Mariano Faget Diaz

Last updated
Mariano Faget
Colonel Mariano Faget.png
Director of the Enemy Activities Investigation Service
In office
1940–1944

Mariano Faget y Diaz was a Cuban secret police commander and counterintelligence officer for over twenty years in the Republic of Cuba. [1] Faget was the director of the Enemy Activities Investigation Service (SIAE), where he was responsible for hunting Nazis and Abwehr agents in the Republic of Cuba during World War II. [2] With the rise of the Cold War, Faget was made Director of the Bureau for the Repression of Communist Activities (BRAC). [3] He is regarded by many Cuban and American historians today as one of the most violent anticommunist police officers in Cuban history, but also its most shrewd and intelligent Nazi hunter. [4] [5]

Contents

Ironically, Faget's son - also named Mariano Faget - was arrested by the United States in 2000 on charges of espionage for the very communist regime that Faget fought so hard against in the 50's. [6] The junior Faget denied these charges.

Early life

Faget was born on September 9, 1904, in Holguín, Cuba. [7] He earned a degree from St. John's College in New York City. [7] After graduating university, Faget returned to Cuba and was employed at several sugarcane mills throughout Cuba. [7]

Career as federal police officer

In 1931, Faget joined the Interior Ministry police of the Republic of Cuba. [7] After the Cuban Revolution of 1933, Faget remained in the police force, and continued to rise through the ranks.

Nazi hunter

In 1940, with World War II looming, Fulgencio Batista appointed Faget to become the director of the newly created Enemy Activities Investigation Service (SIAE). [2] This organization has been called "the Cuban FBI." [2] Faget quickly gained a reputation as being a shrewd and intelligent counterintelligence investigator of anyone he suspected of having ties to Nazi Germany (and their fascist allies in the government of Francisco Franco) or the Empire of Japan. [4] [8] Thomas D. Schoonover writes that Faget at this time did not have a reputation for brutality. [5]

In 1942, President Batista replaced the National Chief of Police Bernardo Garcia with General Manuel Benitez, Batista's former Aide-de-camp. Faget, as the chief Cuban Nazi hunter was now under the leadership of Benitez. [2]

Faget was also the chief Cuban investigator into the case of Abwehr officer Heinz Lüning, who became the only German spy executed in all of Latin America on espionage charges during World War II. [5] [4] This arrest led to the capture of the PYLREW espionage network in Chile, which was connected with Operation Bolívar. [4]

The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) liaison to Cuba during the war, Ian Maxwell, writes of Faget:

"...I met Capitan Mariano Faget, Chief of Operations of the S.I.A.E. He was as serious as General Benitez Valdes was frivolous; and he worked many hours each day and into the night, possibly to make up for the fact that his Director worked very few hours. Faget was effective against the Germans, their allies, the Spaniards, and against individuals who worked for, or sympathized with the German Nazis." [2]

First period of exile (1944 - 1954)

In 1944, Faget fled to Miami after President Batista lost to Ramón Grau. [8] Faget's successor as Director of the SIAE during Grau's tenure was Mario Salabarria. In Miami, Faget became an architectural designer of single-family homes. Faget's wife, Elena Faget, became pregnant at this time. [8] When Elena was nine months pregnant, she returned to the family doctor in Havana to give birth in Santos Suarez and returned after one month to Miami with Faget's son, Mariano Faget Jr. [8]

Deputy Director of the Bureau of Investigation

Headquarters of the Bureau of Investigation on 23rd Street in Vedado. This building was demolished by the Castro regime, and there is a park here now. According to Bohemia magazine, the park is full of "flamboyant trees." Cuban Bureau of Investigation.jpg
Headquarters of the Bureau of Investigation on 23rd Street in Vedado. This building was demolished by the Castro regime, and there is a park here now. According to Bohemia magazine, the park is full of "flamboyant trees."

