Caracas - The Cuban spies whose release by the United States helped pave the way for its thaw with Cuba traveled to Venezuela Monday to pay tribute to late leftist firebrand Hugo Chavez.
The visit by the so-called “Cuban Five” intelligence agents comes as Venezuela, whose own relations with Washington have sunk to new lows in recent months, nervously eyes its ally Cuba's rapprochement with the US.
The trip is the spies' first as a group since their release, according to Cuban state news portal Cubadebate, which said the “moment of singular transcendence will be the homage they will pay to Hugo Chavez... who fought tirelessly for their freedom.”
The five men received the keys to Caracas in a ceremony on the Venezuelan capital's Bolivar Square, where Jorge Rodriguez, the mayor of the Libertador municipality, told them: “The doors of this city and this nation are always open to you.”
They were later due to visit the “Cuartel de la Montana,” the former military barracks that hold Chavez's tomb.
The Cuban Five were arrested in Miami in 1998 and convicted of espionage. Havana, which calls the men “heroes,” maintained they were not spying on the United States but on Cuban exile groups plotting “terrorist” attacks back in Cuba.
The first two, Rene and Fernando Gonzalez, completed their sentences in 2013 and 2014.
The remaining three, Antonio Guerrero, Gerardo Hernandez and Ramon Labanino, were released in December as part of a prisoner swap that sealed the US-Cuban deal to renew ties after more than five decades.
That detente has received a lukewarm welcome in Venezuela, Cuba's oil-rich benefactor and closest ally, at a time when President Nicolas Maduro has cranked up his anti-US rhetoric, accusing Washington of sponsoring a coup plot against him.
AFP