General Abelardo Colomé Ibarra

Sitio Minint

Ministerio del Interior

Plaza de la Revolucion, La Habana, Cuba

Fax: 53 7 855 6621

correominint@mn.mn.co.cu

c/c:  webmaster@one.gov.cu

        apoblacion@oc.minjus.cu

        cubaminrex@minrex.gov.cu

        cuba@un.int

July 6, 2009

Dear Sir,

On August 18, 1994, Captain Jose Cohen Valdez, an agent of the Cuban Intelligence Service (DGI) escaped Cuba, allegedly on a raft, and reached the coast of Florida. A few years later, aided by U.S. Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and by the Cuban American National Foundation, Cohen will found an anti-Castro organization and begin his quest to bring his wife Lazara Brito Gonzalez and their children to the U.S. The Cuban Government has denied exit permits to the Cohen family as a result of his defection. His daughter and step-daughter were reunited with Pepe in Miami in 2008.

                                              Jose Cohen Valdez                                   Lazara Brito Gonzalez                                                                                                                      and her three children

                                                   (Miami, 2000)                                                 (Havana, 2000)

Ultima Palabra Ninoska Perez-Castellon  (Spa)                      NY Times  (Eng)

               Human Rights Watch  (Spa)                  Rep Diaz-Balart congressional speech  (Eng)

                        La Jiribilla  (Spa)                                            El Nuevo Herald  (Spa)

                      Miami Herald  (Eng)                        Partido Social Socialdemocrata de Cuba  (Spa)

As the aforementioned articles demonstrate, several international organizations are helping Cohen in his plight and his odyssey is used in the process as a propaganda tool against the Castro Regime.

But there is a lesser known, more ominous side to the Cohens. The formerly 1^st Lieutenant Jose Cohen Valdez (a.k.a. Pepe), his wife, Captain Lazara Brito Gonzalez, and Lieutenant Rolando Sarraf Trujillo (a.k.a. Roly), today serving 25 years in prison in Cuba for espionage, all three of them agents of the G2 acting under orders of Major Onelio Beovides ** and of the then Colonel Agustin Broche (a.k.a. Marco), met in secret several times with my wife Nila Castillo de Gaede and myself at Lazara’s home (Calle 13 #504, e/ D y E, # 1, Vedado, phone # 832 0803) to conspire against the Cuban Revolution. Specifically, the three conspirators passed secret information about Cuban agents, including the names and photographs of members of their respective departments, to the CIA through us. It has been thoroughly established that this type of information exposes agents to blackmail and places their lives at risk. In view of these facts, it is evident that Lazara Brito is not the meek little lamb that international organizations insinuate she is.

I'm telling you this because as a result of the treason committed by these three individuals against my family, I ended up serving three years in an American federal prison followed by a few more years of hardship. Like Edmund Dantes, the vengeful Count of Montecristo of literary fame, I too swore in my cell that I would one day do justice with these traitors. Today is that day. Today I expose Captain Lazara Brito Gonzalez to the Interior Ministry of Cuba with the hope that it may trigger her arrest for the crime of treason against the Cuban Revolution. I am praying that I can prevent the reunification of Lazara with her husband in Miami just like they through their actions caused so much pain to mine. As evidence of their participation in the conspiracy against the Revolution, I attach photographs that Jose Cohen and Lazara Brito sent to the CIA through me in an effort to establish their bonafides with that organization (See below under "Evidence").

You may ask, “How is it that I have pictures of these two G2 officers and their families taken in March of 1994 if I left Havana for the last time in June of 1992?"

These and other photographs in my possession were secretly sent by Pepe and Lazara via Maria Lopez Hernandez (Sarraf’s mother-in-law) and Maria Victoria de Bernard, a friend and distant relative of the Cohens. This last courier traveled  to Pittsburgh, Pa, in March of 1994 and stayed at the homes of Professor of Anthropology Frank McGlynn (University of Pittsburgh) and an art dealer of Russian origin named Elena Kornetchuk, both with verified ties to the socialist world. The CIA and the FBI monitored all of Maria Victoria’s moves as well as of another courier that Pepe and Lazara used to communicate with us: a Cuban named Dennis Granada (New York). The CIA and the FBI instructed me to write letters that these couriers took back to the conspirators in Cuba.

You may also ask, how is it that I know that the wife of Officer Rolando Sarraf Trujillo (born August 22, 1963, and voted Cuban Prisoner of the Week on April 12, 2009 by people who have no idea who he is) is named Maria Luisa Lopez Hernandez and is known informally as Malusy? How is it that I know that Sarraf, son of DGI Colonel Rolando Sarraf Elias, and Cohen, son of Brigadier General Isaac Cohen and Daisy Valdez, did their high school together if officially I was never supposed to have met Sarraf? The G2 had no operational reason to involve Sarraf, who worked in the surveillance (bugging) M-XV Department, in a working relation with me. Agent Ramon, whose real name – Mario Dortas – was also disclosed by the conspirators, can testify regarding the truthfulness of my statements. My wife and I met Sarraf in secret at Lazara’s house when the five of us (Pepe, Roly, Lazara, my wife, and I) conspired together against the Revolution in June of 1992. How is it that I know that Lazara Brito Gonzalez had the rank of Captain and worked as a cryptographer in the M-VIII of the G2? How is it that I know that Jose Cohen Valdez’s aunt, Fina Valdez, has phone number 303419 in Havana if not that Lazara wrote it on a piece of paper that she handed over to me so that we could have a secret, emergency communication channel? As you may surmise, this is not the type of information the G2 shares with people who have no business knowing.

