Castro Agents Allowed to Break Laws With Impunity

0 Comments | Insight on the News, May 22, 2000 | by J. Michael Waller

Cuban intelligence officers are sparing no expense to conceal what a federal official calls the "brainwashing" of child refugee Elian Gonzalez. The government of Fidel Castro has been trying to send its own psychologists among Elian's Cuban classmates in an effort to deprogram him from the effects of five months in the United States. So far, the U.S. State Department has granted visas only to some of the classmates and their parents but has not decided whether to issue visas to the Cuban government "doctors"

News alert! has learned that Cuban officials are concerned about possible U.S. public perceptions that Elian is to be brainwashed in isolation from the American society he has known since his Thanksgiving Day rescue at sea. Castro recently gave a speech underscoring the importance of U.S. public opinion in his bid to return the boy to Cuba.

A federal court in Atlanta ruled April 25 that the boy must remain under U.S. jurisdiction while his case is considered and therefore may not be transferred to the Cuban Interests Section, Havana's diplomatic outpost in Washington. Elian remains with his father, stepmother and half-brother in a 26-room mansion on Maryland's eastern shore.

Since Elian can't be brought to the section, the section is being brought to Elian. Intelligence officers based there have worked to conceal what is expected to be a constant flow of Cuban agents to the compound. Cuban intelligence officers have procured a fleet of cars without the diplomatic license plates that would identify them as Cuban. All foreign diplomats in the United States must drive in designated vehicles bearing red, white and blue license plates issued by the State Department. Each foreign mission is issued a two-letter "scramble code" that appears on the plates to identify the country or international organization. Cuban officials based at the United Nations in New York must drive in cars with State Department plates beating the scramble code "DC." Since the Cuban Interests Section in Washington is an office of the Swiss Embassy, officials there drive with tags beating the "VH" code for Switzerland. To distinguish the Cubans from the Swiss, State has given the Cubans the series number 300 (or 0300) and above.

Sources tell news alert! that the Cuban agents broke the license-plate rule this week when they leased 12 new Ford Taurus cars from the Ford Leasing Co. office at 1315 I Street NW in downtown Washington. News alert! also has learned that the Cuban government has purchased other new vehicles during the last few days, bearing nondiplomatic tags, specifically for the Elian operation. The purpose, say sources, is to disguise travel by the Cuban officials in and out of the Maryland compound, the entrance of which is staked out by reporters.

In addition to concern about the public perception of brainwashing, U.S. officials say the Cubans appear to be trying to violate a rule that they must obtain State Department permission five days before traveling beyond a 25-mile radius of Washington. The Wye River compound where the boy is being held is more than twice that distance. Cuban First Secretary Felix Wilson was seen on April 27 with a rented white Dodge van beating the Maryland license plate H303280. His acquisition of the vehicle without proper diplomatic plates is in violation of State Department rules.

According to the U.S. Secret Service, Wilson has refused to cooperate with U.S. law-enforcement officials to determine the identities of his staffers who beat up a group of pro-Elian protesters outside the Cuban Interests Section on April 14 (see "Cuban Diplomats Fight `Hand-to-Hand Combat' Against Demonstrators" Insight Webwire exclusive, April 21). Federal officials tell news alert! that Wilson is an identified intelligence officer who "orchestrated the beating of the Elian demonstrators." The vast majority of section officials -- more than 40, say U.S. sources -- also are intelligence officers.

Reporting from Havana on April 26, Reuters commented in its Spanish-language service, "Castro has converted the 6-year-old boy into a veritable revolutionary icon who symbolizes the straggle of the Cuban people against the United States." Elian's father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, is a member of the Cuban Communist Party.