In 1948, Grau was overthrown and Batista became the strong man behind the acting president. Sometime during Batista's reign, Faget was made a deputy director and second in command of the Cuban Bureau of Investigation (BI). [9] This was known by many as the "Dark Bureau." He was second in command of the organization. [9]

The BI had been established in 1934, and had several departments; [9]

According to Bohemia Magazine, Faget was in charge of Confidential Department 3. [9] The Director of BI was Orlando Piedra.

Director of BRAC

In 1956, during the Cuban Revolution, Faget became the director of the newly established Bureau for the Repression of Communist Activities (BRAC). Colonel Faget became in this role the chief police official responsible for hunting communists in Cuba, to include members of the 26th of July Movement. [4] [3]

Carlos Franqui, who was interrogated by Faget's BRAC, described Faget as:

"...a technician of torture. A scientist of the North American school: continuous blows on the head, leaving no marks, but producing tremendous pain and tension. To my inveterately poor memory was added in those days an almost total unconscious amnesia..." [7]

Another Cuban revolutionary who was reportedly tortured under the orders of Faget was Adamilda Verena Alfonso Batista. [10]

Plot to kidnap or kill Faget's son

In 1957, Faget's son was targeted by the revolutionaries for kidnapping, and the Cuban intelligence uncovered a plot to kill or kidnap Mariano Faget Jr. at Colegio Cima, the private school that he attended. [8] Faget Jr.'s physical education instructor was implicated in the plot. [8]

Faget sent his wife and son back to Miami, and Walter E. Headley ordered protection on the family, but the Miami Police Department soon discovered another plot to kidnap Faget Jr. in Miami. [8] Elena and Faget returned to Cuba, and Faget would not allow his son to leave the house. [8]

In 1958, Faget Jr. was riding his bike when he was the target of an attempted drive-by shooting. [8] Faget Jr. ducked out of the way as bullets hit the wall behind him. [8]

Exiled from Cuba

On the eve of December 31, 1958, and into the morning of January 1, 1959, with the success of the Cuban Revolution, Faget fled the Castro regime. That night, Faget took his family and joined Batista's government at the Camp Colombia airfield in Havana, and boarded a C-47 bound for New Orleans. [8] Castro's soldiers fired their rifles up at the aircraft as it left Cuba. [8]

After three days in New Orleans, Faget and his family were taken to a CIA safe house in Washington, D.C. for three weeks while Faget was debriefed, before becoming permanently exiled in Miami. [8]

Faget's peer at BRAC, José de Jesús Castaño, was later captured and executed by Castro's forces. [7]

Work at the Immigration and Naturalization Service

Faget was employed by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) screening Cuban refugees for entry into the United States on behalf of the FBI and the CIA, against the wishes of many Cuban exiles who had been a part of the revolution to overthrow Batista. [11] [7]

The Department of Justice admitted that Faget was working for them “to keep Castro agents from coming into the United States.” [1] An unnamed official at the DOJ said: “To get this job of screening done properly, we would deal with the devil himself.” [1]

Historian Carl J. Bon Tempo writes:

"Cuban refugee groups in the United States complained that the colonel seemed more interested in investigating the role that refugees may have played in the downfall of the Batista regime than he did in eliciting intelligence on the Castro government or uncovering saboteurs and spies." [1]

Illness and death

In 1965, Faget became ill with a retinal detachment, and could no longer work full-time. [8] In 1972, Faget died after a battle with cancer. [8]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fulgencio Batista</span> Cuban politician (1901–1973)

Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar was a Cuban military officer and politician who was the elected president of Cuba from 1940 to 1944 and military dictator of the country from 1952 until his overthrow in the Cuban Revolution in 1959.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Operation Peter Pan</span> 1960–62 evacuation of Cuban children to US

Operation Peter Pan was a clandestine exodus of over 14,000 unaccompanied Cuban minors ages 6 to 18 to the United States over a two-year span from 1960 to 1962. They were sent by parents who feared, on the basis of unsubstantiated rumors, that Fidel Castro and the Communist party were planning to terminate parental rights and place minors in alleged "communist indoctrination centers", commonly referred to as the Patria Potestad. No such actions by the Castro regime ever took place.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bay of Pigs Invasion</span> Failed landing operation of Cuba in 1961

