This is an interesting 4-minute news segment by Martí Noticias, a Spanish-language US Government-funded broadcaster in Miami, Florida featuring an interview with Colombian Medellín Cartel founder Carlos Lehder, who was released in March 2024, after serving 38 years in US custody Lehder recounts how the Communist dictators of Cuba, Fidel and Raúl Castro invited him to create a cocaine trafficking route through Cuba into the United States, which they pursued, and to which he donated a plane to the Cuban government as part of the agreement. Lehder states here, “Every effort to denounce the Castro-Communist dictatorship is highly recommended and deserved.” … TRANSLATED FROM SPANISH Mario Pentón: Carlos Lehder, one of the founders of the Medellín Cartel in Colombia, and who spent more than 33 years in prison in the United States for cocaine trafficking, spoke exclusively with Martí Noticias about the participation of the Cuban government, led at that time by the brothers Fidel and Raúl Castro, in the shipment of drugs to this country. Lehder, who was one of Pablo Escobar’s partners at the beginning of the 1980s, pointed out in his book, ‘Life and Death of the Medellín Cartel’ that the regime of the Castro brothers gave authorization to start the shipment of drugs to Cuba. Carlos Lehder: I was invited by the Communist government of Cuba, by the Castro dictatorship to Cuba, to establish cocaine-trafficking route through Cuba to the United States. Martí Noticias communicated with the State Department to obtain an official comment on Lehder’s disclosures, and this is what they told us: “It is no secret that the Communist and corrupt regime of Cuba has longterm links with drug traffickers. The facilitation of drug trafficking towards the United States by the Castro brothers, through the operation of Manuel Noriega in Panama, is only a high-profile example. “When the links of the Castro brothers with the drug traffickers were revealed in the late 1980s, they executed the popular general, Arnaldo Ochoa, accusing him of what they, themselves had perpetrated.” Mario Pentón: In an explosive testimony, recounted in his book, Colombian drug trafficker Carlos Lehder reveals that he held direct meetings with Raúl Castro and that he donated a plane to the Cuban government as part of an agreement that allowed the Medellín Cartel to send cocaine to the United States through Cuba. During the trial for drug trafficking against former President Manuel Noriega in 1991, Lehder had already declared before a federal court about this operation, detailing that the island served as a strategic point for the transit of tons of drugs with the knowledge and support of the Castro brothers’ regime, according to a report by The Washington Post at that time. Carlos Lehder: I eventually gave up on it, but Pablo Escobar and Gustavo Gaviria, his brother, assumed command and control over that relationship; over that connection with Cuba, and exported hundreds of tons of cocaine to the United States through Cuba, with the support of the dictatorial government of the Island, the Castro family. Mario Pentón: Enrique García, former operational officer of the then General Intelligence Directorate of Cuba and who deserted in 1989, said that it was impossible to carry out an operation of such magnitude without the Cuban military – that is, without the Castro brothers knowledge and approval of the logistics. García explains that after the international news of the involvement of the Castro brothers with Colombian drug trafficking, Fidel Castro decided to organize what was called the “1st Priority of 1989”, in which he sentenced to death Arnaldo Tomás Ochoa Sánchez, General of the Division of the Revolutionary Armed Forces and other prominent military men. Enrique García: Fidel Castro decided to set up that show trial, when he found out, early in 1989, that there was a new open federal investigation. Mario Pentón: Carlos Leder, former drug trafficker of the Medellín Cartel, returned to Colombia on March 28, 2024, after 38 years, after having been released in 2020 and sent to Germany. After arriving in Bogotá, he was arrested for an order of arrest, but regained his freedom three days later, when it was confirmed that the sentence in Colombia was already prescribed. Carlos Lehder: Every effort to denounce the Castro-Communist dictatorship is highly recommended and deserved. Contributed by Alexandra Bruce Contact