Hugo Chávez met yesterday with Fidel Castro and his brother Raúl Castro for about five hours during a visit that was not previously announced. [El Universal]
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Tags: Fidel Castro, Havana, Hugo Chavez, Raul Castro
Havana Times on luxurious apartments in Havana built for high-ranking officers of the Cuban Army (Ejército Revolucionario) and the MININT (Ministry of the Interior—State Security) in stark contrast with housing units constructed a few miles away in the capital’s community of San Agustin.
Tags: Cuban army, Havana, Havana Times, MININT, Ministry of the Interior, Populace, San Agustin
Der Spiegel on the hopes of Basque president Francisco Javier “Patxi” López Álvarez bringing peace with his zero tolerance against ETA terrorists, whose sanctuary for members has been provided by Havana.
Tags: Der Spiegel, ETA, ETA terrorists, Francisco Javier "Patxi" López Álvarez, Havana
Fidel Castro appeared in an olive drab military shirt while visiting a mausoleum in Artemisa, in the province of Havana.
Is he sending a message to his brother Raúl?
(Image: Cubadebate.cu)
Tags: Artemisa, Fidel Castro, Havana, olive drab, Raul Castro
Der Spiegel on the political and economic realities facing the Castro regime in its fight for survival:
But the release of the dissidents could also be a message to the Europeans, who have not been entirely sure what to make of the new president since he officially assumed office in February 2008. Raul is believed to be less of a fundamentalist and more of a pragmatist than his brother Fidel. “He is not someone who is out to change the system, but he does show an understanding for the problems,” says one of the Europeans in Havana.
At first, Raul Castro sparked hopes that reforms could be on the way. But so far his fellow Cubans have seen little change, except that they can now own mobile phones and computers with limited Internet access.
Europe, however, wants to see clear signs of liberalization, as a precondition of more intensive cooperation with Havana, especially “progress in the area of human rights and political freedom.” European governments reached this conclusion long ago, in December 1996, and the same conditions are still in place today. However, Castro has forced the Europeans’ hand by releasing the dissidents.
Faced with a catastrophic situation in Cuban agriculture, Raul Castro is urgently in need of aid from Europe. The sugarcane harvest this summer, once an important source of foreign currency, is the worst since 1905. It is even about half a million tons shy of the harvest in 2009, when hurricanes wreaked havoc on the country.
Cuba is now forced to import more than 80 percent of its food, while foreign investment and exports have declined dramatically. At the same time, the sugar island is practically bankrupt and has had to reduce imports of food products and spare parts by at least a third.
Tens of thousands of well-trained young Cubans are leaving the country every year to earn money for their families elsewhere. The numbers would probably be even higher if the government let them go. For this reason, EU diplomats expect more signals from Raul on July 26, a Cuban national holiday: more privatization in agriculture, more freedom to buy homes and a relaxation of restrictions on travel abroad.
Tags: Cuban agriculture, cubans, Europe, Europeans, Fidel Castro, Havana, human rights, political freedom, Raul Castro
A day after giving a rare television interview, Cuba’s revolutionary leader Fidel Castro made a public appearance at an economic think tank in Havana, state-run television said, showing his photos. [AFP]
(Image: AFP)
Tags: Cuba, Fidel Castro, Havana
Newsweek magazine on the new tactics for an aged regime:
But Havana has already turned the concession to quick advantage. By taking the most obvious human-rights issue off the table, Raúl Castro has driven a new wedge between U.S. and European policies. Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Ángel Moratinos, who helped broker the deal, crowed that European negotiation, not American confrontation, had triumphed. Besides, the prisoner release is more symbol than substance. Cuba continues to detain critics, often for short periods, with no formal charges. Harassment and censorship have proved adequate to control the populace. Despite growing discontent over corruption, public protest is almost unknown. The Castro regime may be broke, but it’s firmly in control.
