[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.

Denuncian que espías cubanos se infiltran en grupo académico en EEUU

ElNuevoHerald.com

Juan O. Tamayo

La negativa de visas por parte de Estados Unidos a tres cubanos invitados a un congreso académico ha destapado una protesta sorprendente, tanto en contra de Washington como de los tres académicos estadounidenses pro-Castro que supuestamente controlan la agenda sobre Cuba de la conferencia y los espías de La Habana que asisten a la misma.
La influencia de Cuba sobre la Asociación de Estudios Latino Americanos (LASA) se ha rumorado por largo tiempo entre los académicos estadounidenses. Pocos se han quejado públicamente, por miedo a que La Habana les prohíba la entrada o les niegue acceso a materiales de investigación.
Pero ahora las quejas se han hecho públicas.
“La sección de Cuba de LASA ha caído en manos de partidarios de la revolución, y ha sido completamente politizada”, dijo Ted Henken, profesor de Estudios Latinoamericanos de Baruch College en Nueva York.
“Los que hemos estado en LASA también sabemos que dentro de la ‘delegación’ cubana hay siempre tantos ‘policías’ como en Coppelia un sábado en la noche”, dijo el sociólogo cubano Haroldo Dilla, aludiendo a la famosa heladería de La Habana.
Evelyne Huber, presidenta de LASA, dijo que la sección de Cuba “está abierta a todos los miembros de LASA, y la misma LASA está abierta a todos los estudiosos y otros profesionales interesados en América Latina. No se excluye a nadie de la membresía en base a sus opiniones políticas”.
Las reuniones de la asociación están asimismo abiertas a todos los que se registren, añadió Huber, directora del departamento de Ciencias Políticas de la Universidad de Carolina del Norte. El website de LASA dice que la misma cuenta con más de 7,000 miembros en todo el mundo.
Los comentarios de Henken y Dilla fueron provocados por reportes de que el Departamento de Estado de EEUU ha negado visa, al menos por el momento, a tres cubanos invitados a asistir al congreso anual de LASA, del 29 de mayo al 1 de junio, en Washington.
Ellos han sido identificados como Elaine Díaz Rodríguez, reportera del periódico Granma y profesora de la Universidad de La Habana, y los jóvenes blogueros Isbel Díaz Torres y Dimitri Prieto Samsónov.
Se debería permitir la participación del trío en la conferencia de LASA ya que “se han caracterizado por sus posiciones críticas frente a aspectos específicos de la realidad cubana”, escribió Dilla en una columna publicada el 15 de abril en el website Diario de Cuba.
Henken, miembro de LASA que dirige además la Asociación para el Estudio de la Economía Cubana (ASCE), alegó que las negativas de visa son “una oportunidad perdida para que EEUU escuche voces críticas y auténticas desde dentro de Cuba”.
Pero, aunque la libertad académica y los intercambios siempre son deseables, alegaron ambos hombres, las relaciones académicas EEUU-Cuba están empañadas por una falta de reciprocidad, o por cosas peores.
Henken señaló que a Omar Everleny Pérez, un joven economista cubano que ha criticado algunas de las reformas económicas del gobernante Raúl Castro y a quienes había invitado a participar en un panel de LASA, su propia universidad no le permitirá viajar a Washington.
Y, aunque Baruch College envió a nueve estudiantes en enero a Cuba, La Habana nunca respondió la solicitud que hizo Henken para acompañarlos, agregó. “Nunca me dijeron que no, pero nunca me dijeron nada”, escribió Henken en un correo electrónico a El Nuevo Herald.
Dilla, quien ahora da clases en la República Dominicana, señaló que Cuba no permite a algunos académicos exiliados como él mismo que regresen a la isla a asistir a conferencias, publicar su trabajo en las revistas de la isla o enseñar en sus universidades.
Intervención
Una investigadora estadounidense que presentó un trabajo en la conferencia de ASCE en Miami el año pasado, admitió que la versión impresa de su trabajo no era tan crítica de La Habana como sus afirmaciones verbales porque ella temía que no la dejaran entrar más a Cuba.
“La sección de Cuba de LASA ha sido básicamente intervenida por los cubanos, el gobierno… y nosotros guardamos silencio para conseguir o seguir teniendo acceso a Cuba”, dijo la investigadora, quien pidió conservar el anonimato por las mismas razones.
Henken señaló que cuando LASA estaba a punto de quejarse públicamente de la negativa de visas de EEUU a invitados al congreso del año pasado, él consiguió que se incluyera una queja de que La Habana también había negado permiso a dos críticos para que asistieran: la bloguera Yoani Sánchez y el economista Oscar Espinosa Chepe.
“Los días de guardar silencio están contados”, añadió, porque una reforma de inmigración adoptada por Cuba en enero está facilitando a los cubanos salir de la isla. “Ahora la caja de Pandora ya está abierta. Los resultados son imposibles de controlar”.
Henken visitaba a menudo a Cuba con motivo de investigaciones académicas, pero después de que él entrevistó a varios blogueros en el 2011, incluyendo algunos que critican al gobierno, funcionarios de Seguridad del Estado lo pararon cuando regresaba a su casa y le dijeron: “Esta va a ser tu última vez”.
Aunque el proceso de Estados Unidos de entrega de visas para académicos “tiene sus problemas de politización, burocracia y arbitrariedad”, señaló, “la burla sistemática de la libertad académica y la libertad de movimiento” del gobierno cubano “es mucho más condenable”.
No ha habido indicios del tamaño de la delegación cubana al congreso de LASA el mes próximo. Pero en el 2003 la administración de Bush negó la visa a toda la misión cubana, que se alega constaba de 75 personas.
Dilla, quien asistió a dos conferencias de LASA antes de abandonar Cuba en el 2000, escribió que la asociación debería presionar al Departamento de Estado para que concediera visas, pero agregó que él quería “destacar un par de detalles”.
Agentes
Aunque académicos cubanos altamente respetados asisten a las conferencias de la LASA, señaló, las delegaciones cubanas siempre incluyen a oficiales de inteligencia y colaboradores.
“Algunos están en la nómina de Línea y A”, añadió, refiriéndose a la dirección de la sede de la Dirección de Inteligencia del Ministerio del Interior. “Otros son guardianes de los servicios ideológicos, unos en activo y otros retirados… Pero todos, y por encima de todo, son personas que desempeñan roles que tienen muy poco que ver con el libre debate académico”.
“Se les puede notar en cada congreso, chupando el presupuesto de LASA, coaccionando a los verdaderos académicos y convirtiendo al Task Force de Cuba en una enmarañada y opaca extensión del Departamento Ideológico del Partido Comunista de Cuba”, agregó.
Los cubanos que asisten a las conferencias de la LASA también se reúnen antes de viajar para casi dos semanas recibiendo instrucciones del Departamento Ideológico sobre temas tales como la economía o los derechos humanos, dijo Dilla a El Nuevo Herald en una entrevista telefónica el jueves.
El ex oficial de la inteligencia cubana Orlando Brito Pestana, quien desertó en el 2002 y vive ahora en el sur de la Florida, ha dicho que él asistió a una conferencia de LASA en Canadá alrededor de 1991 con acreditación del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Cuba.
Su trabajo, añadió, era detectar a los académicos pro-Castro que asistían a la conferencia y vigilar a los académicos cubanos que podrían estar planeando una deserción.

Read more here: http://www.elnuevoherald.com/2013/04/26/v-fullstory/1462836/espias-cubanos-se-infiltran-en.html#storylink=cpy

Acusan a exfuncionaria de EEUU de espiar para el gobierno cubano

martinoticias

Una exfuncionaria del gobierno estadounidense, la puertorriqueña Marta Rita Velázquez, fue acusada de haber espiado para el gobierno de Cuba, reveló este jueves el Departamento de Justicia, en un parte de prensa que aparece en su sitio digital y en el del Buro Federal de Investigaciones, FBI.

