On Saturday, September 12, 1998, the FBI dismantled the largest Cuban spy ring ever discovered in the United States. Ten people were charged with being Cuban spies. The regime in Cuba is attempting to airbrush this past. This CubaBrief seeks to correct the record.
Ten, not five, Cuban spies captured by FBI on 9/12/98
The ten members of the WASP network captured are: GERARDO HERNANDEZ, 31 (alias Manuel Viramontes), the spymaster; FERNANDO GONZALEZ, 33 (alias Ruben Campa), and RAMON LABANINO, 30 (alias Luis Medina), another Cuban intelligence officer. The remaining seven were mid-level or junior agents who passed their reports to one of these three senior agents. Included were ANTONIO GUERRERO, 39, who observed aircraft landings at the Boca Chica Naval Air Station from his job as a sheet-metal worker there; ALEJANDRO ALONSO, 39, a boat pilot; and RENE GONZALEZ, 42, a skilled aircraft pilot and the only Cuban national among these seven. Both joined the Democracy Movement to report on its nonviolent activities against the Castro regime. Two married couples, all American citizens, also worked in the spy network: NILO and LINDA HERNANDEZ, ages 44 and 41 respectively, and JOSEPH and AMARYLIS SANTOS, both 39.
Cuban spy Juan Pablo Roque escaped.
JUAN PABLO ROQUE, an eleventh spy also charged and linked to the 1996 Brothers to the Rescue shoot down, had already fled to Cuba, a day before Cuban MiGs launched missiles destroying two planes, and killing four. Three others identified as John Does were also charged.
Five defendants, Alejandro Alonzo, Nilo Hernandez and Linda Hernandez, Joseph Santos and Amarylis Santos, accepted plea bargains and cooperated with prosecutors. These five Cuban spies provided information about the other five.
The other five spies eventually went on trial. The trial revealed that the Cuban spy ring was engaged in both espionage and terrorism.
The Wasp Network engaged in espionage: infiltrated two non-violent exile groups, provided information that led to the extrajudicial killings of Armando Alejandre, Carlos Costa, Mario de la Peña and Pablo Morales on February 24, 1996, targeted U.S. military facilities, planned to smuggle arms and explosives into the United States, and carried out other active measures to sow division, shape public opinion, and meddle in U.S. elections.
Gerardo Hernandez was found guilty of murder conspiracy and sentenced to life for the Brothers to the Rescue shoot down.
The Cuban spy network gathered personal information on American military personnel, "compiling the names, home addresses, and medical files of the top officers of the United States Southern Command as well as hundreds of officers stationed at Boca Chica Naval Station in Key West."
The spies had received orders from Havana to burn down an airport hangar, sabotage planes, first terrorize with warnings that he was "nearing execution,'' and then send a mail bomb to murder a CIA operative identified as Jesus Cruza Flor who lived in Bal Harbour.
Cuban spies targeted military personnel stationed at the Boca Chica Naval Station in Key West.
On June 8, 2001, the five Wasp defendants who had not entered into plea bargains were found guilty on all counts. In December 2001, three of the spies were sentenced to life in prison for conspiracy to commit espionage. Gerardo Hernandez and Ramon Labanino, both Cuban nationals, and Antonio Guerrero, a U.S. citizen, were sentenced to life in prison. Fernando Gonzalez and Rene Gonzalez, both Cuban nationals, were sentenced to 19 and 10 years in prison for conspiracy and operating as unregistered agents of a foreign power, respectively.
The five who refused to make a deal.
The five who pleaded guilty to one count of acting as unregistered agents of a foreign power and cooperated received lesser sentences: Alejandro Alonso, Nilo Hernandez, and Linda Hernandez were sentenced to seven years in prison, Joseph Santos was sentenced to four years, and Amarylis Santos was sentenced to three and a half years.
Five Cuban spies who made a deal.
Gerardo Hernandez, the head of the network was convicted of murder conspiracy and espionage and condemned to a double life sentence. President Obama commuted Hernandez's double life sentence on December 17, 2014, as part of the concessions made in the effort to normalize relations between Cuba and the United States.
