Some of what they left out.
Wasp Network is a 2019 film now playing on Netflix that is based on the book The Last Soldiers of the Cold War by the Brazilian author, journalist, and politician Fernando Morais that paints a sympathetic and whitewashed picture of the Castro regime's spy network that was rounded up by the FBI in 1998. To have a better idea about who the author is and his ideological motivations consider the following factoid. Morais's first book published in 1976 titled A Ilha about his three month visit to Cuba, at a time when Brazil's military dictatorship had severed relations with the Castro's communist dictatorship since 1964, and Brazilian passports carried a warning: "Not valid for Cuba."
This visit and the book upon which it was based made Morais an icon of the Brazilian left.
Olivier Assayas, who wrote the screenplay, based on the book by Morais, and directed the film, initially encountered resistance from the Castro regime, but found all doors opened to him and he spent half a year in Havana, Cuba to complete the film.
Therefore it should be a surprise that the book that the film is based on and the film portrays the Castro dictatorship, and its spy network in a favorable and non-threatening light. The film is a masterclass and misinformation, but also a demonstration that to satisfy Havana what should have been a powerful and impacting film ended up a mediocrity, panned by critics and with even a lower score among the audience according to Rotten Tomatoes.
The WASP Network (La Red Avispa) was made up of over forty officers and agents, four escaped to Cuba when the FBI began rounding them up. Ten were captured, and five of them pleaded guilty and cooperated with the prosecution. They are unpersons in Cuba, and the remaining five became the focus of an international propaganda campaign organized by the Castro regime that did not end until December 2014.
Wasp Network is a 2019 film now playing on Netflix that is based on the book The Last Soldiers of the Cold War by the Brazilian author, journalist, and politician Fernando Morais that paints a sympathetic and whitewashed picture of the Castro regime's spy network that was rounded up by the FBI in 1998. To have a better idea about who the author is and his ideological motivations consider the following factoid. Morais's first book published in 1976 titled A Ilha about his three month visit to Cuba, at a time when Brazil's military dictatorship had severed relations with the Castro's communist dictatorship since 1964, and Brazilian passports carried a warning: "Not valid for Cuba."
This visit and the book upon which it was based made Morais an icon of the Brazilian left.
Olivier Assayas, who wrote the screenplay, based on the book by Morais, and directed the film, initially encountered resistance from the Castro regime, but found all doors opened to him and he spent half a year in Havana, Cuba to complete the film.
Therefore it should be a surprise that the book that the film is based on and the film portrays the Castro dictatorship, and its spy network in a favorable and non-threatening light. The film is a masterclass and misinformation, but also a demonstration that to satisfy Havana what should have been a powerful and impacting film ended up a mediocrity, panned by critics and with even a lower score among the audience according to Rotten Tomatoes.
The WASP Network (La Red Avispa) was made up of over forty officers and agents, four escaped to Cuba when the FBI began rounding them up. Ten were captured, and five of them pleaded guilty and cooperated with the prosecution. They are unpersons in Cuba, and the remaining five became the focus of an international propaganda campaign organized by the Castro regime that did not end until December 2014.
The film briefly mentions the Ochoa Affair, and touches on its political aspect of liquidating General Arnaldo Ochoa, a popular general among the ranks, who was executed by firing squad in 1989, but fails to mention the Castro regime's extensive involvement in drug trafficking.
Whether consciously or not, to film in Cuba, and not have regime censors shut down their production, he gutted the film of what would have been powerful elements that would have provided context, not to mention drama and pathos to his film . It would've provided a dramatic explanation of the July 13, 1995 overflight of Havana by Brothers to the Rescue but this would have necessitated putting on film the July 13, 1994 "13 de marzo" tugboat incident when agents of the Castro regime sank a tugboat six miles off the coast of Havana and attacked and killed 37 men, women, and children trying to flee the island. Next month will mark 26 years without justice for the victims. A detailed report on this crime against humanity was published by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in 1996 and is available online.
One year later on the anniversary of the killings, and with the bodies never recovered, a flotilla of boats organized by Cuban pro-democracy groups tried to reach the spot where the tugboat rested with the remains of the tugboat victims to hold a service for the dead. The lead boat Democracia had its hull crushed by Cuban government gunboats, and turned back, as had been agreed upon by organizers, if the dictatorship's forces turned violent. At that moment Brothers to the Rescue that had been flying overhead changed course and flew over Havana dropping leaflets that read "Comrades No. Brothers." This outraged the Castro brothers and I believe this is when they began plotting their revenge which they carried out seven months later.
Other and more dramatic activities carried out by the Wasp Network were left out of the film.
The spies had received instructions from Havana to burn down an airport hangar, sabotage planes, first terrorize then send a mail bomb to kill a CIA agent living in Bal Harbour identified as Jesus Cruza Flor. The network provided material intelligence that assisted in the shoot down of two civilian planes on February 24, 1996 killing four Americans that they do not even show or name in the film. They are treated as non-persons.
