in the world after the headquarters in Langley, Virginia," possibly employing some 300 to 400 agents, and maybe running some 300 to 400 front companies (Bohning, 2005). JMWAVE officially ended in 1965.

According to sources, Bosch during this period had indirect ties to the CIA, but mostly operated independently. Nevertheless, by June 1963 the U.S. government had given its full support to several Cuban exile militant groups to engage in "general sabotage and harassment" against Cuba. According to Bohning, these U.S.-supported covert actions resulted in "many negative consequences" for years to come, such as:

"... spawning a cadre of Cuban exile terrorists perpetrating murder and mayhem far in excess of their relatively small numbers." (p.255)