New film about the 75 dissidents premiers in Ireland

[flamingdem]

GOOD TIMING!

International Premiere of the documentary "The day diplomacy died."

IRLANDA, 30 30 de marzo de 2010.- En la noche del 29 de marzo, el cine “Screen” de la ciudad de Dublín, ante un nutrido público, tuvo lugar la premiere internacional del documental “El Día que Murió la Diplomacia” , de los documentalistas Bernie Dwyer y Roberto Ruíz Rebo, que a través del testimonio de 3 agentes cubanos infiltrados en los grupos contrarrevolucionarios, revela la labor mercenaria de los 75 encausados supuestos “periodistas independientes y disidentes” sancionados en el año 2003, y las actividades subversivas de la Sección de Intereses de los Estados Unidos en la Habana y de la Administración norteamericana, dirigida a derrocar la Revolución Cubana.

ENGLISH:

IRELAND, 30 March 30, 2010 .- On the night of March 29, film "Screen" in the city of Dublin, before a large audience, there was the international premiere of the documentary "The Day Diplomacy Died" the documentary Bernie Dwyer and Roberto Ruiz Rebo, who through the testimony of 3 Cuban agents infiltrated the counterrevolutionary groups, reveals the work of the 75 accused mercenaries called "independent journalists and dissidents" have been sanctioned in 2003, and subversive activities Interests Section of the United States in Havana and the U.S. administration aimed at overthrowing the Cuban Revolution.

continued in Spanish

Tras la muestra del documental, tuvo lugar, bajo la conducción de la prestigiosa periodista y Profesora Anne Daly, un intercambio con la directora y periodista Bernie Dwyer, donde se puso de manifiesto la excelente calidad profesional y argumental del mismo, al tiempo que se ratificó la manipulación mediática del tema y el apoyo al derecho inalienable del pueblo cubano a la defensa de su soberanía y su derecho a la autodeterminación. After the documentary showing was held, under the leadership of the renowned journalist and Professor Anne Daly, an exchange with the director and journalist Bernie Dwyer, where he noted the excellent professional quality and the same argument, while it was confirmed media manipulation of the issue and support the inalienable right of the Cuban people to defend their sovereignty and their right to self determination.

La premiere contó con la participación de diputados, dirigentes políticos y sindicales de primer nivel, así como de destacados periodistas, artistas e intelectuales. (Cubaminrex-Embacuba Irlanda) The premiere was attended by MPs, political leaders and top level trade union, as well as leading journalists, artists and intellectuals. (Cubaminrex-Embacuba Ireland)

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1. More on this topic: Nestor Baguer and the CIA's Black Spring

*** NOTE: Frank Calzon is mentioned at the end of the article, one of the biggest recipients of the aid package. Take note John Kerry.

Nestor Baguer and the CIA’s “Black Spring”

Simon McGuinness, 30 June 2008


The late Nestor Baguer was chairman of the Cuban Independent Press
Association and one of the most celebrated journalist in Cuba. For most
of his professional life he was internationally regarded as the most
high profile “dissident journalist” in Cuba and was promoted by
virtually every US media outlet as a reliable source. But Baguer had a
deeper profile: one who’s impact resonates to this day everywhere the
CIA seek to control the truth about Cuba. Nester Baguer was agent
“Octavio” of the Cuban security service from 1960 almost up until his
death on 15 October 2004

His 2003 testimony to a Cuban court, part of which is reproduced below,
was instrumental in convicting 75 agents of the United States operating
on Cuban territory of terrorist related crimes in, what the CIA call,
the “Black Spring” sting operation mounted by the Cuban security
service.

The CIA were left entirely blinded by the Cuban sting operation and have
still not managed to rebuild their spy network within Cuba. Cuba
sacrificed some of its most important security assists in the process,
indicating the importance of the US spy network uncovered. Baguer
himself had dedicated over 40 years of his life to establishing his
cover.

