Via Agence France-Presse:

Cuba will stage its biggest military maneuvers of the past three years in November, a show of force that will coincide with presidential elections in the United States, state media said.

The exercises will be the first under the command of Army Corps General Leopoldo Cintra Frias, appointed as Cuba’s defense minister following the Sept. 3 death of Gen. Julio Casas Regueiro, the official daily newspaper Granma reported.

The maneuvers, dubbed Operation Bastion, have been held various times over the years by the Marxist regime, often in response to events in the United States.

On February 1st, the Cuban Armed Forces begins its Year of Defense Preparation.

(Image: Cuban Army reservists train during a military exercise at an undisclosed location in Havana, 20091127. AP.)

The National Drug Intelligence Center of the U.S. Department of Justice released last year its annual report on drug trafficking operations within the continental United States.

NDIC assessed the following on Cuban drug trafficking organizations for 2011:

U.S.-based Cuban trafficking organizations and criminal groups are expanding their drug trafficking activities, especially in-door marijuana grow operations within and beyond the Florida/Caribbean Region. The expansion is largely the result of increased law enforcement pressure in South Florida.

  • Cuban traffickers primarily produce and distribute high-potency marijuana in Florida. Their trafficking activities in Florida heavily contributed to the state’s ranking as first in the nation for the number of indoor cannabis grow sites seized (863) and second for the number of cannabis plants eradicated at indoor grow sites in 2009 (55,378). According to law enforcement officers, the majority of the suspects arrested at indoor grow houses in southern Florida have been Cuban nationals who arrived in the United States within the past 5 years.
  • Some Cuban organizations have shifted grow operations from South Florida to areas in other southeastern states, including Alabama, Georgia, and North Carolina. Law enforcement officers believe growers made the change to avoid increased law enforce- meant pressure.

Dissident dies, tanks roll

January 20, 2012
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Orlando Luis Pardo tweeted there was movement of tanks via rail from Via Blanca (Paso Superior) on the outskirts of Havana. Is this movement in response to yesterday’s death of dissident Wilman Villar Mendoza after his hunger strike? The same occurred when dissident Orlando Zapata Tamayo death was announced in 2010.

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US int’l broadcasting to Cuba

January 17, 2012
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Kim Andrew Elliott, an audience research analyst in the U.S. International Broadcasting Bureau and former producer/host of VOA’s Communications World (1995-2002), recently offered his thoughts about US international broadcasting to Cuba: Cuba needs some source of independent, outside news. It is impossible to get an adequate estimate of audience size in Cuba, but two percent [...]

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Slow and cautious transitional measures

January 15, 2012
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Stratfor‘s 2012 forecast for Cuba: Cuba’s slow and cautious transitional measures can be expected to continue in 2012. Key reforms such as making credit and private property available to individuals are under way, and similar reforms, including attempts to loosen travel restrictions, can be expected in the next year. Cuba’s ultimate international challenge is to balance the [...]

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Defense cooperation between South Africa and Cuba

January 14, 2012
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South Africa and Cuba signed a memorandum Jan. 10 to put a stamp on the cooperation between the two country’s armies. Defence Minister Lindiwe Sisulu signed the memorandum of understanding with [Division General] Ulises Rosales del Toro, the vice-president of Cuba’s council of ministers. The two countries have already worked together in the past, but [...]

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