INTERNATIONAL INTRIGUE MAKES MIAMI THE NEW 'CASABLANCA'

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000504800002-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 3, 2012
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: December 29, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/03: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504800002-6
_1
NEW YORK TIMES
29 December 1984
-~_ tern atiana1Intrigue Makes
. /liami the New `Casablanca'
By JON NORDHEIMER
Special to The New York Times
MIAMI. Dec. 28- In darkened cor-
ners of quiet cafes, they plan the over-
ttirow of a government or seal a big
drug transaction. Some speak of spy
operations or transferring huge sums
of money.
Secret meetings and plots of one
sort or another seem to abound in
Miami these days. It has become a
city of international intrigue where
foreign agents and competing ideo-
logical, political, criminal and indus-
trial spies are as commonplace as
palm trees and swimsuits.
Some people cal. it the new Casa-
blanca.
Campaigns and Coups
Inirigu is the stuff of backrooms
and coded messages. Tourists and
business executives passing through
rarely get a whiff of it. Even most of
the area's 1.7 million population is un-
aware of it, except for the news ac-
counts detailing the escapades of ad
hoc adventurers and professional
Provocateurs.
"Miami's become a hub for a lot of
things," says George DePontis, a
political consultant who has advised
Democratic politicians and Carri-
bean leaders on campaign strategy.
"There are 30 nations in the Carib-
bean Basin," he said, "and I think all
of them use Miami as a bank to keep
their money or a place to obtain
gringo expertise to stage political
campaigns or military coups."
The Central Intelligence Agency
runs a large station in Miami,
The
local Federal Bureau of Investigation
office is one of the largest in the na-
tion. The same holds for the Drug En-
forcement Agency and Organized
Crime Strike Force operations of the
Justice Department.
Smuggling Mixed With Politics
Their special interests often over-
lap.
The huge profits that can be
made smuggling drugs have at-
tracted some exile groups seeking the
money to buy arms and mount politi-
cal and military campaigns.
The F.B.I.' recently arrested eight
men in Miami and charged them with
plotting to use profits from smuggling
cocaine to mount an expedition to as-
sassinate Roberto Suazo Cordova, the
president of Honduras. A ninth man,
a Honduran general who is a military
attache in Chile, is still being sought.
With its busy international airport,
luxury hotels and shops, bilingualism
and Hispanic-flavored culture,
Miami has become the perfect meet-
ing. . place for Latin American and
Caribbean intriguers.
It is also the key city. in the hemi-
sphere for those seeking to recruit ad-
venturous mercenaries, according to
Federal officials. They say the bars of
some restaurants in Little Havana
and its Spanish-speaking fringe
neighborhoods, seem to attract men
who, for the right price or right cause,
will fly a shipment of cocaine into a
remote Florida landing strip, or sign
up for a weekend paramilitary expe-
dition to Central America.
"The motto of this town should be
`Lets Make A Deal'," said a Cuban
lawyer whose clients are men who
tend to be watched by other men.
One of those plotting to overthrow a
government is Huber Matos, 66 years
old, a former top lieutenant to Fidel
Castro. He left Cuba after spending 20
years in prison for his anti-Commu-
nist views, but his target is now the
leftist government of Nicaragua.
From a walled compound on the
south side of Miami, Mr. Matos heads
a group of Cuban exiles that he says is
dedicated to fighting Gommunism
wherever it shows itself in this hemi-
sphere.
Volunteering to Fight
Mr. Matos and others within the
group, Cuba Independiente y Demo-
cratica, have announced plans to or-
ganize volunteers to fight the Sandin-
ista Government's forces near the
Nicaragua-Honduras border. Mr.
Matos was recently pictured on
Miami television in fatigues talking
to anti-Sandinista units in what was
described as a border combat zone.
It is thought that the first anti-San-
dinista guerrillas were recruited
from among Nicaraguan exiles in
Miami.
"It is my understanding that most
of the Government's meetings with
the Contras still take place in
Miami," said a Cuban-American with
a -wide knowledge of intelligence
operations.