Velázquez, conocida también como "Marta Rita Kviele" y "Barbara", es acusada de haber pasado información de defensa estadounidense a La Habana y de haber reclutado a otros espías, según la acusación, que había permanecido en secreto por varios años hasta que fue hecha pública este jueves.

Las autoridades estadounidenses difundieron el jueves cargos criminales de asociación ilícita para espiar que habían formulado en 2004 contra una puertorriqueña acusada de ayudar a la inteligencia cubana a reclutar a una prominente espía actualmente en prisión.

La acusación contra Marta Rita Velásquez, de 55 años, conllevaría una cadena perpetua de ser hallada culpable. El Departamento de Justicia señaló en un comunicado que Velásquez, reside fuera de Estados Unidos desde 2002 y actualmente está radicada en Estocolmo, Suecia.

El subprocurador interino para la seguridad nacional John Carlin acusó a Velásquez de facilitar a la inteligencia cubana el reclutamiento de Ana Belén Montes, quien cumple 25 años de cárcel tras declararse culpable en 2002 de espiar durante los 16 años que trabajó para la oficina de inteligencia militar (DIA, por sus siglas en inglés).

Durante sus años en la DIA, Ana Belén Montes reveló las identidades de cuatro agentes encubiertos a autoridades cubanas y usaba una radio de onda corta para recibir órdenes.

En junio de 2002 Velázquez renunció a USAID, cuando comenzaron a aparecer reportes de prensa sobre la captura de Ana Belén Montes y su presunta cooperación con investigadores estadounidenses, y salió del país para no volver.

Velázquez puso en contacto a Montes con los servicios de inteligencia cubanos en 1984, cuando la llevó a Nueva York para una reunión con un agente de la isla comunista, que la acusación llama "M", quien se identificó como miembro de la misión de intereses cubanos en Estados Unidos.
   
Luego de que Montes fuera reclutada, Velázquez la acompañó en 1985 en un viaje clandestino a Cuba para que recibiera entrenamiento en espionaje. Para cubrir sus pasos, las dos mujeres usaron pasaportes falsos para ir desde Madrid a Praga, y de ahí a La Habana, reveló la acusación.
   
Velázquez trabajó unos años en el Departamento de Transporte, hasta que en 1989 entró a la agencia de desarrollo internacional (USAID) del Departamento de Estado, donde gozó de una amplia autorización para acceder a documentos clasificados.

Graduada en reconocidas universidades de Estados Unidos, ocupó cargos en las embajadas estadounidenses en Nicaragua y Guatemala. Desde 1979 hasta 1990 vivió en Washington, según la acusación, a la que tuvo acceso la AFP.
   
La espía recibía instrucciones de los servicios de inteligencia cubanos "a través de transmisiones de alta frecuencia encriptadas" y en contactos con otros agentes fuera de Estados Unidos, según el Departamento.

La orden de arresto contra Velazquez revelada el jueves fue emitida hace 9 años. Ella permanece fuera de Estados Unidos desde el 2002 y Washington no ha podido lograr su regreso. El tratado de extradición entre Estados Unidos y Suecia no permite la extradición por razones políticas, una categoría que incluye el espionaje. 

Murió el agente cubano “Nerón” que penetró la CIA por 10 años

Nicolás Sirgado [Archivo]

Cubadebate
Por el Coronel ® Nelson Domínguez Morera (NOEL)

En el día de ayer a la edad de 77 años dejó de existir el Agente de Juegos Operativos de la Seguridad del Estado de Cuba Nicolás Alberto Sirgado Ros quien se mantuvo, bajo el pseudónimo de NERÓN para esos órganos, durante más de 10 años penetrando y burlando a la Agencia Central de Inteligencia de los EE.UU en sus acciones de subversión contra Cuba, quien lo consideraba un hombre de su más entera y absoluta confianza.

A tal extremo fue así, que en el año 1976 la eminencia gris de varios gobiernos norteamericanos Henry Kissinger, desempeñándose en el de Gerald Ford como su Secretario de Estado, le obsequió, (en un tercer país, donde siempre era atendido para salvaguardarlo), como reconocimiento a los servicios prestados y la supuesta lealtad mantenida al imperio, un reloj pulsera autografiado por el reverso que actualmente se conserva en la Sala de la Gloria Combativa del Departamento de Seguridad del Estado en Villa Marista.

Nicolás Sirgado nació en La Habana, el 10 de septiembre del 1935. Se inicio en las tareas revolucionaras ocupando diferentes cargos de responsabilidad en el Ministerio de Obras Publicas (después Ministerio de la Construcción), Ministerio de la Industria Ligera y Cubatabaco desempeñándose en los cargos de Director y Delegado provincial, respectivamente. También trabajó con en el viceministerio de la Enseñanza Tecnológica. Los órganos del DSE aprovecharon una sanción que le fue impuesta en el MICONS, en Pinar del Rio, para crearle una adecuada fachada y línea de conducta tomando en cuenta que aparentemente había sido sancionado de forma injusta en ese Ministerio, por lo que fue orientado a presentarse como un resentido, algunos elementos de su tradición familiar también contribuyeron a ello.

NERÓN fue el único Agente de Juegos Operativos cuya trascendental labor secreta para la Seguridad Cubana, decidió revelar, evidenciándola personalmente y de manera pública el Comandante en Jefe Fidel Castro el 15 de Octubre de 1976, durante el luctuoso acto homenaje a las victimas del sabotaje en pleno vuelo frente a las costas de Barbados del avión de Cubana de Aviación por los sicarios del criminal Posada Carriles acontecido días antes, el 6 de ese mismo mes.

El Comandante despachaba periódica y personalmente con la jefatura del Ministerio del Interior en aquél entonces, cada uno de los distintos juegos operativos que se desarrollaban contra la CIA, orientando la estrategia a seguir, por tanto decidió escoger este al que denominábamos en el argot profesional Caso “ZORRO”, el más importante de la época y de los que fueran revelados (aunque en nuestros días, a no dudarlo, quedarán otros). El Caso, iniciado en 1966 cuando el DSE planifico realizar un juego operativo con vistas a penetrar la CIA. A través del mismo, el agente Zafiro para la CIA y Noel (en aquel entonces) para el DSE logro penetrar también el Departamento de Estado de los EEUU, conociendo los planes que se proponían para la eliminación física de nuestros dirigentes y los intereses de información que tenían alrededor de la ayuda internacionalista de nuestro país.

Por la significación y trascendencia del juego operativo ZORRO con el enemigo en que NERÓN se desenvolvía, era atendido y encauzado directamente por altos jefes de la Seguridad del momento como los después Generales Fabián Escalante (Roberto) y Eladio Sánchez o Coroneles como Osmel, Pablito (Coronel Pedro Luis Castillo), Manuel Martínez Guzmán (el gordo Jorge) entre otros. Para garantizar la compartimentación no solo fue ese pseudónimo el que se le asignara, sino que de acuerdo al oficial que lo atendía transitó, antes por el de NOEL para la Seguridad Cubana y el Agente ZAFIRO para la CIA.

Avizoramos entonces la intención de Fidel y raudos acercamos a Nerón, al escenario geográfico donde se produciría la denuncia, con la finalidad de mostrarlo al público en caso de que el Comandante lo decidiera. El lugar escogido fue primeramente el apartamento del sótano del edificio donde residía este escribidor en Paseo número 126 esquina Calzada en el Vedado. Tal fue la premura generada siguiendo la transmisión televisiva, que poco después nos fuimos raudos hacia la Plaza y sin percatarnos, hasta dejamos abierta la puerta del viejo refrigerador que motivó se le quemara su vetusta máquina y solo la emoción vivida posteriormente, permitió que mi entonces esposa, Doris, también oficial de la C.I. mitigara sus recriminaciones al respecto.
Aquélla Plaza de la Revolución José Martí en la Habana en ese 15 de Octubre, vibraba de emoción, odio hacia el enemigo y hasta caudales de lágrimas se vertían, cuando erguido y trascendente, como siempre, el líder de la Revolución expuso:

“El reclutamiento de ciudadanos y el empleo del territorio de otros países para realizar actos de esa naturaleza, son métodos típicos de la CIA”.

