Radio Sputnik’s Loud & Clear spoke with Sagaro about his experience, as he gives insight into US plans to dismantle the Cuban revolution.
A second-generation doctor, Sagaro graduated from the University of Havana in 1968, and has been practicing medicine for nearly 50 years. He said that the CIA was interested in him because he received his primary education in American schools, was able to speak English, and that his father was a Cuban government functionary in the National Health System and the Academy of Sciences.
Sagaro said, "I was contacted by [Cuban] intelligence forces, they asked if I would agree to work as an agent, and I told them I had no reason to say no. They prepared me and sent me as bait abroad. And the CIA took interest in me, and after a long period of time, about a year, they decided to recruit me."
Sagaro explained that the CIA was mainly interested in health issues in Cuba and Cuba’s involvement in the Angola war for independence against Portugal. Trained by engineers sent from the US, the double-agent communicated with agency headquarters in Langley, Virginia, by encoded radio transmissions, smuggling in codes in secret compartments in his shoes and wallet.
He said that the agency inquired about the National Health System’s response to diseases that were at the time becoming issues in Cuba including Hepatitis B and conjunctivitis.
Loud & Clear host Brian Becker asked, "Were they carrying out biological weapons systems against the Cuban revolution?"
Sagaro said, "I think that they were," and added, "they were also interested on the impact of those epidemics. How were the emergency department and the hospitals? Were the medicines available? Where was the Cuban government bringing chemicals against mosquitos? And why did they want to know?"
When asked if he thought that the CIA was actually interested in curing disease in Cuba, Sagaro laughingly replied, "Not probably."