Tags: American, castro regime, Cuba, European, Havana, human rights, Miguel Ángel Moratinos, Newsweek, Raul Castro, Spanish Foreign Minister
A frail-looking Fidel Castro visited the National Center of Scientific Investigation in Havana on 7 July 2010. This is his first public visit since 2006. [Juventud Rebelde]
Cubadebate has posted more photos of his visit.
(Image: Cubadebate.cu)
Tags: Fidel Castro, Havana
From today’s The Economist:
CUBA’S leadership understands only too well how starving to death can help a cause. In 2000 Fidel Castro, who had apparently been moved by the plight of Irish republican hunger-strikers, approved the construction in Havana of a memorial to Bobby Sands and his fellow prisoners. Gerry Adams, Sinn Fein’s leader, attended its unveiling.
Now, the same form of protest has been turned on Cuba’s rulers. In February Orlando Zapata, a 42-year-old plumber and bricklayer, died after 12 weeks without food. He was demanding better conditions in Cuba’s grim prisons. A second hunger-striker, Guillermo Fariñas, is critically ill. Although not in jail, he is calling for the release of 25 ailing prisoners. In an online letter he said dying would be an “honour”.
The tactic has worked. On July 7th, Cuba’s Catholic church announced that the government had told it that 52 prisoners arrested in 2003 would be freed from jail. Five were set to leave immediately, and the rest are expected to be liberated (but then exiled) in the next few months. If implemented, it will be Cuba’s first mass-release of political prisoners since 1998.
The hunger strikes were probably what prodded Raúl Castro, who became Cuba’s president in 2006, to act. They were attracting unwelcome attention. In May Jaime Ortega, the cardinal of Havana, negotiated the lifting of a ban on marches by the Ladies in White, a group of wives and mothers of political prisoners, and an end to their harassment by government-organised mobs. He later convinced Raúl Castro to free a paraplegic prisoner, Ariel Sigler.
International pressure also grew stronger. The church called in reinforcements from abroad: last month the Vatican’s senior diplomat, Dominique Mamberti, went to Cuba and met the president. That trip was followed on July 6th by a visit from Miguel Ángel Moratinos, Spain’s foreign minister. The timing of the prisoners’ release—as well as the decision to send the first five to Spain—seems to have been aimed at giving Mr Moratinos something to show for his effort.
Official Cuban media damns political prisoners as “mercenaries” in the pocket of the United States. This release will reduce their number by about a third, leaving 100 or so in jail—half the average of recent years. The outbreak of clemency suggests that Raúl Castro may have decided that exiling dissidents is easier than locking them up: as one Western diplomat in Havana says, the president “seems to view [the prisoners] as an unfortunate inheritance from his brother.” Their release will improve relations with the European Union, which will meet in September to discuss Cuba, and encourage those in America who want to loosen trade and travel restrictions on the country.
But Fidel Castro, who is still the power behind the throne in Cuba, may block any attempt to free the remaining prisoners, even if they are sent overseas. In 1955, as a young revolutionary, he was freed from jail by Fulgencio Batista, a dictator, following international pressure. He knows better than anyone what happened next.
Tags: Ariel Sigler, Cardinal Jaime Ortega, Cuban Government, Cuban political prisoners, Cuba’s Catholic church, Dominique Mamberti, European Union, Guillermo Fariñas, Havana, Jaime Cardinal Ortega, Ladies in White, Miguel Ángel Moratinos, Orlando Zapata, Raul Castro
China could help Cuba cover its banking system’s liquidity deficit with a multibillion dollar loan. Havana has already asked for a $3B loan. The cause of the liquidity crisis is attributed to lack payments by Cuban banks worth between $600M and $1B in 2009 according to United Nations’ CEPAL data (pdf). [ANSA]
Tags: CEPAL, China, Cuba, Cuban banks, Havana, liquidity crisis, liquidity deficit, united nations
- Leaders of Abkhazia and South Ossetia will visit Havana, Managua and Caracas in July to acknowledge regional support for separatist movements. [EFE]
- Cuba restates its support of Argentina’s claim over the Falkland Islands (Malvinas) before the UN. [Prensa Latina]
- The Cuban ambassador in the United Kingdom visited Northern Ireland and met with Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams. [Radio Rebelde]
- Russian oil company, JSC Zarubezhneft, opens an office in Havana. [Radio Havana Cuba]
- Syrian president Bashar al Assad is touring Latin America, which includes a visit to Cuba to discuss bilateral economic relations. [Reuters]
- Cuban vice-president Esteban Lazo attends 10th ALBA summit in Ecuador. [Cuban News Agency]
(Image: Diplomacy board game from Avalon Hill.)
