Julia Sweig, the Council on Foreign Relations resident Cuba expert, accompanied Fidel Castro yesterday to the National Aquarium along with journalist Jeffrey Goldberg from the Atlantic magazine and Adela Dworin, president of the Jewish Community of Cuba.
In October 2008, Cuban spy hunter Lt. Col. Chris Simmons of the Cuban Intelligence Research Centerappeared on journalist Oscar Haza‘s Miami-based public affairs television program, A ManoLimpia, exposing individuals allegedly associated with Cuban intelligence.
Ms. Sweig, according to Lt. Col. Simmons, has an alleged association to the Cuban Intelligence Service (CuIS).
(Image: In the left photograph, Sweig is seated next to Fidel Castro on his left, and in the right photograph, she is to the right wearing what looks to be a red dress with large circular white patterns. Click on images to enlarge. By Estudios Revolución.]
Jerry Brewer of Criminal Justice International Associates pens an op-ed (via Mexidata.info) on whether U.S. concessions are justified in light of the Castro regime’s destabilizing campaign in Latin America and continuous iron grip at home:
As Cuba and Latin America’s leftist regimes continue their efforts to prevent the U.S. from assisting its democratic neighbors with drug interdiction, and in the fight against transnational criminal insurgencies — violence and deaths continue to soar. In Venezuela alone, reports indicate a murder rate of 220 per 100,000 people. This is a higher rate than Mexico’s Ciudad Juarez.
Indeed, Caracas may currently be the most violent city in the world.
The U.S. must remember that Cold War espionage against us, by Cuba, is still alive and well. Too, the Guantanamo base remains a strategic observation hub for Caribbean activities that potentially threaten free people within this hemisphere. And it is clear Fidel Castro wants us out.
President Obama holds the cards. To free the Cuban people is a decision of the Castro regime.
(Image: Front page of August 13 edition of El Nacional showing homicide victims in a Caracas morgue as a result of spiraling violence.)
“Cuban intelligence agents also are spying on U.S. operations and intentions around the world, and the Cuban spies are working with “a number of U.S. adversaries and competitors.”
—Retired Admiral Dennis C. Blair (former U.S. Director of National Intelligence) during his annual threat briefing before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence in February, 2010.
Jerry Bremer, CEO of Criminal Justice International Associates via Mexidata.com asks whether Cuba continues to pose a security risk to anyone in the Western Hemisphere:
Cuba’s Interior Ministry reportedly consists of approximately 20,000 officials assigned to their security and intelligence apparatus, along with an estimated 50,000 Cuban nationals in various official missions in Venezuela.
Castro’s resource starved revolution has been nurtured generously by President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. The Castro brother’s personal wealth has been estimated as “combined — easily worth $2 billion.” The Chavez Frias family in Venezuela “has amassed wealth on a similar scale since Chavez’s presidency began in 1999.”
[...]
Cuba had been getting approximately $5 billion a year from Venezuela in “oil, cash and kind.” It is further believed that Bolivarian organized crime groups entrenched within Chavez’s administration “have skimmed about $100 billion of the nearly $1 trillion of oil revenues PDVSA Oil has earned since 1999.”
[...]
Both Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez continue to telegraph nervous vibes to true democratic and free nations with their vociferous support of Iran, Syria and North Korea, among others named as state sponsors of world terrorism, this as well as denouncing Israel and the U.S. The Castro and Chavez revolutions are indeed suspect, insofar as neither appears to benefit the suffering of the Cuban nor Venezuelan people.
Cuba is much less armed and resourced to defend a revolution by itself. If the Castro brothers and Chavez truly want to stand up factually to defend a benign threat to the hemisphere, as well as lead their people to a higher standard of survival and living conditions, they must aggressively denounce terrorism, drug trafficking, and related death and violence. Their actions in this positive step might show some genuine sincerity.
The man behind the operation that broke up the most important organization involved in falsified documents in the United States was a double-agent who worked for Cuba and the United States. His codename was Lázaro.
In statements to EFE, Lázaro (whose real name is Robert Kelly) described the principal goal of “Tag Operation,” which was to prove Islamic terrorists used false documents sold by a [Mexican] group, however, the operation could not be completed because there was a lack of cooperation between U.S. security agencies.
Kelly (63-years old) is writing a book titled, Non Official Cover: The History of Lázaro (Sin cobertura oficial: la historia de Lázaro), where he relates his first mission was to infiltrate the Cuban General Directorate of Intelligence (Dirección de Inteligencia de Cuba) at the end of 1999 when he created a web page called La Voz de Cuba to defend the return of Elián González to his father.
He also asserts in his book that he was involved in the sale of SAM missiles in Nicaragua and in the defection of a Cuban scientist to the United States.
The 73-year-old great grandson of Alexander Graham Bell was sentenced to life in prison without parole for quietly spying for Cuba for nearly a third of a century from inside the State Department. His wife was sentenced to 5½ years. Retired intelligence analyst Kendall Myers said he meant his country no harm and stole secrets only to help Cuba’s people who “have good reason to feel threatened” by U.S. intentions of ousting the communist Castro government. [AP via Atlanta Journal-Constitution]
(Image: Artist rendering of Kendall Myers and his wife in U.S. Federal Court. The couple shared an admiration of the Cuban revolution. By Getty Images.)
The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has broken up an eleven member deep-cover Russian spy ring that included a Peruvian born journalist (with pro-Castro sympathies) along with her husband who wrote a column for Spanish daily El Diario-La Prensa in New York.
The New York Times has published the criminal complaints from the U.S. Justice Department.
Babalú Blog has more on a possible Cuban connection.
(Image: Peruvian born journalist Vicky Peláez is accused of being a Russian spy involved in a conspiracy to commit money laundering. By El Diario NY.)
Stratforanalytical article on insurgent/terrorist groups using criminal activity to fund its operations. A reference is made within the piece to the Cuban Intelligence Service (CuIS):
For the militant group, the addition of a state sponsor can provide an array of modern weaponry and a great deal of useful training. For example, the FIM-92 Stinger missiles that the United States gave to Afghan militants fighting Soviet forces greatly enhanced the militants’ ability to counter the Soviets’ use of air power. The training provided by the Soviet KGB and its allies, the Cuban DGI and the East German Stasi, revolutionized the use of improvised explosive devices in terrorist attacks. Members of the groups these intelligence services trained at camps in Libya, Lebanon and Yemen, such as the German Red Brigades, the Provincial Irish Republican Army (PIRA), the Japanese Red Army and various Palestinian militant groups (among others), all became quite adept at using explosives in terrorist attacks.