Gerardo Hernández was promoted to Deputy National Coordinator of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR) in April 2020, tasked with monitoring neighborhood committees to spy on all Cubans on the island. He was also appointed to the Castro dictatorship's Council of State, the 31-member body that oversees day-to-day life on the island, on December 17, 2020.
Gerardo Hernández was in Moscow on May 31, 2023, leaving a wreath on a monument to Fidel Castro.
The 2009 book Betrayal: Clinton, Castro & The Cuban Five by Matt Lawrence, and Thomas Van Hare provides a compendium of the evidence. It exposes the facts about what happened and who knew prior to the murder of three Americans and one legal resident. All were volunteers out to save the lives of fleeing refugees. Below is a video introduction to the book by Matt Lawrence, one of the authors. Lawrence had volunteered his time, and flown search and rescue for Brothers to the Rescue.
The Brothers to the Rescue shoot down on February 24, 1996, and the influence operation conducted by Ana Belen Montes to direct blame away from the Castro regime, and onto the victims, drew the attention of investigators, and in September 2001 led to the arrest of this spy for Havana working in a sensitive position at the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) in the Pentagon. This is also explored in the book by Lawrence and Van Hare.
On May 17, 2012 the Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere in the U.S. Congress's Committee on Foreign Affairs held a hearing on "Cuba’s Global Network of Terrorism, Intelligence, and Warfare." Among the experts who spoke at the hearing was Mr. Christopher Simmons, founding editor of Cuba Confidential, an online blog and source for news on Cuban espionage worldwide. He is an international authority on the Cuban Intelligence Service and retired from the Defense Intelligence Agency with over 23 years of experience as a counterintelligence officer, and played an important role in the capture of Ana Belen Montes.
Simmons ended his presentation outlining and summarizing the high profile act of state terrorism that killed four Cuban Americans in an operation conducted on orders from highest levels of the Castro regime.
"Last, but not least, of the highlighted issues, I'd like to address Operation Scorpion which was addressed earlier as a shootdown of Brothers to the Rescue. While this mission on February 24, 1996 predates the other information I discussed, it is important because this act of terrorism involves highest levels of the Castro regime. On February 24, 1996, Cuban MiGs shot down two U.S. search and rescue aircraft in international waters. Code named Operation Scorpion, it was led by General Eduardo Delgado Rodriguez, the current head of Cuban intelligence. It was personally approved by Fidel Castro and supported by Raul Castro, the current President of Cuba. Four Americans were murdered in this act of terrorism."
The case of the Cuban WASP network and its involvement in the 1996 Brothers to the Rescue shoot down conspiracy, and plotting to terrorize and murder a retired U.S. intelligence agent underscores once again the terrorist nature of the Cuban dictatorship on the international scene.
Miami Herald, June 14, 2023
Why is a Cuban spy who was nabbed in the U.S. and freed in a prisoner swap visiting Moscow?
By Nora Gámez Torres Updated June 14, 2023 12:10 PM
A Cuban spy who was captured and imprisoned in the U.S., and later released in a prisoner swap with Cuba, has been making official visits overseas, including to Russia, for the island’s government, raising questions about his role, especially after his trip followed visits by the head of Cuba’s intelligence and security services.
During a two-week trip that started mid-May, Cuba’s Minister of the Interior, Gen. Lázaro Alberto Álvarez Casas, met with the Vietnamese minister of Public Security, China’s minister of Public Security and Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolay Patrushev, whom he had previously met in Havana in March.
Closely tracking Álvarez Casas with his own tour to Vietnam, Laos and Russia was Gerardo Hernández, the former spy who currently heads a Cuban organization with no foreign-policy mandate. Media reports and government statements placed Hernández and Gen. Álvarez Casas in Vietnam at the same time, and possibly also in Russia, though their trips have not been officially linked.
[ Full article ]
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article276104946.html
From the archives
The New York Times, January 5, 2003
White House Wary of Cuba's Little Spy Engine That Could
By Tim Golden
Jan. 5, 2003
Federal investigators' discoveries in recent years of Cuban espionage activities -- including an operation that penetrated the Pentagon's intelligence agency -- have cast light on what officials describe as a resilient intelligence service that continues to work aggressively in the United States.