Tags: Abkhazia, Argentina, Bashar al Assad, Caracas, Cuba, Falkland Islands, Gerry Adams, Havana, JSC Zarubezhneft, Latin America, Malvinas, Managua, Nicaragua, Northern Ireland, Sinn Fein, South Ossetia, Syria, UN, Venezuela
Alberto Pérez Giménez comments in today’s ABC (one of Spain’s national newspapers) about Jorge Masetti’s history with Latin American terrorist groups trained in Havana.
And also, how Vilma Espín (Raúl Castro’s deceased wife) served as hostess at dinner parties with “Basque fighters” in attendance.
ETA, per Pérez Giménez, remains under the protection of the Cuban regime.
(Image: 2009 marked the 50th anniversary of ETA. Radio Netherlands Worldwide.)
Tags: Alberto Pérez Giménez, Americas Department, Cuban Government, Cuban regime, ELN, EPR, ETA, FARC, Havana, Jorge Masetti, Latin American terrorist groups, Macheteros, Tupamaros, Vilma Espín
Cinematographer Andre de la Varre’s short film of Havana during the 1930s.
Tags: 1930s, Andre de la Varre, Havana
In early May, the Brookings Institution published a study on U.S.-Cuba environmental cooperation when dealing with the potential risks of oil exploration in shared ocean waters:
As Cuba continues to develop its deepwater oil and natural gas reserves, the consequence to the United States of a similar mishap occurring in Cuban waters moves from the theoretical to the actual. The sobering fact that a Cuban spill could foul hundreds of miles of American coastline and do profound harm to important marine habitats demands cooperative and proactive planning by Washington and Havana to minimize or avoid such a calamity. Also important is the planning necessary to prevent and, if necessary, respond to incidents arising from this country’s oil industry that, through the action of currents and wind, threaten Cuban waters and shorelines.
(Image: Repsol offshore oil exploration rig. Spanish oil giant Repsol YPF has contracted with a unit of Italian oil company Eni SpA for a drilling rig that some sources said was bound for operation in Cuba’s still untapped offshore fields. 5 May 2010.)
Tags: Brookings Institution, Cuba, Gulf of Mexico, Havana, Oil exploration, U.S.-Cuba environmental cooperation, Washington
Via Reuters:
Cuba has plans to split the province of Havana into two provinces in a move to make local government more efficient, state-run media said.
The division would cut travel distances for provincial employees, make services more accessible and add local political clout by giving each province its own capital.
The idea, hatched by the Cuban government and awaiting approval by the national parliament, appears to be part of Army General Raul Castro’s drive to improve the country’s productivity.
The two provinces, which have been proposed by the national government and await approval by the Cuban parliament, would be called Mayabeque and Artemisa.
[...]
The split would increase the number of provinces in Cuba by one, to 15.
Tags: Artemisa, Cuban Government, Havana, Mayabeque, Raul Castro government
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Stratfor issued a special report on Venezuela’s armed forces in early May, whereby the private global intelligence company opines:
Controlling Venezuela requires controlling oil and the armed forces, and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has managed to do both for more than a decade. Challenges to this control have emerged, however, such as enormous debt at the state-owned oil company and dissatisfaction in the armed forces at the role of Cubans in the South American country’s military. Still, Chavez’s hold appears secure so long as the oil revenues keep flowing.
