Felix Rodriguez, 84, was once referred to as a “free-lancer for democracy” by Nicaragua’s ex-Contra leader Adolfo Calero. Now, he visits military bases and universities to share stories of his life.
The Cuban ex-CIA agent and Bay of Pigs veteran who received the order from the Bolivian government to murder Argentine-Cuban guerrilla leader Ernesto “Che” Guevara was involved in many defining moments of American foreign policy throughout the 20th century like aiding the Contras and the Vietnam War.
Rodriguez is slated to speak Wednesday at Nova Southeastern University’s campus in Davie at 11 a.m. He says his presentation will touch on his life growing up in Cuba along with his career experiences.
Looking back on his career, Rodriguez said he “would do everything exactly the same,” except keep Che Guevara’s pipe that he gave to Mario Teran, the Bolivian soldier who executed the Argentine revolutionary.
Born in Havana, Cuba, Rodriguez’s family sent him to study in Pennsylvania in 1954. After graduating from high school six years later, Rodriguez says he was accepted to the University of Miami for engineering.
He spent a few months before graduation training with the Anti-Communist Legion of the Caribbean in the Dominican Republic, but the beginning of Cuba’s Revolution is what motivated him to get involved with the Bay of Pigs invasion.
“I was very highly impacted when Fidel Castro took over Cuba,” Rodriguez said. “And the executions by firing squad… it’s a hell of an experience to see that that is happening in your homeland.”
Rodriguez secretly infiltrated Cuba seven times after the Bay of Pigs with the CIA. When asked about Cuba’s long-discussed security apparatus, he said the regime’s main advantage is ethics.
“There are things we cannot do because of morality,” Rodriguez said. “Cuba doesn’t have that restriction. They could go anywhere and do whatever they want because they are not ruled or prohibited from doing anything we are.”
After retiring from the CIA in 1976, Rodriguez still had heavy involvement in the country’s proxy wars in Latin America, from being tapped to manage the illegal Contra re-supply operation to showing the Salvardoran army fighting tactics he helped develop while in Vietnam.
A theme Rodriguez says he tries to push when speaking to American audiences, is how what he felt was the loss of his country drove his work.
“A lot of people, unless they experience what I went through, they don’t understand,” Rodriguez said.
