Cuban father demands to visit son, a convicted US spy
The case of Ernesto Borges Perez, who is serving a 30-year sentence for
spying for the U.S., has received very little attention over the years.
By Juan O. Tamayo
jtamayo@ElNuevoHerald.com
The father of a former Cuban intelligence officer jailed in Havana for
spying for the United States complained Friday he's not been allowed to
visit his son, in ill health and held in a medical cell amid a
three-week hunger strike.
"We are going to go to the prison every day to demand to see him,
because we don't want to see him only after he is dead," said Raúl
Borges, whose son, Ernesto Borges Perez, has served 14 years of a
30-year sentence.
Borges went on a hunger strike three weeks ago to demand he be released
on parole. The military criminal code, under which he was tired and
convicted in 1999, allows for parole after prisoners serve one-third of
their sentences.
His father said he and several relatives waited to see him for seven
hours Thursday at the Combinado del Este prison in Havana, but were
eventually told that the prison director had banned any visits.
Two prison nurses reported to the family that Borges was being held in a
special medical cell within the punishment wing of the prison, the
father added, and provided a few details of his health.
Borges suffers from several health issues and appeared "extremely
delicate" when the family last visited him Saturday, the father said,
noting that political prisoners Orlando Zapata Tamayo and Wilman Villar
died amid hunger strikes during the past two years.
Cardinal Jaime Ortega Alamino visited Borges in prison for more than one
hour Wednesday, but has not commented on the prisoner's health or what
they discussed.
Raúl Borges said his son, a captain in the counterintelligence section
of the Interior Ministry, was arrested in 1998 as he tried to pass Cuban
secrets to U.S. diplomats in Havana. Had he succeeded, he would have
received the death penalty.
Borges said his son, who worked under the alias of "Lester," dropped an
envelope with secret information over the wall surrounding the residence
of one U.S. diplomat, but Cuban officials used a long stick to reach
over the wall and pick up the envelope.
During prison visits, Borges added, his son gave him the names of 26
Cuban intelligence agents who were being trained to infiltrate the
United States and Europe — ensuring they would not be sent abroad and
"helping to protect U.S. national security."
The father told El Nuevo Herald on Friday by phone from Havana that he
had retired in 1989 as a major in counterintelligence and now heads an
opposition group, the Christian Democratic Union of Cuba, and is active
in several others.
The U.S. government has declined to confirm whether or not Ernesto
Borges was in touch with anyone at the U.S. diplomatic mission in
Havana, and his case received surprisingly little attention in the news
media over the past 14 years.
But a former Cuban intelligence agent who defected in 2000 told El Nuevo
Herald Friday that in 1998 he learned that a captain in
counterintelligence who used the name "Lester" had been arrested while
dropping off secrets in a U.S. diplomat's garden.
He never learned the real name of "Lester," added the defector, who now
lives in the United States and asked for anonymity to protect relatives
still in Cuba.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/03/03/2671987/cuban-father-demands-to-visit.html
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