By JUAN O. TAMAYO
Herald Staff Writer
A Havana report accusing Cuban exiles in a string of bombings on the island
has
turned a spotlight on the long-running but little-known contacts between
U.S. and
Cuban counterterrorism agents.
Knowledgeable U.S. officials said the contacts have been taking place relatively
frequently, two or three times a year, since the start of a spate of plots
in 1991 by
exiles animated by the collapse of the Soviet bloc.
Cuba's state security agencies complained to their U.S. counterparts after
learning
about many of the plots through the spies they are widely believed to have
placed
in most of the militant anti-Castro groups in Miami, the officials said.
Cuban President Fidel Castro confirmed the existence of such links when
he told
U.S. newspaper executives in Havana last week that his security agents
had given
the FBI and CIA information on alleged exile terrorists.
Castro spoke as he held up a report, apparently the same one that Havana
made
public Thursday, accusing the Cuban American National Foundation and one
of its
top officials of financing a string of terror bombings.
Havana's allegations were passed to the FBI several months ago and now
form
part of the background for a U.S. grand jury in Puerto Rico investigating
several
other reputed exile conspiracies, U.S. officials said.
But the topic of U.S.-Cuban security contacts is so sensitive on this side
of the
Florida Straights that none of the officials contacted by The Herald on
the subject
Friday would comment on the record.
Fears of betrayal
A concern heard Friday in Miami's Little Havana was that U.S. agents might
betray exiles who could wind up before Cuban firing squads, or that innocent
exiles could be prosecuted in the United States on phony charges from a
communist dictatorship.
That's impossible, insist a half-dozen federal and local officials knowledgeable
about the contacts and even a longtime Cuban ``spy who was in fact a double
agent working for the FBI.
U.S. agencies never give information to Cuba that might lead to arrests,
all the
sources said, and the agencies use Havana's tips only to enforce U.S. neutrality
laws, stop conspiracies in the United States and keep at least some exiles
out of
harm's way.
``Many Cubans in Miami probably owe their lives to the FBI people who broke
up their plans against Cuba, said the former double agent, Francisco Avila,
a
onetime military commander of the Alpha 66 paramilitary group.
Under FBI orders to give Havana nothing of use, Avila said, ``I had to
be an artist
to give them reports with inoffensive information. Usually, nonsensitive
stuff could
be provided, but nothing that could make blood run.
`One-way relationship'
``It's a one-way relationship. They talk, we listen, said one American
official who
asked to be described only as ``having had access to some of the Cuban
reports
to us.
Havana and Washington have long been known to exchange information on illegal
migration and drugs, although U.S. officials have been cautious on the
drug side
because of suspicions of corruption among Cuban government officials.
But the contacts between counterterrorism experts from such agencies as
the FBI
and CIA with their Cuban counterparts have been kept under the tightest
of wraps
because of their political sensitivity, officials said.
The officials said they were aware of such U.S.-Cuban contacts since the
late
1980s, but that their number and importance grew after 1991, when many
exiles
came to believe that Castro had become vulnerable after losing his Soviet
backing.
``The Cubans were in constant contact with reports of plots, demanding
more and
more action [crackdowns on exiles] but providing very little actual information,
said one retired federal official.
Lack of detail
Pressed by Washington to provide details of its allegations, the official
recalled,
Cuba handed over a report in late 1992 or early 1993 ``that they could
have
gotten from news clippings and a few sources on the edges, the official
said.
The lack of detail was apparently designed to protect the identity of Cuba's
spies
in Miami. But the report was enough to allow the FBI to warn the would-be
plotters to stop whatever they were up to, the official said.
Cuba provided a far more detailed report around 1996 on an alleged exile
plot to
detonate a bomb near Castro as he delivered a speech in Havana's Plaza
de la
Revolucion, according to another knowledgeable official.
``The Cubans knew everything about the plot, so we sent some people to
talk to
some of the Miami exiles involved and the thing stopped in its tracks,
the official
said. ``We protected the exiles.
Some U.S. officials in fact were so concerned for exiles, said one federal
source,
that law enforcement agents dropped at least one case that could have sent
an
exile to a notorious jail in the Bahamas.
``We did cancel one case because we didn't want people rotting in Foxhill
prison
for something [a planned attack on Cuba] that probably never would have
happened anyway, the official said.
Radio debate
Cuba's report Thursday on alleged exile terror bombings had some of Miami's
Spanish-language radio programs debating Friday the propriety of the U.S.-Cuban
counterterrorism contacts.
Several callers charged that the bilateral collaboration was part of a
U.S. effort to
silence exile hard-liners so that President Clinton could improve relations
with
Castro.
The Cuban American National Foundation pointedly stayed away from the
debate, saying it agreed that the FBI had to investigate any information
it received,
even from Cuba.
``We understand the FBI is carrying out its duties, said CANF President
Francisco ``Pepe Hernandez. ``But we do believe that these accusations
. . . don't
merit any credibility.
El Nuevo Herald staff writer Olance Nogueras contributed to this report.
Copyright © 1998 The Miami Herald