BRIGADE FOUNDERS

Useppa Island was the island used by the CIA to bring together students and young military men from the Cuban Constitutional Army. In the early morning of May 19, 1960, the first ten were picked up at a motel called Maria Antonieta in Fort-Laudardale and taken to this small island. In Useppa we were subjected to medical, psychological and deep investigations and in that way to determine the possibilities of each one of which we formed this group. In the end we were divided into two groups, Radio-Operators and Cadres. The first took us to Guatemala, where we received our training in radio telegraphy, encryption and built what would later be known as Base TRAX, the second took them to Panama to receive an intense training in weapons, explosives and tactics. They would be in charge of training the future guerrilla group according to the original plans. The CIA took Colonel Napoleon Valeriano, an expert on guerrilla warfare, to Guatemala, who had the artifice of defeating the communist guerrilla in the Philippines. These plans were changed in the month of November of 1960 and of being a guerrilla force, we became a conventional force, BRIGADE 2506.