Full Indictment of Marta Rita Velazquez, the “Talent-Spotting” Agent Who Helped Recruit Ana Montes

Marta Rita Velazquez is at right/
alongthemalecon.blogspot.com

cubaconfidential
By Chris Simmons

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Full Indictment of Marta Rita Velazquez, the “Talent-Spotting” Agent Who Helped Recruit Ana Montes

FBI Indictment details of Cuba's spy Marta Rita Velazquez

Along the Malecón/ Tracey Eaton

The U.S. government's case against Marta Rita Velázquez is a tale of intrigue and clandestine travel, false passports and secret meetings.
Prosecutors say Velázquez introduced Ana Belén Montes to Cuban agents in 1984 and later helped Montes land a job with the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency.
Montes went on to become one of the most damaging spies in U.S. history, authorities say. She was arrested in 2001, convicted in 2002 and sent to prison.
In 2003, a grand jury charged Velázquez with one count of conspiracy to commit espionage. The indictment was filed on Feb. 5, 2004, but remained under court seal until Thursday. It's unclear why U.S. authorities unsealed it now, more than nine years after the indictment.
Velázquez is thought to be living in Stockholm, Sweden. I called what I believe to be her mobile phone number. I heard a message in a language I do not understand, and left a message.
A Swedish reporter also called Velázquez's number and said that a woman answered, irritated, and said, "What? Who is it? Oh, OK," and then hung up.
The Swedish TT news agency reported that Velázquez is now a Swedish citizen.
The Washington Post reported that U.S. authorities in December 2011 told Velázquez "she was under suspicion."
The U.S. extradition treaty with Sweden does not include espionage in crimes requiring extradition. See treaty. (H/T Phil Peters).

Sweden's Ministry of Foreign Affairs

The Local, an English-language newspaper in Sweden, reported Friday that Velázquez's husband was an official in Sweden's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The paper did not name the husband, but said:

The acts of espionage were carried out while the two were married.
Sweden's Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Charlotta Ozaki Macías confirmed that the ministry had been aware of the case for years.
"The Foreign Ministry official with a connection to the case is not guilty of criminal activity," she told the TT news agency.
The Swedish man remains in service at the ministry.
Sweden has not received any requests to extradite the woman to the US, according to Per Claréus, press secretary to Justice Minister Beatrice Ask.
He told TT that if the US was to send an extradition request, it would be refused.

The indictment (H/T Capitol Hill Cubans) alleges that Velázquez carried out the following overt acts:

• September 1983: Traveled secretly to Mexico City, intending to meet Cuban agents, but they evidently did not show up.
• Spring of 1984: Took Montes to dinner and told her she "had friends who could help Montes in Montes' expressed wish to assist the people of Nicaragua."
• July 31, 1984: Wrote Montes a letter stating, "It has been a great satisfaction for me to have had you as a friend and comrade (compañera) during this time we've spent as students. I hope our relationship continues outside the academic sphere."
• Fall of 1984: Invited Montes to travel with her from Washington, D.C., to New York "ostensibly to meet a friend who could provide Montes with an opportunity to assist the Nicaraguan people."
• Dec. 16, 1984: Went with Montes by train to New York and met with a Cuban intelligence official who worked at the Cuban Mission to the United Nations and was identified in the indictment only as "M." Velázquez later told Montes that "M" told Velázquez that Montes "would be one of the best."
• Early 1985: Gave Montes and typewriter and instructed her to write a detailed biography, including a description of the Justice Department job she had at the time. The two again traveled to New York to meet with "M."
• March 1985: Traveled with Montes to Spain on a purported vacation. Met with a Cuban man who supplied false passports. Traveled clandestinely from Madrid to Prague using the false passports. Met with two Cuban men, including an agent referred to only as "F." Picked up clothes at an apartment, then traveled with Montes and "F" to Cuba.



U.S.: Velázquez wanted to practice taking a lie detector test.

• April 1985: Met with a Cuban agent referred to only as "A." The agent explained that no one met her in Mexico City in 1983 because Mexican authorities on Sept. 1, 1983, had arrested, detained and interrogated two Cuban officials who had been trying to meet with Cuban exiles from Miami. Velázquez and Montes "received Cuban Intelligence Service training, including instruction in receiving encrypted High Frequency radio broadcast messages of the Cuban Intelligence Service." Velázquez asked Cuban agents to give them "practice" polygraph exams "so that they would be able to pass polygraphs they might have to take in connection with future United States government employment." Cuban agents gave Velázquez a code name: Barbara. Velázquez and Montes traveled back to Spain, via Prague, posing for a photo in Madrid so they'd have evidence of their "vacation."
• 1988: "Provoked a dispute with Montes and publicly broke off their relationship."
• June 15, 1992: "Traveled to Panama to clandestinely meet with Cuban Intelligence Service officers and/or agents."
• Mid-1996: "Received encryption/decryption software from the Cuban Intelligence Service, and used it for her clandestine communications with the Cuban Intelligence Service."
• June 2002: Velázquez quit from her U.S. government job after Montes pled guilty to conspiracy to commit espionage and agreed to cooperate with law enforcement. Since then, Velázquez has lived continuously outside the U.S.

Federal Medical Center, Carswell

FBI agents arrested Montes on Sept. 21, 2001.  (See FBI affidavit explaining case against her). She pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit espionage and is now serving a prison term at the Federal Medical Center, Carswell, a Texas facility that provides specialized medical and mental health services to female inmates. Her scheduled release date is July 1, 2023.
Velázquez, like Montes, is from Puerto Rico. She was born in the town of Ponce and grew up in the United States. Her degrees include:

• A bachelor's degree in political science and Latin American studies from Princeton University.
• A law degree from Georgetown University.
• A master's degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, or SAIS.

The Daily Princetonian reported that Velázquez helped organize the Third World Center Cultural Festival at the school. The Dec. 13, 1976, issue of the Princetonian quoted her as saying:

We are all part of oppressed nationalities throughout the world. Here at the university, which is very conservative and white-male-oriented, if we can put together a performance as successful as this one was, it's almost unbelievable.

Velázquez: "We are all...oppressed..."

