Ana Montes might have been locked up to own a great erica. Just after an incredibly decorated U our website.S. intelligence specialist that have a two-bedroom co-op in Cleveland Playground, Montes today resides in a-two-bunk cellphone regarding the large-safeguards women’s jail in the country. Her natives enjoys integrated an old housewife who strangled an expecting lady to get their unique baby, a long time nurse whom slain five clients with massive shots from adrenaline, and you will Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, the brand new Charles Manson groupie exactly who attempted to assassinate Chairman Ford.
Rather, she receive the news headlines unusually reassuring
However, difficult time throughout the Lizzie Borden ward off a tx jail has not softened the previous Cover Institution wunderkind. Many years once she is stuck prying to own Cuba, Montes stays defiant. “Prison is among the past locations I’d possess actually chose to stay, many one thing in life are worth gonna jail to possess,” Montes writes inside an excellent 14-web page handwritten letter in order to a member of family. “Or worth creating immediately after which destroying your self one which just need to invest a lot of time into the prison.”
Instance Aldrich Ames and you can Robert Hanssen in advance of their particular, Ana Montes blindsided the newest cleverness community which have brazen acts out of treason. During the day, she try a beneficial buttoned-off GS-14 from inside the a safeguards Intelligence Department cubicle. By night, she are towards clock for Fidel Castro, experiencing coded messages over shortwave radio, passage encrypted files so you’re able to handlers inside packed food and sliding unnoticed on the Cuba dressed in an excellent wig and you will clutching an artificial passport.
Montes spied to have 17 decades, patiently, systematically. She passed with each other too many gifts regarding their acquaintances – plus the state-of-the-art eavesdropping platforms that American spooks had privately strung in Cuba – you to intelligence pros consider their particular one of the most unsafe spies in the previous thoughts. But Montes, today 56, didn’t deceive simply their particular nation along with her acquaintances. She along with betrayed their own cousin Tito, a keen FBI special agent; their previous boyfriend Roger Corneretto, an intellect officer with the Pentagon devoted to Cuba; and her cousin, Lucy, a great 28-year veteran of FBI who’s acquired honors to possess helping so you can unmask Cuban spies.
Full Screen The actual situation contrary to the ‘King out of Cuba’ Check Images Ana Montes spent nearly two decades spying getting Cuba while working as an excellent You.S. intelligence expert. Ana Montes spent nearly twenty years spying for Cuba if you’re working due to the fact an effective U.S. cleverness expert. Ana Montes’s FBI booking images at the time regarding their unique arrest, . ./ Courtesy of FBI Waiting 1 next to keep.
About weeks following we profession place of work was for the highest aware. Every hijackers got invested amount of time in Southern area Fl, and you may FBI staff there have been eager to discover whether any further had lived behind. As soon as a manager asked Lucy Montes to get to their work environment, she did not blink. Lucy is actually a seasoned FBI language expert who interpreted wiretaps and you can almost every other sensitive communication. But it impromptu fulfilling had nothing at all to do with Sept. eleven. An enthusiastic FBI team leader sat Lucy down. The cousin, Ana, could have been arrested having espionage, he shared with her, and you will she you’ll face the fresh death penalty. The cousin, Ana, try a good Cuban spy. Lucy did not scream, did not storm out in disbelief. “I thought it straight away,” she remembered in a recent interviews. “They explained several things.” Big development communities reported with the arrest, of course, but it try overshadowed by the continuous exposure of one’s violent attacks. ***
Now, Ana Montes continues to be the vital spy you have never observed
Produced toward a great U. S. Army legs in 1957, Ana Montes ‘s the oldest youngster off Emilia and you will Alberto Montes. Puerto Rico-produced Alberto try a prominent Army dily gone appear to, of Germany so you’re able to Ohio to Iowa. They paid inside Towson, outside Baltimore, in which Alberto developed a successful personal psychiatric practice and you may Emilia turned into a commander on local Puerto Rican area. Ana thrived in the Maryland. Thin, bookish and amusing, she finished that have an excellent step three. To outsiders, Alberto are a caring and you may really-knowledgeable dad from four. But behind closed doors, he had been small-tempered and you may bullied their youngsters. Alberto “occurred to trust which he met with the to beat their high school students,” Ana perform later on tell CIA psychologists. As he had furious. Yes. Ana try fifteen whenever their unique parents years was complete.