I am notifying the Cuban press and State organisms as well as the CIA, the FBI, the American Latin and English presses, Latin U.S. Representatives, and other pertinent organizations of these facts, in English and in Spanish.

Sincerely,

Bill Gaede

(a.k.a. Guillermo Gaede, William Gaede, Enrique Chomsky, Enrique Soares Noa, Bill Dade, Bill Green, Steve Garvey, Ricardo Monares)

** Major Onelio Beovides, a.k.a. Rene) escaped from Cuba in a commercial airline in January of 1993 and was picked up by the CIA in Ireland. The CIA and the FBI debriefed Rene in Washington while a sister group comprised of FBI Special Agents James King (Austin) Juan Escobedo (Austin) and John Grant (Phoenix), and a couple of anonymous CIA agents compared his statements with those of my wife and mine in Austin, Texas. Major Onelio Beovides, subordinate of then Colonel Broche, and whom I met personally in Cuba in January of 1990, was Jose Cohen's boss and of my Cuban handlers in Mexico, G2 Captains Orlando Boucourt and Luis Aguero. It may interest you to know that whereas Cohen has been successful in making his case known, Beovides appears in no public records.

*****************************************************************************************************

EVIDENCE (Further recordings here)

Relevant passage (Fig. 1) of the Plea Agreement in case:

U.S. v. Gaede, D.C. Nos. CV-97-20159-RMW and CR-95-20118-RMW,

U.S. v. Gaede, 145 F.3d 1342, 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, San Francisco, CA (May 1998)  

U.S. Supreme Court Case 98-8940, Gaede, Bill v. United States (1998).

As I found out in prison, it is routine in the United States for the U.S. Attorney General to go after family members in order to compel a defendant to plead guilty in difficult cases. In the instant case, the U.S. Attorneys in California and Arizona were looking for ways to arrest my wife under the pretext that she was responsible for AMD and Intel material and for manufacturing fake IDs found in the house. My wife was taken off the hook when I pled guilty.

It is to note that my wife never worked at Intel and had nothing to do with manufacturing fake IDs. The U.S. Attorneys knew that these activities were entirely of my doing, but pursued this tactic in order to compel me to change my plea.  

Fig. 1 

                                                                       Pictures 3 and 4

Captain Lazara Brito Gonzalez and her husband, First Lieutenant Jose Cohen Valdez, both working for the Cuban Intelligence Service (G2, CUIS), with Maria Victoria de Bernard and her painting « San Juan » BEFORE Bernard's trip to the USA in 1994.

Lazara and Jose were secretly attempting to establish their bonafies with the CIA through these pictures at a time when they were working for the Cuban military and subject to martial law. Jose Cohen left Cuba in August of 1994, shortly after Intel Corporation fired me. I left the U.S. and the CIA was worried that I would secretly contact Cuban Intelligence and tell the Cubans what had happened. That's the reason the agency contacted me in Argentina. The CIA was forced to improvise a plan to whisk Pepe out of the country. The agency had everything it needed: his name, picture, address, testimonies of Rene and myself, and instructions on how to contact him (see below in "Sample..."). Therefore, it is highly unlikely that  Pepe left Cuba on a raft as he led the public to believe! In the same way, his daughters were likely escorted into the base at Guantanamo by the CIA when they 'escaped' in May of 2008.

Jose Cohen was tried in absentia and sentenced to death. Rolando Sarraf Trujillo was arrested shortly after Pepe's defection and sentenced to 25 years in prison in June of 1995. Apparently, Jose Cohen has the bad habit of deserting friends and relatives and abandoning them to their fortunes. Now Lazara Brito also seeks to defect, and for obvious reasons.

Meanwhile, Pepe forgot about Lazara, remarried, recently had two babies, and today works as -- what else?

... as an Amway  recruiter. The question is whether he has formally divorced Lazara (since his new wife carries his last name), which would in turn raise the issue of whether she has the right to asylum as the ex-wife of a defector. I have notified Human Rights Watch about these facts and events.

Pictures 5 and 6

An unwitting messenger?

Maria Victoria de Bernard in her New York studio with her painting titled “San Juan” in Elena Kornetchuk's Sewickley Gallery in Pennsylvania (2008).