While at SAIS from 1982 to 1983, Velázquez was a legal intern at the U.S. Agency for International Development. The indictment says she:

• Worked for the Department of Transportation from 1984 to March 1989, and had a SECRET security clearance. Unauthorized release of SECRET information could reasonably be expected to cause "serious" damage.
• Became an attorney adviser for USAID in March 1989, and had a TOP SECRET security clearance. Unauthorized release of TOP SECRET information could reasonably be expected to cause "grave" damage. Her responsibilities at USAID included Central America.
• Was posted at the U.S. Embassy in Managua from June 1990 to September 1994.
• Worked for USAID in Washington from September 1994 to May 1998.
• Was on leave without pay from May 1998 to June 2000 and lived with her husband in Sweden.
• Returned to USAID in June 2000 and worked at the U.S. Embassy in Guatemala City. She was director of the agency's Regional Office of Trade and Economic Analysis.
• Left USAID in June 2002, but continued to live in Guatemala.

The indictment says Velázquez began spying for Cuba as early as 1983. It states:

From at least in or about 1983 and continuing until the present, within the District of Columbia and elsewhere, the defendant, Marta Rita Velázquez, also known as Marta Rita Kviele, also known as "Barbara", unlawfully combined, conspired, confederated, and agreed together with persons known and unknown to the Grand Jury, to communicate, deliver and transmit, directly and indirectly, to the government of the Republic of Cuba and to representatives, officers, agents and employees thereof, documents, writings, and information relating to the national defense, with the intent and reason to believe that they would be used to the injury of the United States and to the advantage of the Republic of Cuba, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 794(a).

Montes, right, at a party in Madrid. Photo: Washington Post

The indictment also gives background information about the Cuban Intelligence Service and explains the accusations against Montes. It states:

The Cuban Intelligence Service has long had an aggressive program aimed at spotting and assessing persons within the United States academic community who may be suitable for recruitment to serve a variety of roles on behalf of Cuba's interests. The most important role is that of agent - that is, a person who is not an employee of a hostile intelligence service (such as the Cuban Intelligence Service) but who is aware that he or she is working for that service and who is willing to engage in clandestine operational activity, including intelligence gathering, for that service.

An agent-in-place is a recruited agent who occupies a position in which he or she has authorize access to current intelligence information, and who acts under the direction of a hostile intelligence service so as to obtain such information for that intelligence service. In order to protect recruited agents, and maintain operational security, intelligence services often limit discernible contact between agents; this practice is called compartmentalization.

The Cuban Mission to the United Nations in New York City, and the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, D.C., are the principal establishments to which Cuban government officials having diplomatic immunity - including Cuban Intelligence Service officers - are assigned in the United States.

FBI: Belén used this "cheat sheet" to help her encrypt and decrypt messages.

The Cuban Intelligence Service often communicates clandestinely with its officers and agents operating outside Cuba by broadcasting encrypted radio messages at certain high frequencies; such clandestine communications were used by Ana Belén Montes and by some of the defendants convicted in June 2001 in the Southern District of Florida, in the case of United States v. Gerardo Hernandez, et al., 98-721-CR-Lenard, of committing espionage on behalf of Cuba and acting as unregistered agents of Cuba.

Ana Belén Montes is a United States citizen who was employed by the United States Defense Intelligence Agency (DAI) in Washington, D.C., as an intelligence analyst from September 1985 until September 2001; beginning in 1992, she specialized in Cuban matters. Between 1982 and 1984, Montes had been a part-time graduate student at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington, D.C., together with defendant Velázquez. On September 21, 2001, Montes was arrested in the District of Columbia on charges of committing espionage against the United States on behalf of Cuba, in United States v. Ana Belén Montes, Criminal No. 02-131 (RMU). In a public proceeding on March 19, 2002, she pled guilty to conspiracy to commit espionage and she stated that she agreed to cooperate with the United States government in its continuing investigation into Cuban espionage activities against the United States.

Ana Belén Montes receives an award. Photo: DIA

On April 18, the Washington Post published a fascinating story about Montes. Jim Popkin, a former NBC News reporter and senior investigative producer, wrote the piece. It was entitled, "Ana Montes did much harm spying for Cuba. Chances are, you haven’t heard of her." The story said:

Like Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen before her, Ana Montes blindsided the intelligence community with brazen acts of treason. By day, she was a buttoned-down GS-14 in a Defense Intelligence Agency cubicle. By night, she was on the clock for Fidel Castro, listening to coded messages over shortwave radio, passing encrypted files to handlers in crowded restaurants and slipping undetected into Cuba wearing a wig and clutching a phony passport.
Montes spied for 17 years, patiently, methodically. She passed along so many secrets about her colleagues — and the advanced eavesdropping platforms that American spooks had covertly installed in Cuba — that intelligence experts consider her among the most harmful spies in recent memory.

FBI Indictment details of Cuba's spy Marta Rita Velazquez

[Photos] Cuba's spy Marta Rita Velazquez at home in Stockholm?

Along the Malecón/ Tracey Eaton

Possible residence of Marta Rita Velazquez, 55, accused Thursday of conspiracy to commit espionage. See FBI press release.

[Photos] Cuba's spy Marta Rita Velazquez at home in Stockholm?

Cuba second to last in Internet freedom

de buena tinta kubiche que siempre son jeroglificas: van a abrir el banderin.
--------------------
Tracey Eaton

Freedom House rates Internet freedom on 0-to-100 scale

The State Department plans to award up to $15 million for Internet freedom programs in countries where the Internet is restricted.
Grants will range from $500,000 to $2 million each, although individual Internet freedom grants of $1.5 million or more are unusual.
Up to $7 million of the $15 million will focus on programs aimed at:

• Assisting digital activists in "acutely hostile Internet environments"
• Enhancing "Internet freedom technology, training, policy and diplomacy."

The remaining $8 million will focus on technology, specifically the "development and support of web and mobile anti-censorship technologies to expand open and uncensored access to information and communications."
Priority will be given to the development of:

• "High-risk, high-reward" tools used to get around censors and communicate securely.
• Expansion or improvement of existing Internet freedom tools.
• Merging or modifying existing technologies "to address specific unsolved or under-solved real-world Internet freedom challenges." These technologies include "alternative network infrastructures."

