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In the Pirates Den: My Life as a Secret Agent
In this riveting book, Masetti takes the reader inside the war room of the Cuban revolution. His life involved international revolutionary smuggling diamonds and ivory; counterfeiting U.S. dollars; trafficking in narcotics. He served in Angola and other war zones in the 1980s. He was an adviser with groups such as the M-19 guerrillas in Columbia and the Sandinistas.
- GenresMemoir
160 pages, Hardcover
First published December 1, 2002
40 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
December 15, 2014
He took life as a game, took sides with the socialist revolution, and got cheated on. Late did he realize that life is a man's job, and that the revolution was a one man's game: Castro's.
The true nature of the revolution: "The revolution was a cover for committing atrocities without the slightest vestige of guilt ... we were young and irresponsible. We were pirates. We formed our own caste ... we belonged to and believed in nothing -no religion, no flag, no morality or principle. It's fortunate we didn't win, because if we had, we would have drowned the continent in barbarism."
The candidness with which the author details his role in the socialist tentacles of Castro in Latin-America and Italy, makes the book a very entertaining, as well as educational, experience.
Masetti's middle-class family life is typical of would-be revolutionaries in Latin America: petit-bourgeois. Cafés, promiscuity, idlness, not wanting to work, irresponsibility, and a desire for adventure (whomever it hurts): "After smoking (marihuana) I felt like Che Guevara, Jim Morrison, Fidel Castro, Napoleon -all of them rolled together." His first girl-friend is his female version: "Her parents were rich and gave her everything except affection." The perfect breeding ground for terrorist punks.
"All I wanted was to become a member of a military squad." Once he's past the leftist, revolutionary scheme, the world opens for him: "Without realizing it, I had just entered the world of 'important people -the nomenklatura." What about egalitarianism? "They gave me a charge card that was like a magic key to the good life ... I tried to be careful not to consume more than was necessary. I knew there were shortages in Cuba and that the Cubans were forbidden the delicacies to which I had access. What surprised me was how the party officials who were assigned to me took advantage of the situation."
Cowboy mentality and irresponsibility: "When I saw what we had, I almost went crazy with joy ... pistols, revolvers, rifles, submachine guns..."
How to co-opt gullible peons in the West: "Journalists, businessmen, politicians: they were all potential contacts. If they showed the slightest sympathy for the Cuban revolution, they would be given 'the treatment' ... There may be many people who would be surprised to see that they had files and to learn that they were Cuban agents without knowing it."
The socialists' love of luxuries: "When he (Pelado) returned to managua after the assassination of Somoza, the Sandinistas had rewarded them with the rank of major ... like other comandantes, he lived in a luxurious house in Managua and was chauffered around in a Mercedes Benz."
"The children of high class officials in Cuba usually behave like a caste apart, flaunting their dynastic privileges."
Imperialism: "Angola was not Cuba, nor even Nicaragua ... many of the indigenous combatants were not volunteers but forcibly recruited slaves ... for the Angolan people, the Cuban presence meant the continuation of war, when their deepest desire was for peace."
The real Che: "That's the method the Guevarista culture recommends: shoot the weak, those who express doubt."
Author's final confession and regret: "(In Miami) I met former Cuban political prisoners from the first years of the revolution. I was surprised to find that these men had fought against Batista, inspired by the same idealism that guided other young people of Latin America in their fights against the continent's dictatorships. But what surprised me most was the fact that they welcomed me into their midst in spite of the fact that I was the spoiled child of those who had imprisoned them." "During those years of conflict, all we did was destroy. We built nothing."
Awesome book. Read it and don't hide anymore from the truth.
The true nature of the revolution: "The revolution was a cover for committing atrocities without the slightest vestige of guilt ... we were young and irresponsible. We were pirates. We formed our own caste ... we belonged to and believed in nothing -no religion, no flag, no morality or principle. It's fortunate we didn't win, because if we had, we would have drowned the continent in barbarism."
The candidness with which the author details his role in the socialist tentacles of Castro in Latin-America and Italy, makes the book a very entertaining, as well as educational, experience.
