AWOL Private May Be in Cuba as a Defector

A U.S. Army private who went absent without leave from his post in West Germany last month may have defected to Cuba, the Defense Department said Monday.

Responding to a report on Radio Havana, the Pentagon said it is investigating the possibility that the missing soldier, Pfc. Hugo Romeu, 31, of Glenview, Ill., “may indeed be the individual alluded to in the Cuban radio report.”

Radio Havana, monitored in Miami, claimed Monday that a man it identified as Army Capt. Hugo Romeu Almeida has defected to Cuba because of his objections to U.S. foreign policy toward Central America.

No Record Indicated

The Army subsequently said it had no record of an officer or enlisted man of that name.

“Further checking, however, has indicated the possibility that an individual with a similar name may indeed be the individual alluded to in the Cuban radio report,” a Pentagon statement said.

The Radio Havana report had described Capt. Hugo Romeu Almeida as having been stationed at a U.S. base in Stuttgart, West Germany. A three-paragraph dispatch from the Cuban news agency Prensa Latina received in Mexico City also described the man as “of Cuban origin.”

According to the Pentagon statement, Pvt. Hugo Romeu was, in fact, born in Cuba and, until he went AWOL, was assigned to the 5th General Hospital in Bad Cannstadt, West Germany, not far from Stuttgart.