Ex Tte. Coronel del MININT en Miami: no renuncio a mi historia ni a mis principios

Chris Simmons

por Chuny Montaner, Univision Radio

MIAMI, Florida - Carlos Santana logró lo que parecía imposible: encontrar, retratar, entrevistar y lograr que el escurridizo ex Teniente Coronel del Ministerio del Interior de Cuba, Crescencio Marino Rivero Toledo, quién desde el año 2010 reside en Miami con su esposa Juana Ferrer, también ex Teniente Coronel del aparato de represión castrista, admitiera que había mentido y omitido información al llenar su aplicación de inmigración.

Los ex tenientes coroneles Rivero y Ferrer, hoy con 71 y 65 años, respectivamente, en sus costillas, visitaron a su hija tres veces en Miami, y en la cuarta visita, “se quedaron”. El matrimonio y su hija comparten un apartamento en el segundo piso de un edificio situado en la zona sur oeste de la ciudad y trataban de pasar desapercibidos, sin saber que su recorrido estaba siendo investigado por dos abogados de esta ciudad.

Declaración del ex Teniente Coronel del MININT

Respondiendo a las acusaciones que se le hacen, Rivero accedió a ser entrevistado por Santana. “El MININT no organiza turbas, eso lo hace el pueblo, y la presencia de los agentes es para evitar que el pueblo agreda a los opositores”, dijo, (todavía) repitiendo el libreto del MININT, después de residir más de dos años en este país.

Rivero reconoció que había mentido a las autoridades de Estados Unidos sobre su pasado en Cuba como miembro del aparato represivo del Ministerio del Interior MININT, que se desempeñaba como Jefe del Departamento Provincial del Sistema Penitenciario en Santa Clara y que su esposa Ferrer era oficial de migración.

“En Cuba no se tortura en las cárceles”, aseguró Rivero a Santana, pretendiendo con unas desafiantes palabras borrar no solo los testimonios de centenares de presos que se escuchan a diario en esta ciudad, sino también las declaraciones de otros oficiales, tanto de las Fuerzas Armadas como de distintas ramas del gobierno castrista, que se han refugiado en suelo americano, buscando la libertad política que no existe en Cuba desde 1959.

“No voy a renunciar a mi historia y mis principios”, dijo Rivero Toledo a Santana, añadiendo: “Si tengo que regresar a Cuba, lo haré”, a la vez que su esposa se negaba a hablar de los actos de repudio (de los cuales es acusada de participar), exponiendo: “Yo no vine aquí a hablar de política”.

A Rivero y a su esposa, ya residentes legales de Estados Unidos, se les investiga por que pueden haber mentido a las autoridades de inmigración norteamericanas sobre su pasado como miembros del represivo aparato del Ministerio del Interior, por sus siglas MININT, así como no haber declarado que fueron miembros del Partido Comunista de Cuba.

artículo continúa aquí:   http://radiomambi710.univision.com/noticias/article/2012-11-02/ex-coronel-del-minint-no-renuncia-historia-principios-dice-que-mintio

“Cuban 5” Propaganda Film Wins Award

Desde “Cuba Confidential
30 de octubre de 2012
especial a freethefive.orgl

"The Cuban Wives" por Alberto Antonio Dandolo ganó el Premio Malvinas en el 27º Festival de Cine Latinoamericano de Trieste. El Premio Malvinas destinado a promover la convivencia entre los pueblos y el Derecho Internacional, ha sido concedido por un jurado compuesto por el escritor argentino Juan Octavio Prenz, el escritor y periodista italiano Massimiliano Cocozza y Héctor Sommerkamp (Perú) Profesor de la Universidad de Trieste, por las siguientes razones:

"Debido a la sensibilidad y la atención a la cuestión de la justicia como fundamento de una sociedad mejor. Una historia enternecedora y objetiva sobre las pruebas de nuestros tiempos."

artículo continúa aquí:  http://www.freethefive.org/updates/Wives/WivesFilmAward103012.htm

Cuban Blackmail, 50 Years After the Missile Crisis

Chris Simmons

The past decades have shown that the Castro brothers' behavior in October 1962 was perfectly characteristic.

By Jeb Bush & Frank Calzon, Wall Street Journal --  October 23, 2012, 7:16 p.m. ET

With this week marking the 50th anniversary of the Cuban missile crisis, Americans are recalling the 13 days in October 1962 when the Soviet Union and Cuba's Fidel Castro brought the world to the brink of nuclear Armageddon.

But in assessing the crisis, and President John F. Kennedy's decisions over those 13 days, it is equally important to consider what has happened since. Using what the late U.N. Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick called the "politics of deception," Cuba's Castro brothers have maintained power through international deceit, blackmail and hostage-taking.

The past decades have shown that the behavior of the Castro brothers in 1962 was perfectly characteristic. Fidel Castro has never shied away from a political gamble such as deploying secret Soviet missiles and then lying about them. He assured other governments that he would never do such a thing, just as the Soviet Union's ambassador to the United States told the Kennedy administration that rumors about missiles were false. But the missiles were there, and their deployment was an effort to intimidate and blackmail America.

