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180-10142-10409 JFK Assassination Records Archives 1 (11/14/1978)

handle is hein.jfk/jfkarch50995 and id is 1 raw text is: 80 011421404/7
                                  CIA WSI w~                           C)
                                  DECLASSIF .
              DRAFT - MDC                          TURNTO CIA  FO  L-   4f
              11/14/78                        Ckground Use Only
              Betsy Palmer                         Not Reproduce


                      MOVIMIENTO DEMOCRATA CRISTIANO (MDC)


                   After Castro's assumption of power in 1959, it became

              evident to many Cubans that political parties were being

              surpressed and the 26th of July Movement was being infil-

              trated by Communists.  This political atmosphere gave rise

              to the creation of underground organizations such as the
                                                         1
              Christian Democratic Movement of Cuba (MDC).   Proclaiming

              the doctrine of Christianity as its foundation, the MDC

              published a manifesto in March, 19602 denouncing Communism

              and strongly advocating the free enterprise system.3 One

              of the founders of the MDC, 35-year-old law professor,

              Dr. Jose Ignacio Rasco, was elected head of the organization4

              and immediately criticized the violence prevalant in the

              Castro regime.5  This public criticism produced pressure on

              him to leave Cuba and he arrived in Miami on April 22, 1960.6

              By June, Rasco had allied himself and the MDC with the Frente

              Revolucionario Democratico (FRD)7 and thus became one of the

              five original exile Cuban leaders brought together by the

              State Department and the CIA to form the nucleus of a Cuban

              government-in-exile. 8

                   After the Bay of Pigs invasion, the MDC split into factions.9

              Rasco remained head of the largest faction and organized

              delegations in Miami, New York, Chicago, Venezuela and Cuba.10



                                         TS COPY O NOT


                                            FOR RELEASE.


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