Most of the flow of illegal drugs into
the United States is coordinated in
South Florida, according to law-en-
forcement officials. Columbian drug
traffickers are now planning to estab-
lish processing labs for cocaine in
Florida for the first time, the officials
say. .
Allegations of corruption in the .
Bahamian Government originated in
Miami long before a Royal Commis-
sion undertook an investigation into
the charges.
And deals to smuggle arms into Latin
America are arranged in Miami over
lunch, according to Federal authori-
ties. They say that bands of merce-
naries regularly use the wilds of the
Everglades to break in new weapons or
train recruits in guerrilla warfare.
Today at the Miami International
Airport, tourists got a taste of the anti-
Communist fervor that now grips
Miami and is behind much of the politi-
cal plotting. A Roman Catholic priest
from Chicago, the Rev. Denis O'Mara,
deported. from Chile for protesting the
Government's alleged torture of politi-
cal prisioners, was jeered after landing
at the airport. Protesters greeted him
with shouts in Spanish of "Commu-
nists" and "Get out!"
Events have chased more rightwing
exiles to Miami than socialists. But
even Latin American leftist appears to
feel at home in Miami. "They may be
anti-Yanqui but they are not anti-
Miami," said Gustavo Marin, a 37-year
old Cuban-American lawyer who keeps
informed on the machinations of inter-
national intrigue as they are carried
out in Miami.
At the moment, Central American
political intrigue dominates conversa-
tion in Miami because of political un-
rest in the region and the attention
given it by Washington policymakers.
But on any given day, attention can be
turned to Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica, the Do-
minican Republic or the Bahamas.
Seen as Nest of Conspiracy
Rolando Montoya, a Costa Rican
economist who is bow teaching in the
Miami area, says that throughout Cen-
tral America Miami has the image of
being a nest of political conspiracy. A
few months ago, he said, he heard a
gov.ernment leader in Honduras criti-
cize his political opponents. The speech
eneded with a line that drew great ap-
plause: "If they don't like it here, they
can go to Miami."
Bernard Benes, a Cuban-American
banker who secretly helped the Carter
Administration negotiate the release of
political prisoners in Cuba, said that
plots, "or talk about plots," are perva-
sive in Miami.
Rick's American Cafe in the motion
picture "Casablanca," was the setting
for a web of intrigue spun by plotters
from several countries. In Miami, Mr.
Bones said, conspirators discuss their
plots over meals in a long list of Span-
ish-style restaurants.
"You go to a restaurant and if you
could listen undetected you'd learn
about conspiracies, political or drug.
related," he said.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/03: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504800002-6
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/03: CIA-RDP9O-00965ROO0504800002-6
Safe Place for Conversation
In an age of electronic eavesdrop-
ping, private yachts plowing along Bis-
cayne Bay and other tranquil water-
ways are also considered a safe place
for a delicate conversation, or on the
tennis courts of the posh clubs that re-
cruit rich Latins as members.
'According to Mr. Benes' theory, four
elements have made Miami a magnet
for a mixed bag of Caribbean and Latin
American strong men, revolutionaries,
exiles, arms merchants, Colombian co-
caine cowboys, spies and buccaneers of
every calling.
"Geography, language, ambiance
and money," Mr. Benes remarked the
other day over a lunch of mackeral and
rice at La Floridita, a downtown Cuban
restaurant hidden beneath a shopping
arcade on Flagler Street.
"Money, as in all things, is the most
important reason," he explained,
"They all come to Miami because
they like to be close to their money."
14 Pages of Banks
Miami's Yellow Pages contain 14
pages of listings for banks, and the
banks of 14 foreign nations have offices
here.
"As soon as you see some political
unrest in a Latin American country you
will notice a corresponding move in
Miami banks as the agents of the gov-
eriment in trouble start making large
deposits," Mr. Benes said.
Many wealthy Latin Americans like
to keep funds in Miami banks where de-
posits will be safe and draw high Amer-
ican interest rates. Virtually every
Miami bankhas senior officials who
speak fluent Spanish, executives re-
cruited from the 650,000 members of
the Hispanic population living in the
area. Most are of Cuban descent, but
more than a 100,000 are from other
Latin American countires.