Today, Havana's intimidation and blackmail are of a different magnitude, but there are plenty of examples.

Days ago, a Cuban court sentenced young Spanish politician Angel Carromero to four years in prison for committing manslaughter in the death of Oswaldo Payá, one of Cuba's most prominent human rights leaders. Payá died while a passenger in a car Mr. Carromero was driving, when it veered off the road and hit a tree under suspicious circumstances. Payá's family says that Mr. Carromero has sent text messages saying that a vehicle (presumably driven by Cuba's state security police) was attempting to force him off the road. The family was prevented from attending the trial and is calling for an international investigation.

For years, state security had tried to intimidate Payá and his foreign visitors, part of a larger effort to discourage democracy advocates from visiting or contacting Cuban dissidents. Havana similarly tries to intimidate other countries—such as Spain, whose nationals have business interests in Cuba—into accepting its routine violations of human rights, including the beatings of dissidents.

Joining Mr. Carromero as a hostage in Cuba is Alan Gross, an American development worker held since December 2009. His supposed crime: giving a laptop computer and satellite telephone to a group of Cuban Jews.

Mr. Gross has lost some 100 pounds in prison, according to his wife, who also reports that he has a growth on his shoulder that may be cancerous. The Castro regime intends to keep him in prison until the U.S. government releases five Cuban spies from prison in the U.S.

There is long history here. In 1962, Fidel Castro wrung $53 million from Washington in exchange for releasing the prisoners he had taken after the failed Bay of Pigs invasion. Before that, during the guerrilla war against the Batista dictatorship, Raúl Castro extorted thousands of dollars from owners of sugar mills, threatening to burn down their homes and mills unless they aided the guerrillas. In June 1958, he tried to force negotiations with Washington by kidnapping 29 American sailors and marines; when word got out that Washington might send U.S. Marines to rescue the hostages, the Castros freed them.

In dealing with Cuba's regime, the Obama administration has too often sent contradictory signals of U.S. resolve. Though Raúl Castro (who now heads the Cuban government) has refused to allow Mr. Gross to return to the U.S. to visit his seriously ill mother, the Obama administration allowed a Cuban spy to leave an American halfway house to visit his sick mother. While Mr. Gross remains in prison, the Obama administration last year issued visas to Raúl Castro's daughter and her retinue so they could visit America and attack its Cuba policy.

The lessons of October 1962 must not be forgotten. President Kennedy showed fortitude and resolve in forcing the Soviet Union to stand down. Whoever wins the Nov. 6 election ought to deal similarly with today's intimidation and deception from the Castro regime.

Mr. Bush is a former governor of Florida. Mr. Calzon is executive director of the Center for a Free Cuba in Washington, D.C.

Canadian Diplomats Spied on Cuba for CIA in Aftermath of Missile Crisis: Envoy

Chris Simmons

John Graham at his home in Ottawa.
(Dave Chan for The Globe and Mail)

By Michael Posner, [Ottawa] The Globe and Mail 

In a little-known chapter of the Cold War, Canadian diplomats spied for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency in Cuba in the aftermath of the 1962 missile crisis – and for years afterward. A major part of that story is told in a forthcoming memoir by retired Canadian envoy John Graham. Mr. Graham was one of a series of Canadian diplomats recruited to spy for the CIA in Havana. The missions went on for at least seven years, during the 1960s. “We didn’t have a military attaché in the Canadian embassy,” explained Mr. Graham, who worked under the cover of Political Officer. “And to send one at the time might have raised questions. So it was decided to make our purpose less visible.” Mr. Graham said he worked as a spy for two years, between 1962 and 1964. His mandate was to visit Soviet bases, identify weapons and electronic equipment and monitor troop movements.

The espionage missions began after President John Kennedy asked Prime Minister Lester Pearson – at their May, 1963, summit in Hyannis Port, Mass. – whether Canada would abet American intelligence-gathering efforts in Cuba. As a result of the crisis, which brought the superpowers to the brink of nuclear war, the Soviets had agreed to withdraw nuclear missiles from Cuban territory, in exchange for Washington’s pledge to remove its own missile batteries from Turkey and Italy. To monitor Russian compliance, the United States needed to supplement data gleaned from almost daily U-2 reconnaissance flights. It had few assets on the ground. Its networks of Cuban agents had been progressively rolled up by Castro’s efficient counterintelligence service. And having severed diplomatic relations with Cuba in 1961, it had no embassy of its own through which to infiltrate American spies.

Soon after the summit meeting, Ottawa sent diplomat George Cowley to Havana. Now deceased, Mr. Cowley, who had served in the Canadian embassy in Japan and sold encyclopedias in Africa, spent about two months in Havana in the late spring of 1963. He was followed by Mr. Graham, seconded from his post as chargé d’affaires in the Dominican Republic. His formal training, he told The Globe and Mail, was minimal – a few days at CIA headquarters in Langley, Va. At the end of it, an agency officer offered him a farewell gift – a sophisticated camera with an assortment of telephoto lenses. He declined the present, arguing that if he were ever caught with it, he’d surely be arrested. “But how will we know what the Soviet military convoys are carrying?” a CIA officer asked him. “We need precision. Configuration is essential for recognition.” “I’ll draw you pictures,” Mr. Graham said. “It was a bit like the character in Graham Greene’s Our Man in Havana, but that’s what I did.”

