By MARTIN AROSTEGUI
Special to The Herald
MADRID -- In the most serious espionage case yet uncovered in Spain,
prosecutors have charged five members of Spanish military intelligence
and a
businessman of spying for the Cuban government.
The ring's activity involved secret meetings in Miami between the Spanish
spies
and their Cuban handlers, plus money laundering, industrial espionage and
disseminating disinformation favorable to Cuba, court documents show.
Spanish intelligence chiefs became aware that something was wrong when
efforts
to track more than 100 suspected Cuban spies were stymied because
microphones hidden in several offices and apartments around Madrid suddenly
stopped working.
Certain suspects were also successfully evading surveillance squads and
no longer
discussing sensitive subjects in the usual places, a hint that Cuba was
somehow
learning a lot about Spain's spy-catchers.
``We were confronted with the first penetration of our . . . intelligence
service since
the East Germans tried it during the Cold War,'' said a Spanish intelligence
officer
who asked not to be identified.
The accused officials of Spain's military intelligence agency, the Center
of Defense
Information and Studies (CDIS), will not be publicly identified until they
appear
before a special security court later this week, but the identity of the
businessman
is known.
He is Jose Fernandez, an executive of several hotel and travel companies.
He was
denounced by a business partner, Fernando Molina, who lost money investing
in
Cuba, according to published reports.
Scandal surfaced
The scandal was broken last month by the Madrid newspaper La Razon and
has
heightened sensitivities surrounding King Juan Carlos' first visit to Havana,
tentatively scheduled for March.
According to court records and intelligence sources, Cuba's main overseas
spy
agency, the Ministry of the Interior's Directorate of Intelligence (DI)
managed to
infiltrate the CDIS through an officer identified so far only by his first
name, Luis.
Spokesmen for CDIS confirm that he held military rank and a position in
the
agency's spy-catching counterintelligence section, code-named IB-4, when
he was
recruited by the Cubans several years ago.
Another CDIS employee described as a civilian technical specialist was
also
spying for Cuba, according to official sources who maintain that he has
signed a
confession and has been suspended from the service.
Three other CDIS officials are being charged with helping Fernandez carry
out his
intelligence work for the Cubans, according to court records.
Base was moved
Cuba's Intelligence Directorate moved its main European base to Madrid
in the
early 1990s, after its previous base in Prague came under increased monitoring
by
pro-American Czech intelligence, U.S. officials said.
CDIS officials believe Luis was approached by female Cuban agents in Madrid
in
1991, before he was sent to Havana briefly as part of a special contingent
when
the Spanish Embassy became jammed with dissidents seeking political asylum.
It was then that CDIS believes their officer was ``doubled.'' His reports
were filled
with recommendations for giving in to Cuban government demands for the
return
of the dissidents, and warnings of an imminent raid on the embassy by elite
Cuban
troops that never took place.
Spanish officials said Luis has since spied on Spain's military integration
with
NATO, the private lives of leading officials, and special operations units
and
electronic warfare capabilities, including a type of aircraft acquired
from the United
States that could be used against Cuba.
According to CDIS sources, Luis came under suspicion after a series of
visits to
Miami, where he regularly contacted some companies believed to be used
as
fronts by Cuban intelligence.
The Miami connection
``Miami was an important exchange and debriefing station for DI operations
in
Spain as it was considered an area where someone from Spain could travel
regularly without generating suspicion,'' according to a source in the
Spanish
Defense Ministry. Some companies used by Cuban intelligence are believed
to
have been set up with the assistance of Spanish businessmen working for
the
Cubans, according to the CDIS, but none have been publicly identified.
The accused spy, Jose Fernandez, helped to set up some DI fronts operating
as
travel agencies and other commercial enterprises in Florida, Madrid, London,
Canada, Japan, Italy and Germany, according to recent Spanish media reports.
Court documents in the case identified one of the companies as Grupo Oasis,
a
tourism firm registered in Panama that lists its business address in Cancun,
Mexico,
and runs several beach resorts in Cuba.
Oasis has been linked to Spain's biggest corruption scandal, involving
banker
Mario Conde, currently jailed on embezzlement and fraud charges. Sources
said
Fernandez helped Conde funnel some $2 million to Cuba.
Cuban Tourism Minister Osmani Cienfuegos made a discreet weeklong visit
last
summer to the Spanish resort of Marbella, where he was the guest of the
mayor,
Jesus Gil, a real estate developer recently convicted on charges of embezzlement.
Marbella city officials allege that Gil's deputies regularly carry large
quantities of
cash to Cuba in briefcases.
The spy scandal is the worst intelligence conflict between Madrid and Havana
since Cuban agents tried to abduct a defecting Cuban diplomat from the
streets of
Madrid in 1986. That incident drew a diplomatic protest from the Socialist
government of Felipe Gonzales.
CDIS officials insist that the Cuban spy ring caused no substantial or
long-term
damage to Spain and expressed confidence that the moles were caught ``at
a
relatively green state'' before gaining promotion to higher positions.
Cuban intelligence defectors also report that the cash-strapped Cuban economy
is
inhibiting its intelligence services.
``The Castro brothers now demand strict accounting of all money spent.
This is
demoralizing field operatives,'' one said.
Copyright © 1999 The Miami Herald