The Bay of Pigs Invasion was a failed military landing operation on the southwestern coast of Cuba in 1961 by the United States of America and the Cuban Democratic Revolutionary Front (DRF), consisting of Cuban exiles who opposed Fidel Castro's Cuban Revolution, clandestinely financed and directed by the U.S. government. The operation took place at the height of the Cold War, and its failure influenced relations between Cuba, the United States, and the Soviet Union.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cuban Revolution</span> 1955–58 armed rebellion against the Cuban government led by Fidel Castro

The Cuban Revolution was the military and political overthrow of Fulgencio Batista's dictatorship, which had reigned as the government of Cuba between 1952 and 1959. The revolution began after the 1952 Cuban coup d'état, which saw Batista topple the nascent Cuban democracy and consolidate power. Among those opposing the coup was Fidel Castro, then a novice attorney who attempted to contest the coup through Cuba's judiciary. Once these efforts proved fruitless, Fidel Castro and his brother Raúl led an armed attack on the Cuban military's Moncada Barracks on 26 July 1953.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frank Sturgis</span> One of the five Watergate burglars

Frank Anthony Sturgis, born Frank Angelo Fiorini, was one of the five Watergate burglars whose capture led to the end of the presidency of Richard Nixon.

The Special Intelligence Service was a covert counterintelligence branch of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) located in South America during World War II. It was established to monitor the activities of Nazi and pro-Nazi groups in Central and South America. The organization was a forerunner to the Central Intelligence Agency.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bureau for the Repression of Communist Activities</span> Secret police force in 1950s Cuba under Fulgencio Batista

The Bureau for the Repression of Communist Activities was the secret police agency that Cuban President Fulgencio Batista maintained in the 1950s, which gained a reputation for brutality in its fight against the 26th of July Movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Miguel Ángel Quevedo</span> Cuban journalist (1908–1969)

Miguel Ángel Quevedo y de la Lastra was the publisher and editor of Bohemia, the most popular news-weekly in Cuba and the oldest Latin America, known for its political journalism and editorial writing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Polita Grau</span>

Polita Grau was the First Lady of Cuba, a Cuban political prisoner, and the "godmother" of Operation Peter Pan, also known as Operación Pedro Pan, a program to help children leave Cuba. Operation Peter Pan involved the Roman Catholic Church and Monsignor Bryan O. Walsh from 1960 to 1962, which were involved in encouraging Cuban parents to send their children to live with U.S families to rescue them from Communism.

Ricardo Miguel Montero Duque is a Cuban exile who was a military battalion commander in the invading forces of Brigade 2506 during the Bay of Pigs Invasion of Cuba in April 1961.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heinz Lüning</span>

Heinz August Adolf Sirich Lüning was an espionage agent who spied for the Abwehr in Cuba during World War II and was later executed by Cuba. It is unclear whether Lüning was incompetent or if he was on a personal mission to sabotage the Nazi war effort in the Caribbean and Latin America, but the result is that his work as an Abwehr intelligence officer was described by the British Secret Services (MI6) as mediocre and subpar. The Cuban government at the time maintained that his incompetence was a ruse, and that the Cuban intelligence apparatus had captured a genuine master spy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Esteban Ventura Novo</span> Cuban law enforcement official (1919–2001)

Esteban Ventura Novo was a controversial figure in Cuban history, known for his prominent role in law enforcement during Fulgencio Batista's dictatorship.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rafael Villaverde</span>

Rafael Villaverde was a Cuban-born exile living in the United States and a veteran of the Bay of Pigs. He was a soldier and spy, who worked for the United States Army and the Central Intelligence Agency. Villaverde was a staunch anticommunist, a vocal opponent of the Castro regime, and anti-Castro activist. Villaverde had been deployed to Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, and elsewhere.

