This panel will examine Cuba’s historical and ongoing intelligence activities in the United States, including diplomatic operations, influence networks, academic penetration, and efforts targeting U.S. institutions. It will feature counterintelligence experts, along with firsthand testimony from former Cuban officials and intelligence officers. The program by FIU's Adam Smith Center will include presentations and a Q&A session.
Stuart Hoyt Jr. — Former FBI special agent and Head of the Cuban Counterintelligence Unit — historic operations, recruitment, and penetration efforts.
Peter Lapp — Former FBI special agent and counterintelligence officer; author of Queen of Cuba: An FBI Agent’s Insider Account of the Spy Who Evaded Detection for 17 Years — the Ana Belén Montes case, Cuban intelligence tradecraft, recruitment, and counterintelligence lessons.
José Cohen — Former Cuban intelligence and cryptography officer / defector — communications systems, recruitment, and operational structure.
Enrique GarcÃa — Former Cuban Directorate of Intelligence officer / defector — agent management, intelligence collection, and clandestine operations.
Alcibiades Hidalgo — Former senior Cuban government official, personal secretary to Raúl Castro, and Cuba’s Ambassador to the United Nations / defector — firsthand perspective on the Cuban leadership, intelligence apparatus, and the regime’s operations and strategic objectives toward the United States. His intervention will be prerecorded this Saturday.
MarÃa Werlau — Co-founder & Executive Director, Cuba Archive — intelligence relationships, diplomatic presence, and academic infiltration.
Gelet MartÃnez — Founder, ADN Cuba — investigative reporting on Cuban intelligence and influence networks in the United States.f Atlantis, and the Fountain of Youth.
ABOUT FIU’S CUBA DESK AND TRANSITION INITIATIVEÂ
Based in the heart of Miami, Florida International University serves as the premier academic hub for scholarship and research focused on Cuba. The Cuba Desk series is an extension of the university's collaboration across sectors and seeks to convene consequential voices and decision makers in Washington and elsewhere for timely programs relating to the potential for transition in Cuba. The university recently launched a transition initiative to harness the talents across the university to support any US Government Initiatives by leveraging its research strengths in humanitarian support, infrastructure, energy, telecommunications, population health, human capital needs and so much more.
This year, the university also broke ground on CasaCuba at the Benjamin Leon Jr. Building — a first-of-its-kind cultural, academic and convening center on its main campus in Miami which is envisioned to be an active, collaborative hub for these activities. FIU is ranked  a Top 50 Public University by US News and World Report and FIU in Washington, D.C. showcases the impact of FIU research; provides students with engaged academic experiences and internships; and convenes national partners for meaningful conversations across a broad range of issues as it brings the magic of Miami to the nation’s capital.Â
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The university is honored to host the largest concentration of Cuban-American students, faculty and also courses focused on the Island. The university recently launched a transition initiative to harness the talents across the university to support any US Government Initiatives focused on a Democratic transition in Cuba.