Since 1998 in Florida, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has exposed a network of at least 16 accused or convicted Cuban spies who, while often pinched for cash by their country's economic troubles, succeeded in infiltrating several Cuban exile groups and worked patiently to try to get inside American military installations.
In a separate case in Miami, a senior immigration official convicted of disclosing classified information to a Cuban agent was sentenced in June 2001, and, last September, a federal judge imposed a 25-year prison term on the Pentagon's former senior intelligence analyst on Cuba, Ana B. Montes, who admitted to long service as a Cuban spy.
The Cubans' success at stealing American secrets appears to have been mixed. But even so, these incidents, along with concerns about Cuba's possible involvement in developing biological weapons and aiding terrorists, have set off a new debate about whether Mr. Castro's Communist government remains a threat to American national security.
''These activities and others prove that they are a hostile country,'' Otto J. Reich, the Bush administration's special envoy for the Western Hemisphere, said of the espionage cases.
Predictably, the disagreement has set administration officials who want to step up pressure on the Castro government against bipartisan Congressional leaders who have been gaining ground in a campaign to ease restrictions on Cuba.
But the matter has also taken on new urgency since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. In one behind-the-scenes fight, some administration officials have sought the reassignment of one of the government's most senior intelligence analysts on Latin America, arguing, among other things, that he has been ''soft'' on the threats posed by Cuba, officials involved in the discussions said.
Mr. Reich, officials said, was among several foreign policy officials who complained to the White House about government intelligence assessments on Cuba, in particular the work of the analyst, Fulton T. Armstrong, the national intelligence officer for Latin America.
According to several officials, Mr. Armstrong has written skeptically about Cuba's importance as a military threat, its intention to develop offensive biological weapons and its continued inclusion on the State Department's annual list of countries that sponsor terrorism. Mr. Armstrong, a career Central Intelligence Agency analyst who now serves on the National Intelligence Council, an advisory body for the director of central intelligence, also worked on the National Security Council in the Clinton administration.
But Mr. Armstrong's supporters respond that he has been targeted by ideologues who would distort the intelligence process to get the kind of analysis they want. These officials said that while Mr. Armstrong had sometimes ruffled feathers with his outspoken style, he was widely respected as an analyst and trusted by George J. Tenet, the director of central intelligence.
Mr. Armstrong, Mr. Reich and a spokesman for the C.I.A. all declined to comment on the matter.
During the 1990's, after the demise of the Soviet bloc and its subsidies to Cuba, a consensus emerged among American analysts that the security threat Cuba posed had greatly diminished. In 1998, a major Defense Department report to Congress concluded that the island's Communist government posed ''a negligible threat to the U.S. or surrounding countries.''
But that conclusion outraged Cuban-American political leaders and some others, who insist that the Castro government continues to threaten the United States in less conventional ways: by its alliances with countries like Libya and Iran, its support for several groups that use terrorism, and its development of biotechnology and cyberwarfare capabilities that could be used offensively. Cuban leaders deny any such threats.
More recently, some Bush administration officials have offered a new explanation for the relatively sanguine views on Cuba that emerged during the Clinton administration: subversion within the American intelligence community. ''A major reason,'' said the undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, John R. Bolton, ''is Cuba's aggressive intelligence operations against the United States.''
In a speech last year, Mr. Bolton noted that one of the early drafters of the Pentagon report was Ms. Montes, the Defense Intelligence Agency analyst who pleaded guilty to spying for Cuba for 16 years. Ms. Montes was not paid to spy but said she acted to help Cuba defend itself against what she saw as Washington's hostility toward the island.
Intelligence officials said Ms. Montes gave her Cuban handlers volumes of defense and intelligence information about Cuba, including military contingency plans, details of intelligence-gathering efforts and profiles of American officials. But while a formal assessment of the security damage that Ms. Montes caused is continuing, several officials said there was no evidence that she was instructed to shade her analysis in order to influence policy.
By contrast, the 16 Cuban spies indicted in Florida and known by their code name as La Red Avispa, or the Wasp Network, were unable to get their hands on any classified information at all. But it was not for lack of trying.
