Bernard Leon Barker , alias Macho ( Havana , 17 of March of 1917 – Miami , 5 of June of 2009 ), was a former agent of the CIA , the son of an American father and Cuban mother, and one of the Cubans involved in the Watergate scandal (which brought about the downfall of President Richard Nixon), in 1972.
Summary
[ hide ]
- 1 Biographical data
- 1 Kennedy assassination
- 2 Involvement in Watergate
- 3 Life after getting out of jail
- 2 References
Biographical data
His father was born in the Russian Empire, and he gave his son León as a middle name due to his sympathy for the socialist leader Leon Trotsky , who a few months later would be one of the main leaders of the Russian Revolution (October 1917). At age 16, Bernardo León Barker joined the revolutionary group ABC, an opponent of President Gerardo Machado . At that time he made himself known as Macho. Worried about these activities, his father sent him to the United States. In 1935, Bernard Barker obtained US citizenship, but returned to Cuba to enter the University of Havana , where he began studies in Medicine.
On December 8, 1941 – the day after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor – Bernard Barker enlisted in the United States Armed Forces (he was the first Cuban to do so). He was trained as an aviator in Tampa (Florida) and in Houston (Texas). He made patrol flights over the Gulf of Mexico . In 1943 he was sent to London (United Kingdom) with the rank of second lieutenant. He was admitted to the 331st Squadron of the 8th Air Force. There he served as a bomber on a four-engine B-17 Flying Fortress. [1]
On February 2, 1944, on their 13th mission, German airmen shot down their B-17 plane, and the entire crew parachuted, but were captured by the Nazis. Bernard Barker spent the next 16 months in the Nazi concentration camp Stalag Luft 1. On May 2, 1945, the Soviet Red Army liberated the camp, and Bernard Barker and his companions were released. [1]
Bernard Barker returned to Havana and joined the National Police of the Fulgencio Batista dictatorship . [2] He was appointed Assistant Sergeant to the Chief of Police. He was recruited by the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation, United States) and worked as an undercover agent.
In January 1960, a year after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution , Bernard Barker returned with his family to Miami when he did not agree with the new government. [1] At that time he began working for the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency, United States) under the direction of Everett Howard Hunt . His mission was to recruit Cuban mercenaries for Brigade 2506, which in 1961 was launched into the disastrous Invasion of Playa Girón (Bay of Pigs invasion). Barker managed to escape capture and returned to Miami. [2]
Kennedy assassination
Some conspiracy theorists accused Bernard Barker of having been an accessory to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy . [3]
After the defeat of the anti-Castro mercenaries in Playa Girón, friction between the anti-Castro exiles with the administration of President John F. Kennedy grew . On November 22, 1963 Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. Most of the witnesses in the Dealey Plaza that day claimed that the sound of gunfire came from two main points: the Texas School Book Depository, and the wooden fence at the Grassy Knoll. When several men advanced towards the Grassy Knoll, a man appeared there displaying a Secret Service ID, and ordered people to leave the area. According to police officer Seymour Weitzman (a Dallas detective), that man was Bernard Barker. [3]
Involvement in Watergate
The 17 as June as 1972 , Bernard Barker and Cuban terrorist Eugenio Musculito Martinez were arrested in Washington for his role in the Watergate scandal .
It was in the Watergate scandal that Bernard Barker became known in the press.