Story continues here:  http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/canadian-diplomats-spied-on-cuba-for-cia-in-aftermath-of-missile-crisis-envoy/article4614595/

Warning signal from Venezuela: The harassment of Jorge Lanata

By Chris Simmons

Jorge Lanata

by Robert Cox, in today's Buenos Aires Herald

Secret Police Target Lanata

The harassment in Venezuela of Jorge Lanata, the journalist who has become an unofficial leader of the political opposition to the government of President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner is more significant than it might seem at first sight.

Lanata, who was travelling with a camera crew to cover the presidential elections for the Clarín Group, was detained for questioning by state intelligence agents both going into and out of Caracas. The procedures used to harass him and his colleagues are familiar, reminding me of the time when I travelled to Cuba to represent a human rights non-governmental organization at a United Nations conference in Havana.

Upon arrival, I had my first encounter with the men from the Minint, the somewhat sinister name given to the Ministry of Interior. They wanted to send me back to Miami. But as a condition for holding the conference in Havana, which gave Castro-Communist Cuba a token of international prestige, the United Nations secured a guarantee that everyone from organizations affiliated with the UN must be allowed into Cuba to attend the conference. A journalist who travelled on the same plane was sent back because his US passport revealed that he had been born in Cuba.

Once in Cuba, I was followed and harassed in ways both picaresque and menacing. A colleague from the human rights organization got the jitters and left early.

When I finally left Havana my bags were searched and my notes and documents reporting the human rights situation were seized at the José Martí international airport.

It was routine police state procedure and it was exactly what Lanata and the other Grupo Clarín journalists were subjected to at the Simón Bolívar airport in Caracas. (How galling it is that two countries that restrict freedom of expression have airports named after genuine advocates for freedom.) Lanata, José Gil Vidal and Nicolás Wiñazki, of Clarín, and Gabriel Conte, editor of MDZOL, a digital newspaper in Mendoza, were given special attention by secret police who erased their reportage from their electronic equipment, alleging espionage, a charge that was not followed up.

The significance of this quasi-totalitarian attempt to restrict freedom of information by the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service is that it is an indication of what could happen in Argentina if President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner should decide to imitate her friend President Hugo Chávez by trying to silence dissident voices and establish state control of the media.

It was clear from the start that the late president Néstor Kirchner and his widow viewed a free press as an enemy. Both the Kirchners set out to continue on the national stage the same policies restricting freedom of information that were imposed in their native province of Santa Cruz, which Néstor Kirchner dominated for almost two decades.

In my view, this caudillo-like attitude has kept the Kirchner administrations in the dark. Without a free flow of information from varied media outlets, any government is bound to lose touch with reality.

Freedom of information is not the same as freedom of expression. In Argentina today there is no limit on the latter, but there is a severe lack of public information. Instead of interplay between the government and the press, which requires not only frequent news conferences called by the President and her ministers, but also access to them by individual reporters, Cristina, like her husband, speaks over the heads of journalists. Instead of allowing the press to be a bridge to the people, the Kircher style of government bypasses the media. Without an established right to know, similar to that secured by the US Freedom of Information Act, the press and the people are locked out. Another consequence of the Kirchner “dog in a manger” attitude is a deepening estrangement from mainstream international thought. That is partially explained by the refusal of the President to give interviews to foreign correspondents. Their requests are not even acknowledged.

President Fernández de Kirchner pays lip service to freedom of expression but does not “walk the walk” by encouraging an exchange of views. The result has been a polemical cacophony of sound and fury signifying nothing.

Because of the lack of leadership and no identified common cause that brings politicians together, the place that, in a democracy, is occupied by the political opposition has been filled by journalists.

The opposition press, which prefers to call itself the independent press, has become like a political alliance, a coalition that has formed around key issues that the traditional parties have so far failed to communicate effectively to the public. These issues are, in no particular order but in line with my own preference: the defence of democracy; indignation over corruption; and concern about personal safety.

The star role has been filled by Jorge Lanata, who, in response to the government’s programme 6,7,8, came up with Periodismo para todos (“Journalism for everyone” which is also a jibe at the government’s Fútbol para todos, which provides free coverage of Argentine Soccer League matches.) Lanata has assumed the leading role in opposing the government with his popular Sunday night programme. It is a mixture of stand-up comedy, which Lanata does fairly well, exposure of corruption, which he does brilliantly, and saucy satire at the expense of official idiocy.

The satire is delivered by Fátima Florez, who does a devastating impersonation of Cristina Fernández http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=IE-OCDexYrU&feature=endscreen and Martin Bilyk, who is hilarious as former Cabinet chief Aníbal Fernández and as Hugo Chávez. Florez reminded me of Tina Fey’s exquisite send-up of Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live.

I have followed Lanata’s career from afar since 1983 when he was the founder with Gabriel Levinas of the magazine El Porteño, which was the first serious journalistic challenge to the military dictatorship.

