Cuban Spy Pursues Targets in Panama [This Date in History]

by Chris Simmons

          According to declassified US government records, DGI officer Norberto Hernandez Curbelo visited Panama with a Cuban sports delegation from late May through early June 1972. He worked Panamanian targets again from August 23-September 5 of that year when the University of Panama sent a cultural and scientific delegation to visit Cuba. Operating in alias under Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MINREX) cover, he served as a delegation escort.  

          The Directorate General of Intelligence (DGI) [also referred to as the General Intelligence Directorate], was the foreign intelligence wing of Cuba’s Ministry of the Interior (MININT).  Following a reorganization in the late 1980s, it was renamed the Directorate of Intelligence (DI).