Chapter 4

Dinner With The CIA

Despite my disagreements with the
Coast Guard, what I learned from my
three years with them would serve me
well in life. Not only did
seamanship

and

navigation,

I learn
but

learned about vessels, sonar, weapons,

engines, and the basics of investigations.
Furthermore, the G.I. Bill paid for my university education at Inter American
University where I studied for three years and earned bachelor degrees in
Business Administration, Public Administration, and Political Science. This
may seem like an odd combination to many but I thought it would give me a
good base to study law when I got back to America, if I ever decided to leave.

But for now life in Puerto Rico for me was just too much fun. I started a diving
and water sports business called Aquaventures which I started from my
Oceanside house on Ramey AFB now called Punta Borinquen which is the
Northwestern tip of the island. In the winter months the tourists from Canada
gave me full time work teaching diving, snorkeling, and sailing, and during the
summer months, the locals gave me steady business but at lower rates. I was
a certified NAUI Divemaster and PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor and I
accumulated over 3,000 hours of bottom time in the 7 years I lived in Puerto
Rico diving an average of 6 hours per day. When I didnt have class I was
sailing my Hobie Cat or spear fishing, or just chilling out in a hammock under
some 10 meter palm trees at Crashboat Beach. I was also the caretaker of a
60 acre oceanfront estate owned by some Canadian millionaires and earned
about $300 a week from the hundreds of coconuts that fell from the many palm
51

trees on the property. Local surfers would also pay me $100 per day to collect
magic mushrooms that grew on the property since the neighbor was a dairy
farmer and his cows were allowed to graze on my property so I didnt have to
mow it very often. It was a laid back but fun and profitable life and I would
throw parties for my Coastie friends on the estate every few months. This 60
acre estate was about 20 kilometers East of the Coast Guard Air Station in
Aguadilla on the North Coast and about a 30 minute ride on my dirt bike.
Perhaps about 20% of the guys who were discharged in Puerto Rico stayed
there. As a U.S. territory it had most of the
accommodations of living stateside with a
year round tropical climate and a very low
cost of living. Although the primary
language is Spanish, it is language very
easy to learn especially when taught by a
friendly and beautiful Puerto Rican girl of
which there was no shortage. I became
fluent in Spanish in less than a year after
arriving.

Perhaps it was because with my deep tan and fluent Spanish I was
approached by a recruiter for the CIA after he monitored my Political Science
class for a few days. He said his name was Jaime and he invited me for dinner
at The Arbolito. At first he did not reveal his true identity and just said he had a
business proposal for me and that he represented some government agencies.
I had been negotiating with Carlos Diago from the Ministry of Tourism recently
to do water sports packages with Air Canada and Iberian Airlines so it made
sense to me. But after dinner we ordered a few drinks and he began asking my
opinion on the politics of Puerto Rico and whether I favored statehood or
independence for the island. At this particular time there was a large
independent party movement growing and winning popular support after a
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police

scandal

erupted

called

Cerro Maravilla in which the

A Young Rueben Berrios Leader of

Puerto Ricos PIP Independence Party.

police were accused of executing

some political opponents

in a

remote mountain location. Although

I had been politically active in
western Puerto Rico on local issues,
I never weighed in on any national
or island-wide issues. At the time I
favored statehood because I had
felt the Puerto Rican government
was getting a free-ride from U.S.
taxpayers

plenty

of

federal

subsidies and benefits without the burden of any federal income tax. My views
have since changed and I now believe the current commonwealth status is a
healthy balance so the local people will not be forced to abandon their
autonomy, culture and language.

But on that particular night, the recruiter got the answer he was fishing for and
then he began explaining the big picture of the problems created by Ruben
Berrios (the independent party leader). I was not really buying into his
communist threat he was trying to pitch to me but kept my disagreement to
myself as I was curious to see what he wanted with me. But it became clear
that unless I agreed with his point of view, he wasnt going to go further. I
conceded that his analysis of the situation was feasible, and if true, a threat to
America.

