Word: aspillaga
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Dates: during 1987-1987
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...American high technology. Every month, they say, tens of millions of dollars worth of restricted U.S. technology goes to Panama, far beyond that nation's modest needs. Customs Commissioner William von Raab says he believes Noriega "is a beneficiary of the activities of these ((front)) companies." Major Florentino Aspillaga, a senior Cuban intelligence officer who defected to the West this summer, has charged that Noriega received about $3 million for allowing Cuba and the Soviet Union to acquire U.S. technology...
...Aspillaga's radio broadcasts from Washington, where he is being debriefed by the CIA, he described Castro's lavish life-style. The Cuban leader, he claims, has a private fleet of yachts and keeps a luxury home in each of Cuba's 14 provinces. While the populace contends with housing shortages, Castro reserves "hundreds of houses" in Havana's Jaimanitas section for the use of his security guards and aides. While the government demands austerity from the populace, Aspillaga said, officials order underlings to send home foreign luxury items and use government satellite dishes to tune in to U.S. televised...
...most damaging revelations concern the extent and nature of Cuba's intelligence and military operations. According to Aspillaga, Cuba's intelligence service, with a total of 2,086 employees, grew substantially more active after the U.S. invasion of Grenada. He said Cuba has steadily acquired U.S. technology, in violation of the American trade ban, through Panamanian Strongman Manuel Antonio Noriega, who reaped millions from the transactions. Noriega, he said, helped Cuba send arms to Nicaragua and to rebel groups in El Salvador, Honduras and Colombia...
Most important, Aspillaga said he will give U.S. officials the names of 350 Cuban agents who have penetrated foreign governments -- after sufficient time has passed for these compaeros to return safely to Cuba. Intelligence analysts expect that the list will cripple Cuba's covert intelligence-gathering capability for several years...
Cuba's government-controlled newspapers made no mention of Aspillaga's defection, though the broadcasts were the talk of Havana. For the past six weeks, Cuban television has been airing a documentary about CIA activities in Havana in which Cuban double agents step forward to expose alleged U.S. spies. Aspillaga's revelations finally made clear why Castro was willing to unmask so many of his own secret agents for the sake of this broadcast: with Aspillaga talking to the CIA, their cover was already blown...