Princeton '79 Grad Turns Out to Be Big Time Cuban Spy

The Daily Princetonian reports:

Former United States government employee Marta Rita Velazquez ’79 has been accused of espionage for Cuba against the United States, according to an indictment released by the FBI on April 25.

Velazquez is charged with passing documents and information regarding national defense to Cuban intelligence. The indictment, which was originally returned by a Washington, D.C. grand jury in 2004 and only unsealed yesterday, also alleges that Velazquez helped recruit U.S. citizens to serve as Cuban agents. One alleged co-conspirator, Ana Belen Montes, pleaded guilty to espionage in 2002 and is now serving a 25-year sentence in the US.

At the University, Velazquez concentrated in politics and wrote her thesis on race relations in Cuba. She was active in the Third World Center, now known as the Carl A. Fields Center for Equality and Cultural Understanding, and in 1976 helped organize the center’s annual cultural festival. [...]Velazquez received top-secret clearance as an employee of the State Department from 1989 to 2002. She currently lives in Stockholm, Sweden and has lived outside the United States since 2002. She faces life in prison if extradited, tried and convicted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.