S. Florida becoming a haven for retired CIA agents

MIAMI - Where do former CIA agents go when they come in from the cold?

Many are finding steamy South Florida the ideal place to parlay intelligence skills into second careers and business rewards.

The same goes for former American ambassadors and retired military officers who also have discovered that the place once dubbed America's Casablanca has become a fertile spot for lucrative jobs even without major federal offices, military contractors or even abundant corporate headquarters.

Though the trend is not entirely new - the former U.S. ambassador to Panama, Ambler H. Moss, has been in Miami for almost 25 years, working as a tenured professor at the University of Miami and for the Greenberg Traurig law firm - it is growing.

It helps that these days Miami is looking more like a Hong Kong - a center for trade, a hub of international finance and a media center - than purely a capital of intrigue.

Perhaps the biggest attraction for the former intelligence officers, ambassadors and even a four-star general is that living in South Florida allows them to keep abreast of events in Latin America, helping them maintain their competitive edge as they take on new careers prospecting for strategic information, opening doors and clearing hurdles for business in the region.

"Miami keeps the pulse of Latin America better than any other U.S. city by far and sometimes better than other Latin American capitals," said Frank Holder, a former Air Force intelligence officer who is president of Holder International, a business risk consulting firm in Miami.

"For people who were in diplomacy or intelligence, that is very important because it keeps you up to date," said Holder, who started his own company in Argentina in 1995. Three years later, he was bought out by Kroll, one of the world's largest security firms.

On any day, government officials, bankers, opposition leaders, labor activists and political pundits from Latin America and the Caribbean trek through local airports.

They may visit relatives, meet with local business groups, journalists or just friends. Some even have second homes in South Florida.

Many former CIA officers are also familiar with Miami because the CIA maintained a station here with 300 to 400 staffers and a $50 million annual budget in the 1960s.

One change that has encouraged intelligence officers to openly pursue second careers is that more are now allowed to reveal they worked for the CIA or another undercover agency at retirement.

The CIA negotiates each retirement on a case-by-case basis.

A number of former officers said they retired under their cover - as a State Department officer, for example - but that the agency later allowed them to disclose their intelligence service, which proves to be a resume builder for those running risk assessment, security and business intelligence firms.

"It's not like all the stories, where you never retire. You do retire," said Frederick W. Rustmann, a former member of the CIA's elite Senior Intelligence Service.

When he left the CIA in 1990 under the cover of the State Department, Rustmann said, "They gave me a clock and it said 'for honorable service' and it didn't say for whom." But about six months later, the Agency allowed him to say he had retired from the CIA.

"Now my clock says CIA on it," said Rustmann.

He set up CTC International Group, a West Palm Beach, Fla., firm staffed primarily by former CIA officers that provides business intelligence for the legal and corporate communities and investigates internal fraud at companies.

Rustmann, like many ex-CIA officers, is an active member of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers, which has numerous chapters in Florida.

More than a decade as a CIA case officer helped prepare Odalys Fajardo-Guerrero for a career in investigation and security consulting firms. She worked for Kroll and Pinkerton Consulting and Investigations before becoming managing director of Vance in Miami.

The Miami location is necessary to capture Latin American clients, because business owners frequently insist on meeting face-to-face. "This is where you want to be," said Fajardo-Guerrero. "It's a personal relationship, and you can't do it in St. Louis."

In September of last year, Miami also became the first city outside Washington to have an Overseas Security Advisory Council, which allows U.S. government agencies to share security information with U.S. companies working abroad.

The South Florida ambience also attracts former diplomats such as Donna Hrinak, who served as a U.S. ambassador four times before she retired in 2004.

Hrinak, who said she joined the U.S. Foreign Service to explore the world, decided she wanted to stay connected to Latin America and her Latin American friends and acquaintances, who often travel through Miami.

"I didn't want to become another diplomat at a 'Beltway Bandit,"' said Hrinak, referring to the Washington consulting firms that thrive on government contracts. After 30 years as a U.S. diplomat, Hrinak said she wanted to do something different.

Her first stop was the law firm Steel Hector & Davis. After it was acquired by Squires Sanders & Dempsey, she was headed to Washington to work for Kissinger McLarty Associates, an international strategic advisory firm, when Kraft Latin America, based in Coral Gables, Fla., came calling.

Now her days are spent as director of corporate and government affairs and she travels to capitals across Latin America.

One day, she might meet with government officials over laws banning advertising to children (Kraft has a policy against advertising food products to children under 6). Another day's challenge might be trying to ease Latin American bans on certain ingredients or picking through the fine print of a regional free-trade agreement to see where Kraft might get a tariff break.

Former government employees face only one restriction when it comes to pursuing new careers. They are banned for a year from visiting U.S. embassies or meeting with officials to discuss business.

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Another foreign service veteran, V. Manuel Rocha, was serving as ambassador to Bolivia when he decided he needed to earn money to send his two children to college. He turned down several job offers elsewhere because he wanted to live in Miami. A two-month search landed him a job as senior counselor for international trade and government affairs at Steel Hector & Davis.

Rocha left the law firm before it was acquired, forming The Globis Group with Rodrigo Arboleda, an international executive. Now he helps companies try to penetrate the Latin American market or finds investment opportunities for Latin American investors in Miami.

The title of ambassador opens doors, Rocha admits. "I have access to just about every country in the region or know how to get it," he said.

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Also among the new breed of South Florida business consultants is James T. Hill, a four-star general who was the combatant commander of the U.S. Southern Command until his retirement in January 2005 after 37 years in the army. Not only did he love Miami and have a son who had one more year of high school here, but Hill wanted to stay connected to Latin America.

Hill set up his own firm, The JT Hill Group, where he offers consulting on everything from leadership development to strategic planning. His experience overseeing large army commands, such as the Southern Command with an annual $850 million budget, prepared him for the consulting world.

"It's much more than running a business," he said of the top army commands. "I was a mayor of sorts, a manager. Probably the great myth of the U.S. military is that generals give orders and they are obeyed. It is about leading teams!"