Spycraft - Melton [153]
On the second day of fighting, the techs began to notice Cuban militiamen loading boxes into a utility tunnel under circulars three and four. There was no explanation for the activity until the bottom of one of the boxes broke and the prisoners could see it was dynamite. Apparently fearful that a mass escape would liberate inmates to join the invasion, Castro ordered the prison booby-trapped. In the dictator’s mind, it was better to bring down the structures, killing all 6,000 men inside, than risk a small army of prisoners marching on Havana.
By April 19, the invasion was defeated. Of the Cubans who landed, 1,189 fighters were captured and a small number escaped back to the sea. When news of the failed assault eventually reached the prison, no hope was held for a second attempt.32 Nothing more was thought of the dynamite until Thanksgiving Day in 1961 when guards began drilling holes in circulars three and four with jackhammers. Andy and Dave, assigned to work details clearing the debris, watched as crews drilled into the support columns of the two buildings.
After three weeks, with the holes completed, trucks arrived and boxes labeled Mech Explosiva (explosive fuse) were unloaded into the holes. More boxes followed, these with TNT stenciled across the side. Judging from the number of cartons, the three Americans estimated that five tons of explosives were now underneath the circulars. Ominously, as the explosives were unloaded, some prisoners received black plastic rings with their prison numbers on them; other inmates were tattooed. Reportedly, this was done to identify bodies if the prison was brought down. Apparently, Castro was still fearful of a prison revolt.
The idea of living in a mined building did not appeal to the techs. As word spread throughout the circulars that the Americans intended to do something, a Cuban prisoner named Miro soon joined them. “Miro recruited two of his buddies—one guy looked like the Michelin tire guy,” remembers Wally. “We went to one of the cells on the first floor that was being used as a toilet. Serviceo is what they call it in Spanish. You didn’t linger there very long, the smell was something awful.”
With the “Michelin tire man” blocking the view of the guards, two other Cubans worked for four days to enlarge the hole in the floor leading to a utility tunnel where the explosives were emplaced. The team then recruited the smallest prisoner they could find, a fair-skinned Cuban who went by the nickname Americano. Standing just five-foot-five and weighing no more than 120 pounds, Americano was persuaded to squeeze through the small hole for a reconnaissance mission.
Lookouts were posted as the young man slipped into the tunnel one afternoon, instructed to bring back samples of whatever he found. Inside the six-foot-high by eight-foot-wide tunnel, Americano discovered enough explosives to bring the buildings down and two detonation systems, one electrical and the other a long length of primer cord. If one failed, the other could be put into play. The young Cuban also brought out a fifteen-pound block of TNT, which the three Americans told him to return, lest the guards find it missing.
A lieutenant in the Cuban army had headed the installation team and the techs now understood the job had been done well. “He was no dummy. He knew explosives and he knew what to do,” said Wally. “They ran the lines from an outbuilding into the circulars with the primer cord encased in plastic tubing and the electrical line through separate tubing. When we understood what he’d done, we were left there scratching our heads. We’re sitting on this thing