El Universal‘s interview with Simon Bolivar University graduate professor José Machillanda, who analyzes in his forthcoming book the transformation of a once professional military in Venezuela into a mere armed militia:
A professional military at the service of the State for the purposes of defense has turned into an armed militia under a political project. Hugo Chávez has “transmuted” the military to secure both his stay in office and the implementation of the 21st century socialism.
[...]
2002-2007 In the aftermath of the coup attempt on April 11, 2002, there was a void of power with top military officers being unable to put order in the Venezuelan society. The purge began, as well as the enforcement of new laws and the adoption of a new Cuban-style doctrine of “people’s war.” Corruption prevailed; Cuban militaries had a high profile. In this period, the president managed to centralize all administrative functions; reduced strategic studies and logistics, and fully implemented training and intelligence of the Cuban militia.
The detention of Gregorio “Greg” Sánchez Martínez (a leftist candidate for the Quintana Roo state governorship in Mexico) for money laundering and trafficking in illegal immigrants has exposed the nexus between Cuban intelligence and Mexican narcotraffickers, reports SIPSE.
El Financiero cites José Antonio Pérez Stuart, a columnist and expert on intelligence matters, who believes that the objective of the political association between Cuban intelligence and narcotraffickers is the penetration of Castro agents in Mexican territory in order to infiltrate Mexican politics, control government positions and utilize them to their benefit.
Behind the international campaign against the 2010 Arizona Immigration Law—SB1070 are bands of narco-communists, according to Pérez Stuart, in charge of infiltrating the United States from Mexico with Cuban, Chinese and Russian illegal immigrants.
Havana’s intelligence services are under suspicion for utilizing trafficking channels of illegal Cuban immigrants to infiltrate intelligence agents into the United States because their spy networks have been discovered/dismantled in recent years.
Sánchez Martínez’s wife, Niurka Alba Sáliva Benítez, is none other than the daughter of Cuban Ministry of Interior Colonel José Ángel Sáliva Pino (who works for Castro’s intelligence services and has always been close to Fidel and Raúl.)
She was involved in infiltrating Cubans, Russians and Chinese illegals.
Boris “El Boris” del Valle Alonso, linked to the Mexican criminal organization Los Zetas, worked with Niurka and kept tabs on the income generated from undocumented Cubans, Russians and Chinese.
Del Valle was Sánchez Martínez’s advisor because of his experience as a Cuban soldier in the Angolan civil war. He is also the son of an ex-Minister of the Interior by the name Sergio del Valle, who is the brother-in-law of Sánchez Martínez because he is Niurka Sáliva’s half-brother. El Boris is also related to Fidel Castro’s wife, Dalia Soto del Valle.
A thorough reporting of this Cuban espionage and Mexican narco/illegal immigrants trafficking web of criminal intrigue can be found here and here.
(First image: Gregorio Sánchez Martínez with his wife Niurka Alba Sáliva Benítez in 2007. Novedades De Quintana Roo; Second image: Boris del Valle Alonso. Por Esto! de Quinana Roo.)
In his national column, CIA Examiner, Robert Morton proposes tongue-in-cheek that the US outsource its domestic spying to the Chinese resulting from a recent ruling on a domestic surveillance program as being unconstitutional by a federal judge.
Why the Chinese? Well, they have a super-secret monitoring base in Bejucal, Cuba.
An excerpt from his piece:
Ever since a domestic surveillance program was ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge, I pose three reasons why Beijing should pick up the slack. First, our Asian friends have the opportunity to do it for us…in Cuba, China operates a super-secret complex that eavesdrops on our satellite-based military transmissions, the messages contained in our home and business faxes and e-mails…even the toppings we order on home-delivered pizzas!
CIA agents in Cuba grew suspicious when large numbers of names like Yang Chow and Yo-Yo Qian booked into hotels in Havana in the late 1990′s. Sure enough, a Chinese electronic espionage facility sprang up. In return, Beijing gave Castro electronic countermeasures to block Radio Martí from carrying pro-U.S. Radio~Miami and TV broadcasts into Cuba from Miami.
[...]
So, let’s entice their cloak-and-dagger operation near Bejucal, a small town south of Havana, to reprogram their orbiting satellites and ground based, state-of-the art signals intelligence hardware. Like a vacuum sweeping up dust particles off a carpet, they already suck up satellite-based U.S. military communications, along with business and personal computer e-mails, telex and fax messages. So, what’s the big deal about letting them inspect messages sent out from the U.S. to Al Quaida-friendly countries?
Morton further adds, “My outrageous outsourcing proposal underscores how legally and morally handcuffed our counter-intelligence services are. They need more help, but not from China.”
Dirk Rijmenants of the Cipher Machines and Cryptology website authored a paper on the flaws attributed to communication methods used by the Cuban Intelligence Service (CuIS) with its agents (e.g. Ana Belen Montes, Carlos and Elsa Alvarez, and Walter Kendall Myers) in operations against the United States as evidenced in FBI and U.S. District Courts’ documents:
One common link between all recent spy cases is how these agents received their operational messages. Apparently, the clandestine communication methods, described in this paper, are standard CuIS procedures. Despite CuIS using a cryptographic system, proven to be unbreakable, the FBI succeeded in reading some of these operational messages and subsequently used them in court. This paper is based on official FBI documents and the court papers on these espionage cases. It shows procedural and implementation flaws by the CuIS and its agents.
(Image: A “cheat sheet” provided by Cuban intelligence that Ana Montes used to help her encrypt and decrypt messages to and from her handlers. By Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
Jerry Bremer, C.E.O. of Criminal Justice International Associates (a global risk mitigation firm headquartered in Miami, Florida) asks in his piece, “Cuba’s Agenda in Latin America Remains Clearly Nebulous,” via Mexidata.info, whether Cuba is a conventional military threat to anyone, which perhaps they are not, however. In the intelligence sphere, especially in Latin America, they apparently are so:
The history of Cuba’s Castro regime shows that they have trained thousands of communist guerrillas and terrorists, and sponsored violent acts of aggression and subversion in most democratic nations of the southwestern hemisphere. U.S. government studies within the intelligence community documented a total of 3,043 international terrorist incidents in the decade of 1968 to 1978. Within that study, “over 25 percent occurred in Latin America.”