Below is the official transcript of Baguer’s videoed testimony to the
court which was provided to western journalists at a press conference
held by the Foreign Minister, Felipe Peres Roque, in Havana on 9 April
2003.

Not one mainstream western media outlet correctly reported the event in
2003. Not one has corrected its false reportage since.

Indeed, their mis-reporting lead directly to the imposition of sanctions
against Cuba by an outraged EU, sanctions which the EU is desperately
trying to lift, but finds itself unable to, due mainly to the veto power
of the Czech Republic on matters of established foreign policy. The
foreign minister of the Czech Republic, Karl Johannes von Schwarzenberg,
(aka His Highness The Prince of Schwarzenberg, Count of Sulz, Princely
Landgrave in Klettgau and Duke of Krummau), who wields the veto, is
widely believed to be a US asset.

Right wing US journalist, Matt Welch, who was assistant editor at the
Los Angeles Times in 2003, describes “my pal Nestor Baguer“ as “one of
the most convincing and compelling dissidents I have ever met” and “head
of the oldest independent media organization in the country, the
Independent Press Agency of Cuba (APIC)”.

According to his own website, “Before 1998, lived for eight years
in Central Europe, where he co-founded the region's first post-communist
English-language newspaper, Prognosis, worked as UPI's Slovakia
correspondent and managed the Budapest Business Journal”

In some countries it might be a crime to out Welch as a highly placed
CIA agent who’s function is to be what the US State Department
euphemistically call a “message multiplier”, so I won’t do that.

Welch claimed in a 2005 article “Cuba Spring, or Trap?”
http://www.reason.com/news/show/34043.html. to be grief-struck, not at
the death of his pal Nestor, but at the fact that his pal was actually a
double-agent working for Cuban state security. In fact, two years on
form the event, he still admitted to being in denial over it.

It is, however, worth reading Welch’s article just to get an insight
into quite how devastating the Cuban sting operation was to the CIA.

Of course, there were many more victims of the catastrophic failure of
western journalism in 2003 than the fifty-odd Cubans still serving long
sentences in jail for their complicity with anti-Cuban terrorism (a
terrorism that killed more people than the IRA did in the same period),
but at least in the case of Iraq, the mainstream media accepts that it
was wrong.

It still has is some considerable way to go on Cuba.








Prosecutor. Tell us your name, where you live, and what you do.
Nestor Baguer. With pleasure.
My name is Nestor Baguer Sanchez Galarraga. I live in Centre Habana. I
am a journalist by profession; but in addition, since 1960, I have
worked for the state security services.
‘
Prosecutor. What is your name in the state security services?
Nestor Baguer. Octavio.

Prosecutor. Octavio. Let's call him Octavio.
Now, Nestor, would you be so kind as to tell us about the origins of the
Independent Press Association, if you have been associated with this
kind of activity.
Nestor Baguer. This was suggested to me by counterrevolutionary
individuals, because they needed a journalist, first of all. But I took
it on as a job to do for the state security services, so that, instead
of falling into the hands of those who were going to do a lot of harm, I
could try to minimize this harm.


Prosecutor. And it helped you to receive information, and led people to
come to you who were interested in giving information to the enemy?
Nestor Baguer. Precisely.

Prosecutor. How did it work? How is this kind of information passed
abroad?
Nestor Baguer. A first point: the people who first got me involved were
the US Interests Section. I didn't know anyone there and one of them
called me, invited me to go and talk to them and showed great interest;
they said they'd support me in every way so I could get the job done.
Right after that, the journalists arrived. Well I say journalists, but
of the 30 or 40 who turned up, only two were actually journalists. I was
one and there was one other; of the rest, no-one. Because I can tell you
that of the 100 and more people who call themselves independent
journalists, there are no more than five or six professionals. The rest
are mercenaries paid to slander, because they tell lies, insult, show
disrespect for our head of state and our government. They're not
journalists, they're information terrorists.