And on the Cubanization of the Venezuelan armed forces:
The salary increase for the military also comes amid rising public criticism of the politicization and so-called Cubanization of the Venezuelan military. Former Venezuelan Brig. Gen. Antonio Rivero claimed the “the presence and meddling of Cuban soldiers” in the armed forces prompted his April retirement. Rivero said Cubans were operating at some of the highest levels in the Venezuelan military, delivering intelligence, communications, weapons and other training for the troops. He also denounced the extent to which Chavez has undermined military professionalism, and complained of the government’s move to expand its civilian militia. In the same address in which he announced the salary increase for the military, Chavez addressed Rivero’s complaints, saying he was saddened by the general’s attempt to draw attention to himself. Chavez also defended his decision to embrace the Cuban military presence by criticizing previous Venezuelan administrations for allowing the U.S. military to staff the offices of the country’s Army Command Headquarters and manage Venezuelan state secrets.1
While the opposition is eager to exploit the public relations sensation of a general condemning Chavez’s military policy, retiring generals and the Cuban links into the Venezuelan military are not exactly startling developments in Venezuela. The deep integration of Cuban forces in the Venezuelan military has been an open secret in recent years. By having enlisted soldiers and trainers percolate throughout the armed services at virtually all levels, the Chavez government has been able to tap Cuba’s security and intelligence expertise to keep tabs on dissidents and quash any potential threats to the government. For its part, Cuba benefits from being able to influence the policies of a regional, oil-producing heavyweight in South America. As Chavez’s political and economic vulnerabilities have increased, so have the opportunities for Cuba to entrench itself in Venezuela. 2
This symbiotic relationship saw its clearest manifestation with the July 2008 passage of the Organic Law of the National Armed Forces. The law redefined the Venezuelan Armed Forces from a politically nonaligned professional institution (as stated in the 1999 constitution) to a patriotic, popular and anti-imperialist body, as described in the legislation. Chavez, not wanting to be caught off guard again by his generals as he was during an April 2002 coup attempt, created the law to develop a military primarily tasked with protecting and defending the regime from internal threats. The Cuban government, wanting to ensure Venezuelan dependency on Cuban security, is believed to have had a role in one of the more controversial articles in the law. This provision allows for foreign nationals (i.e., Cubans) who have graduated from Venezuelan defense institutions to earn the rank of officer in the Venezuelan armed forces.3
Another clause in the law forces officers into retirement if they are not promoted after two years. Though such provisions are common in many militaries, Caracas has used it with unusual frequency as a tool to remove potential dissenters. Under this system, political allegiance can easily supersede military merit when it comes to awarding promotions or forcing resignations. Cuban advisers, who have been tasked with identifying localized threats from within the armed forces, are believed to have significant influence on these decisions.4
Chavez recently remarked in Havana that he felt like he was “one more Cuban.” But many Venezuelans do not like the Cubans’ methods or their growing presence in the country, and Cuban integration in the Venezuelan armed forces appears to have alienated several high-ranking members of the military. Chavez, however, has knowingly incurred this risk, and undermining powerful military leaders was likely one of his key goals. Problematic generals can be forced into retirement while the Cubans closely scrutinize the remaining military elite, who are given perks to keep them loyal to the government.5
While this comes at the cost of considerable expertise and professionalism, Chavez’s goal is to ensure that the upper ranks of the military lack the operational control to challenge the president. Mid-tier members of the military probably worry the Venezuelan president more, however. After all, Chavez was a lieutenant colonel with the charisma to rally a sizable portion of the military and lower classes around him in his 1992 coup attempt and victorious 1998 presidential campaign. As long as he is the one occupying the presidency, Chavez does not wish to see any lieutenant colonels following in his footsteps. Since Chavez lacks the same reach and oversight with the lower ranks of the military than he has with the generals, pay raises are a way to help mitigate potential threats emanating from below.6
Notes
1. Stratfor. “Special Report: Venezuela’s Control of the Armed Forces.” 3 May 2010.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid.