[...]
Recent reports by the U.S. DIA [Defense Intelligence Agency] show that Cuba has been expanding intelligence operations in the Middle East and South Asia.
[...]
…Cuba’s current intelligence and spy apparatus has been described and reported to be an active “contingency of very well-trained, organized and financed agents.”
[...]
Cuba has also maintained a well-organized and ruthless intelligence presence within Mexico, as have the Russians. Much of their activity involved in U.S. interests that include recruiting disloyal U.S. military, government, and private sector specialists.
Stratforissued a special report on Venezuela’s armed forces in early May, whereby the private global intelligence company opines:
Controlling Venezuela requires controlling oil and the armed forces, and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has managed to do both for more than a decade. Challenges to this control have emerged, however, such as enormous debt at the state-owned oil company and dissatisfaction in the armed forces at the role of Cubans in the South American country’s military. Still, Chavez’s hold appears secure so long as the oil revenues keep flowing.
And on the Cubanization of the Venezuelan armed forces:
The salary increase for the military also comes amid rising public criticism of the politicization and so-called Cubanization of the Venezuelan military. Former Venezuelan Brig. Gen. Antonio Rivero claimed the “the presence and meddling of Cuban soldiers” in the armed forces prompted his April retirement. Rivero said Cubans were operating at some of the highest levels in the Venezuelan military, delivering intelligence, communications, weapons and other training for the troops. He also denounced the extent to which Chavez has undermined military professionalism, and complained of the government’s move to expand its civilian militia. In the same address in which he announced the salary increase for the military, Chavez addressed Rivero’s complaints, saying he was saddened by the general’s attempt to draw attention to himself. Chavez also defended his decision to embrace the Cuban military presence by criticizing previous Venezuelan administrations for allowing the U.S. military to staff the offices of the country’s Army Command Headquarters and manage Venezuelan state secrets.1
While the opposition is eager to exploit the public relations sensation of a general condemning Chavez’s military policy, retiring generals and the Cuban links into the Venezuelan military are not exactly startling developments in Venezuela. The deep integration of Cuban forces in the Venezuelan military has been an open secret in recent years. By having enlisted soldiers and trainers percolate throughout the armed services at virtually all levels, the Chavez government has been able to tap Cuba’s security and intelligence expertise to keep tabs on dissidents and quash any potential threats to the government. For its part, Cuba benefits from being able to influence the policies of a regional, oil-producing heavyweight in South America. As Chavez’s political and economic vulnerabilities have increased, so have the opportunities for Cuba to entrench itself in Venezuela.2
This symbiotic relationship saw its clearest manifestation with the July 2008 passage of the Organic Law of the National Armed Forces. The law redefined the Venezuelan Armed Forces from a politically nonaligned professional institution (as stated in the 1999 constitution) to a patriotic, popular and anti-imperialist body, as described in the legislation. Chavez, not wanting to be caught off guard again by his generals as he was during an April 2002 coup attempt, created the law to develop a military primarily tasked with protecting and defending the regime from internal threats. The Cuban government, wanting to ensure Venezuelan dependency on Cuban security, is believed to have had a role in one of the more controversial articles in the law. This provision allows for foreign nationals (i.e., Cubans) who have graduated from Venezuelan defense institutions to earn the rank of officer in the Venezuelan armed forces.3
Another clause in the law forces officers into retirement if they are not promoted after two years. Though such provisions are common in many militaries, Caracas has used it with unusual frequency as a tool to remove potential dissenters. Under this system, political allegiance can easily supersede military merit when it comes to awarding promotions or forcing resignations. Cuban advisers, who have been tasked with identifying localized threats from within the armed forces, are believed to have significant influence on these decisions.4
Chavez recently remarked in Havana that he felt like he was “one more Cuban.” But many Venezuelans do not like the Cubans’ methods or their growing presence in the country, and Cuban integration in the Venezuelan armed forces appears to have alienated several high-ranking members of the military. Chavez, however, has knowingly incurred this risk, and undermining powerful military leaders was likely one of his key goals. Problematic generals can be forced into retirement while the Cubans closely scrutinize the remaining military elite, who are given perks to keep them loyal to the government.5
While this comes at the cost of considerable expertise and professionalism, Chavez’s goal is to ensure that the upper ranks of the military lack the operational control to challenge the president. Mid-tier members of the military probably worry the Venezuelan president more, however. After all, Chavez was a lieutenant colonel with the charisma to rally a sizable portion of the military and lower classes around him in his 1992 coup attempt and victorious 1998 presidential campaign. As long as he is the one occupying the presidency, Chavez does not wish to see any lieutenant colonels following in his footsteps. Since Chavez lacks the same reach and oversight with the lower ranks of the military than he has with the generals, pay raises are a way to help mitigate potential threats emanating from below.6
Notes
1. Stratfor. “Special Report: Venezuela’s Control of the Armed Forces.” 3 May 2010.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid.
(Image: Venezuelan soldiers participate in parade with Russian arms. AFP/Getty Images.)
The report presents evidence that the FARC moves freely in Cuba and Venezuela with precise information on guerrilla camps and supposed alliances to export the Bolivarian project in Colombia.
Moreover, there are 28 FARC encampments and 1,500 FARC men in Venezuela.
In relation to the FARC’s presence in Havana, the document identifies the geopolitical and geoeconomic activities of the group, e.g. in August 2007 there were solidarity brigades with the Cuban people and meetings in which representatives of the Latin American left as well as FARC delegates Liliana López Palacio, alias Olga Lucía Marín and Orlay Jurado Palomino, alias Hermes Aguilera were present.
(Image: Ivan Marquez, a member of the FARC central command, with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez during talks in Caracas, November 2007. By JusticeforColombia.org)
Andres Oppenheimer’s piece on Cubans running Venezuela:
Cuba is increasingly worried about Chávez’s political future in light of Venezuela’s growing food shortages, electricity blackouts, massive corruption and Latin America’s highest inflation rates. Fearing that it could lose the 100,000 barrels of subsidized oil a day that Venezuela sends to the island, Cuba is on a rescue mission to help manage Venezuela’s inefficient and corruption-ridden government offices.
[...]
