◆ SpookStack

The fact of long continuing support from the government of Guatemala showed in an incident of early December which also reflected some internal dissension between 1 1 and the Chief of Base at JMTRAV. Colonel Egan had apparently arranged for an air reception and field training exercise for a group of Cuban trainees at the "finca San Jose" (probably the finca San Juan in the San Jose area) which was another of the properties Robert Alejos made available to the Agency~ but somewhere in the process Egan had failed to clear the exercise with either Dor the local authori.ties -- military and civil -- in the area of the finca. The result being that: Airdrops attracted attention local secur- ity forces who appear considerably more alert and effective than in TRAV area. Night 7 December delegations from national police, military, and ~my.MP visited finca. Fortunately "Alejos was visiting and ex- plained that no invasion in progress, only secret army maneuvers. In his cable to headquarters reporting the incident, Chief of Base TRAV also had indicated that a planned . This particular cable is another of the relatively few concerning the JMATE operation which were released by Richard Helms as Chief of Operations, DDP. - 55 - TOP ;;CRET