From State Security Agent to CID Member

From State Security Agent to CID* Member / Yudel Rojas, CID
Posted on September 12, 2013
By Yudel Rojas**

I was born on December 24, 1980 in Manzanillo to a family committed to
the Revolution. I always dreamed of being a member of the Special Forces
and one morning they offered me a chance to work for the revolution.

You might ask how.

A captain in counter-intelligence, a man name Jorge Vázquez, told me I
should join his agency as an undercover agent. I told him that, of
course, I would do anything for the Revolution.

After a few days he came by on a motorcycle, took me to a Cuban
Communist Party guesthouse and led me to a bedroom where I was to
receive lessons in intelligence gathering. I was trained in debriefing
and security monitoring, which meant having to meet people at various
houses, where I was given information and instructions. Thus began my
life as a G2 agent.

I had to memorize the phone numbers that the official in charge had
given me. I felt very encouraged by the contribution I was making to the
Revolution, to which I was told I owed a lot, even my existence as a
human being.

One night I was taken to Vallespín Park, a place well-known to residents
of Manzanilla, and was introduced to a man I was never to see again. We
met up with a dissident known as Pascual. He headed the cell of a
splinter group, whose members were known, in the language of
counter-intelligence, as grupusculeros. My official let it be known
these were people who posed a grave danger to the Revolution and who
worked for the United States government.

This group had been infiltrated a year and a half earlier. At the time
Pascual, who was married to Mirta, had been sentenced for committing a
very dangerous crime. He served out his sentence and a few months later
left for Spain.

The head of the Gulf of Guacanalyabo branch of the party was the
dissident Tania de la Torre Montesino. Before leaving, Pascual suggested
I begin working with Tania, through whom I would meet Nelson Virelles,
Diéguez Segura and others.

During the meetings at Tania's house the discussion was about human
rights and the challenges facing the Cuban people. Listening to Tania
talk about freedom and democracy, I began to have serious doubts.

I was confused and shared my doubts with the official with whom I
worked. He told me it was all a lie. He said that, if these were good
people, the Party would accept them as one more Cuban civic organization.

After five years problems began to crop up due to ideas about which I
had learned from the dissident movement. After every meeting I would ask
the official about the things that had been discussed, which led him to
finally ask me if I was with the revolution or against it. I told him it
was only a question and nothing to get upset about. Once I did not go to
a meeting and was ordered detained by the police.

Things got worse. I learned not to trust anyone. Jorge, the official,
told me repeatedly that my goal as an agent was to infiltrate these
splinter groups, not to ask stupid questions. I stopped doing
infiltration work but kept visiting Tania's house and participating in
various activities.

Over time I learned I had been mistaken, that State Security had
confused me and that the truth was to be found there in the old house
where the brave fighter known as Tania de la Torres Montesino lived.

I was arrested several times and the head of counter-intelligence,
Alexis Díaz, threatened me, saying I might simply disappear if I kept
visiting the grupusculeros' house.

To be continued.

*Translator's note: Acronym for Cuba Independent and Democratic. An
organization founded in Venezuela in 1980, dedicated to "the struggle
for the establishment in our homeland [Cuba] of a society committed to
liberty and human dignity, completely democratic and sovereign, socially
balanced and just."

** Yudel Rojas is the author's actual name. He is a member of the CID
delegation in Manzanillo.

10 September 2013

Source: "From State Security Agent to CID* Member / Yudel Rojas, CID |
Translating Cuba" -
http://translatingcuba.com/from-state-security-agent-to-cid-member-yudel-rojas-cid/