recent Ex-Medellin Cartel boss Carlos Leheder’s revelationsCollected in the book of memories, it pointed out General Raul Castro green-lighted a drug-trafficking operation for which four Cuban soldiers were later shot dead. known as the Ochoa case.
What the former drug trafficker says for the first time Relations of so-called “extraditables” with the governments of Cuba, Panama, Nicaragua and the Bahamaswho receive millions of dollars to easily traffic Colombian drugs destined for the United States, the magazine publishes week.
Its details are in the book The Life and Death of the Medellin CartelFrom Penguin Random House, on sale now in bookstores in Colombia.
Leheder, described by Colombian media as “an advance among extradatables, educated, bilingual people,” says The money and power that Colombian bosses amassed in the 80s of the last century would not have been possible without the involvement of these regimes.. According to his story, he recognized it immediately The easiest way to get coca into the United States was through “drug diplomacy.” By these governments.
The former boss said he saw how these regimes sat at the table with drug traffickers and received millions of dollars generated by cocaine.
Although Leheder was personally involved in the control of the Bahamas, which was administered by Minister Linden Pindling, he also participated in it. Negotiations in Cuba and even asked to meet Raul Castro on one occasionAccording to the book.
what can i say In the case of the island, the connection was with Pablo Escobar Gaviria and Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha, called “The Mexican”; by means of Colonel Antonio de la Guardia, who was then the head of CIMEX Corporation.
“The Castro dictatorship, through CIPEC, the intelligence and special operations agency in Havana, used a Cuban-American doctor, a relative of a former colleague of mine, to send me a formal invitation to visit the island, all expenses paid by the government,” Lehder says. .
On the first business visit he says he was greeted by a group of plainclothes officers and met the heads of mission led by de la Guardia in the waiting room.
According to Lehder testimony published by week, The Cubans believed the visit was to buy lobster, rum and cigarettes, but he added that they were “clear that they needed the island as a springboard for drug smuggling.”.
Cuban’s response opened the door to a huge business: “For now, I can only confirm that we need all the dollars we can get,” said Colonel Antonio de la Guardia.According to Leheder.
The former drug trafficker says that first they authorized him to use “Cayo Largo, an island twenty kilometers long with a good landing strip” and that in the first phase CIMEX informed him that “five million dollars in cash was needed to cover it. . Government expenditure on that island (…)”.
“You will have the rooms you need to stay with your workers on the second floor of the hotel; in addition, we will open a kitchen. We do not know how much cocaine you will bring to the island, but the more, the better; we only have to negotiate the price per kilo of land,” The former boss quoted.
Contact with Raul Castro
Lehder, 74, a resident of Germany, who served time in the United States for drug trafficking, points out that despite this he wanted to talk to the Castros and asked to be introduced to General Raul Castro, the youngest of the brothers.
Before the meeting, de la Guardia told him: “Listen to me carefully: protocol requires strict respect for time. There is a maximum of four minutes for a handshake, a courtesy phrase and a farewell. You will not mention your own name.”
Lehder says they then searched him, took his passport and took him to a room. “A bespectacled man appeared and, looking at me shrewdly and intently, said: “Nice to meet you, welcome to liberate Cuba.” He greeted me, and extended his cold hand to me with the icy gesture of a strongman greeting a shoe. the boy
According to the story, Raúl Castro continued: “Here in Cuba we have made great strides in education, medicine and agriculture. Our trade is growing despite the Yankee blockade; the Cuban revolution is invincible. Enjoy your stay. You may leave.”
He says that Raul Castro’s short words have nothing to do with the drug business, but he believes that, in code, they represent the closing of a contract. Through which many drug shipments came to the island.
“Gustavo, the Mexican, and I were partners in the first shipment of cocaine sent to Key Largo. Our responsibility was to get it to the island,” he writes in his memoirs.
According to the story, Gustavo Gaviria handled the traffic from Cuba; While Colonel De La Guardia was in charge of taking him to the Bahamaswhere Lehdar still had official contact with the government.
Revelations about the Castros’ links to drug trafficking are not new. One of Pablo Escobar’s hitmen, who died in February 2020, Juan Jairo Velasquez, better known as “Popeye”, implicated the Cuban regime in regional drug trafficking.
Velasquez NThe exhaust of Havana’s reign with Pablo EscobarWhich, according to him, when Jorge Avandeno, nicknamed “The Crocodile”, began, he facilitated the relationship between Escobar and Fidel Castro, which in turn connected him to Raul Castro.
In his autobiography, titled The real Pablo, blood, betrayal and deathasserted that Escobar “was happy with that route (Colombia-Mexico-Cuba-United States). He said it was a pleasure to do business with Raul Castro, because he was a serious and enterprising man.”
“Popeye” confirmed that the relationship between Escobar and Fidel Castro was permanent and fluidthrough letters and third parties, and which was initiated by the commanders of the leftist guerrilla M-19.
“The Cuban army, under the command of General Ochoa and officer Tony de la Guardia, under the direct instructions of Raúl Castro, took charge of the merchandise, guarded it, and later shipped it on fast boats, filled with gasoline at Cuban expense. , with the destination of the United States, Key Entering from the vest,” Velasquez said.
In the image cleanup operation, In 1989 the regime brought de la Guardia, Arnaldo Ochoa, Captain Jorge Martínez Valdés and Major Amado Padrón Trujillo to a military court on charges of involvement in drug trafficking.. All four were shot in Havana on the morning of July 13, 1989, and their executions were announced hours later on official television.
