Paramilitary

Resurgence of the coup d’état

October 13, 2011

Joshua Kurlantzick, a Fellow for South-East Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations, has an piece in The National on the rise of the coup d’état: Across the developing world, from Thailand to Pakistan, militaries have become more politically powerful in recent years. Indeed, in many Middle Eastern nations, armies will be determining the future [...]

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Havana & Caracas: Symbiotic Relationship

September 14, 2011

Via the Financial Times: Carlos Romero, an expert on Cuba-Venezuela relations at the Centraniversity of Venezuela, calculates that accumulated aid from Caracas to Havana between 1999 and 2009 amounts to $19.4bn, about 70 per cent of Venezuela’s total foreign aid during that period. That includes $14.2bn in payment for professional services such as doctors and [...]

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Goons vs. ladies

August 28, 2011

Mary Anastasia O’Grady in tomorrow’s Wall Street Journal on the Cuban government’s attacks on peaceful women dissidents (Ladies in White): This is not without risk to the regime, should the international community decide to pay attention and apply pressure on the white-elite regime the way it did in opposition to apartheid in South Africa. But [...]

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Police force ranks grow

August 11, 2011

Cuba’s National Revolutionary Police (Policía Nacional Revolucionaria—PNR) force is increasing its ranks. Since 2009, the national police force has seen an increase of 3,000 officers, having graduated from Havana-based Mártires de Tarara Police Officers Training Academy,  notes Cuban state media. This academy is undergoing renovations to house the influx of 2,000 new students. Recruits are taught three main courses: (1) Police Officers Basic Training Course [...]

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Small arms transfers to Cuba

July 26, 2011

The Norwegian Initiative on Small Arms Transfers has “the only on-line global database of small arms transfers”. Small arms, according to the Initiative, consist of weapons such as rifles, pistols and shotguns; and light weapons include mortars, machine guns and man-portable missile launchers. While perusing their database I found the following entries representing small arms [...]

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Considerable resistance

March 21, 2011

According to an early March, 2011 note on the Cuban military in CIA’s The World Factbook, “Cuba remains able to offer considerable resistance to any regional power.” The note further adds:

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