Venezuela’s growing alliance with Cuba — “Venecuba,” or “Cubazuela,” depending on which country you believe has the upper hand — is a marriage of convenience that may backfire for Chávez.
[...]
Chávez, who has made a religion of “national sovereignty,” may be playing with fire by allowing Cuba to run his country.
But to many others, including this newspaper, he has come to embody a new, post-cold-war model of authoritarian rule which combines a democratic mandate, populist socialism and anti-Americanism, as well as resource nationalism and carefully calibrated repression.
[...]
In Mr Chávez’s case, that claim has been backed up above all by oil. On the one hand, he has deployed oil revenues abroad to gain allies, and to sustain the Castro brothers in power in Cuba.
[...]
He has been elected three times, and won four referendums. He has hollowed out Venezuela’s democracy, subjugating the courts, bullying the media and intimidating opponents. But he has been unable, or unwilling, to disregard or repress opposition to the same degree as Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad or even Russia’s Vladimir Putin, let alone the Castro brothers in Cuba.
(Photo: Army General Raúl Castro greets Venezuela President Hugo Chávez upon his arrival in Havana, 20 FEB 2009. AP.)
Martin Arostegui writes in tomorrow’s Washington Times:
A U.S. intelligence official said that Cuban intelligence officers also have been planted throughout Venezuela’s Foreign Ministry and that Venezuelan ambassadors posted overseas have been identified as Cuban intelligence officers.
Intelligence officers in Colombia, who have kept a close eye on Venezuela because of guerrilla activity at the borders and constant threats from Mr. Chavez to wage war on Colombia’s U.S.-backed government, have said that Cuba has established a “parallel chain of command” within the military.
A senior National Clandestine Service officer of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) using the nome de plume of Juan wrote a review (published last September intheCIA’s Center for the Study of Intelligenceperiodical Studies in Intelligence) of the book Memorias de un Soldado Cubano: Vida y Muerte de la Revolución [Memories of a Cuban Soldier: Life and Death of the Revolution] by Cuban defector and former intelligence agent Dariel Alarcon Ramirez aka “Benigno”.
Juan’s review relates Benigno’s exposé as a participant in Cuban intelligence activities:
This book is not about politics or ideology. It is a personal account in which the seasoned security official off-handedly exposes, often for the first time, a myriad of Cuban operations—a quality that is sure to appeal irresistibly to fans of intelligence literature. Benigno confirms much of what the United States has suspected of Cuban activities, but at times he provides brand new revelations of the involvement or extent of involvement of Cuban intelligence in seminal events from the 1960s into the 1990s.
And sums up:
The events Benigno chronicles fill gaps for those who have closely followed the 40 years of Cuban-assisted challenges to US security. The enthralling true-life tale of armed anti-Americanism, communist challenge, Cuban defiance, chicanery, espionage, and good vs. evil (told from the side of evil) is a must read for students of intelligence, the era, or the country. Unfortunately, Benigno’s attention-getting historical account of the Cuban threat will remain out of reach to potentially interested readers of English only.
The purge has revealed a power struggle at the highest levels of government, leading to the fall of some of Mr. Chávez’s military comrades and reports of secret dossiers on businessmen compiled here by intelligence agents from Cuba, Venezuela’s top ally.
At a time when Mr. Chávez struggles with public ire over electricity shortages and an economy in recession, the arrests show his ability to nimbly consolidate power while crisis swirls around him. To do so, Mr. Chávez is using tactics like secret-police raids and expropriations of some of his most powerful supporters’ businesses, relying on a dwindling number of military loyalists to carry out his orders.
Cuba needs money, spare parts for Soviet military equipment and a sense of alliance with a heavyweight player. During President Dmitry Medvedev’s November 2008 visit, Fidel declared that Russia and Cuba were natural partners because both were “constantly threatened by the same adversary of peace.”
A senior U.S. official has stated that Russia “has strategic ties to Cuba again, or at least that’s where they’re going.” Some say the Russians want to refit the listening post in Lourdes, outside Havana, which they abandoned in 2002, for use in cyber-espionage and cyber-warfare. Or the Russians might want a refueling base for their naval vessels and their bombers, which have resumed aggressive patrolling. (Right after Medvedev’s visit, Nikolai Patrushev, head of the Security Council, as well as Alexander Maslov, head of Russia’s air defense, also visited Havana.) But these are secondary, tactical considerations.
Russia’s No. 1 foreign policy objective is to keep Ukraine out of NATO. At the moment, NATO membership hardly seems imminent. Disappointed in liberalism, Ukraine is becoming more pro-Russian, and Europe is relieved not to deal with that troublesome country for the time being.
Along the Malecon has background on Alan P. Gross (apparently a beltway insider), the U.S. contractor arrested in Cuba and accused by the Cuban government of working for U.S. intelligence. Gross, who in fact according to American officials, had gone to Cuba to provide communications equipment to Jewish nonprofit organizations.
Original Spy vs Spy cartoon drawn by Antonio Prohias and featured in MAD magazine #60, January 1961.
The Cuban Intelligence Service (CuIS) “totally manages” Venezuelan security and has collaborated in implementing the “Iranian apparatus” in the South American country, reaffirmed several experts at a forum titled ”History of Cuban Espionage and its presence in Venezuela” held in Miami today, reports EFE.
A senior Cuban official said that an American government contractor detained in Cuba for more than a month was “working for American intelligence.” Parliament leader Ricardo Alarcon says the man is under investigation but has not yet been charged. Neither government has identified the man who was arrested on Dec. 4 on suspicion he was handing out communications equipment to opposition groups. (via AP, Reuters, AFP)
It is estimated that up to one million people were killed during communism in Eastern Europe – but there is no clear figure for those imprisoned, persecuted or spied on.
The whole issue of what to do about the past – forget, forgive, confront – is a live and contentious one in countries like Poland, Romania and the former Czechoslovakia.
And as most formerly communist countries have started to open their secret police archives, ordinary people are beginning to get a sense of how far the state intruded into their private lives.
European affairs correspondent Oana Lungescu – one of many Romanians who was watched – investigates.
At least a dozen guards from the Canaleta maximum security prison (which houses some of Cuba’s most notable political prisoners) in the province of Ciego de Avila remain under arrest since early November under the accusation of corruption and drug trafficking in connection to prisoners.
BBC Mundoreports on espionage in Latin America and Cuba’s role in it.