He then proposed that I consider working with them as they needed to collect
intelligence on the Independence Party and since I never supported any party
publicly and was able to easily befriend the locals through my water sports
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business, he suggested I join their party and infiltrate the leadership by

volunteering for their many activities. His goal was to have 2 or 3 informants
planted inside the management of the Independent Party within the next two
years. He claimed he was successful in getting his people inside the two
other major parties (PNP and PDP) and now because of Cerro Maravilla,
getting inside the PIP was critical for them. The pay and benefits he offered
was excellent but the risks were equally great. And to be honest, after what
happened with the Coast Guard, I was not really keen on working an agency
that had ethics and integrity issues related to drug smuggling from Southeast
Asia. At that time soldiers returning from Vietnam reported that body bags
and corpses of deaf soldiers were being used to conceal large amounts of
heroin being smuggled by rogue agents and the allegations about the Nugan
Hand Bank being a CIA front bank for la undering drug moneys were proving to
be true.

This is Crashboat Beach wear I taught scuba diving and sailing for five years

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non-committal and when he followed up with me a week later, I told him I

simply did not want to get involved in something so controversial and
dangerous. Besides I was simply having too much fun with my water sports biz.
I later learned that one of my IAU classmates was recruited for the position but
quit the gig less than six months after taking it when he learned that another
person suspected of infiltrating that party had simply disappeared.

After it became known that I knew my classmate had been recruited by the CIA
and I had defended the right of Ruben Berrios to be included in some public
debates on the environment, something very strange and scary took place.
After spending a weekend at the estate in Quebradillas I woke up early around
5:00am by noises downstairs in the two story mansion. I grabbed my gun and
quietly made my way downstairs only to find five men in my house. I got the
drop on them and made them freeze and put their hands on their heads. I
hollered for my girlfriend to call the police. Then one of the guys said he was
the police, but they sure did not look the part. But my girlfriend came
downstairs and as it turned out, she grew up with one of the five men (Sgt.
Irizarry) and so I allowed one of the guys to pull out some ID. When I was
satisfied they were really the police, I put my gun down and they told me they
had received reports that there were drugs on my property and they came to
investigate. So as the sun came up they spent a few hours searching all 60
acres, parts of which even I never visited due to some thorny bushes.

Long story short,

they

found

no

drugs or anything
illegal in the house
but they did find
about

dozen
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marijuana plants on the property, that were either planted by the surfers or
growing wild. I was arrested but the charges were later dismissed after they
realized the property did not belong to me and I did not reside their full time.
This was a rural property (famous locally for a Eurpoean who committed
suicide there by jumping off the 50 meter cliff to the rocks on the waterfront
below) that anyone could access from adjoining properties or the public beach
which was the northern border of the property. Also a police chemist
determined that the plants discovered on the property were six months old and
I had only been charged with the property four months previous. But I was
quite curious who would give a tip with my name?

Everyone who knew me

knew I did not use drugs. Clearly someone wanted me arrested and off the
island.
In retrospect I personally believe that perhaps the CIA guys may have been
concerned that I might compromise their efforts to insert their informants inside
the PIP, something I never even considered, and I would never knowingly
endanger the life of another person no matter what their brand of politics might
be. Over the next 15 years there would be seven similar attempts to set me up
and one would actually be successful.

This episode would be the first time in my life that I would personally
experience how the U.S. government attempts to infiltrate foreign governments
and political parties whose ideologies may not be convenient or perfectly
aligned with those of their own. Three years later I would find myself on an
small business advisory council for Governor Carlos Romero Barcelo and I
had the occasion to ask the Governor if he realized how much political freedom
he would have to forfeit if Puerto Rico became a state and if he was willing to
become basically a puppet actor on a stage. His answer gave me a wake up
call and immediate insight into the fine art of politics My friend, if we
become a state, we will only have to dance with one devil, and at least we
56

know his favorite tunes by heart. I thought about his comments for almost a
week. At least the Governor had no illusions about what statehood would
mean for PuertoRico.