Masetti's middle-class family life is typical of would-be revolutionaries in Latin America: petit-bourgeois. Cafés, promiscuity, idlness, not wanting to work, irresponsibility, and a desire for adventure (whomever it hurts): "After smoking (marihuana) I felt like Che Guevara, Jim Morrison, Fidel Castro, Napoleon -all of them rolled together." His first girl-friend is his female version: "Her parents were rich and gave her everything except affection." The perfect breeding ground for terrorist punks.
"All I wanted was to become a member of a military squad." Once he's past the leftist, revolutionary scheme, the world opens for him: "Without realizing it, I had just entered the world of 'important people -the nomenklatura." What about egalitarianism? "They gave me a charge card that was like a magic key to the good life ... I tried to be careful not to consume more than was necessary. I knew there were shortages in Cuba and that the Cubans were forbidden the delicacies to which I had access. What surprised me was how the party officials who were assigned to me took advantage of the situation."
Cowboy mentality and irresponsibility: "When I saw what we had, I almost went crazy with joy ... pistols, revolvers, rifles, submachine guns..."
How to co-opt gullible peons in the West: "Journalists, businessmen, politicians: they were all potential contacts. If they showed the slightest sympathy for the Cuban revolution, they would be given 'the treatment' ... There may be many people who would be surprised to see that they had files and to learn that they were Cuban agents without knowing it."
The socialists' love of luxuries: "When he (Pelado) returned to managua after the assassination of Somoza, the Sandinistas had rewarded them with the rank of major ... like other comandantes, he lived in a luxurious house in Managua and was chauffered around in a Mercedes Benz."
"The children of high class officials in Cuba usually behave like a caste apart, flaunting their dynastic privileges."
Imperialism: "Angola was not Cuba, nor even Nicaragua ... many of the indigenous combatants were not volunteers but forcibly recruited slaves ... for the Angolan people, the Cuban presence meant the continuation of war, when their deepest desire was for peace."
The real Che: "That's the method the Guevarista culture recommends: shoot the weak, those who express doubt."
Author's final confession and regret: "(In Miami) I met former Cuban political prisoners from the first years of the revolution. I was surprised to find that these men had fought against Batista, inspired by the same idealism that guided other young people of Latin America in their fights against the continent's dictatorships. But what surprised me most was the fact that they welcomed me into their midst in spite of the fact that I was the spoiled child of those who had imprisoned them." "During those years of conflict, all we did was destroy. We built nothing."
Awesome book. Read it and don't hide anymore from the truth.
February 10, 2019
I was divided about this book - much like the author himself - finally rating it three stars because it is well-written and heartfelt. Yet it seems a barebones account with much detail deliberately slighted and inconvenient facts skirted. Maybe for security reasons for himself and others; perhaps because, as yet another anti-Castro exile, Masetti has an agenda to justify. It’s a fascinating look inside Cuban intelligence, special operations, and leading revolutionary personalities by an adopted “son” of Cuba and the real-life son of Che’s countryman, the late and radical Argentine journalist, Jorge Masetti Sr., whom Jr. barely knew.
The info it reveals is really nothing new. Links between Cuba and revolutionary Latin America movements and guerrillas were known all along. Nothing is given here that doesn’t sound like parallel CIA skullduggery in the region, and not really as bad. Masetti’s critique of the “guerrilla vanguard” has merit: a dedicated elite, a crusading order in search of holy grails, removed from real life and the real masses for whom they justify their struggle. His critique of Fidel Castro as a self-promoter is also nothing new. But Castro came to power by giving personal expression to millions trapped in the social and political dead end of old Cuba yearning for a new deal.
The heart of Masetti’s too-short book is the personal recollection of the Ochoa and de la Guardia case, especially of his father-in-law Tony de la Guardia. Masetti seems on murky ground, but the whole issue is clouded and will stay so while Cuban archives remain classified. Ochoa and the de la Guardias may have been under orders to “break the Yankee-imperialist blockade by any means necessary,” which may indeed have led to drug trafficking as one instrument. As he says, Ochoa and the de la Guardias couldn’t have done so without signals from the very top: sounding like Ollie North and his Iran-Contra doings after the US Congress nixed his public funding. Much of the flak over Castro’s drug connections had to do with deflecting criticism of Iran-Contra; even so, is Castro to be commended for sacrificing these agents to their scandals, no matter their status; or was Reagan right, to stand by loyally and pull strings of public opinion and private agency, to get “a decorated hero” out of his own special tribunal?
