Lázaro Raúl González, CPI
PINAR DEL RIO, July - It used to be that Cuban television broadcast a spy
series titled "It Had To Be In Silence." Most Cubans were convinced of
the infallibility of the agents the Cuban government had spread all over the
map. The system of internal vigilance the government maintained in the island
also contributed to this conviction. In Cuba, everyone feels watched, even
inside their homes. In every block, in every building, the Committees for the
Defense of the Revolution have people, between five and six million volunteers,
watching each other.
Of course, the very best spying mechanisms are the ones State Security
applies against pacific resisters and independent journalists. The dissidents
are constantly watched, even their friends and family are not exempt from spying
by the numerous collaborators of the political police.
The control over the life of the dissidents extends to their correspondence
and their phone calls. There's no single activity that's not photographed,
watched and classified by one or more secret agents.
In Cuba, anyone suspects the neighbor across the street, or the one out
back, which doesn't mean anyone trusts the ones that live to either side.
From the domestic situation, Cubans infer the size of the foreign legion of
the Cuban spy apparatus. It is known that its tentacles reach anywhere there may
be an interest. South Florida constitutes the most widely and best covered
territory of the government's intelligence agents.
From a "hostile" Miami, just about anything is broadcast to Cuba,
from the
writings of collaborators like Lázaro Fariñas or Max Lesnik
(who more than intelligence agents seem agents of opportunity) to the coded
ciphers that only the specialists can read.
In spite of the myth of infallibility, a net of Cuban spies was discovered
by the FBI in 1998. The Cuban government once more evidenced that its favorite
game is hide and seek; it waited three years to let Cubans know the story.
According to American and international law, the five spies apprehended in
Miami will be condemned to long sentences, notwithstanding that their masters in
Havana have declared them innocent and, in spite of their stealth and
professionalism, the whole world knows about them. It could not be done in
silence this time.
But it's no big deal to lose five spies in a country where anyone can be a
budding spy. It's no big deal because there are still between five and six
million of them. May the FBI keep them!
Versión
original en español
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