Keiderling: CIA agent in Havana

Jean-Guy Allard

KELLY Keiderling Franz, the business attaché recently expelled from the U.S. embassy in Caracas, Venezuela, revealed herself as a CIA agent in the relationship she conducted in Havana with the Cuban double agent Raúl Capote.

The Cuban security official, working under the operative name of Daniel, met Keiderling in Cuba, where she worked under the cover of director of the press and culture office in the U.S. Interests Section (USIS).

Their first encounter occurred at a dinner in the USIS at which 12 U.S. officials met with invitees from a number of embassies in Havana, including those of the Czech Republic, Netherlands and the United Kingdom, as Capote disclosed after his real identity became known.

"A close relationship with Kelly, who began to exercise an influence on my family, began there. She said that she wanted to make life easier for me, that I was a brilliant writer," recalled Agent Daniel in an interview given later to Pascual Serrano, with the Spanish website Rebelión.

His friendship with Keiderling continued for years, to the point that the U.S. agent became Capote’s sponsor, as a means of gaining entry into his private life. She had an unlimited budget and went as far as to suggest taking his goddaughter to the United States to study on a scholarship, and also proposed that Daniel create a literary agency, with the idea of having an influence within Cuban artistic circles.

"The Agencia Literaria Cubana Online webpage was created, used by writers to disseminate and sell their work, but the idea began to change into something else, they said they wanted it to bring together not only writers but also artists and musicians, to be coordinated with other embassies, such as the German one, etc… They would receive funding for all of that," affirmed Capote while describing Keiderling’s intelligence work.

"They would hand over three, four of five thousand dollars without even checking to see of we had organized the activity for which the money was requested. They liked themes such as micro-enterprises, how to organize the civil society, leadership courses; they provided us with manuals and things like that," the double agent confirmed, describing a process similar to the one developed by Keiderling in Venezuela.

The CIA spent tens of millions of dollars during 50 years of promoting activities hostile to Cuba, trying to create focal points of dissidence.

The Moscow-based researcher and journalist Nil Nikandrov recently described Keiderling as a key figure in the organization of activities to destabilize Venezuela, in an analysis of the intelligence work undertaken by the U.S. embassy in Caracas.

"After special training, she began to work in the State Department in 1988. She had her first experience abroad in Africa. After studying Russian, Keiderling was sent to Kyrgyzstan. Subsequently, after studying for 12 months at the National Defense University in Washington, she served in Moldavia," Nikandrov reports prior to noting her intensive intelligence activities in Cuba.

Keiderling arrived in Venezuela in July 2011. "The temporary business attaché assists officials who, in their majority, have an imperial way of thinking and a condescending attitudes toward the ‘natives’ and their pretensions to sovereignty," observed Nikandrov, noting that the goal of U.S. intelligence agencies is to ‘neutralize’ the government of Maduro by any means. The more blood spilt, the better."

Agent Keiderling-Franz acted in a totally brazen manner. The mediocre representative of U.S. intelligence left trails everywhere.

In April 2013, a confidential document datelined September 2011, signed by Keiderling-Franz and disclosed by Wikileaks, fully revealed the direct contact maintained by U.S. embassy staff with the defeated presidential candidate, Henrique Capriles.

She reported on Point 3 that Capriles said he appreciated the assistance given and received with pleasure the news that, by February 2012, her support for all the opposition candidates with which USAID had previously worked was more than guaranteed. She added that Capriles was sorry to hear of the departure of John Caufield, while at the same time agreeing with her that his leaving did not in any way endanger their objectives.

In Point 4 of the document, the agent notes that Capriles reiterated that if he was to win the upcoming elections, Venezuela’s foreign policy would be reviewed in depth and Caracas would become a trustworthy ally of the U.S. Point 5 reveals how her conspiratorial activities extended beyond Venezuelan borders. She states that additional resources will be channeled to representatives who could be trusted via new entities, principally through NGO’s in Chile, Panama, Colombia and the U.S.

Another recent report, by the researcher Jean Cleaux Duvergel, shows how – in relation to a post-electoral coup plot – meetings had taken place in Keiderling-Franz’ residence, "with representatives of the Capriles media chain, with Miguel Otero (El Nacional), Andrés Mata (owner of El Universal), Carlos Croes (of Televen), and members of Venevisión, Bloque de Armas, Globovisión and Canal I."