Jorge S. Lamadriz Villaverde was a Cuban-born exile living in the United States of America. He was a lifelong Catholic anticommunist and anti-Castro activist. He escaped the Castro regime and made his way to Miami. While in Miami, he became a staunch and vocal opponent of Fidel Castro, and was connected through his brother Rafael Villaverde to the Bay of Pigs Invasion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Manuel Benitez Valdés</span> Cuban National Chief of Police, Congressman, Senator, Exile, and Contract Assassin

Manuel Benítez y Valdés was the Chief of the national police of the Republic of Cuba under President Fulgencio Batista. He has been described as a "...rough, tough General..." He would often carry out Batista's orders with ruthless efficiency. Cuban historian Abel Rojas Barallobre writes that he is "...one of the most nefarious men in the history of Cuba."

Jose Imperatori was a Cuban diplomat and ambassador expelled from the United States in connection to a joint Federal Bureau of Investigation and Immigration and Naturalization Service espionage investigation called "Operation False Blue." At the turn of the twentieth century, Jose Imperatori was given persona non grata (PNG) status and ordered to be expelled from the United States as a result of his connection to Mariano Faget Jr..

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mariano Faget Jr.</span>

Mariano Faget is a naturalized American citizen and was an employee of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) in Miami for over 35 years, notable for becoming at the time one of the highest-ranking Cuban-Americans at INS, and a District Supervisory Officer of the agency. Faget is the first INS official ever charged with espionage charges against the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cuban Bureau of Investigation</span> Law enforcement agency

The Bureau of Investigation (BI) (Spanish: Buró de Investigaciones) was a Bureau of the Republic of Cuba National Police from 1936 until its restructure into the Bureau of Revolutionary Investigations (BRI) and eventually the Department of Technical Investigations (DTI) by the Castro Regime. Cubans have given this bureau the nickname "The Dark Bureau."

The Enemy Activities Investigation Service (SIAE) (Spanish: Servicio de Investigación de las Actividades Enemigas) was a unit of the National Police of the Republic of Cuba during World War II dedicated to the investigation and hunting of Nazis, Abwehr agents, their allies in Spanish intelligence, and Imperial Japanese spies in the territory of Cuba.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Camp Columbia (Havana)</span> Military base

Camp Columbia was a military post in Havana constructed by the United States Army during the Spanish–American War and the Cuban War of Independence.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Chapter 5. "They Are Proud People": The United States and Refugees from Cuba, 1959–1966, Princeton University Press, 2008-09-15, pp. 106–132, doi:10.1515/9781400829033.106, ISBN   978-1-4008-2903-3 , retrieved 2024-09-24
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Maxwell, Ian. "IT CAME TO LITTLE | CIA FOIA (foia.cia.gov)". www.cia.gov. Retrieved 2024-09-23.
  3. 1 2 "What´s Behind the Hatred of the Cuban Revolution". Cuba Si. 2023-12-26. Retrieved 2024-09-24.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 "The Abwehr's Man in Havana". Warfare History Network. Retrieved 2024-09-22.
  5. 1 2 3 Schoonover, Thomas David (2008). Hitler's man in Havana : Heinz Lüning and Nazi espionage in Latin America. Internet Archive. Lexington, Ky. : University Press of Kentucky. ISBN   978-0-8131-2501-5.
  6. ↑ "Mariano Faget Espionage Case". www.latinamericanstudies.org. Retrieved 2024-09-24.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Faget's father was a brutal Batista official". www.latinamericanstudies.org. Retrieved 2024-09-24.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 "Faget: 'Spy' talk was only business". www.latinamericanstudies.org. Retrieved 2024-09-24.
  9. 1 2 3 4 dice, Gray Barker (2023-09-02). "BI y Brac, dos diferentes órganos represivos". Revista Bohemia (in Spanish). Retrieved 2024-09-24.
  10. ↑ "Una huella del Che en mi cuerpo". Revista Bohemia (in Spanish). 2023-06-14. Retrieved 2024-09-24.
  11. ↑ Des Moines Register. "Another Mistake in Cuban Policy" (PDF). CIA Reading Room. Retrieved September 23, 2024.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.