In 1972, James W. McCord (CIA agent) was appointed director of security for the CREEP (Committee for the Re-election of President Richard Nixon) of the Republican Party . [4]
On the night of June 17, 1972 at 2:30 in the morning, Bernard Barker was arrested along with Virgilio González, James W. McCord and Frank Sturgis inside the offices of the National Committee of the Democratic Party , in the building complex Watergate, in the city of Washington. This group was later known in the press as the “plumbers.” McCord was the head of security for the committee for the reelection of President Richard Nixon. [4]
The operation had been planned months before. On April 17, 1971, during the Miami celebration of the tenth anniversary of the ill-fated Playa Girón invasion, Everett Howard Hunt (a well-known CIA agent) contacted Bernard Barker for a meeting. Barker arrived for the appointment with their friend, Eugenio Rolando Martínez. Everett Hunt was head of political action for the CIA. [3]
After visiting the monument to the members of Brigade 2506, who fell in the invasion, the three men went to eat. Everett Hunt proposed to them to work in a new organization of the White House, directed personally by Richard Nixon, called SIG (Special Investigations Group) or the “plumbers”, as the American press would baptize them, because their main task was to neutralize (euphemism for ‘murdering’) information ‘leaks’ (such as those of Wikileaks in 2007). [2] Everett Hunt claimed that the CIA was aware of the creation of this organization with its agents. The Cubans were promised that in exchange for their services, Richard Nixon would assist them in their terrorist activities in Cuba. [3]
As part of the group, Bernard Barker participated in various tasks that broke the law. For example, in September 1971, Cubans Eugenio Rolando Martínez, Bernard Barker and Felipe De Diego raided the office of Dr. Lewis J. Fielding, who was a psychiatrist for Daniel Ellsberg, a former analyst for the Department of State and the Department of Defense. critical of Richard Nixon’s policies to intensify the invasion against Vietnam. [3]
On May 2, 1972, during the funeral of John Edgar Hoover – the corrupt FBI director – on Capitol Hill, the group of plumbers attacked groups of civilians – among which were the actors Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland -, that were demonstrating in the vicinity against the Vietnam War. Macho Barker, Eugenio Rolando Martínez, Virgilio González, Frank Sturgis, Felipe De Diego, the editor Reinaldo Pico, the contractor Hiram González, among others, participated in the action. [3]
On May 23, 1972, the group made a first foray into the offices of the National Committee of the Democratic Party , in the Watergate building complex, where they photographed a large number of documents and installed microphones. The operation was led by Everett Howard Hunt and Gordon Liddy. [3]
The plumbers claimed they had done the job flawlessly, but Gordon Liddy was furious with the results. The photos weren’t sharp and the microphones were working poorly. So James McCord forced the group to carry out a second raid on June 17, 1972. James McCord was the only one of the group officially working for the CIA, and he behaved suspiciously. She put a piece of duct tape to keep the door latch from closing as she went in and out. One of the times Eugenio Rolando Martínez returned, he asked him a question that later became famous during the subsequent trial:
―Did you remove the tape?
“Yes,” James McCord replied.
McCord had not actually removed anything, and that duct tape was what caught the attention of security guard Frank Wills, who called 911. [3]
Several policemen arrived in plain clothes without the group noticing – as James McCord had forced his colleagues to turn off their walkie-talkies, thereby losing contact with an agent who was watching from the building opposite. This agent was supposedly related to James McCord. [4] They found Barker hiding under a desk, in his suit jacket he carried a wad of $ 5,000 worth of 100 bills. [5]
All five were arrested. Later Everett Hunt and Gordon Liddy also fell. The scandal reached unexpected dimensions, and President Richard Nixon was forced to resign on August 9, 1974, to avoid his impeachment. [3]
Life after getting out of jail
On January 30, 1973, all four members of the group pleaded guilty. Thus they avoided a trial where more details of the operation could be known. They were convicted of conspiracy, theft and violation of federal communications laws. Eugenio Rolando Martínez was sentenced to 40 years in prison, but Bernard León Barker managed to get out after 13 months in prison. [4]
After being released, Barker and others implicated in the Watergate scandal experienced the stigma of being exposed as criminals, and had a difficult time. However, none of the Cubans involved regretted the anti-democratic actions they had perpetrated. They felt that they had served a president who had also helped them. Bernard Barker declared in 1997: “We did nothing wrong.”
Barker worked as a building inspector in Miami, then as a zoning consultant. In 1983, he was charged with perjury for having bribed members of the Miami City Zoning Office, but was later acquitted.
Bernard Leon Barker died of cancer in Miami on June 5, 2009, at the age of 92.