"A lot of people who stole a lot of
money in Latin America are Army gen-
erals who speak no English," Mr.
Benes said. "They feel very comfort-
able doing business with Miami
banks."
For much the same reasons, Miami
has a strong pull for those out of power
in Latin America who are plotting their Zaire and reportedly in other African
return. Here, at the end of the Florida countries. Others became involved in
peninsula that juts like a long finger anti-Communist movements in Latin
into the center of the subtropical lati- America.
tudes, they enjoy all the conveniences "We were getting to be a remedial
of American life, especially communi- school for counterrevolution here in
cations, while the climate, language Miami," Mr. Marin said.
and even the food is little changed from For others, overtrained and with no
their own homeland, wars to fight, the riches of the growing
For nearly a century Florida has drug traffic in the 1960's seemed al-
been a haven for Latin politicians and most heaven-sent.
strong men seeking asylum or plotting Tactics Used for Smuggling
th
a return to
eir native lands. "The tactics they to
Josh Marti the Cuban patriot organ-
-
F
TU
F t the infiltration Cuba were
ized pro-independence and anti-Span- C17
ish movements in the 1890's among applied ? marijuana an
Cubans living in Tampa and Key West. smuggling, Mr. Mann said. "Even
In 1933, the deposed President Edg- the islands used by the CT .. inns
ardo Machado of Cuba arrived in a as sa a s lands were the
Miami as an exile. In the 1940's, Ful- smugglers for storage o fuel, drugs or i
gencio Batista worked from exile in turned thLolan(ung strips or fleets of
Daytona Beach to organize the army girplanes purchased to Wi
- s.
plot that led to his successful 1952 coup e g market was expanding at a
' d'etat in Cuba. The man he overthrew, time when the government of the Baha-
President Carlos Prio Socarras, went mas imposed a 200-mile fishiiig.limit,
into exile in Miami Beach and immedi- puttin some Cuban exiles in SouthFlor-
ately began plotting Etatista's ouster by ida who loans to pay off, many turned
financing insurgents, including a guer- to With drug smuggling, a more dangerous
Bastista expedition headed a young anti- but far more profitable pursuit, ac-
Ba lawyer, Fidel Castro. cording to local law-enforcement offi.
Castro's House Still Stands cials.
The stone house in which Mr. Castro Miami, a small port reachable by
lived while in Miami to recruit men and miles of open water, soon became a
raise funds still stands on Northwest major smuggling center for drugs,
Seventh Street in the city. arms and illegal aliens. The Miami
Several deposed leaders of Latin River, which threads through the city,
American nations have lived in Miami was soon receiving and sending large
as exiles, most recently Gen. Anastasio shipments of illegal contraband.
Somoza Debayle of Nicaragua. These
men usually are joined in exile by 1
henchmen, business associates and
militarists who move into houses or
luxurycondominiums prudently pur-
chased before their downfall.
In. many instances the hasty arrival
of the entourage is followed in time by
less prominent countrymen, who for
ideological or material reasons carry
on the fight to return the exiles to politi-
cal power.
It was the arrival of hundreds of
thousands of Cuban exiles to Miami in
the early 1960's that established Miami
as an international center of intrigue.
Raids Against Cuba
Almost from the beginning the exiles
staited. with C.I.A. treating and equip-'
menu hit-and-run sabotage raids
against Cuba from secret South Flor-
ida bases. s were ferried from Key
West to Cuba, and a small arm was
trained for an abortive lanaUFa-at_ffie
Ba of Pi .
Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962
1 to an un a sari Wash-I
ington oscow a rated
fates wo no organ encoura TM-
ill-tart' aggression against the
exiles in Miami began to out their
C.I.A.-training to use in o er to
e started
to build legitimate businesses or ca-
reers, a few signed up as mercenaries
to fight in the Katanga province of
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/03: CIA-RDP9O-00965ROO0504800002-6