The fascinating and terrifying story of the Cuban Five is examined by the team behind 'A Doctor's Sword'.
In the late '80s and early '90s, a team of highly-trained agents working on behalf of Fidel Castro and the Republic of Cuba were infiltrated into Miami, Florida as counter-intelligence operatives against Cuban militant exiles. Evading the FBI and the CIA, as well as juggling wives and secret identities, the spy ring become known as the Cuban Five when they were eventually caught and put on trial by US authorities...
'Castro's Spies' is the kind of documentary where you know the story could easily be turned into a movie, but it would never be able to capture any of the richness or the integrity of a documentary. Not only that, it seems all but virtually certain that no mainstream US studio would even dare take on the story for fear of it being accused of collaboration and communism. The bloody history of US foreign policy in Cuba is laid out in stark terms, from Operation 40 and the Bay of Pigs, as well as the involvement of the Italian-American mob, while discussing Cuba as a post-colonial state trying to protect itself.
'Castro's Spies' zeroes in on the terrorism - there's really no other word to describe it - of far-right militant Cuban exiles in Miami, led by the likes of Orlando Bosch. Indeed, Bosch's group CORU has been described as a terorrist organisation by the FBI. The story takes in the bombing of Cubana 455 that killed 73 people, which prompted the Cuban intelligence services to begin spying on Cuban militant exiles and, in turn, the US military bases in Florida. After all, Orlando Bosch and CORU were sponsored and affiliated with the CIA through Operation Condor, the infamous and long-running campaign of state terror that ran through the '70s and '80s in South America.
If all of this sounds like we're trying to copy Donald Sutherland as he rattles off the CIA's horror stories in 'JFK', the documentary does a far better job of setting out the story. Utilising never-before-seen archival footage and interviews with the Cuban Five themselves, 'Castro's Spies' is frequently thrilling and terrifyingly relevant to how the US enforces state power on those it deems as enemies. Indeed, many of the interviewees - on both sides of the fence - often reference how the CIA was deeply involved with both funding and training anti-Castro agents and terrorists.
Directors Gary Lennon and Ollie Aslin utilise sharp questioning with their interviewees, giving them time and space to work out their answers and knitting them together to form a cohesive and compelling story that's almost too good to be true. Much like 'A Doctor's Sword', there are moments in 'Castro's Spies' where the outrageousness of the story seems unbelievable, but there's a clarity in how it's all presented that never makes you question the veracity of it.
'Castro's Spies' blasts through its story like the best kind of spy thriller, except the story is real and the consequences are life and death.