===Brief history of Cuban espionage and related extraterritorial activity revised===


Cuba has for long been a place where spies are active, this was celebrated in Cuba and after 1960 in the US by Antonio Prohias’ comic strip Spy vs Spy http://www.angelfire.com/hi/SpyVsSpy/. By their very nature such secret activities often only come to light when the agents are caught, defect or die; thus any historic vision of their actions is usually a kaleidoscope of apparently discontinuous events, reported differently by the different antagonists involved.


During the American Revolutionary War Cuban born José Eligio de la Fuente spied for George Washington, and Juan Mirelles who met with Patrick Henry for similar tasks (Anton, and Hernandez 2002). During the US Civil war the Confederacy employed a Cuban woman, Loreta Janeta Velazquez (aka Lieutenant Harry T. Buford) to spy on Union forces (Velazquez, 1876). Thomas Jordan, a former U.S. Army officer who became a Confederate colonel, started an embryonic spy network in Washington, D.C. as early as 1860, American Civil War spies. Thomas Jordan later became general in the Cuban forces in the Ten Year War (Antonio Pirala 1874, 1895, 1896; Enamorado, 1917). In subsequent Cuban independence struggles, the Spanish Colonial government employed spies and informers inside and outside of Cuba, notable the Pinkertons http://www.irishabroad.com/irishworld/irishamericamag/decjan03/hibernia/dynamitejohnnydecjan03.asp (Rubens, 1932), to try to control Cuban independence activity. Andrew Summers Rowan, was the silent stealthy “carrier” of the famous “Message to Garcia,’’ (A Message to Garcia, Calixto García) which never existed in written form (Rowan, 1922). Rowan, despite having written a history/geography of Cuba (Rowan, 1896) had never been to the island before, and thus was shadowed, guided and protected all the way, via Jamaica by agents of the Cuban Revolutionary Junta directed by Jose Marti.


During the Cuban Republic, in 1925, at the beginning of Machado’s legal term, Abraham Semjovitch, code name Fabio Grobart http://www.granma.cubaweb.cu/2005/08/31/nacional/articulo01.html, http://www.cartadecuba.org/castro_el_infiel.htm a Kremlin Agent helped make formal links between the Cuban Communist Party and the Communist International [736] PCC. Walker Evans (Evans, and Codrescu 2001) has an amazing photograph of a 1930s Machado informer of ‘’la Porra,’’ standing in his most elegant white suit watching for the resistance.


In the 1940’s Rogelio Recio Ramírez, leader of the ephemeral 1933 Mabay Workers Soviet develops the first secret cells of what will become the Sierra Maestra covert communist party. These cells engage in agi-prop in these mountains among the Guajiros and Montunos. When Castro takes to the mountains in 1956-1958 these super-secret cells, do very little fighting, but provide logistic support and information to the pro-Communist factions especially to Ernesto Che Guevara. These cells also work to oppose the non-Communist rebel factions of Frank País http://www.hup.harvard.edu/pdf/SWEINS_excerpt.pd and Huber Matos http://www.cubanet.org/CNews/y04/mar04/30o5.htm (Matos, 2002). All this relates to weapon supply to Castro in the Sierra, via Frank Sturgis (putative agent of the CIA and "burglar" in Watergate), José Figueres (past President of Costa Rica) and the Caribbean Legion (Ameringer, 1995) and thus to the Cayo Confites matter (see below) and to Alfonso Manuel Rojo (“the Che supposedly who spied on the “Che” Guevara) (1981), pilot Pedro Díaz Lanz and a number of others http://www.clarin.com/suplementos/zona/2000/02/13/i-00601e.htm who appear and disappear as Cuba’s spy dramas fold and unfold.


Cuba was also scene of German spying intended to locate ships as target for that country's submarine warfare in WW II. This was one of the more successful U-boat campaigns with over 23 ships sunk per submarine lost (Kelshall, 1994) suggesting that the Germans for a while had superior intelligence support. The book Voyage of the Damned (Thomas and Witts 1974) describes Otto Ott a dwarf spy who, it seems, was surprisingly effective. Others describe Heinz Lüning http://www.il.proquest.com/proquest/newsletters/04/historyjan04.shtml as a tall handsome, but not very effective, German spy who was captured, tried and shot by the Batista government on November 10th 1942. Somehow, these Nazi operations related to the Careño building in Havana a huge warren-like building which served as refuge for delinquents, it had been used in 1933 by Fulgencio Batista’s forces who suffered heavy losses here in their successful mutiny against their officers, and their Olympic rifle team in the Hotel Nacional Enrique Ros, but was also just across from the Humbolt 7 building where a dramatic killings played out the end of the 1957 failed Attack on the Palace (see below). Mariano Faget the Cuban government senior spy catcher takes the credit for the capture of Heinz Lüning. Ernest Hemingway’s short lived involvement in these activities seems only notable because of his use of Spanish Republican exiles,


Now wheels within wheels, smoke and mirrors, Mariano Faget this same spy catcher was charged with hunting communists in Batista’s second dictatorship (1952-1959). However, Faget apparently convinced Captain Estéban Ventura (see below for fictional version as Capitain Segura) to catch mostly non-communists letting the communists escape, as was in the Humbolt 7 killings April 7, 1957 [737]. Those who escaped, Humbolt 7 before their companions were killed included Marcos Rodríguez Alfonso, «Marquitos». and Raúl Díaz Argüelles- Marquitos was later executed April 18 1964 on at Castro’s orders when his betrayal of his friends became public [738] [739]. Raúl Díaz Argüelles of course was the first Cuban general to die in 1977 Angola (see Fermoselle 1992).