“Al principio teníamos dudas si la CIA había organizado directamente el sabotaje o lo elaboró cuidadosamente a través de sus organizaciones de cobertura integradas por contrarrevolucionarios cubanos; ahora nos inclinamos decididamente por la primera tesis. La CIA tuvo una participación directa en la destrucción del avión de Cubana en Barbados”.

“Tenemos la sospecha de que el Gobierno de Estados Unidos no ha renunciado a tales prácticas. El 9 de octubre, solo tres días después del criminal sabotaje de Barbados, fue interceptado un mensaje enviado por la CIA a un agente suyo en La Habana. Dicho mensaje, trasmitido desde el centro principal de la CIA en Langley, Virginia, dice textualmente, entre otras cosas: “Favor informar primera oportunidad cualquier dato respecto asistencia Fidel ceremonia primer aniversario independencia de Angola día 11 de noviembre. Caso afirmativo, tratar de averiguar itinerario completo visita Fidel otros países mismo viaje”.

“Otra instrucción de fecha anterior dice así:”

“¿Cuál es la reacción oficial y particular sobre ataques de bombas contra oficinas cubanas en el extranjero? ¿Qué van a hacer para evitarlas y prevenirlas? ¿De quién se sospecha como responsables? ¿Habrá represalias?”

“Esperamos que el Gobierno de Estados Unidos no se atreva a negar la veracidad de estas instrucciones de la oficina central de la CIA y otras muchas que en flagrantes actos de espionaje ha cursado a la misma persona. Poseemos la clave, las cifras y todas las pruebas de la autenticidad de estas comunicaciones”.

“En este caso concreto, el supuesto agente reclutado por la CIA, desde el primer instante y durante 10 años ha mantenido al Gobierno de Cuba detalladamente informado de todos sus contactos con la misma, los equipos y las instrucciones recibidas. La CIA suponía que el agente había logrado colocar un microtrasmisor electrónico moderno, que le fuera entregado por esta, nada menos que en el despacho del compañero Osmany Cienfuegos, Secretario del Comité Ejecutivo del Consejo de Ministros. De ahí la seguridad con que presumía recibir, con la debida antelación, la información pertinente sobre cualquier viaje del Primer Ministro de Cuba( entonces era FIDEL) al extranjero”.

“En este caso concreto, el supuesto agente de la CIA, desde el primer momento y durante diez años ha mantenido al Gobierno de Cuba detalladamente informado de todos sus contactos con la misma, los equipos y las instrucciones recibidas…”

“Dada la importancia de este hecho y su valor esclarecedor sobre la conducta y las actividades de la CIA, hemos considerado la conveniencia de hacerlo público aunque ello implica el sacrificio de una fuente valiosa de información…”

Esto constituyó un resarcimiento, no solo para los familiares conmocionados por la irreparable pérdida sino para toda la inmensa multitud congregada en la Plaza que rugió de emoción y aplausos ante la vigorosa respuesta acaecida al enemigo imperialista con aquella imperecedera y presagiosa frase de Fidel también en aquel día: … “Cuando un pueblo enérgico y viril llora,..la injusticia tiembla”

Y efectivamente, la injusticia tembló y se hizo realidad, el imperialismo se estremeció hasta sus cimientos, la omnipoderosa CIA fue brutalmente burlada y vilipendiada por vez primera de manera pública y tan trascendental, aunque sin escarmiento, porque casi diez años después en Junio de 1989 otra vez quedaría en entredicho mundial con una nueva denuncia de nuestro país al evidenciar el trabajo de penetración de 27 Agentes dobles cubanos que también la penetraron hasta sus raíces, burlándose de su supuesta profesionalidad, eficiencia e inefabilidad, la que quedó registrada para la historia en el serial televisivo LA CIA CONTRA CUBA.

El trabajo anónimo y secreto que hombres como NERON (después ascendido al grado de Tte. Coronel como se muestra en los créditos de la serie televisiva de hoy, TRAS LA HUELLA) y los 27, presagiaron, que se ha mantenido continuidad histórica hasta nuestros días con las más recientes resultantes del enfrentamiento contra grupusculeros y otros aliados asalariados del enemigo, que han sido revelados y divulgados, lo que nos puede llevar a la conclusión de que muchos otros se mantienen y mantendrán, para garantía del proceso revolucionario de Cuba y otras partes del mundo, en estas importantes e incógnitas misiones.

Nota de Cubadebate: La trayectoria de Nicolás Sirgado como agente infiltrado sirvió para nutrir el argumento de la serie En silencio ha tenido que ser, transmitida por la televisión cubana en los años 80.

Shortwave Radio Broadcast to Deployed Cuban Spy – Recorded Late March 2013

cubaconfidential

“Retired” Cuban Spy Pontificates on Cuban Support to Terrorism

cubaconfidential

By Chris Simmons

Cuba and the List of Countries That Promote Terrorism

By Jesús Arboleya Cervera [photo], appearing in Progreso Semanal/Weekly

HAVANA – Every year, the U.S. Department of State publishes a list of “countries that promote terrorism” that serves as a basis for Washington’s policy toward them. The list includes a set of sanctions established by Congress. Many are the questions that arise from this practice. In the first place, the very concept of “terrorism” has yet to be defined by the international organizations of justice and the United Nations, due to the political manipulation to which it is subjected.

In other words, the U.S. government describes as “terrorist” whoever it sees fit and omits others who might deserve the description but whose inclusion is inconvenient. For example, Afghanistan was invaded in 2002 at the start of the “world war against terrorism,” yet it doesn’t appear on the list. Many believe that the United States itself could be on the list, if the list were made up with rigor and fairness. In sum, more than a moral condemnation, the list of countries that promote terrorism is a boast of unilateral power, whose true importance is to announce where the shots are coming from.

Cuba has been included since 1982 because of its support for the revolutionary movements in Central America. It is revealing that it was precisely the administration of Ronald Reagan that took the initiative, while at the same time he was promoting a “low-intensity” war in the region that led to his condemnation in the International Court of Justice. Later, he was rebuked by Congress itself, due to the Iran-Contra scandal. Anyhow, even after those conflicts were over, Cuba remained on the grim list. Other excuses were used then, such as saying that Cuba sheltered fugitives of U.S. justice in the 1970s, gave refuge to members of the Basque group ETA, and “offered medical aid and political assistance” to combatants in the Colombian FARC.

Various international analysts, legal institutions and American politicians have for years refuted the legal pertinence of those arguments, so I’ll simply quote recent statements by Congressman Jim McGovern, in which he made clear that the abovementioned fugitives never committed terrorist acts and that the ETA members are in Cuba at the request of the Spanish government itself. As if that weren’t enough, Havana at present is the site for the peace talks between the Colombian guerrillas and the Colombian government, as it has been previously, throughout the years. {emphasis added]

The Congressman also said that, due to the state of relations between the two countries, there are no extradition accords that justify that complaint. I should add that, if negotiations to that effect were to begin (as the Cuban government once proposed), the list submitted by Cuba would include hundreds of people who have actually committed terrorist acts against Cuba, among them the notorious Luis Posada Carriles.