Read more »

Cuba second to last in Internet freedom

The secret files of Alan Gross

Tracey Eaton

A drawing from a confidential Alan Gross memo

Alan Gross envisioned setting up satellite Internet connections for Cuban Jews in Havana and six other provinces, then expanding his effort to include as many as 30,000 Masons at more than 300 lodges across the country.
Cuban Jews had "strategic value" in the democracy project because of their religious, financial and humanitarian ties to the United States, Gross said in an October 2008 memo filed this month in U.S. District Court.
Jewish synagogues were a "secure springboard through which information dissemination will be expanded," Gross wrote in the 27-page memo to his former employer, DAI, a federal contractor in Bethesda, Md.
The memo and other documents filed this month in U.S. District Court give new details about the original scope of the multimillion-dollar project, which was designed to go far beyond helping Jews connect to the Internet as the State Department has repeatedly suggested.
Gross, 63, and his wife, Judy, are suing DAI for $60 million, saying that the contractor failed to prepare Gross for his risky mission, resulting in his capture in 2009. DAI has denied the accusation and says it isn't to blame for the subcontractor's jailing.

Alan Gross

Cuban authorities arrested Gross in December 2009. He was convicted of crimes against the state and sentenced to 15 years in prison.
His 2008 memo said U.S.-based humanitarian organizations that take computers and other supplies to Jews in Cuba could be useful in DAI's democracy project. One possible implication is that these groups could be used, perhaps unwittingly, to shuttle equipment to Cuba, although Gross doesn't explain in detail what he had in mind.
He writes that Cuban Jews and later Masons could help DAI establish an information and communications technologies "foothold."

These groups are likely targets for successfully establishing a low-profile ICT foothold. Both have extended organizational networks and communities throughout the island and both are connected and/or have strong institutional relationships with US faith-based and humanitarian organizations that frequently sponsor Island missions.

In his proposal to DAI, Gross proposed setting up Internet sites at 12 Jewish synagogues in the provinces of Havana, Villa Clara, Cienfuegos, Guantanamo, Granma, Camagüey and Santiago de Cuba. Some 1,800 men, women and youth were members of the synagogues. They were the initial target of the democracy project. Gross wrote:

Members of the primary target group will be able to help train members of the secondary target group in the event of a follow on project.

The secondary - or follow on- target included members of 319 Masonic Lodges in Cuba.
An infographic Gross submitted to DAI also cites "youth, women and Afro-Cubans."
Gross said in court documents he was coordinating some of his activities with the Pan American Development Foundation, or PADF, another organization that had received U.S. government funds to try to hasten Cuba's transition to democracy.

José Manuel Collera Vento

Cuban agents wound up infiltrating PADF's operation in Cuba. One of the organization's main contacts, José Manuel Collera Vento, former head of the Freemasons fraternal organization in Cuba,  turned out to be an informant for Cuban State Security (See interview with Collera, also known as Agent Gerardo).
At the time, Gross headed a small company called JBDC . He worried about the Cuban government's counterespionage efforts and was especially concerned about the fate of his contacts in Cuba's Jewish community.
The 2008 memo underscored the need for secrecy:

All information on this page is considered highly confidential and is not to be disclosed or reproduced for distribution without the expressed written permission of JBDC, LLC. Failure to comply with this could lead to irreparable harm to certain parties on the island.

In court documents, Gross's lawyer said DAI's biggest concern was figuring out who would replace him if he could no longer carry out the project.

Keep reading on  Along the Malecón >>

The secret files of Alan Gross

Pro-Castro Group Takes Aim at Menendez

capitolhillcubans

This morning, journalist Tracey Eaton wrote a post in his blog, Along the Malecon, about Dr. Salomon Melgen and the Federal Aviation Administration.

It was clearly an indirect hit-piece on U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ).

There was no mention of Cuba or Cuba policy, which is the focus of Eaton's blog.

Eaton is a generally thoughtful person.  He's done some great interviews with Cuban pro-democracy activists on and off the island. However, his main focus (or target) are democracy programs, which he feels are secretive and he's strongly opposed to.

We disagree, but fair enough. Yet, today's post seemed out of his usual context.

Then, a few hours later, the weekly "news blast" from The Center for Democracy in the Americas (CDA) came out.

Curiously, in a week full of interesting Cuba news -- Senator Leahy's delegation in Havana (and an Iranian one), blogger Yoani Sanchez's trip to Brazil, human rights activist Rosa Maria Paya's speech in Geneva, the state-sponsors of terrorism debate -- it was focused on Dr. Melgen and the FAA (FAA).

And then, the kicker:  "In 'Doctor now flying under the radar,' Tracey Eaton, an investigative reporter with whom our organization is working, has posted a detailed piece about Dr. Melgen..."

The Center for Democracy in the Americas (CDA) is a Washington, D.C.-based group, with "unique" access to Castro regime officials, which hosts trips to Cuba for Members of Congress and their staff. They also serve as a public relations tool for the Cuban dictatorship, whether in leading effort to release the so-called "Cuban Five," to unconditionally normalization relations, to sweeping human rights abuses under the rug.

By the way, we don't use the "pro-Castro" label loosely -- here's CDA's Assistant Director lauding Fidel Castro "as an inspiration for developing countries," praising Che Guevara as "Latin America's greatest 20th century hero," validating Castro's "elections," explaining how to "revitalize" socialism in Cuba and inviting everyone to join the "Bolivarian Revolution."

They are now obviously targeting Senator Menendez, who is a strong opponent of Castro's dictatorship.

Now back to Tracey.

Why not disclose to your readers that you are working with this pro-Castro group on Menendez hit pieces?

You don't have to.  After all, it's a free country and -- as a private citizen -- you can write, disclose or not disclose, whatever you'd like.

But then spare us the sanctimony.

