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A ridiculous tale, says Castro

HAVANA: Cuban leader Fidel Castro has called the case of two Americans accused of spying for Cuba “strange” and questioned whether the timing of their arrests was politically motivated.

In an essay read by a newscaster on state television, Mr. Castro noted that the retired Washington couple were taken into custody just 24 hours after the Organization of American States voted to lift a decades-old suspension of Cuba’s membership in that group.

Though the U.S. ultimately supported the OAS vote on Wednesday, the administration of President Barack Obama initially wanted to see more democratic reforms in Cuba before Havana was readmitted.

Mr. Castro called the OAS vote “a defeat for United States diplomacy”.

Walter Kendall Myers and his wife, Gwendolyn, were arrested on Thursday in Washington after a three-year investigation that began before Myers’ retirement from the State Department in 2007.

The U.S. government says they had been spying for Havana for 30 years, recruited by Cuba after a 1978 trip there.

Myers received his orders by Morse code, and he and his wife usually hand-delivered intelligence, sometimes by exchanging carts in a grocery store, according to court documents. “Doesn’t the story of Cuban spying seem really ridiculous to everyone?” asked Mr. Castro.

Myers had been under suspicion since 1995 and FBI investigation since 2006.

If the couple had been watched that long, “why were they not arrested before?” asked Mr. Castro.

Court documents say the two were such valued spies, they once had a four-hour meeting with Mr. Castro, whom Myers described as one of the great modern political leaders.

Mr. Castro said he did not recall meeting them when he was President. — AP

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