Having established that Lee Harvey Oswald, the alleged assassin of President John F. Kennedy, visited the Soviet and Cuban embassies in Mexico City just weeks before the assassination, "former" CIA officer Bob Baer has allowed himself to be persuaded that the Soviet connection is a dead end, but he is still looking at the Cuban connection, and he focuses on Silvia Duran who worked for Consul Eusebio Azcue Lopez at the Cuban embassy. (Baer does not say so, but Azcue was ending his tenure as consul in Mexico City at nearly the precise moment of Oswald's arrival; his replacement was either about to or had just taken over, but because Azcue was the only senior officer on the scene who spoke English, he stepped in to deal with Oswald.)
Silvia Duran, a Mexican citizen, said in her two statements (in 1963 and 1978) that she merely tried to help Oswald with his visa application and that her only contact with Oswald was limited to his three brief visits to her office regarding his application.
According to Duran's testimony, Oswald made a scene when he could not get his visa application expedited. He argued with Azcue and was escorted from the building, just as he had previously been removed from the Soviet embassy. Baer assures us that Silvia Duran's testimony is another bombshell that will blow this case open, but this bombshell, like the others, soon fizzles for Baer. He tracks down Duran, but she won't talk to him.
Next, Baer digs into his database of declassified documents and finds a report by U. S. diplomat Charles W. Thomas, which mentions several witnesses, surnamed Garro, who saw Oswald and Silvia Duran together at a party that was also allegedly attended by Azcue. One of the witnesses, Francisco Garro, is still alive. He is a nephew of Ruben Duran who was Silvia Duran's brother-in-law. Garro tells Baer that he saw Oswald, Azcue and Silvia Duran at a party at his uncle's house. (Was this party before or after Oswald's visit to the Cuban embassy? Baer does not make that clear and perhaps does not know.)
Azcue, like Silvia Duran, never officially admitted to seeing Oswald outside of the embassy. Baer tells us that Azcue was a Cuban intelligence officer, which seems plausible, but Baer does not say how he knows this. Garro also says he fixed Oswald's face in his memory because it was so unusual to see a strange "gringo" at a party that was primarily for family and friends, who were all leftists according to Garro (though not openly communists, since that was illegal in Mexico at that time). Garro says that he recognized Oswald on television two months later following the assassination and was "110 percent sure" that it was the same man he had seen with his Aunt Silvia. (Aside: Some fifteen years after the assassination, Azcue said that the man he met in Mexico City claiming to be Oswald was not the same man that he saw on television when Oswald was murdered by Jack Ruby, but Baer does not tell us this.)
The Duran hypothesis fizzles, too. I am not sure why, unless it is just because an informant told the FBI that Fidel Castro said that Oswald, while being thrown out of the Cuban embassy in Mexico City, shouted, "I'm going to kill Kennedy for this!" (Apparently, he blamed Kennedy for not being able to get a visa for travel to Cuba.) Baer treats this as an exclusive revelation, but the documents that appear on screen show that Castro publically gave this same account on 27 November 1963 in a public speech, a year before the letter signed by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover that Baer relies upon.
For whatever reason, Baer concludes that neither the Soviets nor the Cubans were directly behind Lee Oswald's plan to assassinate JFK. Duran and Azcue's possible relationship with Oswald outside of the embassy is forgotten. The possibility that the "scenes" Oswald made at two embassies were both staged is never considered.
Abandoning Mexico, Baer goes to New Orleans where he focuses on a nagging inconsistency in Oswald's dossier: the ambiguity of his political affiliations with both pro-communist and anti-communist organizations. He was the head (and only member) of the New Orleans chapter of the pro-Castro group, Fair Play for Cuba, but he also belonged to the anti-Castro group, the Freedom for Cuba Party.
Oswald lived in New Orleans from the Spring of 1963 until at least late August of that year. In early August 1963, Oswald first offered his services as a guerilla warfare expert (based on his training as a U. S. Marine) to Carlos Bringuier, an anti-Castro leader in New Orleans. Four days later, after he had turned down the offer, Bringuier caught Oswald distributing pro-Castro pamphlets. The two men got into a fight and were both arrested. On 21 August, these same two men debated each other in a local broadcast.
During part of his time in New Orleans, Oswald worked for Reilly's Food but was fired for being unreliable. He seemed more interested in hanging around a nearby garage. The garage was a kind of "motorpool", as Baer calls it, for federal vehicles (e.g., FBI, Secret Service, etc.). Baer rightly wonders why someone so hostile to the U. S. government was interested in such a place. Baer then finds a witness statement by the garage owner who claimed that he saw a man he believed to be an FBI agent giving an envelope to Oswald.
Baer points out that there is a gap of almost four full weeks between the debate with Bringuier and Oswald's application for a Mexican visa. What did Oswald do in the meantime? (If you subscribe to the theory that the "Oswald" who appeared in Mexico City was an impostor, then you do not know where Oswald was for six weeks.)
Baer points out that both anti-Castro and pro-Castro Cubans often hated JFK, although for different reasons. This meant that Oswald could have asked for support from either (or even both) by merely changing his stated reason for wanting to assassinate JFK. But how does Baer know that Oswald joined a training camp for anti-Castro mercenaries in the Louisiana bayous? The fact that Oswald's apartment in New Orleans was only a fifteen-minute drive from an abandoned weapons storage facility that very well might have been used by anti-Castro mercenaries, seems irrelevant because: 1) Oswald did not have a car; 2) the training camp that Oswald would have attended would not have been near the weapons facility, anyway; and, besides that, 3) Baer provides no evidence that Oswald actually attended such a training camp.
