Staff Reporter

A United States (US) Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) spy who had been deployed to Zimbabwe to aid the opposition in its quest for regime change has been exposed and deported, The Harare Post can report.

A well placed source said Mr Larry Garber, who was posted here disguised as Country Director for Carter Centre Zimbabwe (CCZ), arrived in Zimbabwe on 17 July 2022 as part of an advance delegation for International Election Observation for Zimbabwe (IEOZ). Garber and his accomplice, Florence Lolinga Mowango, who was also deported, were already secretly working with Zimbabwe Electoral Support Network (ZESN) without work permits.

“Larry Garber arrived in Zimbabwe as part of an advance team for International Election Observation for Zimbabwe. He was granted a visa but denied a work permit. It was latter discovered that he was already clandestinely working with ZESN on several Election related programmes. Among the programmes was the training of CCC polling agents. Garber was also assessing pre-election needs of the opposition party with a view to sourcing funds from the US,” said the source.

According to the source, Garbner was set to hold training programmes with the CCC youth on use of social media to mobilise for demonstrations, ant-surveillance techniques, and citizen journalism among others.

The US government has been deploying CIA spies in countries they label ‘hot spots’ ahead of elections to abet the opposition to dethrone the ruling governments. In Zambia another CIA operative Steven Jeffrey admitted that through the use of Joseph Kalimbwe, the US government was able to topple former President Edgar Lungu. On his twitter handle, he also said their focus was now on Zimbabwe.

Political commentators have also shown displeasure towards the intention by the US government to offer US$120 000 payment to American based lawyers, Amsterdam and Partners to represent Job Sikhala and Godfrey Sithole. The American lawyers could not travel to Zimbabwe to offer their legal services because of some constitutional restrictions. However, the lawyers are offering virtual assistance to Beatrice Mtetwa, the local lawyer representing Sikhala and Sithole.