CubaSI
Written by Aday del Sol Reyes

Raul Antonio Capote was filtered in the United States of America’s CIA. He was known as agent Pablo and had —among other tasks—, to convert university students into enemies of the Revolution.

For years, Raul Antonio Capote, agent Daniel in Cuban security force, was filtered in the United States of America’s CIA. He was known as agent Pablo and had —among other tasks—, to convert university students into enemies of the Revolution.

The CIA developed a complex plan of subversion to penetrate a key sector for them, university students.

His experiences in facing these plans and the circumstances surrounding agent Daniel to carry out the mission are addressed in Enemigo (Enemy), a book launched at the 21st Havana’s International Book Fair on February 18th.

It was the perfect pretext for JR (Juventud Rebelde newspaper) to talk with university professor and Master in Contemporary History and International Relations, agent of Cuban State Security and writer Raúl Antonio Fernández Capote (Havana, 1961).

-First El Adversario (Plaza Mayor Publishing House, Puerto Rico, 2005), and now Enemigo. Is there any other relation between these two books besides the similarities in the title?

-In El Adversario, Havana natives face the evil forces that have selected Havana as the final battle scenario in which they will try to defeat Gemini (equality), and the good will prevail. The history of battles between Cuban people and the special services of their mortal enemy, specially the CIA, is narrated in Enemigo. Both texts are a tribute to heroism of a people.

The difference? Well, the first is fiction and the other book is a testimony. Both have high human value. At least I tried to achieve it as a writer and protagonist of the time we are living. El Adversario is the struggle of the best human values against animal instincts, against lust. In Enemigo I tried to portray the human side of an agent of the Cuban State Security, of a revolutionary intellectual, a communist writer, against the enemies of his country, a battle that is carried out from the absolute silence, not expecting any reward other than satisfaction of the mission accomplished. In this unusual case, the identity of the agent is revealed and the recognition of his people is seen.

-Both books outwitted the CIA. Is Capote engaged with this sort of confrontation?

-That is my own war to the same extent this is the war of a whole people. As long as the enemy exists, this fight will never stop. It is not rhetoric, it is conviction of life.

-Much of the book Enemigo is dedicated to report how the U.S.’s CIA has committed million of dollars in the execution of subversive political and ideological plans aimed at young Cubans. What is the role of new technologies in this project?

-The enemy has elaborated a subversive plan, where new technologies play an important role, e.g. Libya, Syria, etc… Clearly, men are the ones who work, organize, and generate ideas, start revolution or counter revolutions. But the Internet and new equipment designed to communicate within seconds allow a great level of mobilization. Building on these strengths, the government of the United States provides the internal counterrevolution with sophisticated and expensive equipment like Bgan to increase their ability to articulate and summoning.

We cannot forget we are referring to the same government that forbids Cuba’s access to the Internet, by blocking and pursuing any attempt of Cuban government and companies to do business with American companies and their subsidiary companies all over the world. This government controls more than 80% of the Internet service and the necessary technology for its use.

Blocking the accessibility of Cuba to new technologies of communications and information, and simultaneously, facilitating the access to internet to Cuban counterrevolutionaries for internal subversion, training them in its usage, flooding the country with the necessary tools to bring the Cubans manipulated information, distorted and elaborated in the U.S., without any control required by the relevant international standards, would allow them to monopolize the information in the country and eventually, encourage people to carry out actions against the Revolution to justify an armed attack. We can never forget that, because the plan against Cuba was and still is to occupy the country to return the properties to Americans, as stated in U.S. laws such as the Helms Burton Act. The plan in Cuba is that of Iraq, not that of Poland or Czechoslovakia. It means to occupy the country to try to overcome the resistance they will find. Then, they will remove even the memory of the Revolution. Hose people still in doubts, I invite them to read the Bush Plan. I invite them to read Enemigo.

Young people who belong to a new digital era and were born in the midst of this technological revolution become ideal target for these plans. The American empire and its special services mastermind such projects. Organizations like the United States Agency for International Development ‘(USAID), the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), the International Republican Institute (IRI) and many others, regarded as facade of the CIA, spend millions dollars to work with subversion aimed at Cuban youth and highly qualified specialists.

– Did the CIA recruit you for being a university professor? Why does the U.S. government consider Cuba’s youth as the most vulnerable sector?

I do not think that young people in Cuba are the most vulnerable sector. I don’t even believe they are vulnerable. These days I have discussed many topics with many young people across the country and such meetings have given me elements to confirm that we have a mostly firm and revolutionary youth. I heard that some U.S. officials believe they lost their particular war against the historical leadership of the Revolution. Therefore, they bet on who they have named the grandchildren of the Revolution. We should not forget that we live in a world ruled by capitalist culture and our young people know about capitalism by the things we tell them, and we did not know it either. Our enemy knows it well. This is a war of axiology, a war that takes place in the minds of men. If they succeed in changing our thinking, if they succeed in conveying the values ​​of capitalist culture in the new generations of Cuban, then they will have won the battle. This Cuban struggle against demons is the greatest challenge of youth nowadays.

-You venture into testimony in Enemigo. Is it something temporary or an abandonment of narrative fiction?

-No, I have not abandoned the fiction. I’m writing a novel, but I have the intention to keep on writing testimonies. I have many things to say and this literary genre allows me to achieve the communication I need with the Cuban people.

– How would you define yourself, university professor, writer, or agent of the Cuban State Security?

-The great strength of the Cuban State Security, the strength that has allowed it to defeat the CIA, with its well-trained officers, agents and technicians, with its unlimited budget, with its latest technological resources, is that the Cuban State Security is composed of all Cuban revolutionaries, most of the people. I define myself as an intellectual revolutionary. That’s me.

-Do you think Enemigo can help young people to understand that the enemy is actually everywhere and it is not a fable like that of the Wolf.

-The book is dedicated to young people. I was also a young man not too long ago. I remember we referred to the enemy to justify our own mistakes. Moreover, the enemy and its lackeys try to convince us that the danger is not real, trying to demobilize us, with the resource thousand times repeated, that there is no threat and it is only an exaggeration of the revolutionary government.

My experience within the enemy allowed me to fully appreciate the danger is real and constant. I wondered sometimes: why were we worried with the enemy? The mission I accomplished let me know that such concern was actually small. The enemy will never stop trying to destroy the Revolution. Why? Because Cuba is an example too powerful and Cuban revolutionaries are by far the most active dissidents within this world of global capitalist power, because we are managers and promoters of a culture that is deadly opponent of capitalist culture; because they fear us, because they hate us more than anyone else, because we ended half a century of absolute dominion of the empire over the land and sow hope in the land of a possible better world.

If the book helps to clarify the truth, if the book serves as a tool for the revolutionary, if it serves as argument for the fighters in this battle of ideas, and helps to encourage the timorous, instruct the ignorant, convince unbelievers and denounce the traitors, then it will have well its purpose, right?.