A senior US defense analyst who went to prison 20 years ago after confessing to spying for Cuba will be released this month, US authorities said.
Ana Belen Montes, now 65, a US citizen of Puerto Rican ancestry, was arrested in 2001 by Federal Bureau of Investigation agents at offices of her employer, the Defense Intelligence Agency, and ultimately sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Montes will be released this weekend from the Texas prison where she is being held, the Federal Bureau of Prisons said on its website.
She will be on supervised release for five years, the agency said.
Montes was found guilty of revealing to Cuba the identity of a US agent operating on the island, as well as details of US naval maneuvers off the island.
Montes pleaded guilty to being a spy for the Fidel Castro regime from 1985 to 2001.
Montes had worked for the DIA since 1985 and was the agency’s senior analyst for Cuba issues.
Unlike other spies uncovered over the years, the government says Montes spied for ideological reasons, not for money.