(Image: Venezuelan soldiers participate in parade with Russian arms. AFP/Getty Images.)
Tags: Cuban advisers, Havana, Hugo Chavez, Stratfor, Venezuela's Control of the Armed Forces, Venezuelan armed forces
National Public Radio on disco fever gripping Cubans in Havana.
The report distinguishes between discotecas (which are discothèques), while discotembas are bars and public gatherings playing 1970s disco hits and attracting a graying crowd of dancers. Temba is Cuban slang for a middle-aged person who’s a bit past his or her prime.
Cuba’s communist authorities have shown more tolerance for American pop music once frowned upon.
Tags: cubans, disco fever, disco music, discotecas, discotembas, discothèques, Havana, temba
Frank Norton, a Florida real estate executive, writes in the Gainsville Times about what he and his wife experienced in their recent trip to Cuba:
Today, the Cuban people have lost all personal freedom, lost all personal property and now occupy government-owned, rotting, worn-out buildings that are crumbling around them. There is no pride of ownership, little pride of country; the communist government has taken much of this away from the once thriving Garden of Eden. Alas, poor Babylon.
[...]
Today’s Cuba is run by a small band of grumpy old men, distant and out of touch with the modern world and modern civilizations. These men, victorious in their waltz (not fight) into Havana on New Year’s Eve 1959, continue to celebrate their victory 51 years later while the spoils (Cuba) crumble around them.
Victorious yes; winners no! The past is past. Today’s reality is underemployment for 11 million people, living in huts, widespread poverty, rolling shortages and economic collapse. This Garden of Eden is overgrown with tangled twisted jungle and the biggest jungles are in the tangled minds of grumpy old men.
Independence will be difficult.
Is Cuba lost? Time has perhaps passed by Cuban independence; the generation that fled Cuba to America is 50 years older, the passionate revolutionaries, future liberators of a communist Cuba, are now dead.
Will their children have the same passion and drive to liberate, the desire to reclaim their country? Or will they, as American citizens, see their heritage as just a sidebar to their lives in their adopted country?
Who will lead Cuba back to the promised land? Who will be passionate enough to liberate Cuba? And bring it back into the 20th century, much less the 21st?
In the museum La Revolution, we saw a quote by a 1959 Castro that is a haunting message even for today: “For the first time in the history of this country, the people and the government have left aside the rich side and have joined the poor side.”
Alas, poor Babylon.
Tags: Frank Norton, Gainsville Times, Havana
Apparently there’s a Cuban zombie film in the works, titled “Juan de los Muertos” (Juan of the Dead), reports Variety.
The film is being jointly produced by Cuba and Spain and the story’s premise is that of a 40-year-old slacker (model for Cuba’s revolutionary man?) named Juan who notices that people are beginning to turn violent. As a zombie epidemic spreads through Havana, he decides to make a quick buck, offering to slay people’s infected relatives. But as the zombie plague reaches national proportions Juan has to concentrate on his survival.
Filming begins in late September.
(Photo: George Romero’s film Dawn of the Dead, 1978.)
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Tags: Havana, Juan de los Muertos, Juan of the Dead, zombies
Andres Oppenheimer’s piece on Cubans running Venezuela:
Cuba is increasingly worried about Chávez’s political future in light of Venezuela’s growing food shortages, electricity blackouts, massive corruption and Latin America’s highest inflation rates. Fearing that it could lose the 100,000 barrels of subsidized oil a day that Venezuela sends to the island, Cuba is on a rescue mission to help manage Venezuela’s inefficient and corruption-ridden government offices.
[...]
Venezuela’s growing alliance with Cuba — “Venecuba,” or “Cubazuela,” depending on which country you believe has the upper hand — is a marriage of convenience that may backfire for Chávez.
[...]
Chávez, who has made a religion of “national sovereignty,” may be playing with fire by allowing Cuba to run his country.
