Centro Superior de Información de la Defensa

The Centro Superior de Información de la Defensa is represented in the novel through an agent who assisted Lorenzo Quart during the crisis at the Vatican nunciature in Panama. His discreet role in extracting a Cuban refugee illustrates the agency’s involvement in the improvised, politically sensitive arrangements surrounding the surrender of General Noriega.

Role in the Panama Crisis

After the United States invaded Panama and Noriega entered the Vatican diplomatic mission, Quart arrived urgently to assist the nuncio while secretly overseeing negotiations and reporting directly to the Institute for External Works. The nunciature housed a disparate group of people seeking refuge, including five Basque members of the Irish Republican Army, a Nicaraguan counterintelligence chief, Colombian drug traffickers, and a Cuban economic adviser who repeatedly threatened suicide if he was not returned safely to Havana.

The CESID agent moved in and out of the nunciature, ostensibly to play chess with the nuncio while also reporting to Madrid. His presence connected the diplomatic refuge to Spanish intelligence, although the novel presents his conduct through a single episode rather than through an account of the organization’s broader structure or policy.

The Secret Extraction

As the crisis concluded, the Nicaraguan and Basque refugees were discreetly moved out of Panama, while the drug traffickers disappeared and later resurfaced in Medellín. The Cuban, Girón, was the last to leave. Quart had arranged a secret agreement for his departure, and the CESID agent undertook to get him out in the trunk of an old Chevrolet Impala rented by Quart.

The operation depended on secrecy: the agreement governing Girón’s exit was not known to the American soldier Kowalski, who stopped the car. The CESID agent was taking a personal risk, described as jeopardizing his career by helping the Cuban without payment or official recognition. The attempt at mediation nevertheless ended badly for Quart, whose shoulder was broken despite his clerical collar and Vatican passport.

Outcome and Narrative Significance

Girón spent a month in a Miami jail. He did not keep his promise to kill himself; after his release, he obtained political asylum in the United States and gave an interview to Reader’s Digest under the title “I, Too, Was Deceived by Castro.” The outcome turns the covert extraction into an ironic reversal: a rescue intended to secure the Cuban’s safe departure led first to detention, then to a new life in the country whose forces had surrounded the nunciature.

The agency’s brief appearance contributes to the novel’s picture of diplomacy as a mixture of formal authority, clandestine reporting, and improvised personal risk. The CESID agent’s quiet help contrasts with the public spectacle outside the nunciature, where American troops used loud music around the clock to wear down those inside. His part is small but concrete: he helps make the secret arrangement possible, and pays for the attempt with the danger to his career.