And of course there is Cuba.
“Both China and Russia’s services have a close relationship with the intelligence community there in an advisory role,” says Mr [Robert] Munks of Jane’s Intelligence Review.
Experts say this “advisory role” that Cuba has with Russia and China is spreading to other parts of Latin America.
Army General Raul Castro has taken his time to make “structural changes,” which have arrived, e.g. the rationing booklet (libreta de racionamiento) has its days numbered.
It is foreseen that Cubans’ desperation will generate conflicts but also the adoption of other measures such as currency unification.
To halt such an impact, the government has asked the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (Comités de Defensa de la Revolución (CDR) to prepare neighbors for upcoming hard times.
CDR’s will conduct a census of resident workers and increase surveillance to prevent illegalities, i.e. renting out rooms without a state license or sell aliments on the black market.
Click here to read the rest of El Correo Digital article.
Smiley meets his nemesis Karla face-to-face in the BBC televised serialization of John Le Carré's Smiley's People.
Babalu Blog has posted the following letter written by Cuban spy-hunter, Lt. Col. Chris Simmons (U.S. Army Reserve, Counterintelligence), to the Miami Herald clarifying factual errors in an article about Alberto Coll, whom Simmons has called an agent of influence for the Cuban government. (See CPD’s prior posts here and here for background.)
Too Little, Too Late, And Still Wrong
I was appalled by the errors and omissions in Juan Tamayo’s article “Ex-U.S. Official Was Investigated For Espionage”(7 Sep 09).
The Miami Herald presents only two new facts in this article. First, the FBI’s written acknowledgement that it investigated Dr. Alberto Coll for espionage and second, Coll’s admission that he knew he was the subject of an espionage case rather than a criminal inquiry regarding a travel violation.
In stark contrast to these two meager facts, the errors in the Miami Herald story are numerous:
First, you totally misrepresented Bill Gertz’s brief account of Alberto Coll in his book “Enemies: How America’s Foes Are Stealing Our Vital Secrets–And How We Let It Happen. Officials did not tell Gertz they “believed” [your word] Coll was a spy. Instead, they stated it as a fact. Gertz wrote “Cuba’s intelligence service had recruited Coll…in part, by using a female agent to seduce him.” Gertz also noted that Coll’s “…spying was uncovered in 2005.” These are not Gertz’s opinions or assessments, but facts provided to him by U.S. Government officials. You could have verified this yourself by calling him directly (his number is on his webpage, “The Gertz File”). You failed to take this elementary fact-checking step, something I confirmed by calling Bill Gertz myself.
Second, Coll maintained a top-secret clearance during his tenure with the U.S. government, not a secret clearance as you reported.
Third, Coll’s security clearance was permanently revoked and his law license suspended for a year following his plea agreement, two easily verifiable facts you omitted.
I am also curious as to the self-serving boast that “a month after his [Coll’s] conviction,” the Miami Herald filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the Justice Department. Why did you limit yourself to the Justice Department? After all, Coll worked for the Navy. As such, the FBI and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) conducted a joint investigation. Any reputable newspaper would have filed FOIA requests with both entities.
Likewise, you failed to contact Special Agent (Retired) Ron Olive, who led the NCIS office in Newport, Rhode Island during the Coll investigation. Now an author, a simple call to his publisher could have facilitated an interview.
On a related note, when is the Miami Herald going to file a FOIA request for the debriefings of Captain Jesus Raul Perez Mendez? The former Directorate General of Intelligence (DGI) officer defected in 1983 and “outed” at least 67 Cuban Intelligence officers, agents, collaborators and organizations. A three and a half page overview of his reporting has been available on the internet for years. Equally important, Perez Mendez is still alive and as of last year lived in Puerto Rico. When can we expect the Miami Herald to investigate this story? A Pulitzer Prize surely awaits the reporter who lands that exposé.
The Cuban Intelligence Services (CuIS) found within the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of the Armed Forces, and the Cuban Communist Party could hamper or promote a transition toward democracy when Communism passes as a form of government.
Romania’s experience offers examples of which path a post-Communist government can undertake in restructuring its intelligence services instilling the establishment of democratic control over an intelligence apparatus.
The article provides valuable lessons learned of democratic control over post-Communist intelligence services and the following paragraph best sums up that experience:
Romania’s intelligence system has followed a path from serving as an instrument of communist dictatorship to being an effective intelligence community under democratic control. This achievement is notable, considering both the relatively short amount of time for the transition and the foundations of the organization—the Securitate.
With the collapse of Communism in 1989, Romania transitioned from an authoritarian regime to a functioning democracy, thereby disproving scholars’ skepticism with regard to its low chances for democratic consolidation.
Its road to a free society has been long and difficult, but, despite a series of shortcomings and failures, Romania has built up from ground zero the basic democratic institutions (political society, rule of law, state-apparatus, economic society, and a functioning civil society), demonstrating that its ‘‘course towards democracy is irreversible.’’
Coll served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflicts under President George H. Bush, and later as head of the Strategic Studies Department at the Navy War College.
Last year he was accused of being an agent of influence for the Cuban government by Lt. Col. Chris Simmons in the Miami-based TV program A Mano Limpia.
Among circles friendly to the Cuban regime there has been commentary that Sylvia Wilhelm’s deposition in her defamation case against Lt. Col. Chris Simmons is quite complicated and may even backfire.
There might be moments on the horizon somewhat valuable for some people between Havana and Miami.
Last September, Gen. Michael Hayden (Director, Central Intelligence Agency) addressed the ODNI Open Source Conference in Washington, D.C. about the importance of open source intelligence collection.
General Hayden made an interesting anecdote (as follows) about his visit to a Key West open source facility wherein he watched a Cuban program and observed what analysts were able to extract from broadcasts on the island.
“In addition to that, we made a special effort to visit the outposts in the open source enterprise as well, and I think I we’ve got four of those already in terms of notches on my belt. One stop that meant a great deal to me was designed to be a courtesy call. I was in Key West, not on business. (Chuckles.) And there is an open source facility there that looks at that island about 90 miles just off the southern marker buoy there.
It was going to be a 20-minute courtesy call. I was there for three hours because, talk about time on target, the people in this little cinderblock shack on the extreme southern reaches of Key West knew so much about what was happening in Cuba. And for me as the Director of CIA to sit with them and watch Cuban soap operas and have them tell me what they were extracting from watching these soap operas was quite remarkable.
