Ana Montes, one of the most famous spies of the Cold War, was released from prison after more than twenty-one years in prison. The BBC reports it. Arrested by US authorities in 2001, Montes, who worked as an analyst for the US Defense Intelligence Agency, spied for Cuba for nearly two decades, revealing much of Washington’s intelligence operations on the island. Michelle Van Cleave, who headed counterintelligence under President George W. Bush, told Congress in 2012 that Montes had “compromised everything — pretty much everything — what we knew about Cuba and how we operated in Cuba.” “So the Cubans were well aware of everything we knew about them and could use it to their advantage,” Van Cleave explained, “Furthermore, Montes was able to influence assessments about Cuba in his talks with colleagues and he also found the opportunity to provide other powers with the information acquired”.
After her arrest, Montes was sentenced to 25 years for revealing the identities of four US spies and a huge amount of classified material in Havana. Unlike other high-profile spies captured during the Cold War, Montes was motivated by ideology, not personal gain, and she agreed to work for Cuban intelligence because she opposed the Reagan administration’s activities in Latin America. In particular, according to a report by the inspector general of the Department of Defense, what prompted Montes to betray Washington was US support for the “contras” of Nicaragua, a right-wing rebel group suspected of committing war crimes and other atrocities in the Central American country. Montes was initially approached by a fellow student at Johns Hopkins University in 1984 after expressing outrage at US actions against the Communist government in Managua. She was later introduced to a Cuban intelligence agent over a dinner in New York and she “unhesitatingly agreed to work through the Cubans to ‘help’ Nicaragua,” the inspector general’s report reads.
After traveling to Havana the following year for training, the BBC recalls, Montes joined the Defense Intelligence Agency, where she would become the senior analyst at the island’s communist government organization. For nearly two decades, the official met with Cuban agents in Washington restaurants, sent them coded messages containing top-secret information via pagers, and received instructions via shortwave radio broadcasts. Montes was arrested in September 2001 thanks to a tip. She will now be supervised for five years and her internet communications will be monitored. You will also be prohibited from working for the government and from contacting foreign agents without permission. Pete Lapp, one of the FBI agents who arrested Montes, told CBS that he doubts Montes intends to reestablish contact with Cuba. “That part of his life is over,” Lapp said, “he did what he did to them. I can’t imagine him risking his freedom.”