Esperanza Castillero Spain’s new intelligence chief has a dark past in Cuba
HAVANA, May 12th Esperanza Castillero, was appointed as the new head of the Center for National Intelligence (CNI) in Spain. He was going to be kicked out of Cuba in 2009 after getting involved in the process to spy During the operation of the network of Spanish agents in Havana.
According to various Spanish press reports, The official’s job in Cuba lasted only six months, after Raul Castro expelled her and two other agents from Madrid. presumably related to the impeachment of Vice President Carlos Lage and then-Secretary of State Felipe Perez Roque.
As indicated by the media Target Esperanza Casteleiro Llamazares (1957) reached the top of CNI after nearly four decades of working in the secret services. He arrived in Cuba in 2008, but the regime wouldn’t see his presence so well which practically confined her to the hotel in which she is staying.
But his expulsion would have been attributed to the February 2009 arrest of Cuban businessman Conrado Hernandez, delegate of the Association for the Advancement and Industrial Reprocessing (SPRI), an entity of the Basque government in Havana, which ended up being arrested when he was arrested. About to board a plane to Spain.
Convicted in 2011 of espionage, he was released from prison in 2021 taking advantage of prison for a more moderate incarceration system, according to mentioned Cyber Cuba. Various sources describe him as a spy for the Spanish CNI.
Although CNI representatives in Havana, attached to the Spanish Embassy, denied any connection to the case, the then Spanish Foreign Minister, Miguel Angel Moratinos, announced in mid-May the final replacement of the relevant CNI members. After Havana issued a diplomatic complaint.
Among those affected by this decision is Castelero Lamazares, who allegedly used information provided by Hernandez, a close friend of Lage and Pérez Roque, to learn about Castro’s leadership plans and the plan of action with Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, head of government in Madrid. , Transition to democracy on the island.
The official takes over the leadership of CNI after the departure of Paz Esteban the first woman to hold this position but Figures from the Spanish independence movement and three cabinet members, including President Pedro Sánchez.
In his first appearance in front of the media, Castelero Lamazares claimed on Tuesday that it was precisely thanks to him that multiple “accidents” and “jihadist attacks” were avoided in Spain, although he admitted that a “step forward” had to be taken, he is quoted.