In truth, the inclusion of Cuba on the list of countries that promote terrorism cannot withstand any serious scrutiny. Years ago, due to the weight of reality, Cuba abandoned the practice of supporting armed revolutionary movements, whose denomination as “terrorists,” from a historic perspective, is as questionable as the American list.
But that’s not what the problem is about. Cuba’s inclusion on the list is an excuse to keep up the belligerence promoted by the American far right, especially the Cuban-American groups that serve as activists in Congress and various public opinion media in that country. Even if Raúl Castro became Mahatma Gandhi, those people would consider him a terrorist anyway.

The current debate has to do with the U.S. policy toward Cuba in the current circumstances. On one side are those who advocate maintaining the economic blockade and as many punitive measures as possible; on the other, those who posit that this policy is counterproductive for U.S. interests. It should be said that, except for some exceptions, the argument is the same: the efficacy of the method to achieve a “regime change” on the island. It has nothing to do with the truth.

For those who promote change, Cuba’s elimination from the list constitutes one of the most favorable targets. It is not based on reality; its arbitrariness affects the credibility of Washington’s policy against terrorism. Also, the decision, in whatever direction, rests entirely on the government, including the State Department, without involving the President directly. This does not mean that it will be a simple task. There will be a big hubbub from the conservatives; more than one functionary will be subjected to third-degree interrogations in Congress; some laws and appointments will be used as exchange currency to revert the decision. We shall then see if Obama’s administration is willing to face the storm in order to proceed with the change it proposes.

As a result, for more than its practical importance, inasmuch as the sanctions against the island exceed what’s established in the provisions, Cuba’s elimination from the list of countries that promote terrorism would serve as an indicator of this willingness, placing us on a stage that’s qualitatively different, where the adoption of more transcendental measures could be possible.

Some in Cuba believe – with reason – that what’s proposed is a bear hug. I think a hug is preferable to a bite. Besides, wishes don’t necessarily come true, and the simple fact of recognizing that Washington’s current policy toward Cuba is not viable shows us how times have changed and proves that our resistance was worthwhile, as phrased by Manuel Calviño, a famous Cuban psychologist on his television program.

Editor’s Note: Colonel Jesus Arboleya Cervera was identified by DGI Captain Jesus Perez Mendez after his defection in 1983. Arboleya, who served as a Second Secretary at the Cuban Mission to the United Nations in New York City before transferring to the Washington-based Cuban Interests Section, was also identified by convicted spy Carlos Alvarez. During his tour, Arboleya was the architect of the 1970’s US-Cuba normalization drive, which almost succeeded in 1977 following the formation of a group of prominent Cuban-Americans who called themselves the Committee of 75. Although headed by respectable Cuban-Americans, including two clerics and several businessmen, the Committee was DGI-inspired. According to Senate testimony of March 12, 1982, at the time, Arboleya may have been the longest serving DGI officer in the United States.

Since Colonel Arboleya promoted the subject of Havana’s role in peace talks (see “emphasis added” above), be sure to read about the following posts discussing the exploitation of peace talks by Cuba’s spies:

Cuba Dupes UPI; Uses Peace Talks to Hide Decades of Support to FARC Terrorists, December 14, 2012, http://cubaconfidential.wordpress.com/2012/12/14/cuba-dupes-upi-uses-peace-talks-to-hide-decades-of-support-to-farc-terrorists/

Cuba’s Terrorist Allies Open Peace Talks With Enraged Rhetoric, October 19, 2012, http://cubaconfidential.wordpress.com/2012/10/19/cubas-terrorist-allies-open-peace-talks-with-enraged-rhetoric/
Colombia Nears Possible FARC Peace Talks, August 28, 2012, http://cubaconfidential.wordpress.com/2012/08/28/colombia-nears-possible-farc-peace-talks/

Today in History: The Death of a Cuban Intelligence Legend

By Chris Simmons

www.theamericaspostes.com

March 11, 1998: Manuel Pineiro Losada died in a car accident. An early member of Cuban Intelligence and long-time chief of the America Department (DA), he resigned as DA head in February 1992. He was replaced by Jose Antonio Arbesu Fraga, one of the DA’s Vice Directors.

Pineiro remains the personification of Cuban intelligence. No other individual had such a defining role in defining, organizing, and providing strategic vision to Castro’s espionage institutions. Born in 1933 to an influential and affluent family, Pineiro the youngest of the siblings. Of average build, he stood 5’ 8’’ and weighed 190 pounds. Brown-eyed and sporting red hair, thick red eyebrows, freckles and a red beard, he received the nickname “Barbaroja” (Redbeard).

jrisquet.blogspot.com

In Havana, Pineiro attended the Hermanos Maristas Elementary School and then the Matanzas Institute. He attended college in the United States, enrolling in Columbia University in 1953. There he studied Business Administration. In New York, he met a doctor’s daughter named Lorna Nell Burdsall. She was a professional ballerina and member of the Communist Party. The two fell in love and married on June 10, 1955. Pineiro and his wife left the US and settled in Cuba.

www.barrigaverde.net

Pineiro joined the July 26 Movement at the end of 1956. He initially served in the underground, supporting efforts in Matanzas and then Havana. In July 1957, he was transferred to the Oriente and served under Efigenio Amejeiras. He subsequently served in the “Frank Pais” column of Raul Castro’s Second Eastern Front beginning in March 1958. There, in the Sierra Cristal, Raul Castro promoted him to Captain and made him chief of the Territorial Personnel and Inspection Directorate, the Intelligence Service, and the Rebel Police for the Second Front. In January 1959, Pineiro was promoted to Commander (Major equivalent) and assigned as Chief of the First Military District (Oriente Province). By the year’s end, he was Raul Castro’s representative to the headquarters of Rebel Army Intelligence.

Fidel Castro allegedly selected Pineiro to serve on the Revolutionary Tribunals, formed to try 43 Batista’s pilots and airmen with genocide. Over the years, he developed a reputation as being fiercely loyal to Fidel Castro. A close advisor and confidant of Castro, Pineiro was respected as audacious and intelligent. He attended formal intelligence training in the Soviet Union and served as a member of Havana’s Exterior Relations Commission.

In 1961, he helped found the Ministry of the Interior (MININT), which he served with until 1975. For almost ten years, he led the MININT’s Technical Vice Ministry as Director of the DGI before subsequently heading the National Liberation Directorate (DLN). A 400-man element, previously assigned to the DGI, this entity oversaw support to foreign revolutionary movements. Over time, the DLN evolved into the Cuban Communist Party’s America Department, which Pineiro led for over 15 years.

In addition to his intelligence duties, Pineiro was a member of the 148-member Central Committee of Cuba’s Communist Party since its establishment on October 3, 1965.

Today in History: Terrorist-Supporting Spy Lectured at Loyola University Law School

cubaconfidential

By Chris Simmons

March 2, 2001: America Area officer Fernando Miguel Garcia Bielsa, a First Secretary at the Cuban Interests Section, guest lectured at Loyola University Law School. Invited by the Los Angeles Coalition in Solidarity with Cuba, Garcia spoke on the Cuban economy and the domestic situation on the island. In 2002, he was publicly thanked– along with five other Intelligence Officers -- by Council on Foreign Relations staffer Julia E. Sweig in her book, Inside the Cuban Revolution: Fidel Castro and the Urban Underground. Thrown out of the US during the massive May 2003 expulsions, Fernando Garcia Bielsa had worked closely with the two major Puerto Rican terrorist groups of the 1970s. He subsequently served as a First Secretary at the Cuban Mission to the United Nations in the 1980s.

Editor’s Note: The America Area of the International Department of the Cuban Communist Party (PCC/ID/AA) was previously known as the America Department (DA). This service remains the intelligence wing of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party. As the "DA," the spy service was heavily involved in supporting revolutionaries and terrorists. It has since become more focused on political intelligence operations.

