Ana Montes could have been locked up getting a good erica. Once an extremely decorated You.S. cleverness expert that have a two-rooms co-op inside Cleveland Playground, Montes now lives in a two-bunk mobile in the highest-security ladies prison in the country. Her residents possess included a former housewife whom strangled an expecting lady to acquire their particular baby, a longtime nursing assistant which murdered four people with huge injections from adrenaline, and you will Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, the fresh Charles Manson groupie which tried to assassinate President Ford.
Instead, she receive the news headlines strangely reassuring
However, difficult time about Lizzie Borden ward out of a texas prison has not yet softened the former Coverage Department wunderkind. Many years shortly after she is actually trapped spying to own Cuba, Montes stays defiant. “Prison is one of the history towns I’d keeps actually selected to settle, however some something in daily life are worth likely to jail to own,” Montes produces inside the a good fourteen-web page handwritten letter so you can a close relative. “Or really worth creating immediately after which eliminating your self before you could have to purchase too much effort from inside the jail.”
For example Aldrich Ames and you may Robert Hanssen in advance of their particular, Ana Montes blindsided the fresh cleverness society that have brazen serves off treason. During the day, she is a great buttoned-off GS-fourteen during the a cover Cleverness Department cubicle. By night, she is on time clock having Fidel Castro, listening to coded messages more shortwave radio, passageway encoded records to handlers for the congested eating and sliding undetected towards Cuba using a wig and clutching a phony passport.
Montes spied to own 17 years, patiently, systematically. She introduced with each other way too many secrets in the their associates – therefore the state-of-the-art eavesdropping systems one Western spooks had privately hung in Cuba – that cleverness experts believe her one of the most hazardous spies in recent memories. However, Montes, today 56, failed to cheat simply their particular nation along with her associates. She and deceived their unique brother Tito, an FBI special broker; their own previous boyfriend Roger Corneretto, an intellect administrator into Pentagon specializing in Cuba; along with her aunt, Lucy, a beneficial twenty-eight-seasons experienced of FBI that has obtained honors to possess enabling so you’re able to unmask Cuban spies.
Full Screen The situation resistant to the ‘Queen of Cuba’ Have a look at Pictures Ana Montes spent almost 2 decades spying having Cuba if you are being employed as a beneficial You.S. intelligence specialist. Ana Montes spent nearly twenty years spying for Cuba if you find yourself doing work once the an effective U.S. intelligence specialist. Ana Montes’s FBI reservation photo on the day off their unique arrest, . ./ Courtesy of FBI Hold off 1 second to keep.
Regarding weeks adopting the i community place of work is to your high alert. All hijackers got invested time in South Fl, and you can FBI employees there have been desperate to understand if or not any further got stayed about. When a management requested Lucy Montes to come quickly to his workplace, she did not blink. Lucy try an experienced FBI words analyst just who interpreted wiretaps and you will other sensitive and painful communication. However, this impromptu conference had nothing in connection with Sept. 11. An enthusiastic FBI group frontrunner sat Lucy down. Your own brother, Ana, could have been arrested for espionage, he shared the most beautiful Anderlecht girl with her, and you will she you certainly will deal with the brand new dying penalty. Your sis, Ana, are an effective Cuban spy. Lucy failed to cry, didn’t storm call at disbelief. “We thought they right away,” she remembered when you look at the a recent interviews. “They explained numerous things.” Biggest news groups stated toward arrest, definitely, nonetheless it is overshadowed by the nonstop publicity of one’s radical attacks. ***
Now, Ana Montes continues to be the vital spy you have never heard of
Born into the an effective U. S. Army foot in 1957, Ana Montes ‘s the oldest youngster of Emilia and Alberto Montes. Puerto Rico-produced Alberto are a respected Army dily went appear to, out-of Germany to help you Ohio to help you Iowa. They compensated inside the Towson, external Baltimore, where Alberto created a successful individual psychiatric routine and you will Emilia became a commander from the regional Puerto Rican society. Ana thrived into the Maryland. Slim, bookish and you may amusing, she graduated having a step three. To help you outsiders, Alberto are a caring and you will well-educated father regarding five. But nowadays, he was small-tempered and you may bullied his students. Alberto “happened to think which he met with the to defeat his high school students,” Ana manage later on tell CIA psychologists. As he got upset. Yes. Ana is 15 whenever her mothers years had been complete.