Organized crime

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Careful thought about giving into concessions

23 August 2010 at 1442 in Crime, CuIS, Cuban Intelligence Service, Fidel Castro, Government, Intelligence, International Relations, Mexico, Nomenklatura, Organized crime, Population, Raul Castro, Security, US, Venezuela, Violence, counterintelligence, espionage, terrorism by Armando F. Mastrapa 3d

Jerry Brewer of Criminal Justice International Associates pens an op-ed (via Mexidata.info) on whether U.S. concessions are justified in light of the Castro regime’s destabilizing campaign in Latin America and continuous iron grip at home:

As Cuba and Latin America’s leftist regimes continue their efforts to prevent the U.S. from assisting its democratic neighbors with drug interdiction, and in the fight against transnational criminal insurgencies — violence and deaths continue to soar.  In Venezuela alone, reports indicate a murder rate of 220 per 100,000 people.  This is a higher rate than Mexico’s Ciudad Juarez.

Indeed, Caracas may currently be the most violent city in the world.

The U.S. must remember that Cold War espionage against us, by Cuba, is still alive and well.  Too, the Guantanamo base remains a strategic observation hub for Caribbean activities that potentially threaten free people within this hemisphere.  And it is clear Fidel Castro wants us out.

President Obama holds the cards.  To free the Cuban people is a decision of the Castro regime.

(Image: Front page of August 13 edition of El Nacional showing homicide victims in a Caracas morgue as a result of spiraling violence.)

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Criminal activity funding operations

25 June 2010 at 0841 in Crime, CuIS, Cuban Intelligence Service, Intelligence, International Relations, Organized crime, Violence, guerrilla movements, terrorism by Armando F. Mastrapa 3d

Stratfor analytical article on insurgent/terrorist groups using criminal activity to fund its operations.  A reference is made within the piece to the Cuban Intelligence Service (CuIS):

For the militant group, the addition of a state sponsor can provide an array of modern weaponry and a great deal of useful training. For example, the FIM-92 Stinger missiles that the United States gave to Afghan militants fighting Soviet forces greatly enhanced the militants’ ability to counter the Soviets’ use of air power. The training provided by the Soviet KGB and its allies, the Cuban DGI and the East German Stasi, revolutionized the use of improvised explosive devices in terrorist attacks. Members of the groups these intelligence services trained at camps in Libya, Lebanon and Yemen, such as the German Red Brigades, the Provincial Irish Republican Army (PIRA), the Japanese Red Army and various Palestinian militant groups (among others), all became quite adept at using explosives in terrorist attacks.

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Cuba’s rank in the Global Peace Index

9 June 2010 at 1519 in Armed Forces, Crime, Demographics, Economy, Nomenklatura, Opposition, Organized crime, Security, Violence by Armando F. Mastrapa 3d

The Institute for Economics and Peace has released the results for its Global Peace Index—2010. The GPI gauges ongoing domestic and international conflict, safety and security in society and militarisation in 149 countries.

Cuba ranked 72 worldwide, scoring 1.964. Regionally, Cuba ranked 7 and continues to receive the lowest score for violent crime in Latin America.

Peace Indicators for Cuba

Twenty-three indicators make up the GPI. Countries are scored on these indicators on a range from 1 to 5 where 1 equals most peaceful.

Three highest indicators are:

  • Number of internal security officers and police 100,000 people (4);
  • Number of jailed population per 100,000 people (3.5);
  • Political instability (2.5);
  • Aggregate weighted number of heavy weapons per 100,000 people (2.5)

(Images: Institute for Economics and Peace, Global Peace Index—2010)

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Cuban intelligence nexus with Mexican narcos

5 June 2010 at 0011 in Commentary, Cuban Intelligence Service, Fidel Castro, Intelligence, International Relations, Mexico, Organized crime, Raul Castro, espionage by Armando F. Mastrapa 3d

The detention of Gregorio “Greg” Sánchez Martínez (a leftist candidate for the Quintana Roo state governorship in Mexico) for money laundering and trafficking in illegal immigrants has exposed the nexus between Cuban intelligence and Mexican narcotraffickers, reports SIPSE.

El Financiero cites José Antonio Pérez Stuart, a columnist and expert on intelligence matters, who believes that the objective of the political association between Cuban intelligence and narcotraffickers is the penetration of Castro agents in Mexican territory in order to infiltrate Mexican politics, control government positions and utilize them to their benefit.