Returning for four months every year since 2010, I was here when he announced on the eve of his 50th birthday that he had decided that he would celebrate his half century by speaking out, never holding anything back.

He has been able to keep that promise with even greater effectiveness by joining the Clarín Group, which has provided the resources that have allowed him to reach a larger audience.

He has been critical of Grupo Clarín which, while far from being a monopoly, became the biggest media organization in Argentina by buying up newspapers and buying out radio and television stations. However, in a country where the state owns radio and television networks, no rival can ever achieve a monopoly. Additionally, the Kirchner administration has built up a network of private media that support the government.

Ten years ago, the expansion of Grupo Clarín was a problem because independent media were being squeezed out. Today the problem is the expansion of media that is either state-controlled or aligned totally with the government.

The fact that Jorge Lanata was targeted in Venezuela and that the Argentine ambassador sided with the secret police should serve as a warning that totalitarianism is a temptation that authoritarian governments and their officials find hard to resist.

That is why it is important to defend both media and journalists that oppose the imposition of a quasi-totalitarian state like Venezuela or a totally totalitarian state like Cuba, both of which would probably get an “I like” on their Facebook pages from many in the Kirchner administration.

Bobc59@gmail.com

Cuban Senior Spy Targeted Academic Conference

Chris Simmons

ifajs.org

October 12, 2001:  Johanna Tablada, met with educators from the National Association of Foreign Student Advisers (NAFSA) during their weeklong academic conference on Cuban history, held in Havana. Tablada briefed them while serving undercover as a member of the North America Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MINREX).

When Cuban Intelligence Used Two-Tier Effort to Exploit Rafter Exodus

Chris Simmons

Exodo de Camarioca [1965]/ balancecubano.blogspot.com

In October 1965, Fidel Castro allowed a flotilla of over 3000 Cubans to leave Cuba from the port of Camarioca. According to DGI defector Castro Hidalgo, a year prior to the exodus, the service had begun training operatives who used the chaos of the mass influx as both a means to get to the US and to quickly and convincingly assume new identities as Illegal agents. The DGI also coerced legitimate rafters to work for them following their arrival in the US. Afraid to refuse the DGI, many rafters agreed to cooperate.  However, poor pre-departure tradecraft training doomed this latter effort.

Carta de los senadores a Raul Castro [Alan Gross]

By Chris Simmons

September 24, 2012

President Raúl Castro

Republic of Cuba

c/o Cuban Interests Section

2630 16^th Street, NW

Washington, D.C. 20009

Dear President Castro:

We are writing to express our serious and ongoing concern regarding the detention of Alan Gross, an American citizen, and to urge you to release him from prison on humanitarian grounds. As you are aware, Mr. Gross was a U.S.-government subcontractor who was arrested on December 3, 2009. He was tried and sentenced to 15 years in prison for alleged “actions against the independence or territorial integrity of the state.”

Since his arrest, Mr. Gross has lost 105 pounds (47.63 kg). He has degenerative arthritis and a mass behind his shoulder, which he fears may become permanent. He also suffers from mental anguish because of separation from his family, several of whom have serious medical conditions. Specifically, his daughter has been diagnosed and is being treated for breast cancer. And his 90-year-old mother, to whom he is exceptionally close, was diagnosed with inoperable cancer in February 2011. Her condition continues to deteriorate and they both fear they will be unable to see each other again.

Members of the Senate have traveled to your country, written to you and your dignitaries, and employed other creative means to encourage Mr. Gross’s release. Yet these attempts thus far have been futile, and Mr. Gross’s ongoing detention in your country presents a major obstacle to any further actions to improve our bilateral relations.

We very much hope that you will take our concerns seriously. As we approach the three-year anniversary of Alan’s imprisonment, we call on you to take action and grant him the belated release his situation warrants.

Sincerely,

Led by Senators Ben Cardin (D-MD) and Jerry Moran (R-KS),  the letter was also signed by Richard Durbin (D-IL), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Barbara A. Mikulski (D-MD), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Carl Levin (D-MI), Kent Conrad (D-ND), Roy Blunt (R-MO), Al Franken (D-MN), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Herb Kohl (D-WI), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Tom Udall (D-NM), Mark Begich (D-AK), Dean Heller (R-NV), Daniel Akaka (D-HI), Christopher Coons (D-DE), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Joseph Lieberman (I-CT), Charles Schumer (D-NY), John Cornyn (R-TX), Tom Harkin (D-IA), Robert P. Casey (D-PA), Bill Nelson (D-FL), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), Jack Reed (D-RI), John F. Kerry (D-MA), Thomas R. Carper (D-DE), Tim Johnson (D-SD), Mark Warner (D-VA), John McCain (R-AZ), Tom Coburn (R-OK), John Boozman (R-AR), Roger F. Wicker (R-Miss.), Kirsten E. Gillibrand (D-NY), Dan Coats (R-IN), Mark L. Pryor (D-AR), and Jeff Merkley (D-OR).

