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Cuba:
Espionage
Fact Sheet. Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs.
U.S Department of State, DC. July 30, 2003.
The Castro regime has long targeted the United
States for intensive espionage activities. Castro
himself told CNN in an interview in 1998, "Yes,
we have sometimes dispatched Cuban citizens to
the United States to infiltrate counter-revolutionary
organizations, to inform us about activities that
are of great interest to us. I think we have a
right to do this."
Ana Montes, a Defense Intelligence Agency analyst,
confessed to spying for Cuba for 16 years (from
1985 to the time of her arrest on September 21,
2001). Among other highly damaging actions, she
gave the Cuban Government the names of four U.S.
"covert intelligence officers" working
in Cuba and gathered writings, documents, and
materials for unlawful delivery to the Government
of Cuba.
Seven Cuban spies, the so-called Wasp Network,
were convicted of or confessed to espionage or
related crimes in June and September 2001. The
group sought to infiltrate U.S. Southern Command
headquarters. One was convicted for delivering
a message to the Cuban Government that contributed
to the death of four fliers from Brothers to the
Rescue who were shot down in 1996 by Cuban MiGs
in international airspace.
An INS official, provided information in 2000
in a sting operation, thereafter passed the information
to a business associate with ties to Cuban intelligence.
As a corollary to this case, two Cuban diplomats
were expelled from the United States for espionage
activities.
Over a 15-year period from 1983 to 1998, 15 members
of the Cuban mission to the United Nations were
expelled for espionage activities, including three
who were handlers for the Wasp Network in 1998.
Cuban spies have also found considerable success
penetrating U.S.-based exile groups. A notable
example is that of Juan Pablo Roque, a former
MiG-23 pilot who "defected" to the United
States in 1992, became a paid source for the FBI,
and joined the ranks of the Brothers to the Rescue
(BTTR). He "re-defected" back to Cuba
just days after the early 1996 BTTR shoot down,
denouncing the exile group on Cuban television
and accusing it of planning terrorist attacks
against Cuba and Castro.
A similar example involves the case of Jose
Rafael Fernandez Brenes, who jumped ship from
a Cuban merchant vessel in 1988. From 1988-1991,
he helped establish and run the U.S. Government-financed
TV Marti, whose signal was jammed from its inception
in March 1990, due in part to frequency and technical
data provided by Fernandez Brenes.
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