Pro-Castro Group Takes Aim at Menendez

GAO report on Cuba programs due out today

Tracey Eaton

www.taringa.net

CANF has been critical of USAID in the past. In 2008, the foundation studied the agency's democracy programs in Cuba and found that less than 17 percent of all USAID Cuba funds were used for direct, on-island assistance. Some 56 percent went to universities and other institutions to study post-Castro scenarios and other issues.
Much of the money was used to pay operating expenses, office costs and salaries. One organization, Grupo de Apoyo a la Democracia, spent $6,054,079 from 1996 to 2005. Only 4 percent - or $251,077 - reached Cuba, the study said.
Grupo de Apoyo disputed those findings. Garcia had left the CANF by then. USAID has since said its priority is to ensure that as much the democracy aid as possible reaches Cuba.

Keep reading on alongthemalecon >>

GAO report on Cuba programs due out today

Castro Apologist Seeks Obama Support For Cuban Five

Chris Simmons

Letter to Obama: Alan Gross not a "hostage"

Courtesy:  Tracey Eaton – Along the Malecon

Below is the text of an open letter from Canadian journalist Steven Kimber to President Barack Obama. He is writing a book called, "What Lies Across the Water: The Real Story of the Cuban Five."

Honorable Barack Obama

President of the United States of America

The White House

Washington DC 20500

Dear President Obama,

This is my first ever letter to an American president. That’s not just because I’m not an American citizen. I’m also a journalist, and journalists are not in the habit of writing letters to heads of governments.

But having spent the past three years researching the case of the Cuban Five, I believe I have an obligation to write to you.

The fact is American journalism hasn’t done a very good job of explaining to the American public the case of the five Cuban intelligence agents who have been incarcerated in the U.S. since 1998. As a result, your administration has mostly managed to avoid dealing with the issue at all or, when forced to comment, responding with the tired, rote rhetoric of the Cold War era.

But the case of the Cuban Five has recently been brought back into the public spotlight because of Alan Gross, the USAID subcontractor currently serving a 15-year jail term in Cuba for bringing satellite communication equipment into that country.

The media reporting of his case has been equally problematic, mostly parroting your own State Department line that Gross is a “humanitarian” who was arrested while trying to help Havana’s tiny Jewish community communicate with the outside world, and is now being held “hostage” by Havana.

You know that’s not true. So, of course, should the media. After all, it was Desmond Butler, a foreign affairs reporter for the Associated Press—a news agency subscribed to by most American media and unlikely ever to be mistaken for a tool of the Cuban regime—who documented the facts of the case.

Alan Gross was “paid a half-million dollars” by USAID, your government’s “democracy promoting” agency, to smuggle sophisticated communications equipment into Cuba. That technology included Internet satellite phones capable of avoiding detection and spy-quality SIM cards “most frequently” used by the Defense Department and the CIA.

The goal of all of this was not to assist Cuba’s Jewish community communicate, as your government has insisted (the Jewish community already had Internet connectivity) but to promote regime change—to overthrow the government of Cuba.

Gross’s own reports make clear he knew he was engaged in “very risky business” and that discovery of what he was up to “will be catastrophic.”

That said, Alan Gross’s family and friends, not surprisingly, want him freed.

Just as the Cubans want the Five—who are considered national heroes in their homeland—freed.

Your government’s unblinking response has been that there is simply “no equivalence.” The Cubans were trained intelligence agents convicted of trying to steal military secrets and conspiracy to murder four innocent civilians killed in the shootdown of two unarmed Brothers to the Rescue aircraft in 1996. By contrast, the American argument goes, Alan Gross was just a humanitarian do-gooder.

We now know Alan Gross was much more than that.

Story continues here:  http://alongthemalecon.blogspot.com/2013/01/letter-to-obama-alan-gross-not-hostage.html

Castro Apologist Seeks Obama Support For Cuban Five

Raul's New Wave of Repression

capitolhillcubans

Arelis Rodriguez has the word “"Libertad”," or freedom, tattooed across her back.  Tracey Eaton for USA TODAY

Journalist Tracey Eaton has written a good article for USA Today about the human rights situation in Cuba.

It's entitled, "Cuban rights abuses, jailings up in new repressive wave."

It contains some great insight from some of Cuba's pro-democracy leaders.

Here are some excerpts:

Héctor Maseda, who served several years in prison for his political views, says authorities are switching to short-term arrests to give the impression of tolerance.

"The government is trying to confuse public opinion. It is trying to show that repression has lessened," said Maseda, 69, a former nuclear engineer. "But that is not happening. Repression is increasing." [...]

José Daniel Ferrer, 42, who served eight years in prison after his arrest in the "Black Spring of 2003" along with 74 other democratic activists, says repression is as bad as ever.

Security agents "have no rules, no limits when it comes to trying to stop, paralyze or terrorize a dissident," said Ferrer, a fisherman and member of the Christian Liberation Movement imprisoned for collecting signatures on a petition demanding freedom of speech, assembly and political participation [...]

Police keep Las Damas (The Ladies in White) under tight surveillance and often stop the women before they reach the church. 

Omaglis González, 41, tried to avoid arrest one day, hiking around a highway checkpoint, but police caught her. González said an officer twisted her arm, dislocating her wrist, while forcing her into a car. Despite such episodes, she is optimistic. 

"Freedom will come one day," she said. "We can't lose hope." 

Read the whole thing here >>

Raul's New Wave of Repression

Cuba proposes bilateral talks with the U.S.

Tracey Eaton

Bruno Rodríguez. Photo: La Radio del Sur

Cuba's foreign minister, Bruno Rodríguez, repeated his government's willingness to hold talks that could lead to a normalization of relations between the United States and Cuba.
He also hinted that Cuba is willing to trade jailed American Alan Gross for the Cuban Five.
Rodríguez said:

I reiterate, on behalf of President Raúl Castro Ruz, the firm willingness on the part of the Cuban government to move on towards the normalization of relations with the United States through a respectful dialogue, without preconditions, on the basis of reciprocity and sovereign equality, without undermining in the least our independence and sovereignty.

Today, here and now, I am again submitting to the US government a draft agenda for a bilateral dialogue aimed at moving towards the normalization of relations which includes, as fundamental topics:

• the lifting of the economic, commercial and financial blockade;
• Cuba’s exclusion from the arbitrary and illegal list of terrorism-sponsoring countries;
• the abrogation of the Cuban Adjustment Act and the wet foot/dry foot policy;
• the compensation for economic and human damages;
• the return of the territory occupied by the Guantánamo Naval Base;
• the end to the radio and TV aggressions, and;
• the ceasing of the financing of internal subversion.

