The World - News from March 16, 1988

Cuba’s deputy minister of economic supply has defected to Canada, the third high-level defection from Fidel Castro’s regime in the last year, a former Cuban official said. The deputy minister, Gustavo Perez Cott, sought asylum in Canada this month and is now being debriefed by U.S. intelligence officials in Washington, according to Ramon Sanchez Perez, a former deputy in the same agency who defected to Spain three years ago. Sanchez Perez disclosed the defection at a press conference called by the Freedom House human rights foundation to discuss a new report on Cuba’s worsening economic conditions. A State Department official refused to confirm or deny the defection report.