The Havana Conspiracies: Rites of Passage of a Master Spy. This item is unavailable.The Havana Conspiracies: Rites of Passage of a Master Spy

The esteem young spy Julio Antonio del Marmol that Che Guevara holds him in proves to be a two-edged blade. On the one hand, he has a certain level of protection; before, he could threaten communists with informing Fidel of any disrespect or difficulties, and now he has Che and the dread the Cuban communists hold Guevara in as a backup. However, as he has seen, Che is so paranoid that he will jump from suspicion to a fatal certainty with no evidence and in very little time. Additionally, he has attracted the suspicious and jealous eye of the sinister head of the regime’s G-2 State Police, Manuel Piñeiro. As Julio Antonio further discovers more pieces to the puzzle of the plot to assassinate the American President, he works to discover who in the government is responsible for the plot to blow up the Belgian cargo ship La Coubre in Havana harbor laden with American munitions (and in the process killing several Cubans). He tries to prevent the plot from carrying through but is only partially successful. The ship still explodes, but with nowhere near the devastation planned; but it is enough to kill a close friend and that friend’s father. Worse yet, before his death, that friend’s father named Julio Antonio as a contact should anything happen to him, providing him with complications with both Che and Piñeiro. The G-2 moves against Julio Antonio suddenly finds himself as the target for assassinations. Worse yet, a potential mole in their network results in his uncle having to distance himself for security reasons, providing as a go-between a girl scarcely older than the young spy, but still in her training.

Dr. Julio Antonio del Marmol is the son of the primary financier behind Fidel Castro's revolution, Leonardo del Marmol. A Grand Master Mason, Leonardo organized his Masonic brothers to provide the funds Castro needed to purchase supplies and weapons. When the revolution won in January, 1959, then-11-year-old Julio Antonio wanted to become part of the revolution. His father arranged to get a letter written by his son detailing a plan to organize the Cuban youth into an army of the future into the hands of Fidel Castro, who flew out to meet the young man. Impressed by the boy's eloquence, he presented Julio Antonio with his own .38 pistol as a give and appointed him Commander-in-Chief of the Young Commandos of the Rebel Army and the youngest military commander in the revolution. Within six months, Che Guevara showed the youth that the plan was to implement a communist system on the island. In distress, he went to warn his father, who accused Julio Antonio of being brainwashed by an uncle in Havana (who never liked the revolution) and threw his own 12 year old son out of the house. Julio Antonio went to his uncle and revealed everything he had seen, only to discover that his uncle was a master spy going back to World War II, in which he was in charge of the network preventing the Nazis from taking control of the Caribbean and Central/South America. His uncle recruits and trains Julio Antonio, making him the youngest spy in history. He continues in his role, taking secrets from Castro's own office until his cover is blown in 1971. He must leave the island for the US, taking his fight against communism to a global level.