Thus it could mean or could not mean that Faget the elder, was a double agent as his son (also named Mariano Faget) seems to have been [740], [741]. Naturally this accusation against Faget junior is denied as is customary in such cases by his alleged superiors in the Cuban government, [742].


This circumstance is reflected in the literature, for instance “Our Man in Havana” by Graham Greene (1958) http://members.tripod.com/~greeneland/havana.htm, Greene apparently anticipated the Cuba Missile Crisis and used Batista’s elegant goon Esteban Ventura Nova as his model for Capitan Segura. However, it is wise to recall that Graham Greene, who had worked under the direction of double agent Kim Philby, was well experienced in real spy games and like most Cubans of the time, strongly disliked Batista and sympathized with Fidel Castro. However, unlike many Cubans he did not alter his views with time.


Going back a little, there is the 1940 Leon Trotsky assassination in Mexico which is reported very differently by the numerous sides involved http://www.marxist.com/mexico-trotsky-museum240603.htm, http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/crime/assassins/ramon-mercader/. Trotsky’s assassin, Jaime Ramón Mercader,), was the son of Eustacia María Caridad del Río Hernández said to be Cuban http://firmaspress.com/454.htm, not as commonly thought, Spanish. Jaime Ramón Mercader after release from prison lived and died in Cuba and was buried in Russia as Ramón Ivanovich López.


Castro himself was a player in these activities long before reaching power. He was active in the 1948 Bogotazo in Colombia and some how involved in the killing of Liberal Party Cacique and presidential candidate Jorge Eliécer Gaitán http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/gaitan/gaitancastro.htm. There Castro’s ally was Rafael del Pino Siero, a naturalized US citizen who would be jailed and apparently strangled by agents of his former ally. Rafael del Pino Siero should not be confused with the Rafael del Pino Díaz, a pilot at the “Bay of Pigs;” to complicate matters further each Rafael del Pino had a son with the same name. Castro was involved, apparently as a minor player, in part of the aborted “Cayo Confites” 1947 and 1949 affairs http://www.angelfire.com/ga/garnata/Trujillo.html ((Ameringer, 1995)), which involved a massive Caribbean Legion plot to overthrow General Rafael Leonidas Trujillo, Dictator of the Dominican Republic, and which involved much equipment, including about 20, light, transport and attack aircraft http://www.nocastro.com/documents/aviacion/aviacion5.htm.


In the Castro era this matter has elicited an enormous amount of often conflicting published and web material. What is certain is that Castro cast a big shadow in the Cold War. Castro’s enemies or rivals honorable [743] and dishonorable often died mysterious violent deaths. The “Honey trap” is considered a standard technique on the island; and many visitors from clergymen (including a certain young rabbi) to film actors are reputed to have been subject to this technique. Cuban operatives and Cuban regulars did battle against US allies and US interests especially in Latin America acting as surrogates for USSR intelligence (Andrew and Gordievsky 1990). A particularly good source is Rafael Fermoselle (1992), who describes actions and spy masters. Aside from the well known interventions in Nicaragua [744] (Dickey, 1986) and El Salvador [745] there were a myriad of other operations. For instance Castro's bodyguard Antonio Briones Montoto was killed during a landing at Machurucuto Venezuela on May 8th 1967 [746].
The Venezuelan and Bolivian circumstances were full of spying Cuban trawlers and assassinations in the Ernesto Che” Guevara aftermath the “ [747].

Elsewhere similar actions were undertaken. In Africa, in Angola [748] and Ethiopia [749] (Spikes, 1993) there were tank battles. In Grenada, in the Caribbean, Cuban and US forces actually entered into combat [750]. In Vietnam Cuban engineers help build the Ho Chi Min trail [751], and Cuban intelligence harshly interrogated US prisoners [752]. Cuban tanker secretly fought the Israelis (Fermoselle,1992; Dayan, 1976). When the Soviet Union stopped supplying funding much of this ceased for a while, and the recently concluded Filiberto Ojeda Rios affair in Puerto Rico http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/28/AR2005092802077.html?nav=rss_nation/special relates to this time frame. However, more recently Cuban intelligence is once more active in the US as agents such as Ana Belen Montes [753] penetrated US intelligence services and the Red Avispa Network are found spying on Cuban exiles, US Armed Forces personnel and bases [754], [755], [756], [757], [758], [759]. A Cuban spy ring in Mexico is revealed and officially denied http://www.nocastro.com/archives/spymex1.htm. At present Castro and his ally Hugo Chavez have been busy through out Latin America [760].


