Five alleged Cuban spies appear more Maxwell Smart than John le Carre,
Mark Riley reports from New York.
The Sydney
Morning Herald. February 5, 2001.
Cuba might have a reputation for producing great boxers and world-class
baseball players, but it when it comes to spying it seems its operatives are
more Maxwell Smart than James Bond.
Two years ago, FBI agents swooped on an alleged Cuban spy ring in Florida
and arrested 10 men.
Investigators heralded the operation as the greatest breakthrough in the
post-Cold War era of espionage.
Five of those men went before a Miami Federal Court this week for what is
being billed as the biggest spy trial in the history of US-Cuban affairs.
However, as the evidence begins to unfold, observers are beginning to
question whether the FBI's claim was all smoke and no Havana cigar.
What has emerged is a picture of a hapless, if dedicated group of men who
met regularly in hamburger joints and supermarkets and relayed to Cuba such
stunning intelligence as the Miami bus schedule, the comparative prices of
sending mail via Federal Express or the United Parcel Service and the fact that
Americans like to eat ice cream.
The US media are describing the case as anything from a John le Carre
thriller to a Leslie Nielsen film.
Most of the evidence was gleaned from 1,400 pages of coded letters and
emails that were intercepted by the FBI. The contents range from the banal to
the deadly serious, as the spies relate information from the American way of
life to low-grade news about US military bases.
One document records how the head of the spy group, Gerardo Hernandez,
codenamed "Giro", almost sideswiped the CIA's best known retired
operative with a shopping trolley while apparently conducting surveillance in a
Miami supermarket.
Giro recognised the former agent as Felix Rodriguez, the man credited with
tracking down the revolutionary leader Ernesto "Che" Guevara in
Bolivia in 1967.
In a message sent to his Cuban secret service bosses that night, Giro said
he employed some quick thinking that allowed him to get away with his
embarrassing near-collision. He fooled Mr Rodriguez by acting like any other
suburban shopper. He apologised, then went and bought an ice cream.
"This business about shopping and then buying something to eat before
leaving is a common practice among the clients of this place," he informed
his handlers earnestly.
Other documents show that one of Giro's chief operatives, Joseph Santos,
codenamed "Mario", found the espionage business a bit tough. Far from
the glamorous movie spy life of fast women, faster cars and martinis, Mario
struggled to make ends meet in a small flat with his wife.
His mission was to infiltrate the US military's Southern Command
headquarters, but the most powerful intelligence he was able to garner in four
years of spying was a detailed account of how to rent a post office box.
The less-than-super Mario's greatest downfall was that he had to work two
jobs to cope with the substantially higher cost of living in the US. This left
very little time for espionage.
However, the central accusation being levelled against the group, known as
the "Red Avispa" or "Wasp Network", is no joke.
The FBI believes the men sent information to Havana in 1996 that helped
Cuban fighter jets to shoot down two planes being flown by members of the Cuban
exile group, Brothers to the Rescue.
The aircraft were flying to Cuba to air-drop leaflets encouraging an
uprising against the Cuban President, Dr Fidel Castro. All four men on the
planes died.
The five men are charged with conspiracy to murder as well as espionage.
Their five accomplices pleaded guilty to espionage at an earlier hearing and are
each serving seven years in jail.
It is alleged that the spies were sent to Miami primarily to infiltrate the
city's vocal and politically active Cuban exile community, which gained
international notoriety last year during the Elian Gonzalez affair.
"There is such fanaticism and hate in this community that it makes them
vulnerable," Giro said.
Now, Giro's own fanaticism is making him vulnerable. He faces life in jail
if found guilty.
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