A man who for years sent reports from Cuba to news organizations overseas as an independent journalist has admitted that he was working for the Cuban counterintelligence service all that time.
Carlos Fleites, 32, a writer for the Independent Press Agency of Cuba (APIC), told The Herald Tuesday that he decided to reveal his role as an informant because he had become disenchanted with his government.
He phoned The Herald from Mexico City, where he went two months ago to join his Mexican-born wife, Liliana Cordova.
The trip to Mexico was for personal reasons, ``not at the direction of counterintelligence,'' Fleites said. However, he added, his supervisors told him ``to wait here awhile, until I could get a job that would enable me to resume reporting about Cuba.' '
Fleites was a frequent contributor to Radio Marti, the U.S. government station beamed to Cuba, and also sent news reports to commercial Spanish-language radio stations in Miami.
The Herald published several reports based on information furnished by Fleites.
``The stories were not phony, but the [service] was always behind everything,'' he said.
Fleites said he was recruited by Cuban counterintelligence in 1988, after he had worked at two Havana radio stations, a state-run domestic news agency and a Havana weekly newspaper.
In 1994, as opposition groups flourished on the island, he was instructed to make contact with dissidents and independent journalists, Fleites said. For the next two years, his control officer was known to him as ``Adolfo Castillo,'' he said.
On Monday, Fleites phoned Cuban counterintelligence from Mexico City and recorded the conversation, which he played back Tuesday to a Herald reporter.
In the recording, he is heard identifying himself by his code name Omar and asking for Alina, chief of the unit. A man identifying himself as Alejandro tells him Alina is out of the office. Fleites tells Alejandro he is ready to re-establish his contac ts ``with the enemy press'' and asks for permission to proceed.
``Don't do it yet,'' Alejandro is heard to say. Apparently speaking in code, he tells Fleites to ``write to my folks' house, where my little brother used to meet with you, and tell him everything.''
On Tuesday, a Herald reporter phoned the Havana number supplied by Fleites and asked to speak with Castillo, saying he was calling on behalf of Omar.
When Castillo picked up the phone, the reporter identified himself and asked him to confirm or deny Fleites' allegations. Castillo hung up.
© 1996 The Miami Herald.