The spies operated not under diplomatic cover but as what are known as ''illegals'' -- spies without any apparent tie to the Cuban government. They took cheap apartments, drove used cars and held their secret meetings at Burger King and Pollo Tropical, accounting to Havana for every dollar they spent.
One Cuban agent stationed on Key West persuaded his handlers to let him move in with his girlfriend, a massage therapist, after arguing that he would save on expenses. (They told him to avoid marriage and children.)
According to testimony and documents at the trial, the Cubans made mistakes. One illegal officer had to explain to Havana that his secure pager ''drowned'' when he left it in the pocket of his shorts and jumped into a swimming pool.
At the same time, however, their message traffic pointed to a sophisticated intelligence infrastructure behind the Miami network, one that law-enforcement officials said compensated for its poverty with meticulousness and patience.
Intelligence officials added that despite the recent blows it had suffered, Cuba's intelligence service might still have as many as a few hundred officers and agents operating in the United States.
''They are one of the most aggressive intelligence services there is,'' said Hector M. Pesquera, the head of the F.B.I.'s Miami office. ''They made some mistakes and we were able to capitalize on them, but they are still very good. They are very determined and they work the numbers. They know we can't cover everything.''
Cuba has vigorously defended five of the spies who fought and lost their cases in federal court (seven others have pleaded guilty), insisting that the men sought only to thwart terrorism by radical exiles, like a spate of Havana bombings in 1997 that killed an Italian tourist. Yet the decrypted documents also point to other, less benign pursuits.
Among the ''active measures'' that the spies discussed -- but apparently did not carry out -- were making threatening phone calls, ostensibly from radical exiles, to the publisher of The Miami Herald at the time; sending a mail bomb to a person thought to be a C.I.A. agent; and sneaking boats with explosives into Florida.
Officials said that what prompted the decision to prosecute most of the Wasp Network spies rather than simply deporting them (as is being done with the latest person accused of being a member of the network, who was arrested in May) was a link between two of the Cubans and the deaths of four exile activists whose planes were shot down by Cuban Air Force jets in 1996.
HIGHLIGHTS
Recent Cuban Spy Cases
SEPTEMBER 1998 -- Ten people are charged in Miami with spying for Cuba, trying to infiltrate military sites and Cuban exile organizations. Six other people are later charged as part of a group known as the Wasp Network.
DECEMBER 1998 -- Three Cuban diplomats at the United Nations are expelled for spying.
MAY 2000 -- A senior immigration official in Miami is convicted of disclosing classified information and other charges related to contacts with Cuban agents.
JUNE 2001 -- Five Cubans are convicted in Miami of conspiring to spy on the United States. The leader of the group is later sentenced on additional charges related to a Cuban attack in 1996 on two planes in which four members of a Cuban exile group were killed.
SEPTEMBER 2001 -- Ana B. Montes, a top Pentagon intelligence analyst, is charged with spying for Cuba.
MAY 2002 -- John R. Bolton, undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, accuses Cuba of working to develop biological weapons, a charge Fidel Castro strongly denies.
AUGUST 2002 -- Cuba's former ambassador to the United Nations, Alcibiades Hidalgo, says after defecting to the United States that most Cubans at the countrys mission to the United Nations are intelligence agents.
NOVEMBER 2002 -- The United States expels four Cuban diplomats, in response to the Montes case.
Yahoo! December 21, 2000
Alleged Cuba Spy Targeted CIA Agent
By Catherine Wilson, Associated Press Writer
MIAMI, 20 (AP) - Cuban spies once plotted to kill a CIA (news - web sites) employee with a mail bomb disguised as a book, according to decoded messages read Wednesday during the trial of five alleged Cuban agents.
The goal of Operation Parallel was to kill "CIA agent Jesus Cruza Flor'' in Miami six years ago, according to the messages. He was to be threatened about his "nearing execution'' before delivery of the bomb.
It was unclear how many of the five defendants are accused of taking part in the plot. Attorneys are under a gag order, CIA spokesman Anya Guilsher declined comment and the home phone number listed in the message for Cruza is assigned to a bank.
The trial includes some 1,300 pages of evidence from decoded messages that flowed between the Cuban government and Miami-based agents, according to prosecutors.