An essential element in this agenda is the release of the Five Cuban anti-terrorists who remain cruelly and unjustly imprisoned or retained in this country. An act of justice, or at least a humanitarian solution, will arouse the gratitude of my people and a response by our Government.

I likewise offer here and now the US government to negotiate several cooperation agreements in the areas of greatest mutual interest, such as the combat of drug trafficking, terrorism, human smuggling and for the full normalization of migratory relations, as well as for the prevention and mitigation of natural disasters and the protection of the environment and our common seas. We also propose to resume the talks that were unilaterally suspended by our counterpart about migration issues and for the resumption of postal services.

Cuba proposes bilateral talks with the U.S.

Reporter questions "crappy policy" toward Cuba

Tracey Eaton

Screenshot of Matt Lee appearing on C-SPAN in 2009

Associated Press reporter Matthew Lee on Tuesday asked State Department spokesman Mark Toner when the United States government was going to recognize that U.S. economic sanctions against Cuba amount to "a realy crappy policy."

Here's the exchange:

QUESTION: All right. Can we stay with the UN just for a second?

MR. TONER: Yeah. Sure.

QUESTION: Earlier today, the UN General Assembly, as it has every year for the past several decades, voted overwhelmingly to condemn the U.S. embargo of Cuba. The vote, I’m sure you’re aware of it, was 188-3. You and Israel and Palau voted against, as the same that’s it been for the last several decades. My question is this: When are you guys going to realize that the rest of the world thinks that this is a really crappy policy?

Mark Toner

MR. TONER: Matt, your opinion to the contrary, we are --

QUESTION: Not my opinion. It’s the rest of the world. You’re always talking about the international community. The international community has spoken here, yet again.

MR. TONER: Our policy remains in place.

QUESTION: I know. But when – is it the international community speaks and unless you’re part of that – unless you’re part of it, it’s not really the international community? Do you recognize that the international community, all countries in the world except for the three and the three who abstained, say that this policy is bad and should be reversed? Do you take that as the international community speaking as – with a single voice here?

MR. TONER: Look, our Cuba policy is generated towards creating better ties with the Cuban people outside of the government. You know our concerns about the Cuban Government. Our policy remains the same. It’s not going to change.

QUESTION: Can you accept that the international community is speaking out here, and speaking out against a policy that you’ve had in place for five decades?

MR. TONER: I’m just telling you that --

QUESTION: No? You can’t.

MR. TONER: -- our Cuban policy remains intact.

Yes.

QUESTION: No, no.

Reporter questions "crappy policy" toward Cuba

Entrevista a Tracey Eaton: Blogueando desde el periodismo entre Cuba y Estados Unidos

Tracey Eaton

Entrevista exclusiva al bloguero Tracey Eaton.

“El Malecón es la famosa avenida que se extiende por más de cuatro kilómetros en La Habana. La gente va allí todos los días: se puede encontrar blancos, negros y mulatos –gente de todos colores. Jóvenes y viejos, todos van, acérrimos revolucionarios y los que están hartos de la revolución. Toman el aire que viene del mar, bailan y buscan el amor. Toman ron y fijan la vista en el agua.

Este blog –no es de la derecha, o de la izquierda, pero está metido en algún lugar en el medio– se dedica al Malecón y a la gente que va allí para escapar y soñar, aunque solo sea por unas horas.”

Este fue el comienzo de Along the Malecon, blog del periodista y académico Tracey Eaton. Fue creado en agosto de 2008 para “aprender acerca de los blogs”, según declara el propio autor. Un par de años más tarde, en diciembre de 2010, le nació un hermano, producto de la necesidad de Eaton de hacer “un enfoque más limitado, que añadiera algo nuevo a la conversación sobre Cuba”. Así surgió Cuba Money Project, sitio que sigue la ruta del dinero de los programas “pro-democracia” financiados por el gobierno de los Estados Unidos.

“Me gustan los blogs porque me dan una conexión inmediata y directa con el público”, explica. “Cuando yo era un reportero de un diario, no creo que la relación siempre fuera tan fuerte. Entrevisté a gente todo el tiempo, pero tuve poco contacto con los lectores que sienten pasión por Cuba.”

Antiguo reportero durante muchos años, Eaton guarda en sus espaldas numerosos recorridos por el continente y una relación que llega hasta nuestros días con Cuba. Con su quehacer ha logrado convertirse en un referente en la web en materia de relaciones Cuba-Estados Unidos. A propósito de su trabajo y su actividad como bloguero, lo entrevistamos para Cuba 2.0

Continuar leyendo en  CUBA A DIARIO >>

Entrevista a Tracey Eaton: Blogueando desde el periodismo entre Cuba y Estados Unidos

Politica y Business: 26.4 millones de dolares de "ayuda" a la Democracia en Cuba

taringa.net

total amount of 26.4 million that nobody can explain for sure how they contribute to the democratization of Cuba. who cares.

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

Tracey Eaton

USAID updated its list of organizations that carry out democracy-promotion programs in Cuba. USAID partners and Cuba grant amounts are below:

Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba

$3.4 million from September 2011 to September 2014

Grupo de Apoyo a la Democracia

$3  million from September 2012 to September 2015

 International Relief and Development

$3.5 million from September 2011 to September 2014

International Republican Institute

$3 million from September 2012 to September 2015

Loyola University

$3 million from September 2010 to September 2013

National Democratic Institute

$2.3 million from September 2011 to September 2014

 New America Foundation

$4.3 million from September 2012 to September 2015

Pan-American Development Foundation

$3.9 million from September 2011 to September 2014

Also:

FOIA requests filed with USAID - and still pending - for information on Cuba programs run by the Pan American Development Foundation, the National Democratic Institute, the International Republican Institute, Plantados hasta la Libertad y la Democracia en Cuba, Grupo de Apoyo a la Democracia and Cuba Online

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Politica y Business: 26.4 millones de dolares de "ayuda" a la Democracia en Cuba

Juan Pablo Roque (part 4)

Tracey Eaton  

Juan Pablo Roque (part 4)

Juan Pablo Roque (part 3)

Tracey Eaton

Juan Pablo Roque (part 3)

El Rolex del espia/ Tracey Eaton

Tracey Eaton

El Rolex del espia/ Tracey Eaton

La Habana -- El teniente coronel Juan Pablo Roque usaba su Rolex con orgullo, el único orgullo de un doble agente cubano que una vez trabajó para el FBI.