While The Economist addresses the wrecking of Venezuela:
But to many others, including this newspaper, he has come to embody a new, post-cold-war model of authoritarian rule which combines a democratic mandate, populist socialism and anti-Americanism, as well as resource nationalism and carefully calibrated repression.
[...]
In Mr Chávez’s case, that claim has been backed up above all by oil. On the one hand, he has deployed oil revenues abroad to gain allies, and to sustain the Castro brothers in power in Cuba.
[...]
He has been elected three times, and won four referendums. He has hollowed out Venezuela’s democracy, subjugating the courts, bullying the media and intimidating opponents. But he has been unable, or unwilling, to disregard or repress opposition to the same degree as Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad or even Russia’s Vladimir Putin, let alone the Castro brothers in Cuba.
(Photo: Army General Raúl Castro greets Venezuela President Hugo Chávez upon his arrival in Havana, 20 FEB 2009. AP.)
Tags: Andres Oppenheimer, Caracas, Cuba, Cubazuela, Havana, Hugo Chavez, The Economist, Venecuba, Venezuela
Today’s The Economist addresses the Cuban government’s failed agricultural reform:
TWO years ago last month Raúl Castro formally took over as Cuba’s president from his convalescent elder brother, Fidel. The switch raised hopes of reforms, especially of the communist country’s long dysfunctional agriculture. But change has been glacial. Official figures show that in the first two months of this year deliveries to the capital’s food markets were a third less than forecast. Nobody starves, but hard-currency supermarkets go for weeks without basics such as milk and bread.
What has gone wrong? Cuba’s state-owned farms are massively inefficient, and rarely provide more than 20% of the country’s food needs. Three hurricanes in 2008 made matters worse. Raúl Castro has acknowledged the problem, and introduced some changes. Idle state land has been leased to private farmers. The government has raised the guaranteed prices it pays for produce. Farmers can now legally buy their own basic equipment such as shovels and boots, without having to wait for government handouts.
[...]
But Raúl continues to move very cautiously. So Cuba will buy much of its food from foreign suppliers. Foreign exchange, never abundant—partly because of the American economic embargo—is again in short supply. The world recession cut Cuba’s earnings from nickel and tourism last year. Imports fell last year by almost 40%.
A foreign businessman in Havana says there have been signs of a further squeeze this year. Transfers abroad by foreign businesses have been blocked, or delayed, for months. The Spanish owner of Vima, a food importer which supplied many hotels and state-run restaurants, made the mistake of publicly criticising delays in getting paid. His contracts were promptly revoked. Foreign companies have been warned that the government may stop selling them staples, such as meat and rice, for their staff canteens. “They told us bluntly that their priority is feeding the general population, that the situation is very serious, and that we should make our own arrangements,” says a manager of one joint-venture.
Tags: agriculture, food markets, foreign companies, hard-currency supermarkets, Havana, Nickel, state-owned farms, Tourism, Vima
Crumbling Havana. (Image: Flickr - ChrisGoldNY)
Kenneth Chandler’s (a former editor and publisher of the New York Post) op-ed on the catastrophe in the making for Cuba.
Havana is a city of sorrow — a once elegant and prosperous capital brought to despair by 51 years of deliberate neglect and isolation. A country that has been plundered by a succession of foreign powers, homegrown dictators and mobsters imported from America now languishes in a bizarre time warp where little has changed in more than half a century.
Its people go about their daily routines bereft of consumer goods, nutritious foods, meaningful jobs or adequate housing — most of them born after the revolution that swept Castro to power in 1959 and now, thanks to rigid censorship, largely conditioned to accept their impoverished lot.
To listen to Castro’s cronies — those among the political and business elite whose loyalty is secured with perks unavailable to ordinary Cubans — the economic situation is solely the fault of the US embargo imposed after the revolution.
More thoughtful Cubans discreetly offer a different explanation: They blame Fidel’s feckless experiments with communism — his initial seizure of $25 billion worth of private property from Cubans and the nationalization of all businesses, forcing the middle class to flee to Miami; his bizarre decision to send 300,000 Cubans out of a population of only 11 million to fight wars in Africa in the 1980s; his Cold War alliance with the Russians that left his country bankrupt and saddled with antiquated technology when the Soviet Union collapsed.