Ultimately, Baer does not and, perhaps, cannot resolve the question of whether Oswald was really a communist or some kind of double agent, masquerading as an American prodigal son. Baer cannot explain other contradictions, as well. Why do stories about Oswald sometimes portray him as an organized personality and, at other times, as a completely disorganized one?
Silvia Duran, a Mexican citizen, said in her two statements (in 1963 and 1978) that she merely tried to help Oswald with his visa application and that her only contact with Oswald was limited to his three brief visits to her office regarding his application.
According to Duran's testimony, Oswald made a scene when he could not get his visa application expedited. He argued with Azcue and was escorted from the building, just as he had previously been removed from the Soviet embassy. Baer assures us that Silvia Duran's testimony is another bombshell that will blow this case open, but this bombshell, like the others, soon fizzles for Baer. He tracks down Duran, but she won't talk to him.
Next, Baer digs into his database of declassified documents and finds a report by U. S. diplomat Charles W. Thomas, which mentions several witnesses, surnamed Garro, who saw Oswald and Silvia Duran together at a party that was also allegedly attended by Azcue. One of the witnesses, Francisco Garro, is still alive. He is a nephew of Ruben Duran who was Silvia Duran's brother-in-law. Garro tells Baer that he saw Oswald, Azcue and Silvia Duran at a party at his uncle's house. (Was this party before or after Oswald's visit to the Cuban embassy? Baer does not make that clear and perhaps does not know.)
Azcue, like Silvia Duran, never officially admitted to seeing Oswald outside of the embassy. Baer tells us that Azcue was a Cuban intelligence officer, which seems plausible, but Baer does not say how he knows this. Garro also says he fixed Oswald's face in his memory because it was so unusual to see a strange "gringo" at a party that was primarily for family and friends, who were all leftists according to Garro (though not openly communists, since that was illegal in Mexico at that time). Garro says that he recognized Oswald on television two months later following the assassination and was "110 percent sure" that it was the same man he had seen with his Aunt Silvia. (Aside: Some fifteen years after the assassination, Azcue said that the man he met in Mexico City claiming to be Oswald was not the same man that he saw on television when Oswald was murdered by Jack Ruby, but Baer does not tell us this.)
The Duran hypothesis fizzles, too. I am not sure why, unless it is just because an informant told the FBI that Fidel Castro said that Oswald, while being thrown out of the Cuban embassy in Mexico City, shouted, "I'm going to kill Kennedy for this!" (Apparently, he blamed Kennedy for not being able to get a visa for travel to Cuba.) Baer treats this as an exclusive revelation, but the documents that appear on screen show that Castro publically gave this same account on 27 November 1963 in a public speech, a year before the letter signed by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover that Baer relies upon.
For whatever reason, Baer concludes that neither the Soviets nor the Cubans were directly behind Lee Oswald's plan to assassinate JFK. Duran and Azcue's possible relationship with Oswald outside of the embassy is forgotten. The possibility that the "scenes" Oswald made at two embassies were both staged is never considered.
Abandoning Mexico, Baer goes to New Orleans where he focuses on a nagging inconsistency in Oswald's dossier: the ambiguity of his political affiliations with both pro-communist and anti-communist organizations. He was the head (and only member) of the New Orleans chapter of the pro-Castro group, Fair Play for Cuba, but he also belonged to the anti-Castro group, the Freedom for Cuba Party.
Oswald lived in New Orleans from the Spring of 1963 until at least late August of that year. In early August 1963, Oswald first offered his services as a guerilla warfare expert (based on his training as a U. S. Marine) to Carlos Bringuier, an anti-Castro leader in New Orleans. Four days later, after he had turned down the offer, Bringuier caught Oswald distributing pro-Castro pamphlets. The two men got into a fight and were both arrested. On 21 August, these same two men debated each other in a local broadcast.
During part of his time in New Orleans, Oswald worked for Reilly's Food but was fired for being unreliable. He seemed more interested in hanging around a nearby garage. The garage was a kind of "motorpool", as Baer calls it, for federal vehicles (e.g., FBI, Secret Service, etc.). Baer rightly wonders why someone so hostile to the U. S. government was interested in such a place. Baer then finds a witness statement by the garage owner who claimed that he saw a man he believed to be an FBI agent giving an envelope to Oswald.
Baer points out that there is a gap of almost four full weeks between the debate with Bringuier and Oswald's application for a Mexican visa. What did Oswald do in the meantime? (If you subscribe to the theory that the "Oswald" who appeared in Mexico City was an impostor, then you do not know where Oswald was for six weeks.)
Baer points out that both anti-Castro and pro-Castro Cubans often hated JFK, although for different reasons. This meant that Oswald could have asked for support from either (or even both) by merely changing his stated reason for wanting to assassinate JFK. But how does Baer know that Oswald joined a training camp for anti-Castro mercenaries in the Louisiana bayous? The fact that Oswald's apartment in New Orleans was only a fifteen-minute drive from an abandoned weapons storage facility that very well might have been used by anti-Castro mercenaries, seems irrelevant because: 1) Oswald did not have a car; 2) the training camp that Oswald would have attended would not have been near the weapons facility, anyway; and, besides that, 3) Baer provides no evidence that Oswald actually attended such a training camp.
Ultimately, Baer does not and, perhaps, cannot resolve the question of whether Oswald was really a communist or some kind of double agent, masquerading as an American prodigal son. Baer cannot explain other contradictions, as well. Why do stories about Oswald sometimes portray him as an organized personality and, at other times, as a completely disorganized one?