This Date in History: Cuba Targeted Visiting Panamanian Delegation Reply

August 23 – September 5, 1972:  The University of Panama sent a cultural and scientific delegation to visit Cuba.  Operating in alias under Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MINREX) cover, DGI officer Norberto Hernandez Curbelo served as an delegation escort.  Without providing details, Hernandez told the delegates he had been in Panama on several occasions.  According to declassified US government records, Hernandez visited Panama with a Cuban sports delegation from late May through early June 1972.

Editor’s Note:  The Directorate General of Intelligence (DGI) was the name previously used by the foreign intelligence wing of the Ministry of the Interior. Following a 1989 “scandal” and reorganization, this service was reorganized and given a new name– the Directorate of Intelligence (DI).

This Date in History: Cuban Spy Pursues Targets in Panama Reply

According to declassified US government records, DGI officer Norberto Hernandez Curbelo visited Panama with a Cuban sports delegation from late May through early June 1972.  He worked Panamanian targets again from August 23-September 5 of that year when the University of Panama sent a cultural and scientific delegation to visit Cuba.  Operating in alias under Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MINREX) cover, he served as a delegation escort.

The Directorate General of Intelligence (DGI) [also referred to as the General Intelligence Directorate], was the foreign intelligence wing of Cuba’s Ministry of the Interior (MININT).  Since a major reorganization in the late 1980s, it has been known simply as the Directorate of Intelligence (DI).