Cuba Archive - Case 913

Case ID: 913

Title: N/A

First name: Manuel

Last name: Ramirez

Suffix: N/A

Aliases: N/A

Name also reported as: N/A

Age: 57

Gender: Male

Date of Birth: N/A

Civil Status: Unknown

Date of death/disappearance: Day:2 / Month:2 / Year:1995

Citizenship: N/A

Last known address: S.W.

Last known city: Miami, Florida

Last known province-TOD: N/A

Last known province current: N/A

Last known country: United States

Location death-address: Jackson Memorial Hospital

Location of death - city: Miami, Florida

Location of death province - at TOD: N/A

Location of death province - current: N/A

Location of death - country: United States

Trial held?: No

Docket Number: N/A

Sentence details: N/A

Arrest or detention at time of death: No

Date of arrest: N/A

Imprisoned/Detained: Location: N/A

How long imprisoned/detained: N/A

Death attributed to: Castro regime

Death attribution detail: Cuban Intelligence Directorate

Associated Event: N/A

Case description:

Ramirez and his wife, Liliam Morales, were shot execution-style in their car shortly after midnight on a side street of the WCMQ radio station in Coral Gables, where she had just finished a radio program on astrology she had hosted on weekday nights for seven months. Neighbors heard shots and saw a shadowy figure hop into a parked car and speed off. Morales was pronounced dead at the scene and Ramirez died at the hospital soon after arriving. They left an 18-month-old baby. There was no sign of an attempted robbery or domestic dispute and the murder appeared to be a targeted assassination two weeks after a U.S. congressional hearing on Cuba`s bioweapons capabilities had been arranged at which Ramirez was to testify.  Ramirez had defected in January 1991 during a visit to Moscow with Morales, his second wife. They arrived in Miami with a U.S. visa under a semi-secret "national interest" program for top island defectors. He had been head of the Havana branch of UNECA, Cuba's top state construction firm, and in the 1980s had led Cuba's key construction projects, including top-security biological laboratories, the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB) in western Havana, a complex of a dozen buildings and more than 100 individual laboratories. A four-page report by Ramirez, written in preparation for the congressional hearing, detailed the top security labs he built at CIGB and said the island had the facilities and know-how to develop biological weapons for either sale to others or threaten or attack other countries. Ramírez also stated that he believed Fidel Castro was capable of producing a holocaust. A former Cuban government official told El Nuevo Herald (Miami) journalists that in 1997 he had obtained evidence that the couple's killer, nicknamed "el indio" had been ordered by Cuban government officials to murder Ramirez. The man had been jailed in Cuba for petty theft and had emigrated to South Florida during the Mariel boatlift of 1980. He had been rewarded with permission to traffic narcotics from Cuba to South Florida. Cuba already had two intelligence collaborators living in Hialeah monitoring Ramirez and Morales.
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Ramírez y su esposa Liliam Morales fueron baleados al estilo de una ejecución en su auto poco después de la medianoche en una calle lateral de la estación de radio WCMQ  en Miami donde ella acababa de terminar un programa de radio sobre astrología que presentaba en las noches. Los vecinos escucharon disparos y vieron una figura en la sombra subirse a un automóvil estacionado y acelerar. Morales fue declarado muerto en el lugar y Ramírez murió en el hospital poco después de llegar. Dejaron un bebé de 18 meses.
No había señales de intento de robo o disputa doméstica y el asesinato parecía ser selectivo dos semanas después de que se organizara una audiencia en el Congreso de Estados Unidos sobre las capacidades de armas biológicas de Cuba en la que Ramírez iba a testificar.
Ramírez había desertado en enero de 1991 durante una visita a Moscú con Morales, su segunda esposa. Llegaron a Miami con una visa estadounidense bajo un programa semisecreto de "interés nacional" para los principales desertores de la isla. Había sido director de la sucursal de La Habana de la UNECA, la principal empresa de construcción estatal de Cuba, y en la década de 1980 había dirigido proyectos de construcción clave en Cuba, incluidos los laboratorios biológicos de alta seguridad, el Centro de Ingeniería Genética y Biotecnología (CIGB) en el oeste de La Habana, un complejo de una docena de edificios y más de 100 laboratorios individuales. Un informe de cuatro páginas de Ramírez, escrito en preparación para la audiencia del Congreso, detalló los principales laboratorios de seguridad que construyó el CIGB y dijo que la isla tenía las instalaciones y el conocimiento para desarrollar armas biológicas para venderlas a otros o amenazar de atacar a otros. países. Ramírez también afirmó que creía que Fidel Castro era capaz de producir un holocausto.
Un exfuncionario del gobierno cubano dijo a los periodistas de El Nuevo Herald (Miami) que en 1997 había obtenido pruebas de que funcionarios del gobierno cubano habían ordenado al asesino de la pareja, apodado "el indio", asesinar a Ramírez. El hombre había sido encarcelado en Cuba por hurto menor y había emigrado al sur de Florida durante el éxodo del Mariel en 1980. Había sido recompensado con permiso para traficar narcóticos de Cuba al sur de Florida. Cuba ya tenía dos colaboradores de inteligencia viviendo en Hialeah monitoreando a Ramírez y Morales.

Sources: Conflict of Evidence:

Violation Status: Reported: Highly likely / Highly reliable source(s)

Cause of Death: - Extrajudicial killing

Occupations: - Construction and Extraction Occupations

External Files: N/A

Relatives in Archive: - Spouse in Case 691: Liliam Rosa Morales

Victim Type: - Political opponent or dissident: no known membership in a group

Affiliations: N/A

Other Victims Same Event: - Case 691: Liliam Rosa Morales

Case Record - Manuel Ramirez