Cuban spies ordered to harass 'right-wingers of Cuban origin'

 BY GAIL EPSTEIN NIEVES

 Florida politicians -- ``especially right-wingers of Cuban origin'' -- were high-priority
 targets for Cuba's intelligence agents, who made plans to cause trouble by
 ``penetrating'' the offices of U.S. Reps. Ileana Ros Lehtinen and Lincoln
 Diaz-Balart, among others.

 The anti-politician mission -- conceived in Havana and code named ``Operation
 Girón'' -- targeted a list of Cuban-American elected officials who ``could have an
 impact on formulating policy toward Cuba,'' according to Cuban intelligence
 communications read to jurors in the Cuban spy trial Monday.

 ``Among these, we can mention such figures as [Miami-Dade Mayor Alex]
 Penelas, Herman Hechevarria, Mario Diaz-Balart, etc.,'' read a coded September
 1997 message to Cuban agents in Miami that was decrypted by the FBI.

 Echevarria, whose name was misspelled, was Hialeah Council president at the
 time. Diaz-Balart was a state senator at the time.

 Another Havana communication referred to the three Cuban Americans in
 Congress as ``the three pests'' -- Miami Republicans Ros Lehtinen and Lincoln
 Diaz-Balart, and Bob Menendez of New Jersey. All three are strongly anti-Castro.

 Havana directed its agents to get inside the congressional offices to learn about
 any plans involving Cuba and to discover the ``vulnerabilities'' of Ros Lehtinen and
 Diaz-Balart.

 Such information ``will enable us to act in time in order to neutralize these plans
 [about Cuba], as well as . . . give us an opportunity to harass them [Congress
 members]. This is the most important point,'' the message said.

 Operation Girón was to be overseen by accused spy Ramón Labañino, one of five
 men on trial in federal court. The mission was among a host of ``active measures''
 directed out of Havana, according to testimony and documents. It was called
 ``Operation Girón'' after the beach in Cuba where the ill-fated Bay of Pigs invasion
 took place.

 Active measures was the term used by Cuban intelligence for, among other
 things, offensive tactics against the Cuban exile community. They included
 letters, flyers and phone calls that spread scandalous misinformation or threats.

 The measures were designed to create internal dissent or to discredit the image
 of exile groups, according to some 1,400 pages of secret communications that
 were contained on encrypted computer disks confiscated during FBI searches in
 the case.

 The Miami agents were directed to carry out smear campaigns against Ramón
 Saúl Sánchez and the Democracy Movement, the Cuban American National
 Foundation and other anti-Castro groups, testified FBI Agent Richard Giannotti.

 One of the most chilling plans: a telephone call to Democracy Movement leader
 Norman del Valle to tell him ``Remember Letelier; he didn't even have time to get
 out of his car'' -- a reference to the 1976 bombing murder of former Chilean
 diplomat Orlando Letelier in Washington, D.C. The slaying originally was
 attributed to Chilean secret police and Cuban exiles.

 Apparently not wanting to miss any opportunity to foment controversy, accused
 spy Gerardo Hernández recommended that ``a threatening phone call'' be placed
 to the Miami Herald and its then-publisher, David Lawrence. Hernández made the
 suggestion in August 1996, after a simmering feud between late CANF leader
 Jorge Mas Canosa and Lawrence flared.