CDMX, Mexico.- After more than 20 years in prison, the Cuban government spy Ana Belén Montes was released, confirms the Reuters agency.
Montes, who was the highest-ranking Cuban spy on US soil, at the time of her capture was working as an analyst for the US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). From this position, she leaked information of interest to the island’s regime, including the identities of some American spies.
Montes, currently 65 years old, was arrested on September 21, 2001. A year later, she was tried in a trial where she pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit espionage and was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
As has been revealed in the sentencing documents, Montes justified his actions by saying that he had done what he believed was fair.
“I felt morally obligated to help the island defend itself against our efforts to impose our values and our political system on it,” she declared.
Donald Murphy, an official with the Federal Bureau of Prisons, confirmed to America TeVe that for reasons of privacy and security, the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) does not discuss the conditions of confinement of Belén Montes, including her state of health or plans for her release.
Who is Ana Belen Montes?
Ana Belén is a US citizen of Puerto Rican descent, who was recruited by the Cuban intelligence services.
In 1985 she began working for the DIA, where she became the agency’s main analyst on Cuba, for which she had access to privileged information.
According to the investigations into the case, Montes received coded messages from Havana through a wave radio. She would then decipher this series of numbers on her computer. Through her cooperation with the Cuban dictatorship, she put the lives of US citizens at risk.
According to former spy catcher Chris Simmons, Montes was also part of the Wasp Network, the largest foreign spy group to operate in the United States.
Members of that group were accused of helping the Havana regime shoot down two US-registered humanitarian aircraft operated by Brothers to the Rescue on February 24, 1996. The attack killed four pilots and volunteers.
After the downing of the two planes, Montes was part of the team that was evaluating a response from the United States and at the same time passing information to Cuban agents.
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