U.S. releases top Cuba spy from prison after 20 years
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A U.S. citizen convicted of spying for Cuba was released from federal prison on Friday after more than 20 years behind bars, Reuters reported.
Why it matters: Ana Belen Montes, 65, a former Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) analyst, was one of the most senior U.S. officials ever proved to have spied for Cuba.
The big picture: Montes began working for the DIA in 1985 and eventually became the agency's senior Cuba analyst.
- She was arrested in 2001 and charged with spying for Cuba. In 2002, she pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit espionage and was sentenced to 25 years in prison, per AP.
- Montes was released from prison in Fort Worth, Texas, the Federal Bureau of Prisons confirmed, AP reported.
- The judge who sentenced Montes had ordered that upon her release, she be placed under supervision for five years and have her internet access monitored, along with a ban on contacting foreign agents without permission and working for governments, Reuters reported.
State of play: Montes was approached by Cuban intelligence recruiters while studying for a master’s degree at Johns Hopkins University, per CBS News.
- By the time Montes joined the DIA the next year, she was already a recruited Cuban spy, according to the FBI, per CNN.
- In pleading guilty, Montes confessed to revealing the identities of four U.S. undercover agents to Cuban authorities, as well as other classified information, AP reported.
What they're saying: "The most notorious spy for Cuba’s communist regime in American history will now be free. Sadly, the people she used as an excuse to betray her own nation remain anything but," Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said in a press release Saturday.
- "[H]er treason against the U.S. accomplished nothing for the Cuban people. On the contrary, by helping the criminal Castro regime, Montes strengthened the Cuban people’s worst enemy," he added.
