In February 1960, a group of the newly formed DRE at the
University of Havana, opposed to
communism, publicly opposed the visit of Soviet diplomat
Anastas Mikoyan, leading to their expulsion from the university. There, the group developed connections with the
Central Intelligence Agency. On August 24 1962, the DRE carried out an attack in Cuba, with two speedboats firing approximately sixty
20-millimeter shells into the Havana suburb of
Miramar, damaging a beachfront hotel, the Rosita Hornedo, which housed advisers sent to Cuba from the Soviet bloc. In mid-1963, the CIA financed the DRE with $25,000 per month, under a CIA program named AMSPEL. This was run by
George Joannides, the chief of the
psychological warfare branch JMWAVE station in Miami. The money went to Luis Fernandez Rocha, the DRE's leader in Miami, and supported the DRE's activities in a variety of cities, including
New Orleans. Joannides also provided non-financial support, reviewing military plans and briefing the DRE leadership on managing press relations. and pretended to be sympathetic to the DRE's goals. When DRE members later saw him handing out pro-Castro leaflets, their confrontation became physical and resulted in Oswald's arrest. The
Warren Commission interpreted these contacts as a successful attempt by Oswald to attract attention as a left-wing activist;
Gerald Posner, on the other hand, believes the DRE's harassment of Oswald helped provoke the assassination. Later the same month, Oswald took part in a local radio debate with DRE members. The day after the
assassination of John F. Kennedy, the DRE, defying orders from Joannides to await instructions, launched a public campaign asserting that
Lee Harvey Oswald had been acting on behalf of the Cuban government. Members communicated their claims to Paul Bethel, a former CIA employee active in Cuban exile politics, and
Clare Boothe Luce. On 23 November 1963, they published a seven-page brief on Oswald, as well as a special edition of the DRE's monthly bulletin, a four-page broadsheet which ran the headline "The Presumed Assassins" above photographs of Oswald and
Fidel Castro. DRE members later said that the aim was to create public pressure for a U.S. attack on Cuba. ==See also==