Campaign Begins in Cuba for Imprisoned Spy Ana Belen Montes

Fernando Ravsberg

HAVANA TIMES – This week the first public event was held in Havana to demand the release of Ana Belen Montes, a spy for Cuba who has already served 15 years in prison. The ceremony was held at the Casa del Alba and had the participation of poets and singers, including Vicente Feliu, who is an activist for the cause of the Puerto Rican woman.

“I have sung many times for her but this is the first time as an exclusive concert for Ana Belen,” said Feliu, adding that “the need arises to make the cause of this internationalist heroin known in our country.”

Ana Belen Montes is a Puerto Rican who became a high official of the US military intelligence. She was known as “The Queen of Cuba” because she devoted herself almost exclusively to gather military information about the island but actually worked for Cuban intelligence.

For Feliú there are two spaces, “regardless of what Cuba and the US are negotiating, I think that we Cubans have to know that this woman risked her life for us.” However, the knowledge of her in Cuba is limited because no national press covered the event.

A hundred people attended, including former Cuban state security agent, Manuel David Orrio, who says committees are being created in Cuban provinces to demand Montes release. He mentioned such efforts in Holguín and Sancti Spiritus.

“There are also committees in France, Sweden, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico,” said Orrio. He noted that the first phase was to publicize the case. “I put out a Google alert a year ago and before I received one response every 3 or 4 days now I get 4 or 5 alerts every day. That shows how we have progressed. ”

“For the Cuban government in its relations with the US it is extremely complex to request by the release of the imprisoned lieutenant colonel. It is different from the Cuban Five agents’ case [which ended with the release of the remaining three from US prisons in December 2014.] But no one can stop us as civil society from mounting a campaign for her freedom,” added Orrio.