Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., has blasted the release of Cuban spy Ana Montes, who served more than 21 years in a federal prison in Texas for giving up American secrets while she worked as an analyst for the Defense Intelligence Agency. Photo courtesy of FBI
Jan. 7 (UPI) — Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., has blasted the release of Cuban spy Ana Montes, who served more than 21 years in a federal prison in Texas for giving up American secrets while she worked as an analyst for the Defense Intelligence Agency.
Montes, 65, was released Friday from FMC Carswell, a women’s prison in Fort Worth, according to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.
She was arrested by the FBI less than two weeks after the 9/11 terror attacks in 2001.
“The most notorious spy for Cuba’s communist regime in American history will now be free. Sadly, the people she used as an excuse to betray her own nation remain anything but,” Rubio, a Cuban-American from Miami, said in a statement.
“Her treason against the U.S. accomplished nothing for the Cuban people. On the contrary, by helping the criminal Castro regime, Montes strengthened the Cuban people’s worst enemy.”
During her time working for the military’s spy arm, Montes leaked classified U.S. military information and deliberately distorted the government’s views on Cuba, according to the FBI.
Montes began her career in a clerical job with the U.S. Justice Department in 1984 and was recruited by Cuban leaders to spy for the regime of Fidel Castro after she expressed outrage at the administration of President Ronald Reagan‘s actions in Nicaragua.
She then applied to work for the DIA and began with the agency in 1985 as a “fully recruited spy,” handing over disks full of information to the Cuban government.
Rubio said that leaks made by Montes during her 17 years spying for Cuba led to broken covers of 450 American agents working in Latin America.
“In 1996, her information also enabled the Castros to shoot down two U.S. planes carrying the heroes of Brothers to the Rescue,” Rubio said. “Montes also sabotaged a top-secret satellite program.”
Montes was once described as “one of the most damaging spies the United States has ever found” in comments by Michelle Van Cleave, who was head of U.S. counterintelligence under President George W. Bush, to Congress in 2012.
She served more than 21 years of a 25-year sentence and will remain under supervision for five years. Her internet usage will be monitored and she has been banned from working for the government or contacting foreign agents without permission.