Ridenour, Ron. Back Fire: The CIA's Biggest Burn. Havana: Jose Marti Publishing House, 1991. 174 pages.

The July 19, 1987 issue of Granma Weekly Review and two books -- one by the National Information Service titled "The CIA's War Against Cuba" and another by Ron Ridenour titled "Back Fire" -- all deal with the same topic. Granma has pictures of "83 CIA officers accredited as permanent diplomats or diplomats in transit in Cuba," while the two books narrate the experiences of Cuban State Security agents who penetrated CIA operations in Cuba. The NIS book is based on a Cuban television series of the same name. Ridenour, an American who lives in Cuba, draws on this material and conducts some additional interviews, and then adds a bit of historical background.

In June 1987, Florentino Aspillaga Lombard, chief of Cuban intelligence in Czechoslovakia, defected in Austria. Since he knew about the extensive penetration of the CIA, the Ministry of the Interior decided to cut their losses and go public with the story. Pictures of CIA officers servicing dead drops and made-in-USA spy paraphernalia were published and broadcast, double agents working for State Security were interviewed as national heroes, and some American diplomats were expelled. It was all somewhat embarrassing for the CIA, so not much appeared in the U.S. press. The period covered by these descriptions of CIA activities in Cuba is generally from 1977-1987.
ISBN 0-9624975-1-7

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