Jesús Escandell Romero is a Cuba

Cuba

The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...

n politician, president of the Cuban trade union "Central de Trabajadores Cubanos" (CTC) from 1985 to 1991.

In 1996 he was arrested, and spent nine months jailed without charge, at the Cuban political prison Villa Marista

Villa Marista

Villa Marista is a prison in Havana, Cuba, notorious for its detention of political prisoners by the Cuban national security agency.Its prisoners have included poet Nicolas Guillén, dissident Vladimiro Roca, and politician Jesús Escandell....

. Most observers believe that he was accused of espionage

Espionage

Espionage or spying involves an individual obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage is inherently clandestine, lest the legitimate holder of the information change plans or take other countermeasures once it...

., in particular for his alleged role in leaking classified documents to foreign embassies, related to the 1996 purge against the Centre for American Studies (CEA)

Centre for American Studies (CEA)

The Centre for American Studies is an academic institution in Havana, Cuba. Established along similar institutions by the Cuban Government in 1964, it was intended to serve at the same time to provide intelligene information for Cuban leaders, and to provide propaganda by proposing to...

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