Ex-agent: Escobar met Cuban officials in '89

CUBA
Ex-agent: Escobar met Cuban officials in '89
A former Cuban intelligence officer said a Colombian drug kingpin was in
Cuba in 1989 to meet with military officials.
Posted on Wed, Mar. 12, 2008
BY WILFREDO CANCIO ISLA
El Nuevo Herald

Colombian drug kingpin Pablo Escobar was in Cuba in 1989 to meet with
Cuban military officials, according to a former intelligence officer who
escaped the island with his family to the United States.

''Pablo Escobar was at my family's home in Havana on Feb. 22, 1989, and
he took flowers to my mother as a gift because that day she was
celebrating her birthday,'' said Daniel Abierno Govín, a former first
lieutenant for Cuba's Interior Ministry, known as MININT.

Abierno, 50, told El Nuevo Herald that the meeting with the head of the
Medellín cartel took place at his parents' home in the El Vedado
neighborhood of Havana.

SAW HIM ONCE

''I saw him only once there and I can't say if he was in Cuba on other
occasions, but I can assure you that he was at my house that day,''
stressed Abierno, who worked for MININT for 20 years.

``They presented him as a friend of my sister, Rosa María, and later I
learned who he was.''

Abierno's sister, Rosa María Abierno Govín, was a captain in the Cuban
intelligence agency and the only woman included in the 1989 case against
Gen. Arnaldo Ochoa and other high-ranking Cuban officials. She received
a 30-year sentence, charged with bringing cocaine to the island through
computer shipments.

She was released in 1994 and died of cancer barely three months later.

''In Cuba those who had contact with Escobar are either in prison or
dead,'' Abierno said. ``No one who had a relationship with him [Escobar]
can easily leave from there.''

MISSILES BUY

Escobar's visit -- he was killed by security forces in Medellín in
December 1993 -- took place to negotiate directly with Ochoa to buy
land-to-air missiles. But the deal fell through after Ochoa and his
collaborators were detained and tried in June 1989.

Ochoa made the first contacts with Colombian narcotraffickers between
October and November of 1986. He was helped by Capt. Jorge Martínez, who
was able to meet with a representative of the Medellín cartel, according
to details in the Cuba trial against Ochoa.

In May 1988, Martínez traveled to Colombia with a false passport to meet
with Escobar under strict security. Both agreed that the price for
shipping the drug to the United States through Cuba would be $1,200 per
kilo of cocaine.

Ochoa and Martínez were killed by firing squad, along with Col. Antonio
de la Guardia and Maj. Amado Padrón.

Abierno told El Nuevo Herald that the case that involved his sister
resulted ''in a hard blow for the rest of my life'' and marked the
beginning of his dislike for Fidel Castro's regime.

During the trial, his father, Bienvenido Abierno Rodríguez, died of a
thrombosis at age 72, and then his mother, Eugenia Govín Pérez, died at
age 63 from a diabetic crisis.

''My parents couldn't bear my sister's trial,'' he said. ``And Rosa
María's death left a lot of suspicion, because her health was ironclad.''

TV PROGRAM

On Tuesday, Abierno appeared on the program A Mano Limpia on Channel
41-AmericaTeVe, where he recounted his memories. The ex-official escaped
Cuba in a boat with his family on August 13, 2005, and was caught at
sea. He remained at the Guantánamo base for seven months, where he said
he was interviewed by various CIA officials. In March 2006, he was sent
to live in Kentucky.

At the end of last year, he moved to South Florida, where he now lives.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami_dade/story/453206.html