◆ SpookStack

DPE ET 28. However, Rubio was too conservative for the FRD's taste, and the MAR was never incorporated into the FRD. 29. An organization which resisted incorporation in the FRD until March 1961 and which meanwhile had a stormy relation- ship with the Bender Group was the Movimiento Revolucionario del Pueblo (MRP), headed by Manuel Antonio Ray Rivero. Ray had been Castro's minister of public works until he lost his job to a Communist. He arrived in this country in November 1960 and agreed to accept assistance from the Bender Group but wished to maintain his freedom of choice. The project's unilateral use of Ray resulted in some successful maritime operations. 30. Bender's efforts to get Ray to join the FRD produced strained relations, but in December Ray agreed to accept military aid through ithe FRD. Ray's program appeared to be identical with Castro's but without Communism and without hostility to the United States. Ray became less intransigent as time went on and in February and March 1961 was participating in talks with Bender and Varona on the formation of the Revolutionary Council which he ultimately joined. There seems to be no substance to alle- gations in the press that Ray was ignored. In fact, his unsub- stantiated claims to wide underground resources are said to have been received uncritically by some project personnel. - 90 -