Martín’s “agenda” would lead him, later, to court the heavy hitters of Havana’s underworld, like Sans Souci’s elusive Trafficante, a man so aware of his mobster status that he would refer to himself only as el Solitario, “the Solitary One,” when he called Martín on the telephone. Trafficante would have certainly seen Martín as a competitor had they not been personal friends. To a lesser extent, Martín also cautiously courted the self-styled “Chairman of the Board,” Meyer Lansky. “Martín hardly knew Lansky,” Ofelia insisted repeatedly. Yet on several occasions she told me that she and Martín
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