Premium Episode 122 - Spyclopedia #5 - Eight Years with the CIA pt. 2: the Parallel Apparatus, the Q Files, and Systematized Blackmail Operations

[originally published February 7, 2024]

I finish the story of Manuel Hevia Coscullela, the Cuban spy, based off his memoir, Pasaporte 11333 : ocho años con la CIA (1978). I examine what exactly Hevia was doing for the agency and what USAID's Office of Public Safety was up to. I discuss Lyndon B. Johnson's visit to Punta del Este, Uruguay for the Organization of American States (OAS) summits/conferences and how that affected the domestic political climate.

I get obsessed with the story of Uruguayan military officer Colonel Ramon Trabal - assassinated by "the Raul Sendic International Brigade" in Paris, a story which quickly enters the funhouse hall of mirrors. 

Then, to double back on the discussion of Gittinger's PAS files, entrapment ops, and MKULTRA death squad selection processes, I cover Hevia's explanation of the L and Q files. Just wait. He also explains the construction of a "parallel apparatus" and, in relation, discusses a police pimp. 

Afterwards, Hevia ran a restaurant as part of ops the CIA and Uruguayan police were running in Uruguay. Finally, Mitrione appears in Hevia's story, and I go through some details left out in the prior episodes. Ice cold.

[episode artwork based off the book cover]

Songs:

Dirty, Dirty Feeling by Elvis Presley

De Cuba Traigo un Cantar by Carlos Puebla