Prosecutor. When they cook up this information, who do they send it to?
Nestor Baguer. They send it to me, and then I - as I've got the phone
connections, direct lines - I used to talk directly to Radio Marti; but
then they come from the US, Cuban counterrevolutionaries who set up
agencies to help those of us here in Cuba.

Prosecutor. What sort of agencies are these? Do you remember the names
of any of these agencies?
Nestor Baguer. Certainly. There was CUBANET, Cuba Press
- they started springing up like mushrooms.

Prosecutor. Nestor you used the word "mercenaries".
Nestor Baguer. Yes.

Prosecutor. Meaning that someone was paying them.
Nestor Baguer. Of course.

Prosecutor. How were these payments made?
Nestor Baguer. I'll explain it to you. They - the US administration -
hand over millions: I've got the figures and I can prove it. For
instance, CUBANET gets about 2 or 3 million dollars for those working
for them. For instance, my agency worked for CUBANET.

Prosecutor. What means did they use to send the money?
Nestor Baguer. For instance, the majority use Transcard. There are some,
when the amount involved is a rather large, which they send by mail,
they call them couriers. The embassy hands out a lot of things -
presents, you know, lots of parties, lots of little attentions - plastic
bags arrive with pocket radios tuned to Radio Marti, with tape
recorders, cameras. Basically everything you need for your work. You go
there on the days when they're receiving visitors and they give you a
party, then they show you into a room with hundreds of carrier bags full
of all these presents so you can choose what you want - not just one or
two, you can take whatever you want. And what happens? Some people take
eight or ten of the bags because these little radios are special,
they're very good radios, and they sell them for $20 each. They keep one
and sell the rest. The same thing with the cassette players: to have a
tape recorder today is a good business, because then they sell it
straight away.

Prosecutor. Now when you go to the US Interests Section, do they give
you some sort of indication of what you should be doing here?
Nestor Baguer. They tell you what subjects to deal with. "You should
write about this, you should write about the food shortage, about the
blackouts, about the transport situation, the lack of medicines, the
treatment in the hospitals, the treatment in the prisons". In other
words, they tell you what subjects they're interested in - not what
Cuba's interested in, but what they want published abroad.

Prosecutor. Which officials in the US Interests Section did you mainly
have contact with?
Nestor Baguer. It's always with the head of the Press and Propaganda
section; the head and his Number Two. They're the ones who deal with
such matters.

Prosecutor. As far as the money they pay you is concerned, as you were
saying a few minutes ago. When it has come by different routes, are
there discrepancies between the different members of the group because
of losses, disappearances, share-outs of the money?
Nestor Baguer. Not just discrepancies. There have been thefts, they
steal from each other. There are journalists who've worked six months
without getting a penny, then when they look into it, it turns out the
money was sent to Cuba by the agency, but because it's almost always
addressed to the leader of the group, he takes it for himself. There was
a case just recently, someone kept six months' money sent for all the
journalists.

Prosecutor. Which case was that?
Nestor Baguer. A self-styled journalist called Jorge Olivera. He kept
the money sent for the people working for him over a period of six
months.

Prosecutor. Nestor, if you can, we would like you to tell us who are the
main officials at the US Interests Section who you've dealt with during
these activities.
Nestor Baguer. Yes. The first was Kozack, then Vicky and then Cason, the
one who's there now. And then, naturally, with the people in Press and
Propaganda. They've put Gallegos there now; before, there were several,
Beagle for example. Dozens of them, because the turnover there is pretty
fast. So I've dealt with quite a few, including women - one called Mary
who was married to an Argentinean and spoke perfect Spanish. In other
words, I've had dealings with all the people who've passed through that
Section.

Prosecutor. And to get access to the section, how did you... ?
Nestor Baguer. You have to ask for a pass. They give you a pass for a
set day and time. But mine is a special one, they call it an open pass.
That means I can go there any day, any time.

Prosecutor. What are the main activities these officials arrange with
you, that they get involved in? Or rather, what are the various kinds of
activity they arrange with journalists like yourself?
Nestor Baguer. Whenever there's an event attended by Cubans, they all
come. They all come and bring their wives. Because what they want is to
talk to as many Cubans as possible, to see who they can get on board.
"Listen, what about the prices in the shops, at the market? Are there
shortages or what?"