Some of the suspects are accused of trying to infiltrate military bases, including the U.S. Southern Command, which is responsible for Cuba, and the Boca Chica Naval Air Station near Key West.
Suspected ringleader Gerardo Hernandez faces a possible life sentence on murder conspiracy and espionage conspiracy charges. The first count stems from the 1996 incident in which Cuba shot down two planes from the Cuban exile group Brothers to the Rescue over international waters, killing four. The government accused Hernandez of providing Cuba with information about the flights.
He and the other four defendants were arrested in 1998. Five others secured plea bargains requiring them to cooperate, and four more are fugitives believed to be in Cuba.
Like Hernandez, two other defendants - Antonio Guerrero and Ramon Labanino - were charged with espionage conspiracy and could face life in prison. The other two, Fernando Gonzalez and Rene Gonzalez, no known relationship, face possible 10-year sentences on false-identity charges.
Attorneys for Hernandez, Labanino, Guerrero and Fernando Gonzalez have said the men worked for the Cuban government. But they said their clients did not commit espionage because they obtained no classified information.
The clandestine methods used to transmit the information they obtained were necessary because Cuba and the United States do not have diplomatic relations, according to the defense attorneys.
The trial began this month and is expected to stretch into March.
https://www.cubanet.org/htdocs/CNews/y00/dec00/21e2.htm
The Miami Herald, December 21, 2000
Papers: Spies planned sabotage
Files show orders to discredit pilots
BY GAIL EPSTEIN NIEVES
Even before Cuban MiGs shot down two Brothers to the Rescue planes in 1996, killing four men, Fidel Castro's intelligence bosses apparently targeted the Miami pilot group for sabotage and dissension, according to court documents in the Cuban spy trial.
Declassified communications from Cuban intelligence, read to jurors Wednesday, showed that accused spy and pilot Rene Gonzalez -- one of five men on trial -- was directed to burn the hangar and planes of the ``counter-revolutionary organization'' and to make it look like an ``accident, negligence or self damage.''
``Rumors will leak that [Brothers leader Jose] Basulto and his people caused the damage themselves to collect the insurance and get more money from their contributors,'' said the undated message, whose author was not revealed.
Operation Picada, or bite, as the anti-Brothers campaign was named, was one of dozens of missions allegedly linked to the five alleged spies now on trial in federal court. Picada also means nose dive.
Jurors also heard about orders from Cuban intelligence for someone to mail an ``alleged book bomb'' -- complete with ``plastique,'' or plastic explosives -- to a Miami-based CIA agent. Other missions sought to discredit the Cuban American National Foundation and Miami's Cuban exile community at large.
The communications were contained on nearly 1,000 encrypted computer disks confiscated during FBI searches of the defendants' South Florida apartments. Further testimony about the messages is expected when the trial resumes Jan. 3.
Developers of Operation Picada also directed Gonzalez -- a pilot for Brothers to the Rescue and alleged double agent -- to disable the group's ground antennae and transmission equipment ``making it seem like negligence.'' The orders were directed to ``Castor,'' one of Gonzalez's cover names, according to the
government.
``Castor'' also was requested to ``inform us ahead of time'' of who was flying Brothers planes and when, and to try to hide material in Brothers planes.
The documents mirror suspicions voiced previously by Basulto, who has speculated that Brothers planes were ``sabotaged'' several times: cut cables in an airplane's control panel, a weight attached to the propeller of Basulto's plane, metal particles in the oil drum of another aircraft.
Basulto has said that Gonzalez was the first person at the Brothers' Opa-locka hangar after the 1996 tragedy. Gonzalez came to the United States in 1990 in a hijacked crop duster. He is accused of infiltrating exile groups and posing as an FBI informant.
Cuban intelligence bosses also tried to ``discredit'' the Cuban American National Foundation with Operation Finado, or deceased, according to other documents read to jurors.
CANF met in July 1998 to choose a successor to chairman Jorge Mas Canosa, who had died. The communications show that U.S.-based Cuban agents were directed to mail disparaging, anonymous flyers on possible candidates to some 40 people and media outlets.
``Who are you voting for as Chairman of the CANF?'' the flyer was to start.