Since the 1950s the

American government
has been pulling all
the Strings In Puerto
Rico since the days of
Luis Munoz Marin as
recently confirmed by
the
and

release

of

the

Cointelpro

report

you

declassification
can

read

here

http://www.freedomarchives.org/Documents/Finder/Black%20Liberation%20Di
sk/Black%20Power!/SugahData/Government/COINTELPRO.S.pdf

Pages

350-385 pertain to Puerto Rico but the rest of the document gives historical
insight into how Uncle Sam has been strong-arming and persecuting
protesters and even academics who dissent in both foreign and domestic
policy issues.

I never could understand what legal jurisdiction the CIA would have in a U.S.
territory that is legally the domain of the FBI. If you spend 30 minutes at the
above link you will be shocked at the level of manipulation and political
blackmail used by the U.S. to rule the island from the shadows while
presenting the world with the illusion of a genuine democracy.

Whereas I was not really interested in involving myself in Puerto Rico politics
before dinner with the CIA, it made me quite curious as to why America was
spending over $500,000,000 million a year to subsidize the economy of this
little Caribbean island of only 3 million people. The three huge military bases
57

that occupied the island gave me my answer. Ramey Air Force base has one
of the longest runways in the world and was a former B52 SAC base.
Roosevelt Roads Naval Station on the Northeast tip of the island was a deep
water port and weapons testing base where Navy ships and submarines were
able to experiment with new weapon technologies in relative seclusion and
secrecy. And Fort Buchanan Army Base in San Juan next to Isla Grande
Airport was a logistical convenience if America ever needed to intercede or
invade any Latin American country. So in a two words, the answer to my own
question was Strategic Convenience during that era. Today with remote
controlled drones, killer satellites, nuclear submarines, and other space-based
weapons, the island has lost some strategic importance and two of the three
bases were closed, but are still being maintained. Ramey AFB is still utilized by
the U.S. Coast Guard and the FBI maintain an office there, and the Air Force
operates a solar observatory not far away. All three bases could be reactivated
within a month or two if needed. Although after the Vieques bombing fiasco the
local public would probably object to any new remilitarization of their beautiful
and usually tranquil island.
In retrospect I personally believe that perhaps the CIA guys may have been
concerned that I might compromise their efforts to insert their informants inside
the PIP, something I never even considered, and I would never knowingly
endanger the life of another person no matter what their brand of politics might
be. I believe their infiltrations of the PIP helped to neutralize and suppress the
growth of that party although Rueben Berrios its founder now appears to be
much respected and admired rather than feared in the days when I resided in
Aguadilla at 125 E Street in the Punta Borinquen community. The CIA and
other American law enforcement agencies are very good at intimidation and
creating fear in the general populations both abroad and domestically. Just
as they scared the hell out of America about Saddam Hussein, they did equally
well with Rueben Berrios in Puerto Rico who was consistently maligned and
58

painted as Fidel Castros communist buddy. Berrios from what I learned over
the years admired Fidel for his courage to repel American imperialism, but was
smart enough not to make the same political blunders as Fidel that would
isolate Cuba for decades. His vision for Puerto Rico did not include a
conversion to communism as his enemies repeatedly claimed.

I miss Puerto Rico and all the good friends I made there and left behind.
Sadly most Americans do not even know that this heavenly tropical island is a
U.S. territory. For sailors, surfers, and divers, the West coast of Puerto Rico is
irresistible. I helped build an artificial reef there 25 years ago and long to see
the results. Perhaps some of my old diving students now go spearfishing or
bugging (lobster hunting) there. I highly recommend Western Puerto to all
young couples looking for a romantic geta way or honeymoon paradise.

The beautiful City of Aguadilla, Puerto Rico where I lived for 5 years

"Any People who expect to be both ignorant and free, in a state of

civilization, expects what never was and never will be."
- Thomas Jefferson
- Cpyright 1995-2014 By Bruce A. Gorcyca All Rights Reserved
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