They gave me a videotape, DVD, of a program that they had captured from the Internet. And it had a Cuban soap-opera star starring in it, and there are only two other players. And his name is Nicanor (sp) and he’s making a fine brew of coffee and there’s a knock at his door. And it’s two individuals from the security service to install the microphones. (Laughter.)
We’re here to install the microphones. He says, what do you mean, microphones? And it goes for about 17 minutes of some of the most subtle satiric commentary on a totalitarian state I have ever seen. He mentions that they have to decide where to put the microphones and they can t put them in the kitchen because it s too noisy and the bedroom air conditioner interferes with it. So, finally, they say, we have to put the microphones in the bathroom. (Laughter.)
So he says, when I criticize the government, I must go into the bathroom? (Laughter.) And he said, why don’t we put another microphone over here? And then they begin to criticize him. What kind of person are you? There are only a limited number of microphones in Cuba! (Laughter.) There’s a family down the street that criticizes the government day and night. They have 11 kids and they’re only allotted one microphone.
It gave me a new appreciation for life and thought and the situation on the island.”
It looks like Gen. Hayden is referring to Monte Rouge, a Cuban satirical short, which spoofs state security. (Click video above to see the short.)
La Nueva Cuba’s lead story today informs of reports the newspaper received from within the island that “Russian personnel has been in Cuba for several months working on modernizing SIGINT operations in the old Lourdes surveillance and monitoring facility south of Havana,” (complex is center right in Google Map above) which was closed in 2001 by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The report goes on to say, “both Cuba and Venezuela will benefit with access to some of the information obtained from Moscow…Some of the monitoring operations has been activated and work is underway to modernize the installation with the most advanced Russian technology available. The amplification and improvement of these installations operated by Russia are part of a project of rearming and modernization of Russian armed forces and the goal of completion by 2011.”
Furthermore, “The new operations could include military sections dedicated to hacking or computer systems espionage with a capacity to neutralize U.S. military networks in the case of emergency and sensitive situations emerging from a military conflict or political necessity to pressure a weakened United States susceptible to political pressure.”
Cuban police have detained 100 dissidents this week in Cuba to avoid their participation in marches commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights according to an announcement made by the Cuban Commission of Human Rights – Comisi
Cuban police patrol cars stand along Havana Malecon seafront. Image: Getty/AFP
Carta de Cuba alerts that the Cuban capital is constantly surveilled by patrolling soldiers and police, whom traverse municipalities to impose order reports the independent press during the last couple of weeks. In the municipalities of San Miguel del Padr
A defamation suit has been filed against Lt. Col. Chris Simmons (US Army Reserve Counterintelligence Officer) by Silvia Wilhelm (executive director of Puentes Cubanos, Inc. and Cuban American Commission for Family Rights), reports Cuaderno de Cuba. On October 8, Simmons accused Wilhem as being an alleged agent of the Cuban Intelligence Service on A Mano Limpia, a public affairs program televised in Miami.
Ricardo Cabrisas Ruiz (Image from Juventud Rebelde)
According to a brief note in Granma, Ricardo Cabrisas Ruiz, Cuba’s Minister Without Portfolio, has been appointed Vice-President of the Council of Ministers and will oversee International Commerce, Foreign Investments, and Economic Collaboration ministries as well as other entities within the Central Administration of State.
Lt. Col. Chris Simmons appeared on Oscar Haza‘s program A Mano Limpia in Miami tonight. Simmons continued from where he left off in a previous program with Haza to expose individuals allegedly associated with Cuban intelligence and he also discussed the state of Havana’s intelligence operations (a restructured General Directorate of Intelligence – DGI).
The following persons are alleged by Simmons to be Cuban agents:
Jean Guy Allard – French-Canadian journalist who writes for Granma International;
Ramon Sanchez Parodi – first head of Cuban Interests Section, lifelong Cuban intelligence officer, closely associated with academic associations, civic groups. Now chief of Cuban Customs;
Simmons alleges the following individuals are former/present Cuban agents in Miami, and elsewhere:
Simmons also revealed that China is allegedly providing Cuba every three months with arms (all types), supplanting Russian arms, in exchange for the intelligence Cuba provides to the Chinese government.
Totalitarian dictatorships still exist and, as a matter of fact, they are very much alive in Latin America. Democracies throughout the Americas must immediately address their governments’ counterintelligence missions, and their strategic long and short range vision to monitor aggression and other forms of insurgency within their homelands.
Cuba’s intelligence and spy apparatus has been described as a “contingency of very well-trained, organized and financed agents.” Too, President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela has adopted the previous Soviet-styled Cuban intelligence service (DGI) as his model for Venezuela’s security service, known as the DISIP, utilizing Cuban intelligence counterparts and advisors.
What is the history of Cuba’s communist trained spies?
Cuba has trained thousands of communist guerrillas and terrorists, and has sponsored violent acts of aggression and subversion in most democratic nations of the southwestern hemisphere. U.S. government studies within the intelligence community documented a total of 3,043 international terrorist incidents in the decade of 1968 to 1978. Within that study, “over 25 percent occurred in Latin America.”
Recent reports are that Cuba has been expanding intelligence operations in the Middle East and South Asia. This reported by the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency.
Cuba has consistently maintained a well-organized and “ruthless” intelligence presence within Mexico, as have the Russians. Much of their activity involved in U.S. interests that include recruiting disloyal U.S. military, government, and “private sector specialists. Read the rest of this entry »
Russia is resuming its presence in such an important geostrategic area as Cuba and Latin America, Andrey Klimov, deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs, told RIA-Novosti. He was speaking about the results of head of the Russian Security Council Nikolay Patrushev’s visit to Cuba.
Klimov believes that Russia is resuming collaboration with its good old partner. He added that “Cuba has a very important geostrategic situation”. He thinks it’s right that Russia as a major power should be present there in the spheres of economy and security. The Duma deputy did not rule out that Russian military presence on the island may also be considered. “Russia is quite likely to take a decision on military presence in Cuba in response to the deployment of American ABM systems next to the Russian border,” the deputy said.
However, according to another cable from Ria Novosti:
Cuban leadership has no intentions to resume military cooperation with Russia after a surprise closure of a Russian electronic listening post in Lourdes in 2001, a high-ranking Cuban diplomat said on Saturday.