It listed disparaging accusations against Jorge Mas Santos, Dr. Alberto Hernandez, Pepe Hernandez, Diego Suarez and Domingo Moreira Jr., and ended, ``Who should you vote for? Vote for the Finado.''
The five co-defendants -- accused members of the so-called Wasp Network -- were arrested Sept. 12, 1998, in the culmination of a major counterespionage investigation.
Lead defendant Gerardo Hernandez faces the most serious charge: conspiracy to murder the four Brothers fliers, allegedly by providing Cuban authorities the flight plan of two Brothers planes while instructing other spies to shun the doomed flight.
Though all of the accused spies acknowledge working on orders from Havana, they deny ever obtaining classified information or intending to harm U.S. interests.
Rather, they say they worked from a defensive posture, trying to identify the exiles presumably responsible for a series of bombings at tourist sites in Cuba and to find out if the United States had plans to invade the island.
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/espionage/sabotage.htm
CBS News, September 14, 1998 MIAMI
10 Charged As Cuban Spies
Accused Of Infiltrating Exile Groups
(CBS) Ten people were charged Monday in what prosecutors said is the largest Cuban spy ring ever uncovered in the United States since Fidel Castro came to power nearly 40 years ago.
CBS News Correspondent Byron Pitts reports that, according to the FBI, the spy ring had been under surveillance in south Florida for three years.The eight men and two women tried to penetrate U.S. military bases, infiltrate anti-Castro groups, and manipulate U.S. media and political groups, federal investigators said Monday.
One suspect was a civilian employee at the U.S. Naval Air Station in Key West, Fla. "Some of his activities included...reporting on combat readiness of our airplanes, daily activities, and physical descriptions of the building inside, including security areas," said U.S. Attorney Thomas E. Scott. "This spy ring was cast by the Cuban government to strike at the very heart of our national security system and our very democratic process."
The FBI said one of the group's targets was the Miami-based U.S. Southern Command, which runs American military operations in Latin America and the Caribbean.The suspects were held without bond and face charges of espionage and acting as unregistered agents of the Cuban government. Prosecutors said the investigation is continuing, but would not say if more arrests were anticipated.
Charges against five of the suspects carry life sentences. Charges against the other five have maximum sentences of 15 years. Among those arrested was Rene Gonzalez, once a welcomed and award-winning member of the Miami-based Cuban exile group, Brothers to the Rescue. The group lost four members in 1996 when they were killed, shot down by a Cuban MIG fighter jet over international waters during a mercy mission between Florida and Cuba. There had been suspicion that spies played a role in the shooting. Investigators say Gonzalez posed as an informant for the FBI, but he was actually spying for the Cuban government.
Another suspect, Linda Hernandez, was said to be part of a husband-wife spy team. Both she and her husband are members of the Cuban military and longtime operatives, the FBI said. Her lawyer, Vincent Farina, said his client is a housewife, not a spy. "She had nothing to do with this whatsoever," Farina said.
According to an FBI affidavit filed in support of the arrests, surveillance dating back to 1995 indicated all 10 members operated with code names and had escape plans and alibis.
FBI agent Raul Fernandez said in the affidavit that Manuel Viramontes, a Cuban military captain led the spy group and used computers with coded material on disk to communicate with other members.Viramontes had an apartment in Miami and it was there that the disks were found, investigators said.The disks provided a detailed overview of spy operations reminiscent of Cold War-era espionage, including references to agents as comrades.
"To say the least, folks, this operation was sophisticated," Scott said. Two of those arrested were identified as U.S. citizens and one as a resident alien. The citizenship of the others was not released, but the FBI said some were agents who slipped in and out of the United States.
Congressional sources said the arrests made without incident Saturday were timed to avert an operation planned by the suspects. They provided no further details.
Part of the operation focused on infiltrating six exile groups, according to the FBI. The affidavit said two of the suspects set up a surveillance of the Southern Command, MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa and the Boca Chica Naval Air Station in Key West.
The two allegedly produced detailed reports, complete with photos, on the Southern Command and were assigned to report any "unusual exercises, maneuvers, and other activity related to combat readiness at the Naval air station."
Copyright 1998 CBS Worldwide Corp.
Transcribed and translated excerpts from seized diskettes:
DAV-118 (E) RTF (AIRPORT.DIR)
WORK DIRECTIVES FOR OPERATION “AEROPUERTO”
1-. THE IDEA OF THE OPERATION:
SINCE THE VERY BEGINNING THE ESSENTIAL IDEA OF THE OPERATION WAS FOR A-32 TO JOIN WITH THE ILLEGAL CENTER THAT WAS BEING DIRECTED BY A-4 AND WAS FUNCTIONING IN THE STATE OF FLORIDA.
2-. OPERATIONAL OBJECTIVES:
THE FUNDAMENTAL OBJECTIVE OF THE OPERATION IS TO ESTABLISH S/A A-32 IN KEY WEST FOR THE PURPOSE OF PENETRATING AND OBTAINING INFORMATION ON THE NAVAL AIR STATION LOCATED IN THAT CITY.
ALSO, TO MAKE CONTACTS WHICH CAN PROVIDE US WITH MILITARY, POLITICAL , BIOGRAPHICAL AND OPERATIONAL INFORMATION AS AS TO STUDY COUNTERREVOLUTIONARY ORGANIZATIONS EXISTING IN THE AREA AND CARRY OUT STUDIES ON THE OPERATIONAL SITUATION OF ROADS, MAINLY IN KEY WEST.
3-. PARTICIPANTS
A-32 WILL BE THE MAIN PARTICIPANT AND HE WILL BE DIRECTLY UNDER I.O. A-4.
WORK DIRECTIVES FOR OPERATION “GIRÓN.”
1-. IDEA OF THE OPERATION
Reviewed by: LS Salomon
Declassified by: KMDJr / RJG
Cred. #10517
11/27/00 1
[…]
DHo-101 (E) CMA (Disk 17).wpd
OPERATION “PICADA’
OBJECTIVES:
1.-) TRY TO IMPEDE THE CONSUMPTION OF INTENTIONS OF THE OPERATION P.A.L. (PAN, AMOR Y LIBERTAD) OF THE COUNTERREVOLUTIONARY ORGANIZATION BROTHER’S TO THE RESCUE.
2.-) AFFECT AND DISCREDIT THE IMAGE OF SAID ORGANIZATION.
ACTIONS TO BE DEVELOPED:
1.-) PERFORM THE OPERATIONAL SITUATION STUDY OF THE HANGAR AT THE OPA LOCKA BASE WHERE THE ORGANIZATION KEEPS AND OPERATES THEIR PLANES.
2.-) THE POSSIBILITY OF BURNING DOWN THE WAREHOUSE OF THE COUNTERREVOLUTIONARY ORGANIZATION, AND AFFECT THEIR PLANES, MAKING IT SEEM LIKE AN ACCIDENT, NEGLIGENCE OR SELF DAMAGE.
KEEPING IN MIND THAT THIS PLACE MAY BE SECURED AND THAT IN CASES LIKE THESE, INVESTIGATIONS ARE PERFORMED, RUMORS WILL LEAK THAT BASULTO AND HIS PEOPLE CAUSED THE DAMAGE THEMSELVES TO COLLECT THE INSURANCE AND GET MORE MONEY FROM THEIR CONTRIBUTORS.
3.-) ATTEMPT TO DISABLE THEIR EQUIPMENT AND TRANSMISSION ANTENNAE ON LAND, THE ONES THEY USE TO COMMUNICATE WITH DURING THEIR MISSIONS, MAKING IT SEEM LIKE NEGLIGENCE.
NOTE: THESE THREE POINTS WERE REQUESTED OF CASTOR VIA RADIO MESSAGE. IT HAS TO BE DETERMINED WHAT HE HAS BEEN ABLE TO OBTAIN.
4.-) ANALYZE WITH CASTOR IF HE COULD INFORM US AHEAD OF TIME (DETERMINE PRECISE TIME) WHEN THE BROTHER’S TO THE RESCUE PLANES WILL BE TAKING OFF, WHO IS IN THEM AND IF THEY ARE GOING TO LAND AT A SPECIFIC PLACE. WHAT PERSONNEL KNOWS THIS INFORMATION BEFOREHAND. AT SOME POINT, CAN IT BE DETERMINED WHO PROVIDED THIS INFORMATION.
5.-) ACCORDING TO THE FEATURES OF THE PLANES, THEIR SECURITY SYSTEM, AS WELL AS THE HANGAR WHERE THEY ARE LOCATED, IF AT ANY SPECIFIC MOMENT HE COULD HIDE SOME TYPE OF MATERIAL AND KEEP IT THERE WITHOUT BEING DETECTED. WHAT SIZE WOULD THAT MATERIAL HAVE TO BE
OPERATION PARALLELO:
THE OBJECTIVE OF THIS OPERATION IS TO DEVELOP A SERIES OF ACTIONS AGAINST CIA AGENT JESUS CRUZA FLOR.
THESE ACTIONS WOULD BE:
1.-) PHOTOGRAPH OR VIDEO TAPE HIS HOUSE, LOCATED AT:
1440 S. BAYSHORE DR.
MIAMI, FLORIDA 33131
TELEPHONE (305)358-0762
2.-) ONCE THE HOUSE IS PHOTOGRAPHED, MAKE VARIOUS THREATENING TELEPHONE CALLS (TWO OR THREE) CONCERNING HIS NEARING EXECUTION.
THESE CALLS WOULD BE AT DIFFERENT HOURS AND DIFFERENT DAYS. TRY TO USE THE EQUIPMENT (CALLED SCRAMBLER OR SOMETHING SIMILAR) TO CHANGE THE VOICE. PHONE BOOTHS SHOULD BE SELECTED THAT ALLOW A QUICK EXIT OUT OF THE AREA. KEEP IN MIND THAT THE MEASURES IS AGAINST A CIA AGENT AND HE COULD HAVE CALLER ID TO FIND OUT THE TELEPHONE NUMBER THAT IS CALLING AND THE ADDRESS WHERE IT IS LOCATED. ON THE OTHER HAND, KEEP IN MIND THE REST OF THE SECURITY MEASURES THAT SHOULD BE TAKEN IN THE BOOTH, SUCH AS FINGERPRINTS, HAIR, ODORS, SALIVA, DRESS, THAT THERE BE NO PERMANENT PERSONNEL IN THE AREA TO RECOGNIZE THE CALLER. DO NOT LEAVE THE CAR WHERE IT CAN BE OBSERVED, THE DURATION OF THE CALL. DO NOT RESPOND TO ANY QUESTIONS ASKED.
3.-) PREPARE AN ALLEGED BOOK-BOMB (BOOK, CABLE, BATTERIES, PLASTIQUE, ETC., AND SEND IT VIA EXPRESS MAIL. KEEP IN MIND TO WRAP THE BOOK IN A PROTECTIVE PAPER, WHICH IF THE ENVELOPE IS PASSED THROUGH THE X-RAY MACHINES, IMPEDES THE DETECTION OF WHAT IS INSIDE, AND THEREFORE IT WILL NOT BE ROUTED THROUGH THE MAIL.
KEEP IN MIND TO OBTAIN THE ENVELOPE, AS WELL AS THE POSTAGE, MANY DAYS IN ADVANCE AND SELECT A BUSY PLACE. USE A SPECIFIC CAMOUFLAGE.
STUDY THE MAILBOX WHERE THE PACKAGE WILL BE DEPOSITED, AS WELL AS THE TIME IT WILL BE DEPOSITED. ANALYZE HOW YOU WILL GET OUT OF THE AREA.
DURING THE ENTIRE PROCESS KEEP THE SECURITY MEASURES IN MIND, SUCH AS THE ONES MENTIONED BEFORE, GIVING SPECIAL ATTENTION TO FINGER PRINTS DURING THE ENTIRE PROCESS.
EVALUATE THE POSSIBILITY OF USING MANOLO TO MAKE THE CALL, THE TOPOS TO DEPOSIT THE ENVELOPE AND A-4 TO PREPARE THE BOOK-BOMB.
--------------
FEBRUARY 1, 1994
CONTACT AGENDA WITH 0-4 “ESELIN”
Reviewed by: LS Salomon
Declassified by: KMDJr
MM-#10517
9/24/00 2-6