Read the full story here.
Tags: Fidel Castro, Havana, Kenneth Chandler, New York Post, Raul Castro, US embargo
Russian President Medvedev with Raul Castro in Havana, JAN 2009 (Image: Reuters)
Richard Lourie, author of “The Autobiography of Joseph Stalin,” wrote an op-ed in The Moscow Times with the following observation about Cuba-Russia relations and the geo-strategic importance of the island in world power politics:
Cuba needs money, spare parts for Soviet military equipment and a sense of alliance with a heavyweight player. During President Dmitry Medvedev’s November 2008 visit, Fidel declared that Russia and Cuba were natural partners because both were “constantly threatened by the same adversary of peace.”
A senior U.S. official has stated that Russia “has strategic ties to Cuba again, or at least that’s where they’re going.” Some say the Russians want to refit the listening post in Lourdes, outside Havana, which they abandoned in 2002, for use in cyber-espionage and cyber-warfare. Or the Russians might want a refueling base for their naval vessels and their bombers, which have resumed aggressive patrolling. (Right after Medvedev’s visit, Nikolai Patrushev, head of the Security Council, as well as Alexander Maslov, head of Russia’s air defense, also visited Havana.) But these are secondary, tactical considerations.
Russia’s No. 1 foreign policy objective is to keep Ukraine out of NATO. At the moment, NATO membership hardly seems imminent. Disappointed in liberalism, Ukraine is becoming more pro-Russian, and Europe is relieved not to deal with that troublesome country for the time being.
Tags: Alexander Maslov, Cuba, dmitry medvedev, Fidel Castro, Havana, Lourdes, Moscow, NATO, Nikolai Patrushev, Russia, Ukraine, US
 Raul Castro |
 Barack Obama |
The government of Raúl Castro has blacklisted U.S. President Barack Obama. It’s no tasteless joke. Havana considers that after a year in the White House the first African-American president of the United States has demonstrated to be an “enemy” of the revolution just as his predecessors and that rapprochement with Washington has ended. Yesterday, the Cuban government demanded of the Obama administration its “immediate exclusion” of the list of state sponsors of terrorism and condemned the initiative as “unjust and arbitrary” of submitting Cuban travelers to stricter security measures. (via El País)
(Images: Terra; Politico)
Tags: blacklist, blacklisted, Cuban travelers, Havana, obama, rapprochement, Raul Castro government, state sponsors of terrorism, White House
Surveillance cameras with the pretext of traffic control will also be used to spy on the populace for suspicious activities. (Image: El Pais)
Fifty surveillance cameras have been placed in the most important streets of Havana, which are operated by the national police. The network of cameras should be increasing and contributing to the security of the populace, reports El País.
Tags: Havana, surveillance cameras
Cuban President Raul Castro walks with Nicaraguan First Lady Rosario Murillo upon arrival in Managua on June 29, 2009. (Image: HO/AFP/Getty Images)
Luis Hernández Ojeda, Cuba’s ambassador to Nicaragua, was ordered back by Havana because of a “serious incident” with Nicaraguan First Lady Rosario Murillo (who is also the official spokesperson for President Daniel Ortega).
According to El Nuevo Diario, Murillo mistreated Hernández with disdain, having used off-color language.
This is the third incident (the other two with Venezuela) within two years, whereby “discrepancies” with Murillo have caused ambassadors to be ordered back.
Tags: Daniel Ortega, Havana, Luis Hernandez Ojeda, Nicaragua, Rosario Murillo, Venezuela
BBC Mundo reports on espionage in Latin America and Cuba’s role in it.
And of course there is Cuba.
“Both China and Russia’s services have a close relationship with the intelligence community there in an advisory role,” says Mr [Robert] Munks of Jane’s Intelligence Review.
