BY GUILLERMO RODRÍGUEZ  (Special for Granma International)

                   IN spite of being publicly designated in 1992 as the Canadian
                   "delegate" for the terrorist group Alpha 66—with a long and proven
                   record of criminal activities—and after having been exposed again in
                   February as the "sponsor" of death threats against the Mexican
                   ambassador in Havana, Antonio "El Chino" Tang Báez continues to
                   benefit from total impunity in Montreal.

                   The most fascinating aspect of this individual’s "political" career is his
                   simultaneous association with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA),
                   with which he has publicly collaborated for over 10 years. And therein
                   lies the motives for his protection in Canada.

                   In 1990, with all the appearance of a political refugee, Tang
                   innocently turned up and created a scandal in front of the Cuban
                   consulate in Montreal, to the applause of some of his buddies,
                   including the "leader" of the local branch of Cuba Independiente y
                   Democratica (CID), vegetable seller Máximo Morales.

                   Shortly afterwards, the two men, honing their methods, presented
                   their boss, traitor Huber Matos, to both the Montreal and Toronto
                   press. Matos put aside his dubious activities in Central America to
                   accept the invitation.

                   However, a few days later, the recently-born CID nucleus was
                   dissolved: Morales was arrested by police in Montreal with 80
                   kilograms of cocaine, the most significant drug seizure in the history
                   of the city.

                   Who would have thought that Morales’ dirty business was financing
                   the activities of Tang’s organization, or those of Matos, involved at
                   that time with Nicaraguan Contra drug trafficking...or even his
                   connection to the omnipotent Cuban-American National Foundation
                   (CANF), then headed by Jorge Mas Canosa? Quite a subject for
                   investigation.

                   It is a fact that Tang moved up the ranks, accepting any offer from
                   any point on the mafia spectrum, as soon as he received the due
                   funding.

                   Without the slightest atom of shame, Tang claims to be a
                   professional journalist and correspondent for Radio Martí—another
                   creation of the foundation—of the Miami radio station WQBA, or El
                   Diario de las Americas. He also appears in all of Montreal’s editorial
                   offices, meeting with ultra-right elements for the purpose of inventing
                   new anti-Cuba "scandals." Given his criminal status, "el Chino" finds
                   complicity in the sale of his product in spite of its mediocre quality.

                   But Tang is not bothered by contradictions or conflicts of interest. It
                   was in the summer of 1992 when the Miami terrorist group Alpha 66
                   designated him as its "Canadian delegate" in a threatening
                   communiqué directed at various Canadians known for their friendship
                   or business links with Cuba. This terrorist campaign, though carried
                   out with the characteristic cowardice of the Florida mafia’s most
                   fanatical sectors, seriously worried many of its victims, living in a
                   country unused to such maneuvers.

                   Death threats in Canada, in any other case, are subject to rapid and
                   systematic police intervention.

                   On the contrary, motivated by the authorities’ inertia, Tang organized
                   a Canadian tour for Florentino Aspillaga Lombard, a former Cuban
                   State Security official who defected to the CIA.

                   Contracted for this dirty work, aimed at once again deceiving the
                   Canadian public on the Cuban issue, Tang completed his assignment
                   as a collaborator.

                   Very strangely, in these circumstances, in Canada nobody appeared
                   to be concerned at the fact of the CIA organizing a misinformation
                   campaign against a third country within its national territory.

                   "El Chino" Tang continued conspiring in the tranquility of his Montreal
                   apartment. It wasn’t until weeks later that Tang pulled Aspillaga out
                   of the closet for a second tour of lies and disinformation.

                   By then "el Chino" had grasped that counterrevolution is a great
                   business, and that someone devoid of shame or honor can live off it
                   without working too hard.

                   In the course of the following years, Tang continued to appear under
                   the most varied of guises. One day as representative of the National
                   Unity Committee, an organization invented by the CANF, the next as
                   director of the Christian Trade Union’s central branch, an then as one
                   of the dozens of little groups nourished by financial donations from
                   the U.S. Congress, and available to anybody who claims to be a
                   threat to the Revolution.

                   In July 2000, Tang was the one to inform the Spanish news agency
                   EFE of the illegal exit from Cuba of his friend Aspillaga’s wife. He
                   claimed to have sponsored the "feat" and told the Miami office
                   journalist how "important it is that the CIA should get new
                   information on Cuban agents and their collaborators in the Bill Clinton
                   government."

                   Not satisfied with carrying out orders from Langley—the general
                   headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency—the mercenary took
                   the initiative.

                   Nor has the most recent of ‘El Chino’s’ public initiatives created any
                   problem for him in Canada, where nobody seems interested in the
                   degree of danger he represents, although it has been clearly
                   demonstrated that Tang was appointed by Alpha 66 to direct its
                   collaborators in Cuba.

                   On January 31, 2000 and February 1, 2001, Ricardo Pascoe, the
                   Mexican Ambassador to Havana received a threatening letter
                   directed to himself and Mexican Foreign Minister Jorge G. Castañeda,
                   by fax and by courier. The author of the anonymous message, who
                   identified himself as ‘Adrián,’ wrote that Castañeda and his
                   "comrade," the ambassador to Havana, are "mistaken in the policy
                   to follow...they almost seem confused," and stated that they were
                   about to receive a visit from "Nazario and Alpha," a clear reference
                   to Andrés Nazario Sergent, head of Alpha 66. "Do not panic," stated
                   the text, "he is already in Havana."

                   On February 21, the Cuban Minister of the Interior announced the
                   arrest of Elizardo San Pedro Martín as the author of the threats, after
                   discovering in his house the typewriter used to compose the
                   messages, as well as a document confirming his links with Antonio
                   Tang.

                   The investigation revealed that San Pedro Martín received his orders
                   directly from Tang to perpetrate "propagandistic activities," but
                   above all "actions designed to frighten persons with an attitude of
                   rapprochement to the Cuban government."

                   San Pedro Martín received $1,200 USD for his activities which,
                   according to a Ministry of the Interior communiqué, had been "sent
                   from abroad via persons linked to Alpha 66."

                   What is most disturbing is that it appears that the man selected by
                   Tang to carry out his Havana "actions" is known for his dubious
                   conduct. In 1995 he sent a letter "endorsed with 134 signatures," to
                   U.S. Senator Jesse Helms, supporting his anti-Cuban projects.

                   Helms enthusiastically read out the letter in Congress. It was later
                   revealed that out of the 134 signatures, 34 were forged by San
                   Pedro and the rest were taken, "from other documents in his
                   possession."

                   Knowing the danger level represented by the Alpha 66 gang and the
                   international diffusion of cables announcing San Pedro Martín’s arrest
                   and links to Antonio Tang, it would seem logical that the "journalist’s"
                   activities in Montreal would have been of concern to the Canadian
                   authorities.

                   However, recruiting and financing an individual with psychological
                   problems to threaten diplomats in Havana is not a crime in Montreal,
                   not when the political criminal in question has buddies in the CIA and
                   CANF.