Today in History: Cuba Restored Diplomatic Relations With Uruguay

cubaconfidential

By Chris Simmons

March 2, 2005: The Cuban Embassy in Montevideo re-opened on after newly elected leftist president Tabare Vazquez directed the re-establishment of diplomatic relations. Diplomatic ties had been reduced to the consular level following outgoing President Batlle’s condemnation of Cuban human rights three years earlier. By late 2007, hidden among Havana’s modest six-member diplomatic staff was Cuban intelligence officer Alberto Silvio Cabrera Barrio, who served under the cover of Political Counselor. Given Carbera’s intelligence career, he may well be the senior officer at the Embassy. By default, this would make him the Centro Chief and a DI officer. Additionally, Cuba avoids assigning a lone intelligence officer to a diplomatic facility, so the presence of a second intelligence officer is highly likely (although a DI code clerk could suffice). Cabrera remained in Uruguay through early 2013.

Senior Diplomat-Spy Josefina Vidal Demands Access to US Traitor

cubaconfidential

By Chris Simmons

Cuba Denies U.S. Statements on Travel Permission

(Prensa Latina) The Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs denied some statements by the U.S. government on the alleged impossibility of its officials to leave the capital due to "reciprocal travel restrictions" that would oblige Washington to respond accordingly.

The U.S. Interests Section (USINT) in Havana invariably receives permissions to travel outside the capital to visit prisoners from the United States and naturalized Cuban, who comply with sanction anywhere in Cuba, Director for United States affairs at Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs Josefina Vidal said here. Vidal said in a statement that in recent months, U.S. officials, including the head of USINT, have had consular access in the provinces of Matanzas, Artemisa, Mayabeque, Ciego de Avila, and Camaguey, located in the island's western and central regions. "We do not know on what reciprocity we are talking about , because all travel permissions for the USINT consular visits have been authorized without exception," she warned.

On Wednesday, the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs denounced that Washington repeatedly denied consular access to Rene Gonzalez, one of the five antiterrorist fighters of the island unjustly held in that northern country. Following that statement, a State Department official admitted to the Spanish agency EFE -on condition of anonymity- such actions, and attributed it to the fact that "the Cubans do not allow us to travel outside Havana without prior permission, so we respond with the same restriction here." He further stated that Rene Gonzalez can travel to Washington to meet with Cuban officials if those responsible for his supervised release allow it.

About this issue, Vidal explained that U.S. authorities have refused the anti-terrorist fighter recent applications to go outside the area where he complies with the additional punishment, which keeps him unjustly away from his wife. The leadership of the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed the complaint for the impossibility that Rene receives consular visits since September 2012, in violation of the U.S. obligations to the Vienna Convention on this point. The antiterrorist fighter was detained in 1998 along with Gerardo Hernandez, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando González and Ramon Labañino for monitoring violent groups based in Miami that were planning terrorist actions against Cuba similar to those that have left more than 3,400 victims and 2,000 injured.

In October 2011, after completing his prison term, Rene was forced to remain in the United States under supervised release for three years, which activists, human rights organizatioms (sic), and lawyers consider it an additional punishment.

Editor’s Note: Josefina Vidal left the US in May 2003 in conjunction with the expulsion of 14 Cuban spies serving under diplomatic cover.

U.S. Congressman Defends Cuban Spies

capitolhillcubans

Cuban state media has revealed that during his recent visit to Havana, U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) defended five Cuban spies tried by U.S. federal courts in 2001 and convicted on conspiracy to commit espionage, conspiracy to commit murder, acting as an agent of a foreign government and other illegal activities in the United States.

According to Granma (exact quote):

"The legislator admitted that in prisons in his country 'there are five Cubans jailed for transmitting information about the (violent) activities of Cuban-Americans,' and that in talks with Raul Castro he ratified that 'those five Cubans don't deserve to be in jail.'"

It's not the first time McGovern is associated with such unsavory figures.

He was widely and infamously referenced in messages found in the hard-drive of Raul Reyes, the narco-terrorist FARC's second-in-command, who was killed by the Colombian military in 2008.

Thus, Cuban dictators and spies are right up his alley.

According to the U.S. Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive, the activities of these Cuban spies included: 

• The infiltration of the US Southern Command headquarters in Miami—according to Cuba, “one of the new prioritized objectives that we have in the Miami area.”

• The activities of Cuban exile groups in Miami and tactics to disrupt those groups by, among other things, “creat(ing) animosity” between specified groups and attempting to discredit certain individual leaders.

• The activities at the Boca Rica Naval Air Station as well as reports on an apparent military topic identified by Cuba that “continues to be of great importance to our comrades at DAAFAR (Cuban Air Force Command).”

• The manipulation of the media, political institutions, and public opinion, including using anonymous or misidentified telephone calls and letters to media and political figures.

Read the details here >>

OPED: Forgotten Cuba? Is Washington Playing Word Games in Latest Espionage Estimate?

cubaconfidential

By Chris Simmons

Earlier this week, the Washington Post reported that “A new intelligence assessment has concluded that the United States is the target of a massive, sustained cyber-espionage campaign that is threatening the country’s economic competitiveness, according to people familiar with the report. The National Intelligence Estimate identifies China as the country most aggressively seeking to penetrate the computer systems of American businesses and institutions to gain access to data that could be used for economic gain.”

The newspaper goes on to note that “The National Intelligence Estimate names three other countries - Russia, Israel and France - as having engaged in hacking for economic intelligence but makes clear that cyber-espionage by those countries pales in comparison with China’s effort.” [emphasis added] http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-said-to-be-target-of-massive-cyber-espionage-campaign/2013/02/10/7b4687d8-6fc1-11e2-aa58-243de81040ba_story.html

While the story makes for tantalizing reading for the layman, it raises several red flags with this retired intelligence officer. Let’s start with the most fundamental: why is cyber-espionage, which in this NIE is reportedly narrowly focused on America’s “economic competitiveness,” separate and distinct from the NIE on economic espionage? Computer hacking is simply a technique used to steal industry secrets. It should be nothing more than a chapter in the NIE on Economic Espionage. To remove and spotlight this tool is to distort the actual intelligence targeting of our economic interests.

Cuba, for example, runs the largest Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) complex in the Western Hemisphere outside of our own National Security Agency (NSA). Since the 1960s, economic espionage has been a priority for the DI. For example, a declassified CIA report noted that in 1964, Havana appointed General Directorate of Intelligence (DGI) officer Orestes Guillermo Ruiz Perez as Vice-Minister for Economics within the Ministry of Foreign Trade. Separate CIA documents stated that in 1973, DGI officer Alberto Betancourt Roa served as president of Cuba’s Chamber of Commerce. During 1986-1987, he served as Vice-Minister of Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Trade. By the early 1990s, Betancourt headed Cubazucar, the national sugar corporation.

A key example of Havana’s success in economic espionage is the case of Guillermo “Bill” Gaede, In the 1980s, Cuba recruited Gaede to steal information on computer software and provide it to case officers in Mexico. Havana, in turn, passed the information to the USSR and East Germany until the end of the Cold War. Gaede, an Argentine communist and software engineer, worked for Advanced Micro Devices, Incorporated in Sunnyvale, California from 1979-1993. He provided Cuba with AMD specs, designs, “Blue Books,” masks, wafers, and small measuring devices.

Experts said Russia, with whom Cuba shared its stolen information, possibly narrowed the US technology lead by exploiting the chip designs and manufacturing techniques, which AMD spent millions of dollars to develop. Experts opined that Gaede’s damage was limited, as the technology used in the semiconductor industry advances so quickly that designs and manufacturing techniques quickly become outdated. However, the damage control provided by the experts failed to address the true effect of systematic and long-term economic espionage.