Prosecutor. When you go to the section office, do you get the chance to
do any kind of journalistic work there, or get access to information?
Nestor Baguer. Well, there's the Internet Room, full of computers, and
you can use them. For example, I can use them without having to book a
slot. That's what the Cuban journalists have to do; they give them a
two-hour slot on a specific day.

Prosecutor This room you've told us about, do you have the possibility
of taking any publications from there?
Nestor Baguer. They always send me the publications; they send them to
my home. All the publications that arrive there — newspapers, magazines
— they send them to my home.

Prosecutor. Were you there at an event on March 14?
Nestor Baguer. Yes

Prosecutor. What was the aim of that event, and where was it held
exactly?
Nestor Baguer. It was in the dining room at Mr. Cason's residence, in
his home, that is. Then it split up; we were split into three groups:
one, the journalism ethics group, was chaired by me; another dealt with
contacts and relations with the foreign press; the third also discussed
the subjects to be worked on and those questions.
I got the ethics group at the request of the Americans themselves; but
you can image, I ... France Press was there, Spanish TV was there, so
was German TV. There were about five of these channels /laughter/

Prosecutor. Can you tell us anything about Raul Rivero and his
involvement in activities of this kind?
Nestor Baguer. He's an alcoholic, and alcoholism has pushed him over the
edge. He made a scene at UPEC and at UNEAC, shouting obscenities, and
got himself banned from everywhere. So he went to pieces, and started
sending poems and stuff abroad to earn a living. And then when he saw
that journalism had changed, was deceitful, but made money, he got onto
his old comrades in UNEAC and UPEC in exile, because they were all
traitors, and used his friendship with them to get somewhere to write.
So these people got in touch with the American journalists and got him
work with the Miami Herald, which is the most conservative paper in
South Florida and, of course, paid very well.
Later, they put him in touch with the US press association, which all
the American press barons belong to - - it's called the Inter-American
Press Association (IAPA/SIP) - - and with their influence and that of
the Miami mafia they managed to get Raul appointed Caribbean
Vice-President of the Association, of course getting the salary of a
vice-president of an American concern.

Prosecutor. Do they pay Raul for the information he offers?
Nestor Baguer. Of course. And very well-paid he is.

Prosecutor. How does that work?
Nestor Baguer. They pay him in the US, the money goes to his daughter
who lives in the United States.

Prosecutor. What can you tell us about Ricardo?
Nestor Baguer. Ricardo latched onto Raul, because Ricardo is no
journalist nor anything like one. He latched onto Raul. Raul's situation
was that he was separated from all his friends. Who were his friends?
The UPEC journalists and the UNEAC writers. So he was without friends.
The only friend he had left was me, if you follow, and as we didn't
think the same way - we didn't quarrel, but we didn't think the same way
— months would go by without seeing each other— so he turned to this one
who practically pushed him aside. Then he offered his house in Miramar
to set up an editing center there with everything — / mean all the
electronic equipment and he's got three salaried staff working there; so
just about everything you need, and he handed it over to Raul. Then Raul
set up the Marquez Sterling company with himself in charge; I mean, he's
the one who runs things, while the other one is just a figurehead, there
just for the sake of image.

Prosecutor. The other one is Ricardo, yes?
Nestor Baguer. The other one is Ricardo. He's the figurehead, the
front-man, but he's nobody, he's nobody.

Prosecutor. Does Ricardo have any connections with the US
administration, with the Interests Section?
Nestor Baguer. Yes, of course. He's the chairman of Marquez Sterling,
that's where the connection is.