Pero ahora el hombre que una vez fue uno de los espías más ilustres de la isla, no tiene dinero. Y quiere vender su preciado reloj y su casa en La Habana.

“Necesito el dinero”, confesó Roque en su entrevista más extensa en más de 15 años.

Su historia ilustra la vida incierta que espera a los espías cubanos que quedan al descubierto. Pero también es un recordatorio de las extensas y exitosas actividades de espionaje de Cuba, incluso ahora, 21 años después del final de la Guerra Fría.

Roque, ex piloto de combate con una figura digna de Hollywood, nadó hasta la Basa Naval de Guantánamo en 1992, declarando su oposición a Fidel Castro.

Se convirtió en piloto de Hermanos al Rescate, un grupo dedicado a sobrevolar las aguas del Estrecho de la Florida en busca de balseros. Pero entonces asombró a todos en 1996 al regresar a Cuba un día antes que un caza MiG de Cuba abatiera a dos avionetas civiles del grupo de exiliados cubanos.

Ahora con 57 años y viviendo con su novia en un apretado apartamento de La Habana, Roque dice que lamenta que cuatro personas murieran en el incidente del 24 de febrero de 1996.

“Si pudiera viajar en una máquina del tiempo”, dijo, “sacaría a esos muchachos de los aviones en que fueron derribados”.

Los cuatro fallecidos fueron Carlos Costa, Mario de la Peña, Pablo Morales y Armando Alejandre Jr.

Maggie Khuly, hermana de Alejandre, dijo que nunca se ha hecho justicia.

“Hablando a nombre de las familias, mi familia en particular, estamos esperando el día en que Roque se enfrente a un tribunal de Estados Unidos por su encausamiento pendiente”, declaró Khuly, quien vive en Miami y es arquitecta.

Espía por espías

El derribo de las avionetas llevó las relaciones entre Cuba y Estados Unidos a un nuevo nivel mínimo y provocó que el entonces presidente Bill Clinton firmara la Ley Helms-Burton, que arreció las sanciones económicas contra Cuba.

Desde entonces, las relaciones entre Estados Unidos y Cuba siguen profundamente frías. El presidente Barack Obama alivió algunas restricciones de viaje a la isla tras asumir el cargo, pero ha hecho poco por aliviar la tensión. De hecho, funcionarios estadounidenses han trabajado regularmente para subvertir al régimen, gastando más de $200 millones en programas para promover la democracia en Cuba desde 1996.

Espías cubanos en Miami y La Habana observan estos esfuerzos cuidadosamente y algunas veces los frustran.

En el 2009, las autoridades cubanas arrestaron a Alan Gross, un subcontratista de Maryland que trabajaba para la Agencia para el Desarrollo Internacional de Estados Unidos y que fue arrestado mientras llevaba equipos sofisticados de comunicaciones por satélite a la isla. Las autoridades cubanas lo condenaron a 15 años de prisión en el 2011.

Por su parte, las autoridades cubanas dicen que están dispuestas a canjear a Gross por agentes cubanos arrestados en la Florida después que el FBI desarticuló la Red Avispa de espionaje en septiembre de 1998.

Cuatro de esos agentes siguen en prisiones estadounidenses. Un cuarto pasó 13 años en prisión y ahora está en libertad, pero no puede regresar a Cuba hasta que cumpla tres anos de libertad condicional en Estados Unidos.

Los agentes son conocidos como los Cinco. Durante 14 años han estado en el centro de una masiva campaña de propaganda de Cuba, que los consideran héroes que defendían su patria. Sus nombres son muy conocidos en la isla y hay imágenes de ellos en vallas publicitarias y edificios.

Las actividades de espionaje de Roque fueron tan significativas como cualquiera de los Cinco Cubanos, pero regresó a la isla a una vida en las sombras.

Sin embargo, las autoridades estadounidenses no lo han olvidado y algunos exiliados cubanos exigen que el gobierno de La Habana lo devuelva para que enfrente cargos.

Un encausamiento federal acusó a Roque en 1999 de no inscribirse como agente extranjero y de confabularse para estafar a Estados Unidos.

A preguntársele sobre los cargos, Roque suspira. Afirmó que el gobierno cubano tenía derecho a defender su espacio aéreo, pero que él no debe ser considerado responsable de las muertes.

“Yo no tengo la culpa. Yo no hice nada indebido. Yo no ordené que mataran a nadie”, declaró. “La decisión de derribar los aviones fue una decisión del gobierno soberano de Cuba. La decisión de derribar las avionetas fue tomada por sus constantes incursiones aéreas, violaciones del espacio aéreo”.

Pero algunos críticos cuestionan su sinceridad.

“Si Roque está tan convencido de su inocencia, entonces que se entregue, se someta a juicio y limpie su nombre”, afirmó Thomas Van Hare, coautor de Betrayal ( Traición), un libro del 2009 sobre el derribo de las avionetas.

“Es un parásito”, agregó el otro autor del libro, Matt Lawrence.

José Basulto, líder de Hermanos al Rescate, comentó que es difícil saber si Roque sabía de antemano del derribo, pero que Roque “fue clave” en el incidente y que “no hay nada que perdonar sobre eso”. Sencillamente es culpable.

No hay duda de que Roque es una de las figuras más odiadas en el sur de a Florida después de los hermanos Castro. Es el espía que se escapó. Y después de un video casero que salió a relucir en YouTube en el 2011, donde se le ve cantando, bebiendo alcohol y saludando a su madre en España, los exiliados cubanos lo criticaron duramente.

“El hijo de perra reaparece”, proclamaba el video.

“La cucaracha es el principal culpable de la muerte de cuatro valientes de Hermanos al Rescate”, expresó un comentario. “Si le pongo la mano encima lo torturo”.

