From Spy to Ambassador: The Evolution of Juan Carretero Ibanez

Juan Carretero Ibanez/ theidg.blogspot.com

by Chris Simmons

• Director of the Cuban Communist Party’s Center for Asia-Pacific Studies since 2008.
• Ambassador to India from 2003-2008.
• Prior to his ambassadorial posting, served as Secretary-General of the Organization of Solidarity of the Peoples of Africa, Asia and Latin America (OSPAAAL).
• In the early 1970s, Carretero led insurgent support from the huge Cuban Embassy established in Santiago during Salvador Allende’s administration.
• Chief of the Latin America Departments of the Interior Ministry’s Technical Vice Ministry during the early 1960s and subsequently for the America Department during the mid-1960s-1970s.
• Case Officer for Haydée Tamara Bunke Bider (more commonly known simply as “Tania”), who supported Che Guevara’s mission in Bolivia (mid-1960s).

Note:  The America Department (DA) is the name used by the intelligence wing of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party from 1974 to the late 1980s or early 1990s. The DA was heavily involved in supporting revolutionaries and terrorists, but has since become more focused on political intelligence operations. This service is now called the America Area of the International Department of the Cuban Communist Party (PCC/ID/AA).