Cuban exiles in Miami for future actions against the Cuban government. Artime's organization MRR thus grew to become the principal counter-revolutionary movement inside Cuba, with supporting members in Miami, Mexico, Venezuela etc. Involved were Tony Varona, José Miró Cardona, Rafael Quintero, Aureliano Arango. Infiltration into Cuba, arms drops, etc. were arranged by the CIA. In May 1960 he was one of a group of ten former Cuban officers in Miami planning a campaign against the Cuban government. They were all graduates of Cuba's military academy, the Cadet School. On 2 June 1960, Artime and nine fellow 'recruits' were transported by CIA agents to Useppa Island off Fort Myers, Florida, for physical and psychological assessments. On 22 June 1960 Artime and 27 others were taken by land and air to Fort Gulick in Panama for paramilitary training. On 22 August 1960 he flew via CIA C-54 transport aircraft to San Jose, Guatemala. On 15 April 1961, José Miró Cardona, chairman of the New York-based Cuban Revolutionary Council confirmed Manuel Artime as its Economic Administrator and "Delegate in the Invading Army". On 17 April 1961 he went ashore with Brigade 2506, the assault brigade of Cuban exiles, at Playa Larga in the Bay of Pigs Invasion. After the Brigade had ceased fighting on 19 April 1961, he and others scattered into the woods and swamps near Girón. On 2 May 1961, he was captured by Cuban forces near the Covadonga sugar mill with 21 other members of the Brigade. He was finally released from prison and flown to Miami on 24 December 1962. On 29 December 1962, Manuel Artime was on stage next to US President John F. Kennedy at the Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida, during the 'welcome back' ceremony for captured Brigade 2506 veterans. At the initiative of US Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, he became involved in the Cuban project AMWORLD, a White House-sponsored and CIA-organized counter-revolutionary unit with bases in Costa Rica and Nicaragua that staged commando raids on Cuban shore installations. However, in 1964 the Cuban Project was cancelled by US President Lyndon B. Johnson. Artime participated in a failed assassination attempt against Fidel Castro in 1965. In the 1970s Artime organized the Miami Watergate Defense Relief Fund, collecting $21,000 for the convicted Watergate burglars, a number of whom were American or Cuban veterans of the Bay of Pigs operation. Artime was very close to E. Howard