The Last Soldiers of the Cold War
The Story of the Cuban Five
1 of 1 copy available
Through the 1980s and 1990s, violent anti-Castro groups based in Florida carried out hundreds of military attacks on Cuba, bombing hotels and shooting up Cuban beaches with machine guns. The Cuban government struck back with the Wasp Network—a dozen men and two women—sent to infiltrate those organizations.
The Last Soldiers of the Cold War tells the story of those unlikely Cuban spies and their eventual unmasking and prosecution by US authorities. Five of the Cubans received long or life prison terms on charges of espionage and murder. Global best-selling Brazilian author Fernando Morais narrates the riveting tale of the Cuban Five in vivid, page-turning detail, delving into the decades-long conflict between Cuba and the US, the growth of the powerful Cuban exile community in Florida, and a trial that eight Nobel Prize winners condemned as a travesty of justice.
The Last Soldiers of the Cold War is both a real-life spy thriller and a searching examination of the Cold War's legacy.
-
Creators
-
Publisher
-
Release date
March 10, 2020 -
Formats
-
OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9780593215814
- File size: 292711 KB
- Duration: 10:09:48
-
-
Languages
- English
-
Reviews
-
Ren� Ruiz does a splendid job narrating this fascinating history. Listeners will be engaged by this detailed work about the spy ring of 14 men and women, known as the Wasp Network, who were sent by Cuban intelligence to infiltrate anti-Castro groups in Florida in the 1990s. The ring was eventually found out, and several of its members sentenced to long prison sentences. The author is quite sympathetic to the members of this ring, but he does go into detail on the wide range of opinions in the Cuban exile community and the sometimes deadly interactions of the two sides. Ruiz's voice is clear, and his pacing is brisk but not too quick. His inflection and expression are quite appropriate to the text, and his pronunciation of Spanish names is outstanding. M.T.F. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine -
July 20, 2015
In a tale that straddles the Straits of Florida, Brazilian journalist Morais recounts the story of the Wasp Network, a cadre of 14 spies from Cuba sent by Fidel Castro to Dade County, Fla., to infiltrate anti-Castro groups. Personal histories of both minor and major players share the limelight with the usual spy tropes and moral ambiguity as Morais culls details from over three dozen interviews with the parties involved. He includes such figures as Cruz Leon, a young mercenary from El Salvador contracted to plant bombs in tourist hotels, who thought of himself as a real-life Sylvester Stallone; and Colombian writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez, who was sent to personally deliver a message from Castro to President Clinton. Morais employs a thriller-like pace, addressing the historical context of Clinton-era politics and presenting a riveting, crystal-clear picture of a story otherwise made murky by media with its own agenda. The book, entertaining in its own right, also serves as a reminder that the Cold War extended beyond the fall of the Berlin Wall and that ingenuity often trumps material resources.
-