Toronto: Nobody pays attention to the court of "The 5 Cuban spies"

From  Chris Simmon

The 5 propaganda logo

One cannot help but laugh at the hypocrisy of the Canadian Comedy Club, also known as the “Peoples’ Tribunal & Assembly | Justice for the Five.”  The following extractfrom theirwebsite (http://canadiannetworkoncuba.ca/tribunal/index.html) demanded comment: 

“How will the Tribunal be run?

The tribunal will take place on September 22nd. During the proceedings lawyers from Canada, Cuba and the US will provide details of the areas where there was the greatest miscarriage of justice in the courts of south Florida. The Tribunal will hear from impact witnesses and also experts from Europe, Canada, the US and Cuba. The families of the Cuban Five will bear testimony to their hardships concerning the barriers to prisoner rights and denial of visits imposed on them.  [Emphasis added by Cuba Confidential]”

Webster’s dictionary defines tribunal as “a court or forum of justice.”  However, yesterday’s tribunal offered neither an open forum nor justice.  As noted above, the tribunal only heard evidence AGAINST the United States.  This unjust panel featured a de facto prosecuting team, but made no allowance for a defense team or even an unbiased fact-checker.  Based on the arbitrary and prejudicial standards emplaced, it is safe to say that this tribunal, given the chance, would have convicted a squirrel of stealing acorns.

The People’s Tribunal was not only blatantly biased, but it also made for very poor propaganda, as evidenced by the lack of media coverage.  But then again, perhaps that was the greatest justice of all……

------------------------

just see who are involved [source de cuba-canada propaganda machine: http://canadiannetworkoncuba.ca/tribunal/index.html]

Attending:

• Family members of the "Cuban Five" • Livio Di Celmo, Victim of Terror, Montréal, Québec • Danny Glover, Actor U.S.A. • Saul Landau, Award Winning Film Maker and Author • Gloria La Riva, Free The Five, National Committee - U.S.A. • Cindy Sheehan, Anti–War activist- U.S.A. • Tony Woodley, UNITE the UNION, UK • José Pertierra, Lawyer, Washington, D.C. • Denis Lemelin, National President, Canadian Union of Postal Workers • Isaac Saney, Professor, Dalhousie University, Halifax • Arnold August, Writer, Montréal, Québec • Raymundo Navarro, Central de Trabajadores de Cuba (CTC) • Julian Rivas, Journalist, Venezuela • Wes Elliott, Grand River Territory • Keith Bolender, Freelance Journalist and Author Based in Toronto • Richard Klugh, Lawyer for the Cuban Five, USA • Ken Neumann, National Director for Canada, United Steelworkers • Stephen Kimber, Professor of Journalism, University of Kings College, Halifax • Alicia Jrapko, International Committee to Free the Cuban Five, U.S.A. • William Sloan, Civil Rights Lawyer, Montréal, Québec • Naveen Mehta, Labour Lawyer, United Food and Commercial Workers • Marie Clarke Walker, Coalition of Black Trade Unionists • Lee Maracle, First Nations Writer, Poet and Performing Artist • Reverend Chris Levan, Minister, United Church of Canada • Abelardo Paisan Reyes, National Union of Education Workers (SNTECD), Cuba • Miguel Barnet, Writer and Novelist, Cuba 

Sponsors:

• United Food and Commercial Workers • United Steelworkers, Canada • Canadian Union of Postal Workers • Canadian Network on Cuba • International Council of Latin American and Caribbean Women - LATIN@S • The Worker to Worker, Canada-Cuba Labour Solidarity Network • Carranza LLP • Canadian Cuban Friendship Association - Toronto • Latin American and Caribbean Solidarity Network • Canadian Union of Public Employees • Tim Louis, Tim Louis & Co, Vancouver Lawyer and Vancouver City Councillor 1999 - 2005 • Canadian Union of Public Employees, Local 4400 • Ontario Federation of Labour

Endorsers:

• International Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban Five, USA • National Network on Cuba, U.S.A. • Toronto Forum on Cuba • Communist League/Ligue communiste • International Festival of Poetry of Resistance • Canadian-Cuban Friendship Association of Kingston • Dr. James Cockcroft, Montréal, Québec • Vancouver Communities in Solidarity with Cuba • Canadian Cuban Friendship Association - Vancouver • Free the Cuban 5 Committee Vancouver • La Asociación de Cubanos Juan Gualberto Gómez • Socialist Action • The United Jewish People's Order • Association United Ukranian Canadians Toronto Branch • Manitoba-Cuba Solidarity Committee • Don Currie, Chair of Canada for Peace and Socialism and associate member of the Canadian Peace Congress • Brian Gordon Sinclair, Hemingway On Stage • The North Simcoe and Muskoka Labour Council • NDP Socialist Caucus • Associazione Nazionale di Amicizia Italia-Cuba • Jim Neill, Deputy Mayor, City of Kingston, Ontario • Northstar Compass • Libby Davies, NDP-MP, Vancouver East • The Norwegian Union of Municipal and General Employees (NUMGE) • Toronto Haiti Action Committee • Toronto and York Region Labour Council • Barrio Nuevo • "DISCUSSION" Wednesday evening public affairs program, Vancouver Co-Op Radio, 102.7 FM (100.5 FM September 10th) • The Young Communist League of Canada • UNITE the UNION, United Kingdom (U.K.) • Latin American Trade Unionist Coalition (LATUC) • Communist Party of Canada • Walter Lippmann, Editor, CubaNews newsgroup • Chicago Committee to free the Cuban Five • Law Union of Ontario • Toronto Bolivia Solidarity • Krittibas Literary Group of Toronto • Solidarity with Iran - SI • House of Latin America (HOLA) • Common Frontiers • International Socialists • Hamilton Friendship Association with Cuba • Canadian Lawyers' Committee in Support of the Anti-Terrorist Cuban Five • Ryerson Students' Union Local 24 – Canadian Federation of Students • Sea of Red Open Collective [SoR(..)C]

