A U.S. Agency for International Development program reportedly sent Latin Americans to Cuba in secret in an effort to spark rebellion.

According to The Associated Press, the project began in Oct. 2009 at the earliest as the Obama administration touted a "new beginning" with Cuba. It sent people with Costa Rican, Peruvian and Venezuelan roots to Cuba under the guise of using health and civic programs to inspire political progress. The young people went to Cuba undercover, many times as tourists, and searched the communist island for people who could become political activists.

Almost 12 Latin Americans participated in the program and received hourly wages as low as $5.41. They had a secret language. A worker said, "I have a headache," if he thought he was being watched by Cuban authorities. "Your sister is ill" meant to end the trip. The workers also had pseudo-content installed on their laptops, encrypted memory sticks and used an encrypted email system.

"We worked it so that the government here didn't know we were traveling to Cuba and helping these groups because that was when [President Hugo] Chávez was in power, and if he had known about us -- that some Venezuelans were working to stir rebellion -- we would have been thrown in jail," said Yajaira Andrade, a former administrator with a Venezuelan organization.

An example of the program's work includes an HIV-prevention workshop created by the undercover workers. Memos acquired by AP described it as "the perfect excuse" to get the USAID's political agenda off the ground. On Sunday, USAID released a statement claiming the HIV-prevention workshop "enabled support for Cuban civil society while providing a secondary benefit of addressing the desire Cubans expressed for information and training about HIV prevention."

Eventually, however, Cuban authorities began wondering who was paying for the workers' trips. Memos said the workers almost failed in their job to "identify political social-change actors." One worker said he had to sit through a 30-minute-long seminar on avoiding Cuban intelligence. Still, there seemed to be no back-up plan if he or the other workers were caught, he said.

"Although there is never total certainty, trust that the authorities will not try to harm you physically, only frighten you," a memo said. "Remember that the Cuban government prefers to avoid negative media reports abroad, so a beaten foreigner is not convenient for them."

In 2009, Alan Gross, a 64-year-old subcontractor for USAID, was arrested for illegally trying to set up Internet in communist Cuba and is still in prison today, AP reported. Still, USAID and Creative Associates International, the department's contractor, did not end the program despite U.S. officials' warnings. In fact, another worker was hired just days later.

"We value your safety," a senior USAID official said in an email.

Creative Associates International has not commented on the report.

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Follow Scharon Harding on Twitter: @ScharHar.

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