“Es un hombre bien parecido”, expresaba otro comentario. “Pero es una pena que sea el ser humano que es”.

Aislado en Cuba

“El doble cubano de Richard Gere”, como han llamado a Roque, aprendió a volar cazas MiG en la antigua Unión Soviética.

Pronto se convirtió en el favorito de la comunidad exiliada de Miami. La Fundación Nacional Cubano Americana incluso financió sus memorias, The Deserter ( El Desertor), en que cataloga a funcionarios cubanos de “gordos comunistas” y “bebedores de cerveza”.

En las fotos del libro se le ve junto a legisladores anticastristas como el senador demócrata Robert Menéndez, de Nueva Jersey, y la representante republicana Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, de la Florida.

Roque recuerda esos días con una mezcla de nostalgia y arrepentimiento.

Confesó que ahora está solo en Cuba y que extraña a sus familiares en Estados Unidos.

“Allí tengo a mis tres hermanos, mis tíos y mis primos. Tuve una relación magnífica con ellos mientras estuve allí”.

Alejandro Roque, de 48 años, dice que no ha tenido contacto con su hermano mayor desde 1996. Y agrega que incluso entonces no concordaba con las ideas de su hermano.

“La situación mundial es compleja y con frecuencia los ideólogos no distinguen entre los gobiernos y los pueblos… los bandidos y las víctimas”, indicó Alejandro Roque.

Al preguntársele si tenía algo de qué arrepentirse, Juan Pablo Roque dijo que quisiera haber hecho más por impedir el derribo de las avionetas.

“Quizás ahora… yo trataría de tener un papel mucho más fuerte en las cosas que sucedieron”, comentó. “Trataría de jugar un mejor papel. Si mi papel fue bueno o malo, hay que dejar que la gente decida. Que los que me quieran juzgar me juzguen”.

Roque sigue convencido de que Cuba tenía el derecho a defenderse de las organizaciones exiliadas en la Florida. Un salvadoreño, que dijo que exiliados cubanos le pagaron para colocar bombas en Cuba, cumple una condena de 30 años por un atentado en el que murió un turista italiano en La Habana en 1997. Roque opina que los exiliados estaban decididos a provocar en Cuba un caos que justificara una intervención militar de Estados Unidos.

“Todavía hay grupos que quieren una confrontación, que quieren sangre. Quieren tres, cuatro, cinco días para matar”, declaró Roque.

Antiguos miembros de Hermanos al Rescate reconocen que ocasionalmente dejaban caer panfletos políticos sobre La Habana, pero dijeron que su principal misión era humanitaria. A principios de los años 1990 realizaron cientos de misiones sobre el Estrecho de la Florida y detectaron a más de 17,000 balseros cubanos, ayudando así a salvar vidas. Alegan que Roque mintió sobre el grupo al FBI, presentándolo como un grupo extremista interesado en realizar actividades de sabotajes en la isla.

“No conozco a nadie, a ninguno que volara en las misiones de Hermanos al Rescate, que tuviera en su alma otra razón que no fuera salvar vidas”, dijo Matt Lawrence, el autor del libro. “El señor Roque y el resto son espías, y mienten como espías que son”.

Roque quiere que Estados Unidos y Cuba cesen las hostilidades y normalicen las relaciones. Sueña con ver a pilotos de combate de Estados Unidos, Cuba, Vietnam y Rusia reunirse para compartir ideas.

“Espero que ese momento llegue y que podamos sentarnos a una mesa a fumarnos la pipa de la paz”, aseguró. “Bueno, yo no fumo, pero la tendré en la mano. Con placer, con mucho placer lo haré”.

Sin dinero y desesperado

Ana Margarita Martínez no cree una palabra, y no podría ser de otra manera. Como parte de su elaborado disfraz, Roque se casó con ella en 1995, sólo para abandonarla con sus dos hijos menos de un año después.

“Si usted busca la definición de un sociópata, lo describe muy bien”, declaró Martínez. “El pensó que iba a ser alguien en Cuba, y no es nadie. Probó la libertad en Estados Unidos y ahora no tiene ninguna. Ni siquiera puede decir que siente un temor real de repercusiones. Le vendió su alma al diablo y ahora está pagando un alto precio. Le tengo pena”.

Pero Van Hare, quien es uno de los autores del libro sobre Roque, no comparte esa pena. “Un agente de inteligencia que queda al descubierto y se le identifica públicamente, esencialmente se queda sin trabajo. No lo siento por él. Escogió su camino en la vida y no hay duda de que conocía absolutamente cómo se “retiran” los agentes de inteligencia en Cuba y lo poco que reciben como resultado”.

Roque reconoce que ajustarse a la vida en Cuba desde su retiro forzado a los 40 años ha sido “muy, muy brutal”. Considera el tiempo que pasó en la Florida sus “mejores cuatro años como profesional. Y de repente, como dicen los pilotos, todos los motores de apagaron”.

“Me hubiera gustado continuar volando. Me hubiera gustado tener un trabajo vinculado con lo que he aprendido. Pero bueno, no fue así”.

Hubiera podido ser peor. Roque hubiese podido terminar en prisión en Estados Unidos.

“Pensé en eso varias veces”, dijo. “Lo único que me salvó espiritualmente fue no estaba haciendo nada malo”.

Le sorprendió el nivel de agresividad con que las autoridades estadounidenses persiguieron a otros miembros de la Red Avispa.

“Pensé que los iban a soltar rápidamente, que los iban a subir a un avión hacia Cuba”.

El líder de la red, Gerardo Hernández, fue condenado a dos cadenas perpetuas. Eso fue “groseramente injusto”, subrayó Roque, porque Hernández ni siquiera se acercó a ninguna de las organizaciones del exilio. “Gerardo no estaba absolutamente en nada. No participó en nada, en nada”.

Roque está libre, pero no enteramente contento. Dijo que echa de menos el estilo de vida de Estados Unidos: “la disciplina, el amor al trabajo”.

“Yo hice muchos trabajos. Asfalté calles, trabajé con afroamericanos. Yo les caía muy bien. Cada vez que me preguntaban de dónde era, les decía que era cubano. Entonces me preguntaba si eso estaba cerca de Alaska. Pero sentí mucha solidaridad con ellos.

