Luis Conte Agüero, a well-known figure in Miami's exile community and a former close friend turned arch-nemesis of Fidel Castro, has been arrested for domestic violence and accused of molesting his former girlfriend's 10-year-old daughter. The 87-year-old was arrested yesterday in the parking lot of the Telemiami studios shortly after he finished taping his eponymous political affairs program.
Esther Velia Ortiz, Conte Agüero's 39-year-old ex-girlfriend, reported the domestic violence to police on July 28. According to El Nuevo, Ortiz also told police that the influential journalist and politician had also been molesting her 10-year-old daughter. She says her daughter had confessed that Conte Agüero had fondled her on at least 10 occasions.
Conte Agüero was only arrested for domestic violence charges, but police indicate more charges could be forthcoming as the investigation continues.
Ortiz says she had been dating Conte Agüero for about a year, though they never lived together. She has known Conte Agüero for at least 10 year though, and claims that through out the years he's given her money to help raise her child.
Conte Agüero was a well known journalist and political leader in pre-Castro Cuba. He struck up a close friendship with Castro while the two were university students, and Castro wrote numerous letters to Conte Agüero while imprisoned. Though, Conte Agüero came to disagree with Castro about communism, and fled in the '60s. He has meet with several presidents, including Kennedy, Nixon, Johnson, Ford and Carter to discuss Castro. He has since become a leading anti-Castro voice in Miami. Several local politicians have appeared on his show.
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