Prosecutor. And with some elements based in Miami? Does either of them
have connections there?
Nestor Baguer. Well, Raul does. As far as Ricardo's concerned, I don't
know, because I don't know much about his background. I met him for the
first time four or five months ago. Raul yes, all the poets who've left,
all the writers who've left, they're all friends of his, all of them,
because they were buddies at UNEAC for years and years; drinking
companions, went out on the binge together and that sort of thing.
They're close fiends, he has lots. All the Cuban poets in exile, all of
them are friends of Raul.

Prosecutor. Do you know who Frank Calzon is?
Nestor Baguer. Yes, of course.

Prosecutor. Did either of these men have dealings with Frank Calzon,
that you know of?
Nestor Baguer. Both Ricardo and the Fat Man (I mean Raul), because Frank
Calzon knows all of us. Since he left the agency, I've had no further
contact with him. I've got his phone number and all that, but I've never
had the need...

Prosecutor. What can you tell us about Frank Calzon?
Nestor Baguer. Well, in the first place he's not a journalist. He's an
old-CIA agent; he has worked for the CIA for years.


###

Simon McGuinness is coordinator of Cuba Support Group Ireland,
www.cubasupportgroup.com.

Extract reproduced from a volume entitled “We are not prepared to
renounce our sovereignty” published in Havana by Editora Política in
2003, ISBN 959-01-0522-X. It was also contemporaneously published on
line by the Cuban Foreign Ministry and is currently available at
http://www.canadiannetworkoncuba.ca/Documents/Roque-Dissidents-Apr03.sht

[flamingdem]

2. Related article in Reason Magazine, if you have more links on this topic please post thanks

Note: the previous article mentions this writer

Cuba Spring, or Trap?
Cautious optimism about Castro's opponents

Matt Welch | May 25, 2005

When the child opens a little of the door, someone will stick in a finger, and the government won't be able to close the door again... Things in Cuba will develop very slowly, very slowly, but things will be normal before long.
—Nestor Baguer, Cuban journalist and dissident

Nestor Baguer, one of the most convincing and compelling dissidents I have ever met, spoke those poetic words to me in February 1998, three weeks after Pope John Paul II's historic visit to the communist island, which triggered the release of 270 political prisoners and the relaxation of laws restricting religious worship. "I think fear is almost lost," the rail-thin and aristocratically charming Cuban patriot, then 76 years old, told me. "I think people will be more open to opposing the government... I think there will be a definite change."

Baguer's prediction has been haunting me ever since this weekend's unprecedented public gathering of the Assembly to Promote Civil Society in Cuba, a coalition of 365 independent non-governmental (and therefore illegal) dissident organizations whose 200 participating representatives stood up on Saturday in the face of possible arrest and declared Fidel Castro's regime as "Stalinist...totalitarian and essentially anti-democratic," while calling for free elections, freeing of political prisoners, and voting rights for exiles. It was a stunning display of oppositional cojones in an era when both the democrats and the Castroites have been escalating their life-and-death struggle over the future of this proud but wrecked nation.

Dissidents have been jamming their fingers through Castro's closed door for more than a decade now. In June 1997, right before the Fifth Communist Congress, four brave souls (Martha Beatriz Roque, René Gómez Manzano, Félix Bonne and Vladimiro Roca) faxed over to the government a document entitled The Homeland Belongs to Us All, calling for "true economic liberalization, which would entail the democratization of the country," and charging that "the philosophy of the government is not to serve the people but to be their dictator." The "Gang of Four," as they came to be known, were quickly hauled off to the Cuban gulag for jail terms of around five years each.

In 2001 a "secular Catholic" group called the The Christian Liberation Movement launched The Varela Project, which gathered more than 11,000 signatures of Cuban citizens on a petition asking Castro to merely follow Cuba's constitution by allowing for a public referendum on "freedom of speech, the freedom of communication media and the freedom of enterprise." The Varela Project was openly inspired by Czechoslovakia's groundbreaking Charter 77, which at the height of Cold War "normalization" brazenly challenged the Communist government to follow its own laws and the international treaties it had signed.