Today in History: Castro Spy Ana Belen Montes Arrested

By Chris Simmons

September 21, 2001:  On this Friday morning, Defense Intelligence Agency analyst Ana B. Montes was told to report to the Inspector General’s (IG) office.  She believed the IG was finally ready to close out a lingering inquiry regarding her unsanctioned interaction with Soldier of Fortune magazine.  She entered the IG’s Office to discover it had been a ruse – waiting FBI agents arrested her and discreetly exited her from the building. 

Her last contact with Havana had been just five days earlier – on Sunday, September 16^th.

Espia cubano "retirado" impartira conferencia en New York University

By Chris Simmons

The City University of New York (CUNY) has invited José Raul Viera Linares to speak on Thursday, September 27th its Graduate Center. The espionage history of this retired Directorate of Intelligence (DI)  officer follows:

According to declassified CIA reports, in June 1961, the Bolivian government asked Havana to recall Chargé d’affaires Mauro Garcia Triana for interfering in Bolivia’s domestic affairs. On June 24, José Viera Linares arrived in La Paz from Santiago as the interim Chargé. He served in this position until General Directorate of Intelligence (DGI) officer Ramon Aja Castro arrived in mid-March 1962. Considerable animosity developed between the two and Viera Linares was demoted to the less prestigious position of Cultural Affairs attaché. In mid-October 1963, Bolivia expelled Viera Linares for his role in an espionage operation against its Foreign Office.

In 1964, Viera Linares was assigned to run the spy service’s “Colombia Desk.” By 1968, he served as a First Secretary at the Cuban Mission to the United Nations. Little is known about his activities from the end of his CMUN tour until August 1981 when he served as the Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs.

By 1986, Viera Linares was a First Vice Minister at the Ministry of Foreign Affiars (MINREX).  He became the Deputy Foreign Minister in 1990. He held this position through at least 2006.  More >>

Cuban Spy Communications! [Recorded Earlier Today]

By Chris Simmons

Havana continues to communicate with its spies aground the world using low-tech, but highly effective High Frequency (HF) radio broadcasts.  Commonly known as “shortwave radio,” Cuban agents and their spymasters receive these broadcasts on a shortwave radio and then type the numeric groups onto a laptop computer using a special disk to decrypt the HF broadcast. 

To listen to a agent broadcast intercepted by a shortwave radio operator earlier today, click here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n67NBHpaDrQ

Editor’s Note:  For more on Havana’s communications techniques, see these Cuba Confidential posts:  “Cuban Agent Communications:  [The] Failure of a Perfect System, “ July 3, 2012, http://cubaconfidential.wordpress.com/2012/07/03/cuban-agent-communications-the-failure-of-a-perfect-system/ and “Numbers Station Spies on 40 Meters,”  July 1, 2012, http://cubaconfidential.wordpress.com/2012/07/01/1660/

CX2ABP

How Embarrassing! Only 80 People Showed At Miami Conference on “Cuban 5”

By Chris Simmons

In yet another demonstration that Prensa Latina (PRELA) needs to institute mandatory drug testing, the Cuban news service hailed Sunday’s “Cuban 5” conference “as a great success.”   PRELA went on to proclaim that “more than 80 people” attended the session, including well-known Castro apologists Max Lesnik, director of Radio Miami, and Andrés Gómez, coordinator of the Antonio Maceo Brigade and editor of the magazine Areito digital. The news release contained no other relevant facts.

Editor’s Note:   The Antonio Maceo Brigade and Areito magazine have long and distinguished histories of collaboration with Cuban Intelligence.   Additional background on both entities can be found in previous "Cuba Confidential" postings.  Please use the "search" feature to find the related posts.

Read the original PRELA article here: http://www.plenglish.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=526340&Itemid=1

This Date in History: Legendary Cuban Spy Departs Nicaragua

Cuba Confidential/

June 25, 1992:  Lieutenant Colonel Renan Montero Corrales [aka Andres Barahona Lopez], a member of the America Department (DA), left Nicaragua on the last “official” Cubana Airlines flight out of Nicaragua.

Montero was posted to Nicaragua in 1979 to lead the Fifth Directorate (aka Directorate V or VDIR) of the Sandinista’s General Directorate of State Security (DGSE).  Under Montero, the VDIR conducted Nicaragua’s foreign intelligence activities, influence operations, and monitored Managua’s overseas diplomats.  It had a staff of approximately 300-400 personnel.