After Russian Security Council chief Nikolai Patrushev and Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin visited Cuba on July 30-31, the council issued a statement saying: “Russia and Cuba are set to make consistent efforts to restore longtime ties in all spheres of cooperation and to expand and strengthen them.”
“The Cuban leadership is ready to cooperate with Russia in civilian sectors but it is unlikely to revive bilateral military cooperation, especially after what happened with Lourdes,” the anonymous diplomatic source said.
Lt. Col. Chris Simmons, former US Army counter-intelligence officer and founder of the Cuban Intelligence Research Center, has revealed the following individuals as agents of influence of the Cuban government in the United States in an interview conducted by journalist Oscar Haza in his Miami-based TV program, A Mano Limpia.
Stratfor provides analysis about the current strategic issue in the Western Hemisphere and poses the question: what about subs instead of planes in Cuba?
Summary
With rumors flying (along with subsequent denials) about the potential stationing of Russian military aircraft in Cuba, there is another possibility: the stationing of Russian submarines. It would be a Cold War redux
Fidel Castro’s latest missive reflects on the “eventual installation of strategic Russian fighter-planes bases” in Cuba:
Raul was right to keep dignified silence over the statements published last Monday, July 21st, by Izvestia on the eventual installation of strategic Russian fighter-planes bases in our country. The news came up from a certain hypothesis elaborated in Russia associated with the Yankees obstinacy in setting up radars and launching pads for their nuclear shield close to the borders of that great power.
Yesterday, July 22nd, General Norton Schwartz, recently appointed U.S. new Air Force Chief of Staff, said at the Senate that if Russia did that it would be crossing the red line, something inadmissible to the United States security.
“Cuba is a unique place to gather intelligence on the United States. I believe that the reopening of this station is both possible and necessary amid the threat that the Americans are creating for Russia,” –Alexander Pikayev, head of the disarmament and conflict resolution department at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ World Economics and International Relations Institute, told a news conference at RIA Novosti.
The U.S. military is reviving a naval command for the Latin America and the Caribbean region, which has not been active since World War II. Officials say the re-establishment of the Fourth Fleet does not change the Navy’s mission in the area. But VOA’s Brian Wagner reports some regional leaders fear it will lead to an increased U.S. military presence.
The head of Southern Command, Admiral James Stavridis is to lead a ceremony Saturday for the re-establishment of the Fourth Fleet based in Mayport, Florida. The fleet was created in 1943 to guard against enemy boats, submarines and blockade runners, and was retired shortly after the end of World War II. Since then, the Second Fleet based in Virginia has handled naval operations throughout the Atlantic Ocean.
But military officials say now it is time to renew the Fourth Fleet command to oversee ongoing operations in the Caribbean and Latin America, such as joint training, counterdrug operations and disaster relief.
[...]
Some Latin American leaders, however, see the carrier visit and the re-establishment of the Fourth Fleet as a new U.S. military push in the hemisphere.
At a recent trade summit, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said the U.S. naval command could pose a threat to Venezuela’s vast oil resources.
Chavez said Latin American leaders should ask the United States what the Fourth Fleet plans to do in Latin American waters, and said he sees it as a clear threat.
In a Cuban state newspaper, former leader Fidel Castro cited an Argentine newspaper article suggesting the U.S. fleet could be used to seize food and energy resources, as prices for those goods are soaring. Bolivia’s President Evo Morales called it the Fourth Fleet of intervention.
Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead officially re-established U.S. 4th Fleet and named Rear Adm. Joseph D. Kernan as its commander during a ceremony at Naval Station Mayport July 12.
The ceremony followed the U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command (NAVSO) change of command, during which Kernan relieved Rear Adm. James W. Stevenson Jr.
Kernan, the dual-hatted NAVSO and 4th Fleet commander, is responsible for U.S. Navy ships, aircraft and submarines assigned from east and west coast fleets to operate in the U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) area of focus, which encompasses the Caribbean, Central and South America and surrounding waters.
The historical record indicates that nonviolent campaigns have been more successful than armed campaigns in achieving ultimate goals in political struggles, even when used against similar opponents and in the face of repression. Nonviolent campaigns are more likely to win legitimacy, attract widespread domestic and international support, neutralize the opponent
I’m about to receive an advance copy of the book and will post a review.
Here’s a description:
In January 1959, as Fidel Castro entered Havana in triumph, Americans hailed the revolutionary as a hero. Then came Castro’s increasingly anti-American talk, the rise in his regime of the openly Marxist Che Guevara and Raul Castro, and seizures of American-owned assets. In little more than a year, President Dwight D. Eisenhower concluded that Castro must go.
In The Bay of Pigs , Howard Jones provides a concise, incisive, and dramatic account of the disastrous attempt to overthrow Castro. He deftly examines the train of missteps and self-deceptions that led to the invasion of U. S.-trained exiles at the Bay of Pigs. Ignoring warnings from the ambassador to Cuba, the Eisenhower administration put in motion an operation that proved nearly unstoppable even after the inauguration of John F. Kennedy. The CIA and Pentagon, meanwhile, both voiced confidence in the outcome of the invasion, especially after coordinating previous successful coups in Guatemala and Iran. As a vital part of the Cuban effort, the CIA sought to incite a popular insurrection by recruiting the Mafia’s help in engineering Castro’s assassination on the eve of the invasion. And so the Kennedy administration launched the exile force toward its doom in Cochinos Bay on April 17, 1961. Jones gives a riveting account of the battle–and the confusion in the White House–before moving on to explore its implications. The Bay of Pigs, he writes, set the course of Kennedy’s foreign policy. It was a humiliation for the administration that fueled fears of Communist domination and pushed Kennedy toward a hardline cold warrior stance. But at the same time, the failed attack left him deeply skeptical of CIA and military advisers and influenced his later actions during the Cuban missile crisis.
Richly researched, vividly written, The Bay of Pigs offers an engaging and thoughtful account of the turning point in Kennedy’s foreign policy and indeed in foreign policy for decades to come.
At least eight members of Cuba’s opposition have been taken into custody in a police sweep targeting dozens of government opponents across the Communist island, dissidents here said Thursday.
Leading dissident Martha Beatriz Roque said as many as 40 government opponents have been targeted in the regime’s roundup.
