U.S. couple who spied for Cuba cooperating

Two more Cuban rats--admitted spies for Cuba-- Walter and Gwendolyn Myers, admitted their spying for the Cuban government, plead guilty and agreed to cooperate with the federal government in a plea deal with prosecutors that got Gwendolyn Myers a much lighter sentence than she might have faced.

Walter Kendall Myers -- a former State Department employee with top secret clearance -- agreed to a life sentence without parole; Gwendolyn Myers could have faced up to 20 years in prison, but under the plea deal, she now could serve between 6 and 7 ½ years.

What a croc of ……

With sentencing set for July 16th, the couple is also asking for favors, asking to be sentenced to prisons as close together as possible.

What next? Conjugal visits?

When they appeared in court Tuesday, they said through a lawyer that they had acted ``not out of selfish motive or hope of personal gain but out of conscience and personal commitment.''

Ideological spies…in other words motivated not by financial gain, but instead, their own beliefs—which for Walter Myers indicates that while he believed getting his paycheck from the U.S. State Department, he did not believe in the values of the United States….I guess spying for Cuba doesn’t pay for a sailboat, a house, a nice retirement package etc etc.

The pair has agreed to pay the government about $1.7 million, the salary Walter Myers made while working at the State Department, and forfeit everything else, in exchange for prison cells and uniforms.

The Myerses had loyally served the Cuban DGI since 1979, traveling to Mexico, the Caribbean, Central and South America and New York to meet with Cuban agents.

In his debriefings, Walter Myers bragged to an undercover FBI source that he was so successful he received ``lots of medals'' from the Cuban government.

Perhaps he can share them with the Cuban 5 since they’ve yet to return to Cuba to receive theirs.

To read the original article in the Miami Herald, click on the title bar above.

The Spy's Wife

The Spy’s Wife….

On March 31st, at six in the evening; I received an email from GOOGLE Alerts, a programmable service provided by the internet giant that scours the World Wide Web for stories related to user specified parameters.

The email had a single link leading to a Miami New Times story about Ana Margarita Martinez, a Miami woman duped into marrying Juan Pablo Roque, one of the many Cuban spies directly involved in planning and perpetuation of the shoot-down of the Brothers to the Rescue planes on February 24, 1996.

Ana’s story is of the “stuff” fictional spy thrillers are made of…the infiltration of the United States by international double agents intertwined within a love story.

When Thomas Van Hare and I wrote our book BETRAYAL: Clinton, Castro & The Cuban Five, we detailed Juan Pablo Roque’s actions as a Cuban military pilot, defector and spy to the roles he played in Miami as a husband, father, and infiltrator of the Brothers organization.

Unsurprised by the usual vilifying and hateful comments these articles usually bring, I commented publicly on the article, which can be read at: http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2010-04-01/news/cuban-spy-juan-pablo-roque-s-jilted-ex-wife-won-27-million-for-his-deception and went on about my business.

Surprisingly, within days of my post being published, I was contacted by, “The Spy’s Wife”; a brief email thanking me for my support in her search for justice. I forwarded her email to my co-author who readily identified her, and I also contacted Ana Margarita for a long overdue conversation that lasted an hour!

I found her to be “much different” than I’d have ever imagined!

As she spoke of her life with great candor I wondered how someone so betrayed by someone she loved could speak so candidly with a stranger about her ordeal.

It’s Ana’s faith, her beliefs and her ability to “make lemonade out of lemons”.

While much of her life ended the day before the shoot-down, she’s endured a living hell (my words not hers) since Juan Pablo Roque’s betrayal.

Ana Margarita Martinez has sued the Cuban government in U.S. courts and won, although not been able to collect. She’s raised her children to be successful adults and become a proud grandmother.

She has also been working on a book with retired Defense Intelligence Agency analyst Chris Simmons, and created a trailer for a movie she hopes to find in production in the near future.
For myself, this encounter with yet another of the many people affected by the heinous acts of the Castro brothers, their agents and co-conspirators has again led me to understand the many stories I’ve heard over the years…and the Hell the Castros have maintained for Cubans living both on and off the island.

I encourage my readers to read the New Times article (linked above) and to visit Ana’s website, www.thespyswifethemovie.com . There’s a real life story awaiting the right producer, and I highly recommend everyone go see it!