Interior Minister Tomas Borge and Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega both acknowledged that Montero headed the VDIR and worked under the direction of Borge and his deputy, Lenin Cerna.  In addition to his foreign intelligence responsibilities, a Spanish newspaper cited Montero as the Cuban ‘in charge of organizing the Sandinistas’ counterespionage unit.”  A declassified US intelligence report characterized him as “a legend among Cubans and Nicaraguans for his intelligence exploits.”

For his participation in the Nicaraguan Revolution, the Sandinistas awarded Montero the rank of Comandante in 1980. It is not clear whether this award was for his service from 1979-1980 or for some unidentified earlier period. Promoted to brigade commander in 1985, he fell ill three years later and was replaced by Comandante Jacinto Suarez-Espinosa. In 1989, Montero became the assistant to Defense Minister Humberto Ortega.

According to Sandinista defector Miguel Bolanos, Montero began working with the Sandinistas in the late 1960s.

Montero served as a consular officer in San Jose during the 1970s.  One of his duties was liaison with Sandinista military forces operating out of northern Costa Rica

During the mid-1960s, Montero operated in Bolivia, where he supported members of Che Guevara’s guerrilla column as they arrived.  There he served as the liaison between Havana and Guevara.

Note:  The “America Department (DA)” was 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).

The Cuban Government and Multi-Million Dollar Medicare Fraud in South Florida

by Chris Simmons

The dilapidated state of the Cuban economy has left the Cuban government scrambling for ways to obtain hard currency. Cuba has contrived ways to benefit from leasing doctors, nurses, teachers, and security agents abroad; more recently, Cuba has also found ways to capitalize on large-scale Medicare fraud, possibly committing economic warfare on the United States.

Medicare fraud is one of the highest dollar volume crimes in the United States. In October of 2009, it was estimated that such fraud has reached $60 billion a year. (1) And South Florida has become the epicenter of this federal crime.

Federal authorities, in July of 2010 in conjunction with the first Healthcare Fraud Summit (taking place, rather symbolically, in Miami), led a crackdown in the 5 major U.S. cities that have the dubious recognition of being the largest Medicare fraud perpetrators: Miami, Brooklyn, Baton Rouge, Detroit, and Houston. Of the 94 people charged by authorities for fraud, 25 are from Miami-Dade. (2) Florida’s mental health claims are 4 times higher than Texas, where healthcare fraud is also substantial (Florida’s population is ¾ that of Texas’). Florida’s physical and speech therapy claims are 140 times higher than New York’s (while New York’s population has 1 million more people than Florida’s) and 10 times higher than in California (which has a population double the size of Florida’s). Ultimately, South Florida is responsible for one-third of the nation’s healthcare fraud prosecutions. (3)

The question should be posed: What makes South Florida different from any other region and can account for the troubling number of fraudulent claims emanating from the area?

See the entire assessment here:  http://ctp.iccas.miami.edu/FOCUS_Web/Issue137.htm

Trade the “Cuban Five? Maybe, But For These Guys, Not Alan Gross

By Chris Simmons

For some time, the Castro regime has suggested various scenarios for an exchange of Alan Gross for up to six of its spies jailed or on parole in the United States.  However, Alan Gross is a hostage, not a spy.  As such, trading him for the Cuban Five cannot be seriously considered under any circumstance.  However, exchanging Gross for several indicted Cuban officials and all US fugitives on the island could benefit both nations.    According to law enforcement sources, as many as 70 US fugitives may be enjoying the protection of the Castro regime.

Luis Armando Pena Soltren

A precedent for such a prisoner exchange already exists.  In 1979, four CIA operatives jailed in Cuba for nearly two decades were exchanged for Oscar Collazo, who tried to assassinate Truman in October 20, 1950, as well as Lolita Lebron and three other Puerto Ricans who shot up the US Congress on March 1, 1954.  Additionally, in June 2008, Cuba returned American fugitive Leonard Auerback to the US to face Federal charges of sexually abusing a Costa Rican girl and the possession of child pornography.  Cuba also allowed Luis Armando Pena Soltren to return to the US in October 2009 to surrender to FBI officials to face a 40-year old indictment for air piracy.

In this scenario, the Cuban Five would be exchanged for Alan Gross, all 50-70+ fugitives want by the US, and four indicted Cuban officials.   The indicted Cubans are all associated with the murder of four Americans during the February 1996 shoot down of two US aircraft flown by the humanitarian group, Brothers to the Rescue.  Indicted by the US on August 21, 2003 were General Rubén Martínez Puente, Lieutenant Colonel Lorenzo Perez Perez, and his twin brother, Lieutenant Colonel Francisco Perez Perez.  All three were indicted for conspiracy to commit murder, two counts of destruction of aircraft, and four counts of murder for the shoot down of the two aircraft and the death of the crews.  Ironically, most of the evidence against them was developed as a result of the 1998 arrests of 10 members of a Cuban spy ring known as the Wasp Network.  Another Cuban officer to be included in the proposed exchange is Lieutenant Colonel Juan Pablo Roque, another member of the Wasp Network, also remains under indictment for conspiracy to commit murder and espionage-related charges.

