A Wolf in Journalist’s Clothing
“To explain the truth to my son,” said Orrio. “I asked him what he had thought of me. He remained silent. But finally he confessed that he believed I was a worm. ‘What do you think now?’ I insisted. And he started to cry, like I am doing now.”
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It’s not shocking that Orrio managed to deceive a Chicago reporter. He deceived any number of Cuban dissidents over several years. I E-mailed Marx in Havana the other day and asked how it happened. He was reluctant to go into detail, largely because he was writing his own account for the Tribune, but he told me this: “The bottom line is I was first introduced to Orrio at a gathering at the home of the top U.S. diplomat here last fall. I forgot about him until the roundups began last month. I called a prominent human rights official and asked him who knew the most about the independent journalists who were being arrested. He immediately told me to call Orrio. I called him. We spoke several times. I checked him out. And then I decided to do the profile of him.
“That human rights official was recently sentenced to many years in prison. This is a very sad and difficult story to tell.”
“Were you at an event on March 14?” the prosecutor asked Baguer. The event was a meeting of 34 dissident journalists Orrio had organized.
“Of course,” said Baguer. “And very well paid he is.”
“The change was obvious to everyone,” Collazo replied. “Vicky and her predecessors…never offered us their houses, or the Interests Section, or their residence to hold our meetings. When James Cason came…he told us that the doors of his home were open to us.”