“Asfaltamos calles a las 10 de la noche. Trabajamos toda la noche. Era un trabajo muy duro”.

Las cuadrillas de trabajo no son tan disciplinadas en Cuba, donde los obreros colocan el asfalto “a las 10 de la mañana, al mediodía. Un camión lo aplasta, y otro más. El trabajo es muy chapucero”.

Roque dio que trabajó duro en Estados Unidos, pero “uno ve los resultados y eso me gustó mucho”.

Desempleado ahora, Roque consideró que lee lo más que puede sobre ciencia, aviación y el cosmos. Hace ejercicios con regularidad y prefiere el levantamiento de pesas y las barras paralelas, un régimen que aprendió en la Unión Soviética.

Dio que si tuviera que irse nadando otra vez a la Base Naval de Guantánamo —unos 6 kilómetros, o 3.7 millas— no lo dudaría.

“No exagero si le digo que puedo hacerlo ahora sin ningún problema. Me encanta nadar”.

Roque declinó revelar el precio de la casa de dos pisos y tres habitaciones que está vendiendo. La casa era de sus padres y tiene un jardín trasero lleno de plantas tropicales y frutales.

El Rolex del antiguo espía es un GMT Master II, un modelo diseñado para pilotos con ayuda de Pan Am Airways en los años 1950.

“Lo tenía puesto todo el tiempo”, afirmó su ex esposa en Miami. “Nunca entendí cómo pudo comprarse un Rolex. Después me di cuenta que lo compró con el dinero que el FBI le pagó como informante”.

Un GMT Master II usado se vende en $4,500 y más en eBay, pero Roque espera que le den más en una subasta.

“Creo que algún coleccionista americano estaría interesado en comprarlo. Alguien a quien le guste James Bond”.

El Florida Center for Investigative Reporting es una organización sin fines de lucro apoyada por contribuciones de fundaciones e individuos. Para más información, visite fcir.org.

Read more here: http://www.elnuevoherald.com/2012/10/03/v-fullstory/1313498/el-espia-cubano-sin-dinero-desesperado.html#storylink=cpy

El Rolex del espia/ Tracey Eaton

Entrevista con el espia profugo J.P. Roque (part 2)

Tracey Eaton

Entrevista con el espia profugo J.P. Roque (part 2)

[J.P. Roque] Ex-spy hopes to sell home and prized Rolex

Tracey Eaton

Juan Pablo Roque at his home in Havana

I first met former Cuban spy Juan Pablo Roque in May 2003. I wanted to talk to him about a reported attempt on his life, among other things.
Rodolfo Frómeta, head of a militant anti-Castro group called Comandos F-4, had told me that would-be assassins shot Roque during a 2 a.m. gun battle in December 2002. He said Roque was injured and a police officer and an F-4 operative were killed.
Roque showed no signs of injury when I found him. I asked if he'd been attacked.
"I'm fine," he said. "Can't you see?"
That made me suspect that the assassination attempt never occurred. But there certainly are people who would like to do harm to Roque.

He had been a spy in Miami and was a key figure in the Cuban military's shoot-down of two civilian aircraft in 1996. He would not talk about his South Florida activities when I saw him in 2003. He said he didn't want to do anything that might hurt the case of five Cuban spies who had been jailed in the United States on espionage-related charges.
Roque declined to grant an interview unless government officials gave him an OK - and they did not.
I caught up with Roque again earlier this year and this time he agreed to an interview. He was friendly and relaxed and did not put any limits on the questions I asked. All he asked was that I only shoot video of the first portion of our interview, not the whole thing. He had no problem with me recording our entire talk.

Roque didn't appear desperate, but conceded he needed money. He said he was selling his house and a prized possession, a Rolex he bought with money the FBI gave him while he was an informant.
Shown on this page are photos of the house, which once belonged to the ex-spy's parents.
The home has a big airy living room and a lush backyard that is filled with fruit trees.

Roque gave me a tour of the property, pointing out the kitchen, above.

After the tour, we sat on the back patio of the home and talked. The back wall, shown above, was covered with messages from friends and visitors.

Roque may be demonized in Miami, but  he enjoys some support in Cuba, where Castro loyalists resent U.S. efforts to undermine the socialist government.

This is the Rolex that Roque is selling. It is a GMT Master II watch. Similar models go for $4,500 and up on eBay. Roque said he's hoping that someone who likes spy memorabilia will want to buy the watch.

Roque appeared to be in good physical condition. Some of his critics in Miami have suggested he is a heavy drinker. I didn't see any evidence of that.
My impression is that Roque takes care of himself and works out several times a week. He seemed to be passionate about physical fitness and said his exercise routine hadn't changed much since he was a military pilot.

[J.P. Roque] Ex-spy hopes to sell home and prized Rolex

Juan Pablo Roque's Spy story: In search of balance [?]

the question mark is mine [lg].
-------------------------- 
Tracey Eaton

Front page of today's Miami Herald. Photo: http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/

I suspect that Juan Pablo Roque is one of the most hated figures in South Florida, but that wasn't on my mind when I interviewed the former spy earlier this year in Havana. I wanted to hear his point of view.
Once back in the U.S., I sought out Roque's ex-wife, Ana Margarita Martinez. I quoted her along with the sister of one of the men killed in the Brothers to the Rescue shoot-down and others who are critical of Roque.
But I wonder what Roque's supporters are saying. What do Cuban officials think of Roque? I didn't get that point of view.
Reader reaction on the Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald websites - and there has been a flurry of comments - are mostly hostile toward Roque.
I'm not defending the 1996 shoot-down and the murder of four civilians. But I wonder what people would say about an American spy who infiltrated al-Qaeda to try to prevent terrorist attacks on the United States. Or is that an unfair comparison?

Juan Pablo Roque's Spy story: In search of balance [?]

Entrevista al espia profugo Juan Pablo Roque/ Tracey Eaton

Juan Pablo Roque from Tracey Eaton on Vimeo.

Entrevista al espia profugo Juan Pablo Roque/ Tracey Eaton