Antonio Veciana Blanch

Antonio Veciana Blanch (born October 18, 1928) is a Cuban exile who was recruited by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to kill Fidel Castro. He was the founder and a former leader of the anti-Castro group Alpha 66.

At the time of the 1959 Cuban Revolution Veciana was employed as an accountant by Julio Lobo, and well known as the President of the professional accountants' association.

Veciana was recruited as a spy for the CIA by David Atlee Phillips (also known as Maurice Bishop) in 1959 to kill Fidel Castro. After the initial contact with Bishop, Veciana took a 2-3 week course in psychological warfare and sabotage. After the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion in April 1961, Bishop directed Veciana to help organise an assassination attempt on Castro in Havana from an apartment rented in the name of Veciana's mother-in-law. Veciana left Cuba the day before the October 1961 attempt, his wife and children having already left some months earlier. The attempt, which involved a bazooka, failed.

Veciana settled in Miami with his family, and after Bishop contacted him there, at Bishop's direction Veciana founded Alpha 66 in mid-1962, becoming its civilian chief and principal fundraiser, and recruiting its military chief from another Cuban exile organization. Alpha 66 became one of the most active Cuban exile groups, acquiring guns and boats and launching commando raids on Cuba.

From August 1968 to June 1972 Veciana was active in Bolivia. Formally a banking adviser to the Central Bank of Bolivia on contracts financed by the U.S. Agency for International Development, his office was located in the passport division of the American Embassy, and his primary activity was organising anti-Communist and anti-Castro activities. This included another assassination attempt on Castro in Chile in 1971 involving a plan to put a gun inside a television camera. Veciana's recruiting of Cuban associates who prepared a plan to blame Russian agents for the assassination led to a falling-out with Bishop and the eventual termination of their relationship. When Bishop broke off the relationship in 1973, he paid Veciana $253,000 in recognition of his services; Veciana had previously refused payment.

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