Office of the Historian

224. Memorandum of conversation, August 30, between President Kennedy and Minister of Defense Briceño and other U.S. and Venezuelan officials1

Part II (of 2)
August 30, 1962
[Facsimile Page 1]

SUBJECT

  • Smuggling of Arms into Venezuela

PARTICIPANTS

  • The President
  • Brigadier General Antonio Briceño Linares, Venezuelan Minister of Defense
  • Assistant Secretary Edwin M. Martin
  • Lt. Colonel George Dwyre, (USAF), DOD Escort Officer
  • Major Teodoro Thielen, Venezuelan Aide to General Briceño
  • Donald F. Farnes, State Department Interpreter

Several related matters were discussed during the conversation including the subject covered in this memorandum.

[Typeset Page 538]

President Kennedy asked how the situation was in Venezuela, and General Briceño replied that it had improved. When the President inquired about participation of Naval officers in the latest attempted coup, General Briceño replied that they were Marine Corps officers. He said that they were sympathizers of the extreme Left, and that the Government had traced the plot beginning in November 1961. He said that the Government had learned that the plotters had hoped to cause a disturbance on the occasion of President Kennedy’s visit to Venezuela, but had failed. He said that it was difficult to prove participation in plots such as these until the plotters actually struck.

The President said that the Venezuelan Government had been doing a wonderful job in this connection. He asked whether it was true that arms were being smuggled into Venezuela via Panama. General Briceño replied that he had some information in this sense, which his Government had no means of processing. He gave the President a number of documents in English, which the President read.

The President asked whether it would be possible to prove a connection between the arms shipments and General Pérez Jiménez (the former Venezuelan dictator), General Briceño said that this was something the United States Government could trace. The President said that he had no information of any connection. Mr. Martin said that he was not aware of any such connection, but [Facsimile Page 2] that he would check.

General Briceño said that Venezuela found it difficult to halt arms [illegible in the original] of its low cost and the lack of equipment.

President Kennedy asked Mr. Martin whether the U.S. had discussed this matter with Panamanian authorities. Mr. Martin replied that he had not been aware of arms going through Panama to Venezuela. General Briceño said that a high Panamanian official, who was in a good position to help the smugglers, was involved.

  1. Smuggling of arms into Venezuela. Confidential. 2 pp. WNRC, RG 330, OASD/ISA Files: FRC 65 A 3501, Venezuela, 1962, 000.1–381.↩