While there were “eight confirmed,” she said, several dissidents in Cuba’s provinces outside of the capital city Havana were unaccounted for. “We don’t know where they are,” she said, fearing they too have been detained.
Elizardo Sanchez, president of an illegal Cuban human right commission, told AFP that among those arrested were Francisco Chaviano, Rene Montes de Oca, Leonardo Bruzon, Julio Cesar Lopez y Emilio Leyva.
“These are arbitrary detentions, and we hope they will be of a short duration,” Sanchez said.
Opposition leader Vladimiro Roca called the sweep “a giant act of repression throughout the entire country,” which targeted above all else dissidents in Havana “because we were planning to hold a meeting here and they did not give permission” for it.
The crackdown comes just days after the European Union decided to formally lift sanctions against Cuba imposed following a 2003 dissident crackdown, although, for its part, the United States administration has kept its sanctions in place and expressed disappointment at the EU decision.
The crackdown in Cuba, if confirmed, suggests that there may be limits to the amount of change the new government under Fidel Castro’s brother Raul, is willing to tolerate, despite ushering in recent widespread reforms.
The June 17 encounter between Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez, Castro advised Chavez to take care of himself from the Ecuadorean government, which is seeking an alliance with the United States.
El Universal, a Venezuelan daily, assures that Fidel Castro handed Chavez a report from Cuban Intelligence (G2) alerting to suspicious political movements by his colleague Rafael Correa, President of Ecuador, of a possible plot by his ministers to overthrow him.
The report reveals the Ecuadorean leader is formulating his foreign policy and looking for a transfer of the US military base to Colombia.
The most severe warning Castro gave to Chavez is related to a plan by Chavez’s closest functionaries to overthrow him and in addition recommended to change his ministers for incompetence and theft. If Chavez wants to remain in power, according to the communique, Castro’s warning will obligate the Venezuelan president to reinforce his security plan.
Castro also suggested to Venezuelan president to change his ministers because his greatest enemies are among them.
The following are internal Stratfor documents produced to provide high-level guidance to our analysts. These documents are not forecasts, but rather a series of guidelines for understanding and evaluating events, as well as suggestions on areas for focus.
Analysis
All guidance from last week remains in place. Supplemental guidance:
3. Venezuela and Cuba: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez tried to create a police state then backed off. Next thing we hear are stories the he is giving sanctuary to Hezbollah, which we assume is psychological pressure from Washington. Then he turns up in Havana for talks with Fidel and Raul Castro. In the meantime the European Union drops whatever sanctions are left on Cuba. Cuba needs Venezuelan help on oil. But it also seems to want to get out of its isolation. It
U.S. intelligence officials are analyzing newly released video of Cuban leader Fidel Castro for clues about his health and political viability, NBC News has learned.
The CIA has a medical intelligence unit that has long tracked the health of Fidel Castro and his brother, Raul, now the country
President Hugo Chavez is revamping his intelligence agencies to counter what he calls U.S. attempts to undermine his government.
Four new spy agencies will replace the current DISIP secret police and DIM military intelligence agency, Interior Minister Ramon Rodriguez Chacin said Thursday.
A new law has established the General Intelligence Office and the General Counterintelligence Office, both overseen by the Interior Ministry, plus similar military intelligence and counterintelligence components, Rodriguez Chacin told reporters.
He did not say how they will differ from the current spy agencies or whether any top officials will be replaced.
Rodriquez Chacin announced the change the previous night, saying the new agencies are meant to confront U.S. attempts to meddle in Venezuela’s internal affairs.
Chavez often accuses the United States of espionage against his leftist government. In 2006, he expelled a U.S. military attache he accused of spying.
The same year, Washington named a career CIA agent as “mission manager” to oversee intelligence on Cuba and Venezuela.
Stratfor has recently examined organized crime in Mexico, Italy and Russia. Their fourth installment focuses on Cuba.
A snippet of the report (for Stratfor.com members):
Stratfor’s fourth in-depth look at organized crime focuses on Cuba. In atypical fashion, organized crime in Cuba is run by the state and stems from a long tradition that places Cuban military and intelligence apparatus into positions of control over the island’s industry while both fostering and profiting from drug traffickers and smugglers.
Juan Tamayo of El Nuevo Herald has a piece on the 50th anniversary of the Battle at Escambray (the last armed internal combat against the Castro dictatorship.) Fifty years ago, Rivera was one of up to 4,000 Cubans battling Castro’s brand new government in a little-known, but nasty guerrilla war that raged in parts of [...]
The Cuban government has launched a campaign seeking ways to cut excess personnel in its state sector. José Ramón Machado Ventura, First Vice-President of the Council of State, visited several eastern provinces in the last week to assess efficiency in state entities by reducing personnel.
The Economist Intelligence Unit forecasts for Cuba, “fiscal retrenchment will limit growth to only 2% in 2010. In 2011 policy relaxation will allow growth to pick up to 3.7%.” Key indicators 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 Real GDP growth (%) 1.4 2.0 3.7 4.2 4.4 4.2 Consumer price inflation (av; %) -0.5 0.7 5.4 [...]
The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has broken up an eleven member deep-cover 
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Academic with alleged ties to CuIS in Havana
31 August 2010 at 0017 in Commentary, CuIS, Cuban Intelligence Service, Fidel Castro, Intelligence, Nomenklatura by Armando F. Mastrapa 3d | 1 comment
Julia Sweig, the Council on Foreign Relations resident Cuba expert, accompanied Fidel Castro yesterday to the National Aquarium along with journalist Jeffrey Goldberg from the Atlantic magazine and Adela Dworin, president of the Jewish Community of Cuba.
In October 2008, Cuban spy hunter Lt. Col. Chris Simmons of the Cuban Intelligence Research Center appeared on journalist Oscar Haza‘s Miami-based public affairs television program, A Mano Limpia, exposing individuals allegedly associated with Cuban intelligence.
Ms. Sweig, according to Lt. Col. Simmons, has an alleged association to the Cuban Intelligence Service (CuIS).
(Image: In the left photograph, Sweig is seated next to Fidel Castro on his left, and in the right photograph, she is to the right wearing what looks to be a red dress with large circular white patterns. Click on images to enlarge. By Estudios Revolución.]
Tags: A Mano Limpia, Council on Foreign Relations, Cuban intelligence service, CuIS, Fidel Castro, Julia Sweig, Lt. Col. Chris Simmons, Oscar Haza