As an example of yet another revolutionary/leftist who “saw the light,” repented, and found a comfortable expatriate nest, Masetti’s book is not bad. While he’s coming to terms with his past and his deeds, he has – as in his guerrilla days – left behind those millions still struggling against injustice and inhumanity.
The info it reveals is really nothing new. Links between Cuba and revolutionary Latin America movements and guerrillas were known all along. Nothing is given here that doesn’t sound like parallel CIA skullduggery in the region, and not really as bad. Masetti’s critique of the “guerrilla vanguard” has merit: a dedicated elite, a crusading order in search of holy grails, removed from real life and the real masses for whom they justify their struggle. His critique of Fidel Castro as a self-promoter is also nothing new. But Castro came to power by giving personal expression to millions trapped in the social and political dead end of old Cuba yearning for a new deal.
The heart of Masetti’s too-short book is the personal recollection of the Ochoa and de la Guardia case, especially of his father-in-law Tony de la Guardia. Masetti seems on murky ground, but the whole issue is clouded and will stay so while Cuban archives remain classified. Ochoa and the de la Guardias may have been under orders to “break the Yankee-imperialist blockade by any means necessary,” which may indeed have led to drug trafficking as one instrument. As he says, Ochoa and the de la Guardias couldn’t have done so without signals from the very top: sounding like Ollie North and his Iran-Contra doings after the US Congress nixed his public funding. Much of the flak over Castro’s drug connections had to do with deflecting criticism of Iran-Contra; even so, is Castro to be commended for sacrificing these agents to their scandals, no matter their status; or was Reagan right, to stand by loyally and pull strings of public opinion and private agency, to get “a decorated hero” out of his own special tribunal?
As an example of yet another revolutionary/leftist who “saw the light,” repented, and found a comfortable expatriate nest, Masetti’s book is not bad. While he’s coming to terms with his past and his deeds, he has – as in his guerrilla days – left behind those millions still struggling against injustice and inhumanity.
August 3, 2018
Narcos
I just completed watching the 2nd season of Narcos.
I opened up my diary where I jot down the books I've read, and there was the name of this book.
It's a laughing stock that I read the book in 2017, and writing a review in 2018.
Anyways, so here I go.
A memoir. Yes, it's a memoir of a secret agent as the name suggests taking us to sprawl and terrorizing time of South American countries. The countries including Columbia, Cuba (Where the revolution took place) and how these countries, their people do things like smuggling, drug trafficking, fake currencies, and fight against the US of A, and its government, now and then.
It's such a riveting tale of those times, that you're hooked up until the end. The author, the secret agent himself, tells how things happened, what were the purposes, what did they achieve, what were the impacts, and adding to this, you get to read what is shown in the TV series like Narcos, movie like that of Sicario.
Do read this book.
Akshat Solanki
I just completed watching the 2nd season of Narcos.
I opened up my diary where I jot down the books I've read, and there was the name of this book.
It's a laughing stock that I read the book in 2017, and writing a review in 2018.
Anyways, so here I go.
A memoir. Yes, it's a memoir of a secret agent as the name suggests taking us to sprawl and terrorizing time of South American countries. The countries including Columbia, Cuba (Where the revolution took place) and how these countries, their people do things like smuggling, drug trafficking, fake currencies, and fight against the US of A, and its government, now and then.
It's such a riveting tale of those times, that you're hooked up until the end. The author, the secret agent himself, tells how things happened, what were the purposes, what did they achieve, what were the impacts, and adding to this, you get to read what is shown in the TV series like Narcos, movie like that of Sicario.
Do read this book.
Akshat Solanki
November 15, 2018
Stunning read. Notably Masetti omits details regarding the unspecified kidnappings and bank robberies and other criminal activity he carries out to fund dubious revolutionary movements [which would certainly get him arrested, especially now that statutes of limitations are flying out the window]. The book is about a quarter the size it could have been, especially had he included more details of operatives/operations regarding leftist groups/governments [Argentine, Cuban, Sandinista].
January 28, 2008
Another insider view from inside Castro's government. The author was a secret agent and mercenary for several years and provides an inside view of show trials and executions.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews