Reply #1: Treasury to give frozen Cuban funds to Miami woman jilted by spy

[Judi Lynn]

Posted on Fri, Apr. 29, 2005

Treasury to give frozen Cuban funds to Miami woman jilted by spy
Associated Press

MIAMI - President Bush on Friday directed the Treasury Department to seize $198,000 in frozen Cuban government funds and give them to the unwitting ex-wife of an alleged Cuban double agent.

Invoking a federal anti-terrorism law, Ana Margarita Martinez won a $27.1 million settlement against the Cuban government in 2001 after she claimed she was used as a political pawn by her ex-husband, Juan Pablo Roque, and the Cuban government.

"We're very pleased with the president's actions in this case," said Martinez's attorney, Fernando Zulueta. "President Bush has been consistent in ... standing against oppressive regimes. This is an example of that."

Roque, a former Cuban Air Force major, staged a defection in 1992 by swimming from Cuba to the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. Once in Miami, he romanced and married Martinez as part of his cover of allegedly infiltrating anti-Castro groups.
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http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/news/breaking_news/11527116.htm

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Published Tuesday, August 3, 1999, in the Miami Herald


Infiltrator's ex-wife sues Cuba for rape
Marriage a fraud, Miami woman says
By GAIL EPSTEIN NIEVES
Herald Staff Writer

A man gets married, has sexual relations with his wife for 11 months, then disappears. It turns out he has returned to his homeland, Cuba, for whose government he worked as a spy.

Did he -- and by extension the Cuban government -- rape the wife every time the couple had sexual intercourse?

That's the novel allegation put forth Monday by Ana Margarita Martinez, former wife of Cuban infiltrator and double defector Juan Pablo Roque. She made the claim in a personal injury lawsuit filed in Miami-Dade Circuit Court. The sole defendant: the Republic of Cuba.
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For Martinez -- who now believes Roque married her merely to establish ''cover'' as a family man -- the lawsuit represents her best chance for public retribution against the regime that caused her so much pain and humiliation.

''This is an opportunity to fight back,'' Martinez said. ''The moral victory is really what I'm focused on. If there were a monetary victory, which is not something I'm counting on, that would be an additional blessing.''
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http://www.fiu.edu/~fcf/exwife.html