Movimiento Nacionalista Cubano
(Cuban Nationalist Movement)

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"Cubans Crash U.N. Opening," Life Magazine, Sept. 27, 1963.

  Every year the opening of the U.N.'s General Assembly looms as a monument of diplomatic ritual, ponderously impressive but nonetheless a pretty dull show. Once in a while an unscheduled event, like Nikita Khrushchev's shoe-banging show, makes it memorable. This year, with the opening only 90 minutes old and heads already bobbing, a handful of anti-Castro Cubans woke up the crowd. Cries of "Traitors!" "Abajo Castro!" "Viva Cuba Libre!" pierced the visitor's gallery and 11 young Cubans, ostensibely following a guided tour, leaped the rail and headed for the rostrum, where Dr. Carlos Sosa Rodriguez had just been installed as the General Assembly's new president. "We all had something in our hands--leaftlets, a Cuban flag, a banner--so guards would know we weren't carrying guns or bombs," explained Ignacio Novo, a Bay of Pigs rebel. "The idea was for nine of us to run interference for two others carrying a five-page document to Secretary General U Thant." One document-carrying Cuban, Santiago Gonzalez, got as far as the main floor. The other, Jose Egues, plunged to within five feet of the podium, where four guards downed him. As he dropped he flung the paper futilely at U Thant. It demanded recognition of anti-Castro Cubans as belligerents and withdrawal of the Castro U.N. delegation. Guards escorted the rebels to the basement, where they claimed they were roughed up. After 45 minutes the men were released. Inside the assembly room speakers continued unruffled. Cuban Ambassador Carlos Lechuga laughed at the fracas, and most other delegates confessed they didn't understand what it was all about. Later in the week, the whole thing forgotten, the U.N.'s schedule, including an address by President Kennedy and an average of four parties a day, got into gear. 

 
 
     Romeu (front), Reynaldo
     Novo (center) and Egues
     (seated).		      Santiago Gonzalez vaults the rail followed by Lago, Jose Fernandez
     and Eduardo.
 

 
 
Reynaldo Novo Sampol
Reynaldo Novo Sampol

 
 
Ignacio Novo Sampol (right) held by U.N. security guards.
Jose J. Perez (center) held by U.N. security guards.

 
 
      Jorge Romeu held by U.N. guards.
  Jorge Romeu held by U.N. guards.

 
 
                 Jorge Romeu held by U.N. guards.

Cubanos Asaltan el Edificio de la ONU (El Diario-La Prensa, Sept. 18, 1963)