The companion Foreign relations of Cuba article understandable given their number overlooks some of the many Castro overseas activities such as the training cadres of the Polisario front in Cuba of, the intervention in Eritrea, in the Congo, and in Bolivia and other places. Added details continually surface from defectors. For instance it is said that during Chile intervention Castro had a Cuban bodyguard, Patricio de la Guardia, kill Allende to make him a martyr [761]. Also overlooked are the old and new Venezuelan adventures, the support for the Macheteros in Puerto Rico, for the Montoneros in Argentina [762], or the Tupamaros in Uruguay Secretas/Tupamaros y Montoneros.htm, the disastrous 1959 landing in the Dominican Republic, apparently successful weapon supply to the rebels in Sri Lanka [763], the material and engineering and interrogation manpower support to North Vietnam (also see references above).


Given Castro’s involvement in recent anti-democratic events in Bolivia, Venezuela and Colombia [764] and the above 47 or more year history promoting overseas violence it seems unwise to believe as some do Cuban intervention under Castro that there is hope that Castro has reformed and seeks peace.


Ameringer, Charles D 1995 The Caribbean Legion: Patriots, Politicians, Soldiers of Fortune, 1946-1950 Pennsylvania State University Press (December, 1995) (Paperback) ISBN: 0271014520

Andrew, Christopher and Oleg Gordievsky 1990 KGB: The Inside Story of Its Foreign Operations from Lenin to Gorbachev. HarperCollins, New York, ISBN 0-06-016605-3 .

Anton, Alex and Roger E. Hernandez 2002 Cubans in America: A Vibrant History of a People in Exile Kensington Publishing Corporation (May, 2002) ISBN: 157566593X

Dayan, Moshe 1976 Moshe Dayan: Story of My Life. Williams Morrow & Company SBN 0-688-03076-9 p. 551

Dickey, Christopher 1986 With the Contras. Simon & Schuster ISBN: 0671532987

Enamorado, Calixto 1917 Tiempos. Heroicos Persecucion. Rambla, Bauza and Company, Havana.

Evans, Walker (Photographer), and Andrei Codrescu 2001 Walker Evans: Cuba (Hardcover) J. Paul Getty Trust Publications ISBN 0892366176

Fermoselle, Rafael 1992 Cuban leadership after Castro: Biographies of Cuba's top commanders (Unknown Binding) North-South Center, University of Miami, Research Institute for Cuban Studies; 2nd ed.

Greene, Graham 1958 Our Man in Havana: Viking ISBN: 0670531413

Kelshall, Gaylord T. M. 1994 The U-Boat War in the Caribbean United States Naval Institute Annapolis Maryland ISBN: 1557504520

Matos, Huber, 2002. Como llego la Noche. Tusquet Editores, SA, Barcelona. ISBN: 8483109441

Antonio Pirala (1895, 1896 and some from 1874) Anales de la Guerra en Cuba. Felipe González Rojas, Madrid

Rojo del Río, Manuel. 1981 La Historia Cambio En La Sierra. Editorial Texto, San José, Costa Rica 2a Ed. Aumentada

Rowan, Andrew Summers 1896 The island of Cuba; A descriptive and historical account of the "Great Antilla" H. Holt and company, ASIN: B00086NGHU

Rowan, Andrew Summers 1922 How I carried the message to Garcia W.D. Harney ASIN: B00086V3FW

Rubens, Horatio S. 1932 “Liberty. The Story of Cuba” AMS Press New York, 1970 reprint of 1932 edition. SBN 404-00633-7

Spikes, Daniel 1993 Angola and the Politics of Intervention: From Local Bush War to Chronic Crisis in Southern Africa McFarland & Company Jefferson, North Carolina and London ISBN: 089950888X

Thomas, Gordon and Max Morgan Witts 1974 Voyage of the Damned Stein and Day Publishers; 1st Edition edition (1974) Stein and Day, Briarcliff Manor, New York ASIN: B000BKOCGM

Velazquez, Loreta Janeta 1876 (2003 Editor Andrews, William L.)
The Woman in Battle (The Civil War Narrative of Loreta Janeta Velazques, Cuban Woman and Confederate Soldier). University of Wisconsin Press 2003 ISBN: 0299194248


For background Hugh Thomas Cuba or the Pursuit of Freedom (Paperback) Da Capo Press; Updated edition (April, 1998) ISBN: 0306808277) is essential reading although it has a few serious errors. For instance, readers are led to believe that the land measure Caballería is 330 acres (about 4,300 hectares) instead of the real 33 acres (about 430 hectares), thus grossly overstating the size of land holdings, with consequential political distortion. Numbers given for violent deaths are extremely conservative.