Behind the international campaign against the 2010 Arizona Immigration Law—SB1070 are bands of narco-communists, according to Pérez Stuart, in charge of infiltrating the United States from Mexico with Cuban, Chinese and Russian illegal immigrants.

Havana’s intelligence services are under suspicion for utilizing trafficking channels of illegal Cuban immigrants to infiltrate intelligence agents into the United States because their spy networks have been discovered/dismantled in recent years.

Sánchez Martínez’s wife, Niurka Alba Sáliva Benítez, is none other than the daughter of Cuban Ministry of Interior Colonel José Ángel Sáliva Pino (who works for Castro’s intelligence services and has always been close to Fidel and Raúl.)

She was involved in infiltrating Cubans, Russians and Chinese illegals.

Boris “El Boris” del Valle Alonso, linked to the Mexican criminal organization Los Zetas, worked with Niurka and kept tabs on the income generated from undocumented Cubans, Russians and Chinese.

Del Valle was Sánchez Martínez’s advisor because of his experience as a Cuban soldier in the Angolan civil war.  He is also the son of an ex-Minister of the Interior by the name Sergio del Valle, who is the brother-in-law of Sánchez Martínez because he is Niurka Sáliva’s half-brother. El Boris is also related to Fidel Castro’s wife, Dalia Soto del Valle.

A thorough reporting of this Cuban espionage and Mexican narco/illegal immigrants trafficking web of criminal intrigue can be found here and here.

(First image: Gregorio Sánchez Martínez with his wife Niurka Alba Sáliva Benítez in 2007. Novedades De Quintana Roo; Second image: Boris del Valle Alonso. Por Esto! de Quinana Roo.)

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Post-Castroism and sovereignty under seige

24 August 2008 at 0830 in Fidel Castro, Government, Havana, Nomenklatura, Organized crime, Police, Security, Violence by Armando F. Mastrapa 3d

Mara Salvatrucha gang members arrested by Honduran special police in Tegucigalpa. Photo: Reuters

Mara Salvatrucha gang members arrested by Honduran special police. (Photo: Reuters)

Several challenges will be posed to a transitional government once Castroism fades from existence (elements will certainly remain) and a semblance of democracy emerges. Organized crime will be one of them, particularly in the streets of Havana and other cities throughout the island, perpetrated by gangs.

The lessons learned (from strategy and tactics to combat) of the current gang and organized crime phenomena evolving in Central America and Mexico proves invaluable to a future transitional government in how to confront these internal security issues.

Dr. Max Manwaring (Professor of Military Strategy at the U.S. Army War College) has written an article titled: “Sovereignty Under Seige: Gangs and Other Criminal Organizations in Central America and Mexico” published in the Spanish edition of Air and Space Power Journal addressing the current security challenges posed by gangs and organized crime in the Americas.

He also wrote at the end of 2007: “A Contemporary Challenge to State Sovereignty: Gangs and Other Illicit Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs) in Central America, El Salvador, Mexico, Jamaica, and Brazil“ published by the Strategic Studies Institute at the US Army War College that is worth a read.

Manwaring points out in his excellent article, Sovereignty Under Seige:

Another kind of war within the context of a

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Cuba is a significant transshipment point

13 July 2008 at 1736 in Colombia, Fidel Castro, Government, Nomenklatura, Organized crime by Armando F. Mastrapa 3d

Last week, STRATFOR published an analysis on the reaction by Fidel Castro to the release of the hostages in Colombia and his criticism of the FARC.

STRATFOR opined: “Cuba serves as a significant transshipment point for drugs headed north from South America”. See Organized Crime in Cuba.

Summary

Former Cuban President Fidel Castro released a statement July 5 in which he praised the freedom of recently released captives of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and called for the release of all remaining hostages. Castro

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Of mobs and revolution

5 July 2008 at 2212 in American mafia, Government, Havana, Nomenklatura, Organized crime by Armando F. Mastrapa 3d

T.J. English is a crime writer who has written about Irish and Vietnamese organized crime now explores organized crime in Cuba with his new book Havana Nocturne, an investigative account of U.S. mobster infiltration of Havana in the years before the Revolution swept Fidel Castro into power.

The author was interviewed on National Public Radio and an excerpt of the first chapter appears on the web site. Other reviews of the book are available here and here.

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