Gaede later claimed his initial motivation was his belief in communism, but this motivation waned after he repeatedly traveled to Cuba and became disillusioned. He left AMD in 1993 because of mistaken fears that the company would soon detect his misconduct. The technology giant Intel then hired him and greed became his motivator. He filmed the entire process used to make the Pentium chip, down to the smallest technical detail. He subsequently sold the information to China and Iran, which paid him handsomely. The secrets stolen from ADM and Intel ultimately earned Gaede the nickname, the “The Billion Dollar Spy.” He was arrested in late 1995.

The following year, the CIA advised the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence that Cuba ranked sixth of the seven nations worldwide that “extensively engaged in economic espionage” against the US. The CIA rated France as the most serious threat, followed by Israel, China, Russia, Iran, and then Cuba. Havana, it noted, liked to target American firms whose facilities were based outside of the US. In a separate 1996 report, the US government reiterated that Havana collected “political, economic, and military information within the United States.” The report went on to note that the Directorate of Intelligence (DI) had begun targeting those technologies needed to help Cuba’s ailing economy.

Subsequently, Cuba appeared prominently in a classified list known as the National Security Threat List (NSTL). The NSTL is compiled by an FBI-led, interagency group which identifies the issues and countries which pose the greatest strategic intelligence threat to U.S. security interests. The 1999 list, apparently the most recent to have been declassified, declared that out of approximately 180 countries in the world, only 11 were so dangerous that they were included on the NSTL. These strategic threats were China, Cuba, Iraq, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Russia, Sudan, Syria, Taiwan, and Vietnam.

Similarly, a 1999 report by the US government’s National Communication System identified Cuba as having used electronic intrusions to collect economic intelligence. Additionally, during the latter half of the 1990s, the Department of Energy included Cuba as one of 22 nations on its “Sensitive Country List.” The DOE list is now restricted, so it is not known whether Cuba remains on the list.

Fast forwarding to late 2007, the Heritage Foundation had this to say about Cuba’s espionage capabilities:

• Since Raul Castro took the reins as acting head of state in 2006, Cuban intelligence services have intensified their targeting of the U.S. Since 9/11, however, U.S. intelligence agencies have reduced the priority assigned to Cuba.

• Cuba's Directorate of Intelligence (DI) is among the top six intelligence services in the world. Thirty-five of its intelligence officers or agents have been identified operating in the U.S. and neutralized between 1996 and 2003. This is strong evidence of DI's aggressiveness and hostility toward the U.S.

• Cuba traffics in intelligence. U.S. intelligence secrets collected by Cuba have been sold to or bartered with Russia, China, North Korea, Iran, and other enemies of the United States. China is known to have had intelligence personnel posted to the Cuban Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) site at Bejucal since 2001, and Russia continues to receive Cuban SIGINT information. Additionally, many Cuban intelligence agents and security police are advising Hugo Chávez in Venezuela.

• Cuban intelligence has successfully compromised every major U.S. military operation since the 1983 invasion of Grenada and has provided America's enemies with forewarning of impending U.S. operations.

• Beijing is busy working to improve Cuban signals intelligence and electronic warfare facilities, which had languished after the fall of the Soviet Union, integrating them into China's own global satellite network. Mary O'Grady of the Wall Street Journal has noted that this means the Chinese army, at a cyber-warfare complex 20 miles south of Havana, can now monitor phone conversations and Internet transmissions in America. (For the entire Heritage Foundation feature, see http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2007/10/cuba-at-the-crossroads-the-threat-to-us-national-security)

Then, in July 2008, Dr. Joel F. Brenner, Director of the U.S. Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive (an element of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence) said: "The Russians and the Chinese remain big problems for us. The Cubans are a problem for us and the Iranians are a big problem for us... and the Cubans have a very accomplished set of intel services and they are something we have to watch."

Last year, the Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) told the Senate Armed Services Committee “Cuba remains the predominant foreign intelligence threat to the United States emanating from Latin America.” Shortly thereafter, former Director of the National Counterintelligence Executive, Michelle Van Cleave, testified before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs that “…measured by its reach, history, objectives and success against us, Cuba is easily within the Top Ten list worldwide.”

Cuba earned its position as “Intelligence Trafficker to the World” by stealing U.S. secrets, not necessarily hacking our computers. Knowing this, it is disingenuous for Washington to split hairs between old-school “economic espionage” and “cyber-espionage directed against economic targets.” Everyone understands that Washington insiders exploit the cyber threat to generate publicity for themselves and funding for their projects. It’s time for the administration to stop minimizing the threat from Havana and revitalize our Counterintelligence services so they can better identify and destroy foreign spy services operating in America.

Percy Alvarado: "Yohandry de visita en Miami"

segun afirma el conocido exespia guatemalteco del regimen de la'bana [minuto 1.05]:

Havana Gives Literary Award to One of its Master Spies

cubaconfidential

By Chris Simmons

Writer Jesus Arboleya Wins Casa de las Americas Award

Havana, (PL).- Cuban writer Jesus Arboleya said that winning the Casa de las Americas Award is a special honor because this is one of the most prestigious awards worldwide, and also because it is a revolutionary award. Arboleya earned the highest distinction in the social-historical literature category, for his book "Cuba y los cubanoamericanos. Un analisis de la emigracion cubana" (Cuba and Cuban Americans. An Analysis of Cuban Migration). The jury that unanimously granted the award, announced at the Casa de las Americas in Havana, was comprised of the French Salim Lamrani, Colombian Renan Vega Cantor, and Cuban Sergio Guerra Vilaboy. According to the decision, the jury took into account that Arboleya´s work reconstructs in detail, with solid supporting documentation, the issue of relationships between the United States and the Cuban Revolution from the perspective of migration policies between both countries. The clarity and expository text fluently allows the work to be accessible to all readers, without diminished rigor and analytical depth, and demystifies one current issue that has been subject to many interpretations, the jury added. For his part, Arboleya stated that this award, in its 54th edition, is "deeply connected to the history of our struggles, the defense of our identity, and the dignity of our people."

Jesus Arboleya Cervera (1947), is a PhD in Historical Sciences, and has collaborated with the Center for Policy Alternatives, the Center About the United States at the University of Havana, the Center for American Studies, and the Center for European Studies, as well as having worked with the Chilean newspaper La Nacion. Among his books are "Las corrientes políticas en la comunidad de origen cubano en Estados Unidos" (The political currents in the Cuban community in the United States (1994), Havana-Miami: The US-Cuba Migration Conflict (1995), and "La contrarrevolución cubana" (The Cuban counterrevolution) (1997).

Editor’s Note: Colonel Jesus Arboleya Cervera was identified by DGI Captain Jesus Perez Mendez after his defection in 1983. Arboleya, who served as a Second Secretary at the Cuban Mission to the United Nations in New York City before transferring to the Washington-based Cuban Interests Section, was also identified by convicted spy Carlos Alvarez. During his tour, Arboleya was the architect of the 1970’s US-Cuba normalization drive, which almost succeeded in 1977 following the formation of a group of prominent Cuban-Americans who called themselves the Committee of 75. Although headed by respectable Cuban-Americans, including two clerics and several businessmen, the Committee was DGI-inspired. According to Senate testimony of March 12, 1982, at the time, Arboleya may have been the longest serving DGI officer in the United States.

On a related note, Arboleya’s co-author, Rafael Betancourt Abio, along with his brother, were founders of the pro-Castro magazine Areito in April 1974. He was also a founder of the Antonio Maceo Brigade in December 1977. On April 28, 1978, he met in D.C. with Arboleya and Ricardo Escartin Fernandez, another DGI member. Rafael Betancourt Abio was born in Havana April 23, 1952.

El cubano que la justicia chilena debe reclamar

cafefuerte

inShare

El ex diplomático y oficial de inteligencia Luis Fernández de Oña frente al monumento a Salvador Allende en Santiago de Chile, en el 2006.