"The human rights movement in Cuba was born in 1976; we were very influenced by those dissident movements in Eastern Europe," Elizardo Sanchez, founder of the non-governmental Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation, told me back in 1998. The post-communist Czech government in particular has been a strong advocate for the Cuban opposition; former president Vaclav Havel has lobbied for the Nobel Committee to bestow the Peace Prize on Varela founder Oswaldo Payá, who sounded positively Havelian in a March quote to The Associated Press: "When Cubans are capable of saying that beyond our fear, we want change, that hits the nucleus of power."

Unless the Cubans who are saying "we want change" are actually on the side of power. And make no mistake—some of them almost certainly are. Including, apparently, my pal Nestor Baguer.

In 1998, Baguer was head of the oldest independent media organization in the country, the Independent Press Agency of Cuba (APIC), whose handful of journalists would fax out reports to foreign organizations like Reporters Sans Frontiers and the Washington-funded Radio Martí. He pecked out his copy on a 1947 typewriter held together by rubber bands, told marvelous stories about his family's extensive newspaper holdings from before the Revolution, endured three jail terms, and wrote Castro-bashing pieces with leads like, "Without a doubt, the most disinformed people in the Americas are the Cuban people." He hobbled around on a fractured hip that doctors refused to operate on, and only reluctantly admitted to his many international visitors that yes, he wouldn't mind some foreign medicine now and then for his bleeding ulcers. For years I considered among my prized possessions a couple of original articles he typed up about baseball in Cuba.

Then in April 2003, Baguer was "outed" as a revolutionary spy, code-name Octavio, whose testimony against his fellow dissidents and independent journalists (whom Baguer now called "information terrorists") led to around 75 being tossed in jail, in Castro's splashiest crackdown in a decade. I didn't recognize this new double agent, and in fact I'm still not convinced that an ailing octogenarian's "confession" came wholly without government coercion, though that could be the grief talking. (For a harrowing account by another hoodwinked reporter, try this chastened tale from the Chicago Tribune's Gary Marx.)

The opposition may be gaining in audacity on Castro, but the dictator's infiltration into their ranks, facilitated by lingering sympathy for a Revolution that was far more popular once upon a time than any of the communist takeovers in Central Europe, has sewn massive confusion and paranoia. The Varela Project's Payá refused to take part in this weekend's conference, which was largely a Gang of Four affair, calling it "a fraud against the opposition, facilitated by the imprisonment of the majority of its leaders." Organizer Martha Beatriz Roque and her assistants, Payá said, "were working with state security agents and were supported by hard-line exile factions."

Cuban dissidents are bitterly divided over the U.S. embargo, the post-Castro role to be played by Miami exiles, and above all about suspected ties to the jefe himself. Sometimes it seems there are as many dissident groups as there are dissidents. As the pre-Octavio Baguer once told me, "Everybody in opposition in Cuba wants to be president."

But the intrigue and division shouldn't talk anyone out of taking great heart in this weekend's events. Even if half the opposition are spies (and I don't think there's any chance of that), they are spies who are breaking new boundaries of political expression, and creating an impressive body of democratic literature that will prove invaluable when Castro finally dies.

For if the Central European experience is any guide, there can be no final and precise accounting for exactly who collaborated with the regime, and to what extent. (To read excellent examinations of that subject, I recommend Tina Rosenberg's The Haunted Land, Lawrence Weschler's Calamities of Exile, and Timothy Garton Ash's The File.) But there is, at least in my observation, a direct link between the quality of post-totalitarian governance, and the quality of the dissidence that came before.

We may never know which member of the opposition was on the take. But every day they stand up to Castro, and speak simple public truths to a power that can and has tortured them in prison, the prospects improve for a sane and successful post-Castro Cuba.

[flamingdem]

3. Gary Marx article from the Tribune

** Son de madre estos cubanos.. they know how to fool people, the best. Gary Marx was asked to leave Cuba, and this upset him, if memory serves. I'm sure they thought he was a comemierda after reading this even though it is pretty entertaining.


False Pretenses - The Dissident was a Spy

By Gary Marx. Tribune foreign correspondent. April 27, 2003. Published in Futuro de Cuba.