Víctor Manuel Gerena

Among the wanted US felons are terrorists Víctor Manuel Gerena and Joanne Chisimard.  On the FBI’s “10 Most Wanted” List, a million dollar reward is offered for Manuel Gerena http://www.fbi.gov/wanted/topten/victor-manuel-gerena/view.  Similarly, a million dollar bounty is offered on Joanne Chisimard for the May 2, 1973 execution of a New Jersey state trooper http://www.fbi.gov/wanted/dt/joanne-deborah-chesimard.  The crimes committed by the dozens of other felons include numerous counts of murder, air piracy, and other heinous acts.

So, regarding the idea of exchanging the Cuban Five for Alan Gross – no, not now, not ever.  But trading the Cuban Five for Alan Gross and as many as 74 terrorists, indicted officials, and other dangerous criminals?  That’s an idea worth considering.  I’d say yes to “75 for 5!”

Canadian University Hosts Biased Seminar on “Cuban Five”

by Chris Simmons

Source:  Nanaimo News Bulletin

The plight of the Cuban Five and the efforts of the Caravan to Cuba will be examined at an awareness-building seminar July 27 at Vancouver Island University.

Hosted by the school’s faculty association’s Human Rights and International Solidarity Committee, the event takes place in Bldg. 200, Rm. 203 at 7 p.m.

The evening begins with Eliza Gardiner singing her ballad Absolution, which pays tribute to the famed sailing of Cuban revolutionaries from Mexico on the vessel Granma.

A guest speaker from the Pastors for Peace from New York City will give a presentation to the audience, and the award-winning documentary, Will the Real Terrorist Please Stand Up by Saul Landau, will be screened.

The public is welcome. Admission is free, though donations to the caravan expedition will be accepted.

For more information, please e-mail Gardiner at eliza.gardiner@viu.ca or call Ruth Caspell at 250-753-2126.

 Editor's Note:  The public may be welcome to this event, but truth and accuracy will not be attending.

This Date in History: Havana Exploits “Sister City” Program

by Chris Simmons

June 13, 2002:  Oscar Redondo Toledo, an Intelligence Officer serving under diplomatic cover at the Cuban Interests Section, was the featured speaker at a meeting in Philadelphia.  Other speakers that night were Pamela Martin of the Philadelphia-Cardenas Sister Cities Project and Stephen Paulmier of the “Free the Five” Committee.  While posted to the Interests Section, Redondo handled the “Sister City” program between Havana and Mobile, Alabama.  The Mobile-Havana partnership was established in 1993.   

In early November 2002, the US declared Redondo and another Cuban spy-diplomat Persona Non Grata.  Both officers were First Secretaries at the Cuban Interests Section.  According to the Washington Post, the expulsion retaliated for the 16-year career of Cuban spy Ana Montes, who was sentenced in October 2002.

For more on Cuba's manipulation of the Sister City program, read:  http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/aug/09/cuban-spies-continue-to-exploit-sister-city-progra/?page=1

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).

Marifeli Perez-Stable's case: Respected Cuba Expert Takes on the Miami Herald

Marifeli Perez-Stable [L]/ latinamericanstudies.org

by Chris Simmons

Juan Tamayo

Miami Herald

Good morning Juan,

          I noticed that in your article in today’s Herald (http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/06/06/ 2836372/cuban-police-arrest-top-aide-to.html) you indicate that Mercedes Arce “was mentioned in Florida International University professor Carlos Alvarez’s confession that he worked for Cuban intelligence.”  I brought that to your attention in the exchange of emails on October-November 2009 that I sent you, Miami Herald Ombudsman Edward Schumacher-Matos and Herald Editorial Page Editor Myriam Marquez, that I copied other Herald editors and posted on my academic website at http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/espionage/Miami-Herald-spy-polemic.htm

          In those emails I stated that “Herald editors and reporters demonstrate naiveté when asking [Marifeli] Pérez-Stable to admit to the same espionage criminal activities for which her friend and colleague Professor Carlos Alvarez was sent to prison. Your article omits that it was Alvarez, during his FBI interrogation, who admitted that Mercedes Arce was his intelligence handler (p. 80-82)  http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/espionage/Alvarez-spy-1.pdf and linked her (p. 489) to Pérez-Stable. http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/espionage/Alvarez-spy-6.pdf

          My email on November 5, 2009, to Ms. Marquez concluded by indicating: “Hopefully, what people will remember is that Perez-Stable and her intimate friend Mercedes Arce are spies and the Herald suppressed the truth.”

          Two-and-a-half years later, the Miami Herald now acknowledges that Mercedes Arce worked for Cuban intelligence but selectively omits and continues to suppress the link between her and Miami Herald Board of Contributors member and FIU professor Marifeli Perez-Stable. The Alvarez deposition revealed that Arce stayed in the residence of Perez-Stable when she visited Miami.

Sincerely,

Antonio de la Cova, Ph.D.