The Wasp Network engaged in espionage: targeted U.S. military facilities, planned to smuggle arms and explosives into the United States, provided information that led to the extrajudicial killings of Armando Alejandre, Carlos Costa, Mario de la Peña and Pablo Morales, infiltrated two non-violent exile groups, and carried out numerous other activities to sow division, shape public opinion, and meddle in U.S. elections.
The Cuban spy network gathered personal information of American military personnel "compiling the names, home addresses, and medical files of the U.S. Southern Command’s top officers and that of hundreds of officers stationed at Boca Chica Naval Station in Key West." What did the Castro regime plan to do with this information?
The WASP spy network was disbanded in 1998 by the FBI, but another high ranking Castro spy burrowed deep in the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency, Ana Belen Montes, was not arrested until days after the Twin Towers and the Pentagon were attacked on September 11, 2001.
All of this came out during their trial. Gerardo Hernandez, the head of the network was convicted of murder conspiracy and espionage and condemned to a double life sentence.
Hernandez had his double life sentence commuted by President Obama on December 17, 2014 as part of the concessions made in the drive to normalize relations between the two countries.
Whether consciously or not, to film in Cuba, and not have regime censors shut down their production, he gutted the film of what would have been powerful elements that would have provided context, not to mention drama and pathos to his film . It would've provided a dramatic explanation of the July 13, 1995 overflight of Havana by Brothers to the Rescue but this would have necessitated putting on film the July 13, 1994 "13 de marzo" tugboat incident when agents of the Castro regime sank a tugboat six miles off the coast of Havana and attacked and killed 37 men, women, and children trying to flee the island. Next month will mark 26 years without justice for the victims. A detailed report on this crime against humanity was published by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in 1996 and is available online.
Other and more dramatic activities carried out by the Wasp Network were left out of the film.
The spies had received instructions from Havana to burn down an airport hangar, sabotage planes, first terrorize then send a mail bomb to kill a CIA agent living in Bal Harbour identified as Jesus Cruza Flor. The network provided material intelligence that assisted in the shoot down of two civilian planes on February 24, 1996 killing four Americans that they do not even show or name in the film. They are treated as non-persons.
The Wasp Network engaged in espionage: targeted U.S. military facilities, planned to smuggle arms and explosives into the United States, provided information that led to the extrajudicial killings of Armando Alejandre, Carlos Costa, Mario de la Peña and Pablo Morales, infiltrated two non-violent exile groups, and carried out numerous other activities to sow division, shape public opinion, and meddle in U.S. elections.
The Cuban spy network gathered personal information of American military personnel "compiling the names, home addresses, and medical files of the U.S. Southern Command’s top officers and that of hundreds of officers stationed at Boca Chica Naval Station in Key West." What did the Castro regime plan to do with this information?
The WASP spy network was disbanded in 1998 by the FBI, but another high ranking Castro spy burrowed deep in the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency, Ana Belen Montes, was not arrested until days after the Twin Towers and the Pentagon were attacked on September 11, 2001.
All of this came out during their trial. Gerardo Hernandez, the head of the network was convicted of murder conspiracy and espionage and condemned to a double life sentence.
Hernandez had his double life sentence commuted by President Obama on December 17, 2014 as part of the concessions made in the drive to normalize relations between the two countries.
In April 2020, Gerardo Hernández, convicted of murder conspiracy for the Brothers to the Rescue shootdown and espionage for heading up the WASP spy network, was promoted to Deputy National Coordinator of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR), an Orwellian agency, and is now tasked with spying on all Cubans in the island.
There is a long history of espionage by the Castro regime targeting the United States that stretches back to the early years of the Cuban dictatorship, and policy makers should not forget or underestimate it. These were not the last soldiers of the "Cold War", because Cuban spies continue to carry out the orders of the dictatorship in Havana even when that means carrying out acts of terrorism, torture, and murder.
In the meantime we can challenge the Castro regime's narrative and remember the victims and continue to demand justice. The case of the Brothers to the Rescue shootdown on February 24, 1996 has been studied in detail and a report prepared in 1999 by the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights with references to other sources. The Wasp Network film never identified the four men killed on that Saturday afternoon 24 years ago. Lets challenge their narrative with facts and documentary evidence. Let us also remember and say the names of Armando Alejandre, Carlos Costa, Mario de la Peña and Pablo Morales.
There is a long history of espionage by the Castro regime targeting the United States that stretches back to the early years of the Cuban dictatorship, and policy makers should not forget or underestimate it. These were not the last soldiers of the "Cold War", because Cuban spies continue to carry out the orders of the dictatorship in Havana even when that means carrying out acts of terrorism, torture, and murder.
In the meantime we can challenge the Castro regime's narrative and remember the victims and continue to demand justice. The case of the Brothers to the Rescue shootdown on February 24, 1996 has been studied in detail and a report prepared in 1999 by the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights with references to other sources. The Wasp Network film never identified the four men killed on that Saturday afternoon 24 years ago. Lets challenge their narrative with facts and documentary evidence. Let us also remember and say the names of Armando Alejandre, Carlos Costa, Mario de la Peña and Pablo Morales.
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