Por Juan Reynaldo Sánchez*

Hay algo que la justicia chilena debería considerar seriamente a la hora de hacerle peticiones a Raúl Castro.

El gobierno chileno anda tras la pista de al menos cuatro militantes del Frente Patriótico "Manuel Rodríguez” (FPMR) que participaron en el asesinato del senador Jaime Guzmán, en 1991, y que todo indica que permanecen prófugos en Cuba. El presidente Sebastián Piñera ha pedido recientemente colaboración a Raúl Castro para que proporcione información y coopere en llegar hasta ellos.

Los nombres que suelen mencionarse son los de Raúl Escobar Poblete (Comandante Emilio), Marcela Mardones Rojas ( Ximena), Alexis Soto Pastrián ("El Rambo"), Ricardo Palma Salamanca y, muy especialmente, Juan Gutiérrez Fischmann, “El Chele”, ex yerno del ahora presidente pro tempore de la CELAC.

Sin embargo, hay un nombre que las autoridades chilenas han excluido de esta lista y que fue una pieza clave del engranaje terrorista en Chile: el diplomático y agente de la inteligencia cubana Luis Fernández de Oña.

Fernández es un viejo topo vinculado a la subversión en territorio chileno desde los años 70, vinculado al Departamento América del Comité Central del Partido Comunista de Cuba y bajo las órdenes directas de Manuel Piñeiro, Barba Roja.

Fue en funciones del Departamento América que Fernández conoció a Salvador Allende durante sus viajes a Cuba, mucho antes de ser presidente. En 1967 conoció a Beatriz Allende, hija de Salvador Allende, en La Habana y así comenzó una relación sentimental que terminaría en matrimonio poco después.

En 1970 el gobierno cubano lo asignó a la representación diplomática en Chile como encargado de negocios, ya que no existían relaciones diplomáticas entre ambos países. Tras el triunfo de la Unidad Popular en 1971, Fernández ocupa formalmente el cargo de consejero político de la Embajada de Cuba, aunque en realidad era el jefe del centro de inteligencia de la misión cubana.

Defendiendo la embajada

Aprovechando la relación con Beatriz, recibió la orientación de influir en ella  para que Allende creara un grupo de seguridad formado con gente del Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria (MIR) y ajeno a los carabineros. Beatriz era la más cercana asesora de su padre y logró convencerlo para la creación de llamado Grupo de Apoyo del Presidente (GAP), del que formó parte el ahora empresario Max Marambio, prófugo de la justicia cubana.

Como jefe de centro de inteligencia, Fernández estuvo entre los representantes cubanos que defendieron la embajada durante el golpe militar y tuvo a su cargo la documentación confidencial a la hora de la evacuación hacia la isla.

Gabriela Gutiérrez Castro, hija del fundador del FPMR Juan Gutiérrez Fischmann y Mariela Castro.

Al llegar a Cuba, se reúnen con Raúl Castro, pues Fidel Castro se encontraba en ese momento de visita en Vietnam.

Fernández tuvo dos hijos con Beatriz: Maya, nacida en los días posteriores del derrocamiento de la Unidad Popular (el golpe militar tomó a Beatriz en La Moneda en la etapa final del embarazo), y Alejandro Salvador Allende, quien fue inscrito con el apellido materno primero en memoria del abuelo. Maya regresó a Chile y se dedica actualmente a la política, mientras que Alejandro reside en Nueva Zelanda.

Poco después de su regreso a Cuba, Fernández se separó de Beatriz y volvió con su primera esposa cubana, de quien se comenta nunca estuvo separado del todo. Beatriz terminó suicidándose de un disparo en 1977 y sus restos descansan en el Panteón de las Fuerzas Armadas en el Cementerio de Colón.

Esta es la historia conocida de Fernández, quien hoy visita con regularidad Chile sin que nadie le pida cuentas por los sus andanzas encubiertas contra la institucionalidad y el orden en el país andino.

Lo vi en compañía de Fidel Castro y Piñero en múltiples ocasiones en los años 80, preparando y apoyando acciones contra el régimen de Augusto Pinochet. Fidel Castro planteaba entonces la necesidad de  realizar una huelga general y de armar al pueblo para derrocar a  Pinochet, lo cual llevó a la introducción clandestina de armas en territorio chileno.

Las armas de Carrizal Bajo
En esta misión Fernández desempeñaría un rol fundamental. Fue él quien ayudó a traslado y arribo de armas por el poblado costero de Carrizal Bajo, en la zona de Atacama, entre mayo y agosto de 1986. Se considera la mayor operación de contrabando de armas ocurrida durante el régimen militar (1973-1990). La operación fue detectada y el grueso de las armas ocupadas por los carabineros, pero algunas pudieron entrar por otros puntos de la frontera chilena y fueron empleadas   por miembros del FPMR en el atentado contra Augusto Pinochet en septiembre de 1986.

La labor subversiva de Fernández desembocó cinco años después en el atentado que costó la vida al senador Guzmán, ideólogo de la derecha chilena y activo colaborador de Pinochet, el 1 de abril de 1991. Desde La Habana, junto al General Alejandro Ronda Marrero, de Tropas Especiales del Ministerio del Interior, coordinó el apoyo logístico que necesitaba el FPMR para su operación criminal.

Por obvias razones, el foco de atención y referencia de la prensa internacional está sobre Gutiérrez Fischmann, fundador del FPMR, entrenado militarmente en Cuba y colaborador señalado en el asesinato de Guzmán. “El Chele”, que asumió la dirección del FPMR en 1990, estuvo casado con la  hija de Raúl Castro, Mariela, con quien tiene una hija de 28 años, Gabriela Gutiérrez, graduada de Diseño y empleada del Centro Nacional de Educación Sexual de Cuba (CENESEX), que dirige su madre.

¿Eslabón perdido?
Aunque el caso de los terroristas chilenos ha recorrido ya un buen trecho, las sospechas sobre su paradero en la isla se reactivaron a partir del pasado diciembre, cuando la Interpol detectó al hijo de los prófugos Mardones Rojas y Escobar Poblete, saliendo con su hijo recién nacido de Chile con destino a Cuba.

Tras ese incidente, las autoridades chilenas piensan haber hallado el eslabón perdido de la “conexión cubana” con el atentado de Guzmán, y ha reforzado la petición de la Unión Demócrata Independiente al gobierno de la isla.

Piñera aprovechó la visita de Raúl Castro a la Cumbre CELAC para hacer la solicitud oficial en nombre de la justicia chilena y dijo haber encontrado receptividad del visitante.

Pero como parte fundamental de sus reclamos justicieros, los chilenos también deberían pedir cuentas a Cuba por Fernández, hilo conductor de la desestabilización y la violencia terrorista que les llegó desde La Habana bajo la tutela de Fidel y Raúl Castro.

*Juan Reynaldo Sánchez fue escolta personal de Fidel Castro entre 1968 y 1994, con grados de teniente coronel. Fue destituido y cumplió prisión en Cuba. Logró abandonar la isla en el 2008 y actualmente reside en Miami. Tiene en preparación un libro sobre su experiencia en la seguridad personal del gobernante cubano.

Expelled Senior Spy Assails Washington’s Unchanging Foreign Policy

cubaconfidential

Chris Simmons

Cuba Criticizes President Obama, Says Island is Changing While US Policy is Not

AP Updated: Friday, February 1, 2:58 PM

HAVANA — A senior Cuban official sharply criticized U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday for suggesting Cuba was stuck in the past, saying the only anachronistic element of the relationship is Washington’s half-century-old economic embargo.

Josefina Vidal, the head of the Foreign Ministry’s North American affairs division, said Obama was poorly informed if he thought Cuba had not changed in recent years. She said her country has always been willing to negotiate improved relations with the U.S.