Dialogue between Nila (Bogota) and myself (Phoenix) immediately after Nila came out of Cuba (March 13, 1993) after speaking with Roly, Pepe, and Lazara. Nila summarizes the information the Cuban agents are delivering and what their needs are. Below (under "Sample...") you will see more examples.

                                               Part 1                                                         Part 2

                                    (Click here for a transcript of these tapes.)

                   Sample of the information provided by the three Cuban agents to the CIA

Relevant passages of the letters written jointly into a minicomputer by 1st Lieutenant Jose Cohen Valdez, Captain Lazara Brito Gonzalez, and Lieutenant Rolando Sarraf Trujillo and sent to the CIA via my wife Nila, who traveled with a fake passport, but with that same first name, to the island on the 7th of March of 1993 (departed the 12th of March). She stayed at the Kholy Hotel in Room # 230.

For other examples of material supplied by Lazara, Pepe, and Roly, see 1992.

“In the last few years we obtained the most important results in the activity of deciphering. This effort was entirely allocated to the HC 500 cipher machine of the Hagelin Company. We have 4 models of the same delivered by the then USSR.  Of these, we were able to decipher merely with knowledge of the functional algorithm and the deciphered text. The 4th one has not been worked on for lack of operational interest.

Relation models deciphered by country: HC 500 Mod 1 (148 Spain, 08 Mexico, 88 Peru), HC 500 Mod 2 (18 Chile); HC 500 Mod 3 (Brazil). This information is from when Lazara was working XI Department (Criptoanalysis). Now she works 8th Department which is Criptographics where she can obtain further information of interest. If friends (CIA) could see Beovides could verify this. As well as through mentioned countries. This information is very secret and compart-mentalized. Its use should be very careful.

Success is in your person, Bill, and in the information that we can facilitate, in other words, you put your face and we put the material.

Information: Informative Russian Agent. Name Obolenckovy CA. Location: 125 057, Moscow A-57 YL, Octrikoba GKB67. Works in mixed company. Note: Beware! Only three of us know this. Was recently recruited.

A system for uncovering exploring and controlling all foreigners in the country entering through any port be it port or airport or any reason will soon be operational. This system is known as Turprov and consists all foreigners. Among data registered automatically includes: country name and last names background posible enemy activity category person profession job nationality citizenship purpose of trip. Such information will be sent corresponding organisms Minint or FAR with objective being processed in other words DI DCI DIM DSP y CIM. Persons will be classified: persons with more than 3 months stay, persons having traveled more than twice within 6 months, businessmen, scientists, exiled Cubans or with foreign residence permits, North Americans, Cubans tied FNCA, CID etc, terrorists, drug traffickers, and any others of operational interest Minint, tourists and participants international events. This is in response that they have been making showing having detected much information of interest. Communicate this so that they can take necessary security measures... The DI is creating new foreign counterintelligence apparatus (CIE)

Official Enrique Goycoechea will soon go Mexico representation Act Ex. Ramon Hurtado will substitute C. Barro in Canada. Nelson Fleitas sustituted Mario Equivel in Mexico.

Ramon Riopedes Valdez (PP cousin, son of Fina) lives Calle Calzada between 4 and 6 Apt 1 Vedado, Havan. Roly lives Calle 13 between 62 and 64 No. 6263 Playa tel. 295365. PP and Lazara Calle 13 # 504 between D and E Apto 1 Vedado.

You have video and audio here for 4 hours (to copy for the CIA). Lazara and Pepe in the recordings.

Russian Agent is political line. Dept MXXV-2 section deals with ex-socialist countries.

Dept IX Active Measures writes defamatory book of Mas Canosa to influence public opinion.

We believe must go personally to see our colleagues CIA FBI and deliver all the information including personal, without holding back. We authorize you.

You (Bill) should never come, too dangerous. Nila if she comes fake documentation. You are circulated in foreign centers. We saw the ciphered cables. Possibly you are circulated Cuba.

Verify if possible with Beovides and next contact person come properly prepared so that we can provide 22 floppies 3.5 inches with software "Comones of the Agents" as well as information of agents' identities. For this sure way is bring portable computer type notebook or palmtop with hard disk no less 80 megs and drive IBM or compatible with operational system MS DOS vers. 3.2 Also transporting containers for cassettes and videos documentary information. Most cases M-VI paralyzed due to Beovides desertion. Prioritizing cases. Beovides was unaware of "Comones" Plan.

Next contact: month of April, Friday, time: 20:15 hrs. Place: Plaza at 7th, between 6 and 8, Playa. Across from Chinese restaurant. Visual ID black shirt and blue jeans. Verbal "You Mr. Rodriguez" (We to him) "Yes. I come on behalf of Raul." (Him to us) This contact will be computer delivery and other means as well as 3 thousand USD as funds (Nila explains). This should be coordinated with CIA or FBI. There we coordinate contact delivery of information. Alternative next day same conditions. Remind person who comes must have fake ID prepared by CIA FBI. Permanent contact: first Friday of every month. Same conditions.”