Special to the AARC
2 March, 2026|Bill Simpich
Quintín Pino Machado [Villa Clara Square 1931-Havana 1986], was a revolutionary fighter, a member of the 26th of July Movement, and its coordinator in the province of Las Villas. He went on to become a diplomat in Castro’s government and the author of the book The Battle of Playa Girón, Reasons for a Victory (Havana, Cuba, 1983). Pino Machado has a very intriguing history.
Both Quintin Pino Machado (201-292169) and his mother Margot Machado Padron were alleged to be sabotage specialists during the Batista regime. Pico Machado was in jail for most of 1957 and 1958 until Castro’s forces took over Cuba and forced Batista to flee.
Margot Machado was a close friend of Fidel Castro. Following his rise to power, she became known as the third most important person in the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Relations, behind only foreign minister Raul Roa Garcia and vice minister Carlos Olivares.
Pino Machado was named the ambassador to Nicaragua during Dec. 1959. He went on to become the interim OAS ambassador and a key economic advisor in Washington DC during October 1960. Pino Machado’s wife’s name was Irma Dimas Cid – the Cuban attache in Washington DC.
I think the whole idea to use Pino Machado as the “Castro-did-it” fall guy began when – according to this FBI report – interim OAS ambassador Pino kidnapped Felipe Martinez on 11/25/60. A clerk at the Cuban Embassy in Washington DC, Martinez wanted to stay in the US an additional sixty days so he could marry an American secretary. Pino tried to force Martinez to leave Washington DC and return to Cuba with the gentle persuasion of a Belgian automatic pistol. The State Department described Pino Machado as a strong arm man. He was no choir boy.
Martinez managed to buy five days grace, and married the secretary on 11/26/60. Martinez came to the immigration office in DC on 11/29/60 and made arrangements to stay in the US.
Once the intelligence agencies got wind of this story, Pino was on their radar. Now the spin masters had a warm body available for use in various violent scenarios.
Pino Machado was Cuba’s alternate OAS representative – the main OAS rep was Carlos Lechuga. Pino Machado almost got on the same podium with JFK at an OAS meeting on 4/14/61, which set off a series of security alarms.
During March 13-14, 1962, JMWAVE chief Al Cox sent an interview with Pino Machado’s uncle, Raul Machado, to Task Force W chief Bill Harvey. Both men were assigned to organize a campaign culminating in the overthrow of Castro’s government.
Carlos Lechuga, in turn, became a main subject in late 1962 and 1963 of a prolonged CIA operation aimed at the Cuban consulate in Mexico City, led by Cuba desk counterintelligence officers Anita Potocki, Lou de Santi and Neill Prew, all pals of Harvey. I believe it went so far as to wittingly/unwittingly set Lechuga up with Silvia Duran at the Cuban consulate in Mexico City. The goals were to make Duran look bad, break up Lechuga’s marriage, and convince Lechuga, his wife, and Cuban consul Azcue to defect to the United States. The attempt to persuade Azcue to defect had been a Bill Harvey operation since January 1963.
Also during late 1962, Pino Machado was named by secret service informant 1-15-5 as possibly linked to Antonio Rodriguez Jones, the recipient of one of the Pepe letters that claimed that pro-Castro activists were planning to kill JFK during late 1962. (See My Summary on the Pepe Letters)
Antonio Jones, the son of the Cuban ambassador to Pakistan, named Felipe Martinez as a friend who had mysteriously disappeared two years earlier before his farewell party.
On Nov. 27, 1963, the FBI’s Chief of Nationalities Intelligence Ray Wannall//3-11-48 (see the marginalia in the aforementioned Wannall-linked document) claimed as a “Secret Service informant” that Pino Machado was involved in “terrorism” in Washington DC in April 1961, that Pino Machado was in Mexico City in 1963, and that if there was an “international plot” then Pino Machado was the “intellectual director” of the assassination of JFK.
Wannall’s subordinate Lambert Anderson had been monitoring both Oswald and the FPCC for months before 11/22/63. Anderson and JMWAVE’s John Tilton were key in setting up a joint CIA-FBI operation in the days prior to the alleged Oswald trip to Mexico City.
Secret Service officer Thomas Kelley – one of Oswald’s interrogators – remembered a report circulating from “a special agent in Miami” – indicating that the “special agent” was FBI – that Pino Machado was a radical and dangerous man. Kelley also remembered that the belief was that the Pepe letters had been written by the same person AND that this person was “authentic” – not using an alias AND that these letters were designed to be intercepted.
On 11/29/63, Wannall/3-11-48 added a new claim in accusing Pino Machado of being involved in a plot to assassinate anti-Castro leader Doctor Enrique Huertas/AMING-2 at JFK’s dinner in Miami on 11/18/63. This claim appears to have been made up. Huertas had formerly worked at Radio Swan and had a background in radio propaganda. Huertas was also the President of the Cuban Doctors in Exile.
AMING was the predecessor to the AMHINT group, which conducted paramilitary and infiltration operations in Cuba and planned assassinations during the early 1960s. AMING members included Abel Mestre (AMING-1), Enrique Huertas (AMING-2), Alberto Muller (AMING-3, later AMHINT-1) and Juan Salvat (AMING-4, later AMHINT-2).
Alberto Muller/AMING-3 was allegedly one of the four Cuban exiles sought out by CIA officer Don Heath after Warren Frank instructed Heath to find out if anti-Castro activists were involved in the killing of JFK. A file review reflected no showing that any of these four Cuban exiles had been contacted. Nor was there any way Heath could have contacted Muller/AMING-3 in 1963 – Muller was arrested in Cuba in 1961 and not released until the 1970-1971 period.
All of this bogus information about Pino Machado (and much more over the months) was passed on to Miami Secret Service officer Ernest Aragon and his boss John Marshall. Bill Harvey and Ted Shackley had been studying Aragon as early as November, 1962.
By early December 1963, Aragon knew that letters from Cuba claiming to be in league with Oswald from “Pedro Charles: were fake; unfortunately, the man known as Ernesto Aragon (was it some kind of alias?) working for the CRC turned it over to Bill Finch/Secret Service informant 3-11-14, a Miami CIA officer in the security division. It offers some understanding as to why Aragon reported security lapses and Marshall twice told the HSCA that he was concerned that the Secret Service might be involved in the assassination of JFK.
Beginning in December 1963, there were rumors in the anti-Castro community that Pino Machado had been the intended escort of Oswald to Mexico, which went awry due to the Tippit shooting and LHO not wearing the previously-agreed color of clothes.
The rumors revolved around the home of Sixto Mesa/AMWORLD-2, where Sixto Mesa and other individuals were interviewed and all parties agreed that the story had no reliable source.
Bill Simpich
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