The first time I met Manuel David Orrio was at a reception last fall at the home of the top U.S. diplomat in Havana.

I had just begun my assignment as the Tribune's Havana correspondent at a time when the 40-year standoff between the U.S. and Cuba appeared to be softening.

Strolling the mansion's expansive, Victorian-like gardens were diplomats, American journalists and some of Cuba's best-known dissidents, a small group of individuals who in recent years had been given space to oppose Cuba's one-party state.

And there was Orrio, a short, slight man who walked with a severe limp because of childhood polio. We spoke briefly about his work as an independent journalist writing articles for a U.S.-funded Web site. We talked about getting together again.

But I got tied up with other stories. Months passed. I forgot about Orrio until several weeks ago, when the Cuban government began arresting dozens of opposition figures and independent journalists in the most severe crackdown in a decade.

Now I can't get Orrio out of my mind.

As the crackdown intensified, I began searching for an independent journalist whom I could profile. A U.S. diplomat and a well-known Cuban dissident both suggested I contact Orrio. I tracked him down. We spoke for three hours.

He told me what it was like fighting a dictatorship, living in fear of being arrested at any moment. He talked of being ostracized by his community, of being denounced on state-run television by President Fidel Castro himself. I wrote about all this in a story that appeared in the Tribune on March 24.

The story was a lie. I didn't know it at the time. I learned about it 12 days later while on assignment in Colombia. Orrio was actually an agent for the Cuban government --an exquisite con artist who had convinced dozens of people that he was bravely fighting for change in Cuba.

No one knew this until he stood in a Cuban courtroom April 4 and denounced several of his former colleagues as paid agents of the U.S. plotting to destroy Castro's revolution.

Based in part on Orrio's testimony, Raul Rivero, a renowned Cuban poet and writer, was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Another writer tried at the same time also was given 20 years.

I can't imagine how the betrayal felt to them. To me it was a kick in the gut. It flattened me, took my breath away, made me question everything I had seen, everyone I knew and everything I had written about Cuba.

Shocking new awareness

My experience with Orrio has become an exclamation mark, a brick wall, that defines my first nine months in this baffling country, a place where nothing is as it seems and the truth --I hate to even use that word-- is buried under so many layers of fear and distrust that a reporter needs a jackhammer to even scratch the surface.

It didn't always seem that way. Like the swarms of tourists that pass in front of my office every day, I initially questioned how severe the limits were on daily life. From the gorgeous colonial buildings to the crystalline sea, I knew that Cuba tolerated no dissent and considered the United States its mortal enemy.

But I listened and watched the anti-American tirades on the state-run media with more curiosity than concern, as if they were some sort of charade that no one paid much attention to but everyone had to partake in.

I knew that my office and telephones were bugged, maybe even my car, my home and my bedroom. But so what? It felt more like a game than real espionage. I didn't feel very threatened when I pointed to the ceiling of my office to let visitors know that someone was probably recording our conversation. I had nothing to hide.

I also wondered about the extent of the repression as I wandered through that reception at the U.S. mansion last fall eating hors d'oeuvres and exchanging business cards with all those dissidents. Not long after, scores of giddy American businessmen were shoving key chains and other keepsakes into Castro's hand as he toured the first U.S. agricultural trade fair held in Havana.

As Castro bottle-fed a fuzzy baby bison, munched on french fries and penned millions of dollars in new contracts, U.S. business executives and Cuban officials were boldly declaring that a new era had begun between the two nations, that maybe these enemies could do business.

But there were hints that all was not as it appeared.

"How long have you been here?" was often the first question asked of me in my first months. My enthusiastic response would be met with a long pause and a knowing smile. Nothing else had to be said. I was duly warned.

But of what?

"The lies," one woman said. "Everyone here lies. They lie straight to your face."

Not long after, I spoke to a student who said she didn't trust anyone and said that I shouldn't either.

"Everybody wears a mask," the student said.