“It’s unfortunate that President Obama continues to be poorly advised and ill-informed about the Cuban reality, as well as the sentiments of his own people who desire normalization of our relationship,” Vidal said in a statement sent to foreign media on the island. She said Cuba was “changing and advancing,” a reference to economic and social reforms enacted in recent years under President Raul Castro.

In an interview with the Spanish news channel Telemundo broadcast Wednesday, Obama said his administration is open to better ties but that “it’s got to be a two-way street.”
He said Cuban jails are still filled with political prisoners and that the island’s leaders are clinging to a failed model. “It’s time to join the 21st century,” he said. “It’s one thing to have cars from the 1950s. It’s another thing when your whole political ideology .. is 50 years or 60 years old and it’s been proven not to work.”

In recent years, Cuba has allowed for limited capitalism and legalized the real estate market, among other reforms, while insisting the changes did not constitute a break from its socialist model. Among the measures getting the most attention was last month’s lifting of a longstanding requirement that islanders ask the government’s permission to travel abroad.
Dissident blogger Yoani Sanchez’s request for a new passport was granted on Thursday. Last year she was denied a “white card,” or exit permit, when she tried to travel to Brazil for a film festival, something she says has happened to her about 20 times in recent years. “Visas for (hashtag)Brazil and for the (hashtag)Schengen agreement nations arranged, they will be delivered to me next week,” Sanchez said on Twitter on Friday. The “Schengen area” is a region in Europe within which there are little or no border or visa controls between Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany and France.

But Sanchez and others bemoaned the denial of passports to two other government opponents. Dissidents Angel Moya and Jose Daniel Ferrer were turned down under a clause that lets the government withhold travel papers to people facing legal cases, or for reasons of national security or public interest. The men were among the 75 activists jailed in the 2003 “black spring” crackdown on dissent. While they were later freed, their release was conditional and technically are still serving long sentences.

Mixed in with the mutual recriminations between Obama and Vidal were the usual conditional affirmations of openness to dialogue.
In her rebuttal of Obama, Vidal says America “can always count on the willingness of the people and government of Cuba to work to advance bilateral relations.”
Obama, in his Telemundo interview, said that he could foresee improved ties during his second term if Cuba meets him half way.

Editor’s Note: Josefina de la C. Vidal Ferreiro left the US in May 2003 when her husband, Jose Anselmo Lopez Perera; and 13 other spy-diplomats were thrown out of the United States. Vidal and Maria Cristina Delgado Suarez (wife of expelled spy Raul Rodriguez Averhoff) both left the country voluntarily. That said, both women were known to US authorities as Cuban intelligence officers and this fact played into the selection of their husbands for expulsion.

Cuban “Numbers Station” Spy Broadcast From Last Week

Cubaconfidential

Standard voice pattern begins at 27 second mark, only to be repeatedly intermixed with what sounds like digital bursts. 

Miami Herald Continues to Minimize Columnist’s Ties to Cuban Intelligence

Chris Simmons

Editor's Note:  A  very interesting exchange between University of South Carolina professor, Dr. Tony de la Cova, and the Miami Herald.  For those unfamiliar with Dr. de la Cova's work, his website (www.latinamericanstudies.org) is a Must-Read, especially the Cuba section.

From: delacova@latinamericanstudies.org

Sent: Saturday, December 22, 2012 2:34 PM

To: Myriam Marquez

Cc: Juan Tamayo ; David Landsberg ; Manny ; Jay ; Michael Sallah ; mailto:AMarques@miamiherald.com ; Edward Schumacher-Matos

Subject: Re: Selective journalism

Dear Ms. Marquez,

Thank you for your prompt response.

Marifeli Perez-Stable

Professor Marifeli Pérez-Stable for years appeared on the Miami Herald website as a member of the Board of Contributors to the Miami Herald. The Miami Herald to this day has avoided fully investigating the various accusations against her of being controlled for more than a decade by the Cuban Directorate General of Intelligence (DGI). The accusation was first made by DGI defector Capt. Jesús Pérez Méndez in an FBI debriefing in 1983. A copy of the document appears here:  http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/espionage/Perez-Mendez-debriefing.pdf

I have been a university professor for two decades with a lengthy and award-winning academic publication record that is found here http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/articles.htm

In contrast, while you offer so-called “Cubanologists” access to the Herald’s Opinion page, you personally denied me the same right of rebuttal that you gave Prof. Pérez-Stable in November 2009, in response to the Herald ombudsman´s article “Charges against columnist don’t add up.” Ombudsman Edward Schumacher-Matos mentioned me eight times in seven paragraphs with a total of 356 words. Instead, you chose to limit me to a 330-word “Letter to the Editor” rather than the same 700-word op-ed piece afforded Pérez-Stable. To refresh your memory, please read our exchange of emails on my academic website here http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/espionage/Miami-Herald-spy-polemic.htm

I use that correspondence as a teaching tool to let my students judge for themselves if the Miami Herald denied me the appropriate right of rebuttal and if the newspaper uses selective journalism. You are invited to attend my class to present the Herald’s viewpoint when we again discuss this issue next semester.

Enjoy the holidays.

Antonio de la Cova, Ph.D.

From: Myriam Marquez

Sent: Saturday, December 22, 2012 1:44 PM

To: mailto:delacova@latinamericanstudies.org

Cc: Juan Tamayo ; David Landsberg ; Manny ; Jay ; Michael Sallah ; mailto:AMarques@miamiherald.com ; mailto:ombudsman@miamiherald.com

Subject: Re: Selective journalism

Dear Mr. de la Cova,

Please correct your false assertion about Prof. Perez-Stable's links to TMH. The professor wrote two columns monthly for The Miami Herald. She was never a member of the editorial board and certainly never guided editorial positions. We offer an array of opinions on our pages, prominently including Cubanologists Carlos-Alberto Montaner, Jose Azel, Jaime Suchlicki, Pedro Roig, and many others every week.

Wishing you a happy new year,

Myriam Marquez

On Dec 22, 2012, at 12:42 PM, <delacova@latinamericanstudies.org> wrote:

Juan Tamayo

Miami Herald

Dear Juan:

Elsa y Carlos Alvarez

I read your article “Ricardo Alarcón will leave his post as president of the Cuban legislature,” published in the Herald on December 20, http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/12/20/3151330/ricardo-alarcon-will-leave-his.html where you again mention Cuban intelligence operative Mercedes Arce and that “Former FIU professor Carlos Alvarez, convicted of spying for Cuba, identified Arce as one of his handlers in the 1980s and 1990s.”

However, the Herald once again omits mention that Professor Alvarez, in page 489 of his FBI interrogation, that appears here http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/espionage/Alvarez-spy-6.pdf stated that when Arce visited Miami, she stayed in the home of accused Castro agent, former Miami Herald Editorial Board member and FIU Professor Marifeli Pérez-Stable, whose background appears here http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/espionage/marifeli.htm

Mercedes Arce

I indicated this to you in my email of June 7, 2012, and your terse response was: “thanks for reminding me of the arce-marifeli connex.” I wrote back the same day: “There is a pattern at the Herald of omitting any information linking their columnist Marifeli Perez-Stable to Cuban spies, such as Mercedes Arce, who stayed at her residence.”

I first brought this issue to the Herald’s 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 Miriam Marquez, that I copied other Herald editors and posted on my academic website at http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/espionage/Miami-Herald-spy-polemic.htm

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.”

Three years have passed since that exchange of emails and the Herald is still using biased and selective journalism on this story. The Herald continues neglecting to investigate or mention the decade-long links between Professor Perez-Stable and Cuban intelligence agents such as Arce.

In consequence, I have used my posted email exchanges with the Herald as a teaching tool for my history students as an example of the Herald’s duplicity, manipulation and yellow journalism.

Sincerely,

Antonio de la Cova, Ph.D.