A group of six former high-ranking officials of the Cuban regimewho live in exile, published an open letter calling on their former colleagues in the Armed Forces to dismantle the dictatorship.
The letter with the unique request was signed on December 29, 2023, in days prior to the “65th Anniversary of the Revolution,” a date that the Cuban government celebrates on January 1, 2024.
The Cuban former officers who signed the document that urge their former military colleagues to take a definitive step for the freedom of Cuba are:
Orlando Brito (Former Intelligence Directorate Officer), Joseph Cohen (Former operational officer of the General Intelligence Directorate), Rafael del Pino (Brigadier General and pilot), Enrique Garcia (Former operational officer of the General Intelligence Directorate), Alcibiades Hidalgo (Member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba) and Maximo Omar Ruiz (Lieutenant Colonel of the Armed Forces).
They assure that the Cuban Intelligence services have a large number of secret agents on all continents and that the recent arrest of former US ambassador Víctor Manuel Rocha is just the tip of the iceberg.
The former officers point out that Cuban espionage operations are the fruit of decades of work that has generated unsuspected benefits for the regime.
“The Cuban Intelligence Directorate carries out aggressive work directed towards the outside whose main task is to work against the United States and defeat democracies and their values. It collaborates with autocratic governments and criminal cartels that share its objectives,” the text says.
From their intimate knowledge of the system, former Cuban officials condemn the island’s authorities’ attempts to manipulate international perceptions, minimizing the regime’s global influence and the damage caused by secret agents.
Regime defectors are urging the world’s democracies to take concrete steps against Cuban intelligence, such as expanding counterintelligence resources, more closely monitoring diplomats, improving security clearance screening and better training government officials.
They also make a special call for the United States government to begin thoroughly reviewing the impact of Agent Rocha’s actions during his career.
The former officers invite their former colleagues to distance themselves from the regime, as they did. They believe that this is one of the ways to definitively end the dictatorship and fight for an authentic democracy that allows the Cuban people to achieve the prosperity they have deserved for decades.
They emphasize that it is crucial for the Armed Forces, the Ministry of the Interior, the Communist Party and government officials to overcome fear and end oppression.
“The essential change to promote and defend is towards a multiparty democracy that structurally reforms the economy and the State. The people must recover their sovereignty to build the prosperous society they deserve.
The letter also contains brief biographies of each of the authors, detailing their experiences before leaving the country.