New perceptions

I started to notice more. I could see the mask.

Cubans commonly used hushed tones and sign language to communicate anything other than the mundane. But it surprised me when I saw how mistrust infected families.

There was the chat with a cabdriver on his day off whose voice slipped into a barely audible whisper when he cursed the government. He said nothing would change until "you know who is gone," stroking an imaginary beard to indicate he meant Castro.

I didn't understand why he stopped speaking until I saw his wife flash him a stony look of disapproval.

And there was the retiree from a state-run company who said simply, "People don't talk openly because they are afraid to go to prison. And you never know when the government will crack down."

I remember that conversation clearly. But I also remember not quite believing him.

Now I do.

Much has changed in the days since Orrio revealed his true identity. More than 75 people, some of whom I chatted with at the reception last fall, have been given lengthy prison sentences. Three men have been executed by firing squad 10 days after hijacking a ferry in a failed attempt to reach the United States.

Spy's tears of joy

Orrio has appeared numerous times on state-run television, crying tears of joy and saying he was profoundly moved to have fulfilled his revolutionary duty by squashing the opposition.

The opening in Cuba is over. Everyone is watching their back.

I often speak in whispers now and obscure my real views even at home, knowing that someone else may be listening. I obsess about things I have said and people I have interviewed, wondering who they really were and whether they were wearing that mask.

The challenge now is to find my bearings in the post-Orrio Cuba. I'm here to write about this country, talk to its people, listen to their stories and chronicle the events of daily life beyond just the political battle between the U.S. and Cuba.

I have to put aside my own feelings of mistrust and betrayal. I have to somehow forget about Manuel David Orrio.

[Judi Lynn]

4. Fantastic information. Of course I remember hearing about Baguer years ago!

He was with the "dissidents" so long. (I remember a woman was also undercover and worked as a secretary for the ultra-repulsive Marta Beatriz Roque.)

Seeing the material from his testimony was splendid. He worked so long, so well: they really HAD the goods on these dregs, everyone knows it even though the corporate media attempted to move heaven and earth to paint a picture of them as victims.

They would have all been toast here if they'd done the same things in this country.

Had to go find a photo of Nestor Baguer right away. He's quite old these days but you can see he's still very alert, bright, animated.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com.nyud.net:8090/_2b2HzIA4ZXg/ReAvfGNLwKI/AAAAAAAAAGU/KFYTtQ8VqsY/s400/NestorBaguerNarra.jpg
Will be watching and waiting for the first hint I find of "The Day Diplomacy Died" and hope we will be able to get it on DVD. I'm sure we can forget about getting a chance to see it in any theater!

Thank you.

[EFerrari]

6. Am I wrong in remembering that some of the mercs busted in Bolivia

were Irish?

Thanks everyone for posting this information. :wow:

[Judi Lynn]

7. This guy comes to mind immediately: Michael Dwyer

http://3.bp.blogspot.com.nyud.net:8090/_VNcxKqUd2eM/Sgz8hDL07bI/AAAAAAAAAms/4bThRFgIWNU/s400/MercenarysMikeDwyerWithEduardoRozsaFlores.jpg http://www.timesonline.co.uk.nyud.net:8090/multimedia/archive/00524/Michael-Dwyer_524820a.jpg

http://3.bp.blogspot.com.nyud.net:8090/_7Se7iswAanA/SfpMH4wTg6I/AAAAAAAAHHQ/HMtqusYF0ko/s400/arms35.JPG http://2.bp.blogspot.com.nyud.net:8090/_VNcxKqUd2eM/Sg0qoie0iwI/AAAAAAAAAns/AvmgPplgbkw/s400/DwyerNazyLogoonhisArm.jpg

He was proud of his tat which has a nazi symbol within it.

[Wilms]

5. k&r n/t

[protocol rv]

8. There's no Cuban Revolution

There's a Cuban government. It has been in power for 51 years. It's not a "revolution", it's called "the establishment". And it's run by corrupt oligarchs. :-)