As shown above, the London-based worldwide reach of BBC News, in a war-torn world, is also focused in mid-APRIL of 2024 on telling the world about the endless conflicts pitting the superpower United States against its small neighbor Cuba. A former key U. S. ambassador, Victor Manuel Rocha, in a federal courtroom in Miami "has just been sentenced to 15 years in prison for working as an agent for Cuba." Of course, Rocha is not the only key U. S. government official to get a long sentence in a U. S. federal courtroom by getting convicted of spying for Cuba while working in major positions within the U. S. government. Remember the famed Cuba Five Cubans who went to Miami to investigative known anti-Cuban terrorists such as the ones that downed the civilian Cubana 455 Flight airplane, killing all 73 on board; the Cuba Five tried to report their findings to the FBI but were arrested and sentenced to up-to-life terms in U. S. Federal Prisons. But, of course, Ana Belen Montes remains the most famed such Cuban spy.
Ana Belen Montes
Of course, Ana Belen Montes remains the all-time top U. S. official that turned into a legendary spy for Cuba. A graduate of the University of Virginia and Johns Hopkins University, Montes quickly made a name for herself in the U. S. Justice Department in Washington and then for 17 years she became the top U. S. Cuban expert at the U. S. Defense Intelligence Agency {DIA}, where her intimate knowledge of US-Cuba Relations evolved into her many years of being a Spy for Cuba!! While spying for Cuba, Montes in 1997, in the DIA photo shown above, was sstill receiving one of her many awards for her meritorious service to the U. S. government. But...in 2001 she was arrested as a CUBAN SPY and sentenced to 25 years in a U. S. federal prison. After serving 20 years, she was released in her 60s in 2023 and she quickly ended up as a free woman in Puerto Rico, which is a close Caribbean neighbor very near Cuba.
The astounding history of US-Cuban Relations features Ana Belen Montes as one of the primary players, a stardom that she richly earned. She famously went from being the top Cuban EXPERT in the U. S. government to being sentenced to 25 years in a Miami courtroom for SPYING for Cuba during her 17 years as a heralded star {and Cuba expert} within the U. S. government.
This is Ana Belen Montes the day she was arrested.
Below is what she said the day she was sentenced.
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When she worked in the U. S. government as the top Cuban expert, Ana Belen Montes became privy to what she cogently said to the judge during her sentencing:
"Your honor, I engaged in the activity that brought me before you because I obeyed my conscience rather than the law. I believe our governement's policy is profoundly cruel and unfair, profoundly unneighborly, and I felt morally obligated to help the island defend itself from our efforts to impose our values and our political system on it. We have displayed intolerance and contempt towards Cuba for most of the last four decades. We have never respected Cuba's right to make its own journey towards its own ideals of equality of justice. I do not understand why we must continue to dictate how the Cubans should select their leaders, who their leaders must be, and what laws are appropriate in their land. Why can't we let Cuba pursue its own internal journey, as the United States has been doing for over two centuries."
Above in quotations are the exact words that Ana Belen Montes wrote and then calmly read in the Miami courtroom to the judge that sentenced her. She, for sure, well knew that she would not receive any sympathy in a Miami courtroom but she was accepting her 25-year sentence. Above in Pink you can read just one paragraph of her beautifully written and soulfully delivered very long statement, and above you should read it all and also study all of it.
Above you can see an update from BBC News about Ana Belen Montes being released from a U. S. federal prison in Texas after serving 20 years of her 25-year sentence. She is now living in her native Puerto Rico and "focused on living a private life" and "She has also called attention to difficulties facing the people in Puerto Rico and on the ongoing U. S. embargo against Cuba."
Puerto Rico, where Ana Belen Montes now calls home, is Cuba's close neighbor in the Caribbean, as you can see on the above map. Puerto Rico is a U. S. Territory and Cuba has, since the victorious Cuban Revolution in 1959, has faced things from the U. S. such as the 1961 Bay of Pigs military attack, the massive U. S. Embargo since 1962, terrorist acts such as the deadly bombing of the civilian Cubana Flight 455 airplane in 1976, etc., etc., etc. As you study the map above, also note that since 1898's SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR, which was a quick and easy U. S. victory over Spain fought in Cuba, the U. S. has dominated Puerto Rico officially as a U. S. Territory and has also endeavored to dominate Cuba, as expert Ana Belen Montes so cogently explained, by such acts as the Bay of Pigs attack in 1961, the Embargo since 1962, placing the Guantanamo Bay U. S. Military Base in Cuba since 1903, the horrific Embargo against Cuba that began in 1962 and now in April of 2024 is stronger than ever, etc., etc., etc. So...Cuba and Puerto Rico, close neighbors as shown on the above map, also have been twin pawns in things such as the easy imperative U. S. victory in 1898's SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR.
Now livng privately and freely in Puerto Rico, Ana Belen Montes is still brave enough and decent enough to denounce the U. S. EMBARGO on Cuba, a travesty that has tormented Cuba and shamed the United States for over six decades -- since 1962!! In other words, Ana Belen Montes today remains one of the few Americans brave enough to speak freely and accurately about U.S.-Cuba Relations and Conflicts that have existed almost since Columbus discovered both lands in 1492, but especially since 1898 when the United States used the SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR that it fought on Cuban soil Cuba to add Puerto Rico as a Territory and to surround Cuba in the fasshion depicted in the notable Carlos LaTuff depiction shown above, which remains the international image of the dreadful EMBARGO.
And lastly, in April of 2024 the headline from BBC News as shown above informs the world that tightly embargoed Cuba is facing "food shortages" -- which, of course, is a euphemistic way of saying that in APRIL of 2024 some people in Cuba are starving. From her new home in nearby Puerto Rico, Ana Belen Montes believes the EMBARGO is a Cuban & American travesty.
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