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The former pilot of the Cuban Air Force and undercover agent Juan Pablo Roque, one of the most notorious spies of the Red Avispa, passed away on November 25, 2025 in Havana, at the age of 70, according to sources from the exile community and acquaintances.
The news was confirmed by Mario Vallejo and Ana Margarita Martínez, the former partner of the spy, who stated that he had undergone open-heart surgery and was in critical condition, but complications arose due to one of the viruses circulating in Cuba.
The activist Luis Domínguez, from the Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba, verified the information through three sources, “two of whom are pilots.”
Born on October 11, 1955, Roque was a military pilot until his alleged desertion in 1992, when he appeared at the naval base in Guantánamo, claiming to have escaped from Cuba by swimming.
In Miami, he joined the Cuban exile community and infiltrated Hermanos al Rescate, an organization dedicated to rescuing rafters in the Florida Straits.
His double life ended when he returned to Cuba in February 1996, a day before the downing of two aircraft from Brothers to the Rescue by Cuban MiG fighters, which resulted in the death of four civilians.
The incident was internationally condemned and strained relations between Cuba and the United States.
Roque was involved in one of the largest identity frauds in Cuban espionage by marrying the Cuban-American Ana Margarita Martínez under a false identity.
Their disappearance and subsequent appearance in Cuba uncovered the deception, leading to legal proceedings and extensive media coverage.
“Can you imagine finding out that the last four years of your life were a lie? That you were married to a spy,” Martínez stated to The Guardian in 1999. “I felt used, violated, and humiliated.”
The woman told Vallejo that her ex-partner had died without being made to pay for that crime.
Roque was part of the Wasp Network, a Cuban intelligence operation launched in the 1990s to spy on the Cuban exile community and gather U.S. military information.
Five of its members were convicted in 1998 in the case of Los Cinco.
According to the Cuban Repressors database, Roque was a “violent repressor” linked to the downing of the planes in 1996. His role included alerting Cuba about the flights of Brothers to the Rescue through the head of the network, Gerardo Hernández.
His figure was portrayed in the film Red Avispa (2019), directed by Olivier Assayas, based on the book by Fernando Morais. The film was criticized by the exile community for downplaying the seriousness of the events and omitting the human cost of espionage.
The journalist Carlos Cabrera recalled that his primary mission, to kidnap General Rafael del Pino, was unsuccessful, although his infiltration caused significant moral and political harm to the Cuban exile community.
With his death, Juan Pablo Roque leaves behind a story of treachery, manipulation, and propaganda that defined Cuban espionage in the 1990s.
His name is still linked to the downing of Hermanos al Rescate, a crime for which, nearly three decades later, justice has still not been served.
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