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So we know who Perla is. She’s Perla Huerta, a former combat medic and Army counterintelligence agent who was discharged from the Army only last month after two decades in the Army. The news comes from an article in The New York Times. But the information appears to come out of the investigation being conducted by the Bexar County (San Antonio) Sheriff’s department which announced a criminal probe just days after the story broke. The Times as well as lawyers working with the Venezuelan migrants in Massachusetts showed pictures of Huerta to several migrants who had either worked with Huerta or been hustled by her and shipped to Martha’s Vineyard. All apparently confirmed that Huerta was the “Perla” at the center of the operation.
According to the Times, Huerta lives in Tampa. But she did not respond to multiple efforts to contact her. That identification is the key bit of information in the Times article. If you’ve been following the story closely, you’ll know most of the other information.
One additional detail which confirms earlier suspicions: The operation appears to have been driven by the fact that DeSantis asked for $12 million to ship migrants who were purportedly being transported to Florida. But not enough were showing up to sustain DeSantis’s effort. So they decided to go to Texas where there were more migrants available to trick.
A basic question: How did a woman who was apparently only weeks out of a 20 year career as an active duty member of the U.S. Army get involved in this? Her apparent background as Army counterintelligence with multiple deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan might be just a random coincidence. But maybe not? It’s the kind of background you might want running an operation like this. Notably, she also appeared to be looking specifically for Venezuelan immigrants to hoodwink as part of the mission she had in Texas.
Weirder and weirder.