Experts say this “advisory role” that Cuba has with Russia and China is spreading to other parts of Latin America.
Tags: China, Cuba, Havana, International Institute for Strategic Studies, Jane's Intelligence Review, Latin America, Russia, Spies, Venezuela
AFCEA Intelligence’s NightWatch assesses the true function of the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry and its ties with Cuba and Nicaragua:
Russian Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu arrived in Havana, Cuba, late 10 November to sign an agreement on cooperation for “information exchange and training” for Cuban emergency specialists, RIA Novosti reported 11 November.
Shoigu, who traveled to Cuba from Nicaragua where he concluded a similar agreement, said, “The Russian government has resolved to allocate a substantial sum to buy equipment and to train Nicaragua specialists to remove mines.”
The Western media seems to misunderstand the significance of the seemingly benign Russian agreements on emergency situations. The Emergency Situations Ministry is one of the most powerful in Russia in that it is the conduit for military and paramilitary assistance to nations with whom Russia has agreements, including Serbia. The definition of emergency is rather loose. These agreements are the updated versions of Friendship and Security Agreements arranged by the Soviet Union.
The significance is that Russia uses this Ministry as a substitute for the Defense or Interior Ministries to arrange relationships that in earlier times would have stood out as defense or military assistance agreements. The effects are the same in practice, but the terminology is less likely to receive careful scrutiny or attention by the West. Putin is the genius behind this quite effective subterfuge.
Tags: Havana, Military, Nicaragua, paramilitary, Russian Emergency Situations Ministry, Sergei Shoigu
Via Gulf News:
The UAE and Cuba signed two agreements to enhance political consultations and boost economic, commercial and technical cooperation between the two countries.
The agreements were signed by Shaikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, UAE Foreign Minister, and Cuba’s Foreign Trade and Investment Minister Rodrigues Dias, in Havana.
The consultations between Shaikh Abdullah and his counterpart focused on investment opportunities in the tourism, trade and renewable energy sectors in both countries.
Tags: Havana, Rodrigues Dias, Shaikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, UAE, United Arab Emirates
The Center for Strategic and International Studies — CSIS released a report “Cuba Outlook: Raúl and Beyond,” based on its Cuba Outlook panel discussion series, which began late last year; concluding the Summer of ’09.
Nearly two decades after the end of the Cold War, Cuba remains a policy dilemma for the United States. The transition from Fidel Castro to his brother Raúl, which began when Raúl assumed the responsibilities of the presidency of the Council of State on July 31, 2006, as a result of Fidel’s illness, is still ongoing after three years. Fidel remains alive—perhaps even to a point revived—but with very limited exercise of authority. Raúl has taken charge of government, but he must still contend with Fidel’s legendary presence.
Expectations of change under Raúl Castro have been largely unmet; continuity remains the key theme of his regime. Meanwhile, the election of Barack Obama in the United States has resulted in a reexamination of U.S. policy toward Cuba, including some meaningful, however limited, first steps to reach out to the regime in Havana. The U.S.-Cuba bilateral relationship is likely to remain a work in progress well into the future. This report, which outlines conclusions reached from the seven panel discussions with experts in the field, is intended as a point of reference for decisionmakers in and out of government who deal with Cuba.
[H/T: ASCE]
Tags: bi-lateral relations, CSIS, Cuban armed forces, FAR, Fidel Castro, Havana, MINFAR, Raul Castro, US
Via Miami Herald:
Cuba indeed puts police dogs to work in an eerily broad range of cases, not only finding fugitives and illegal drugs but warehousing the bottled scents of thousands of suspects so the canines can later identify criminals and political dissidents.
Havana has proudly and publicly claimed that crime investigators regularly solve cases with dogs and human scents gathered from crime scenes and suspects, which it argues are almost as unique as fingerprints.
“In the past 12 years, there have been more than 3,000 cases in which, based on scent, it has been possible to establish the identity” of criminals, Rafael Hernández, a criminology professor at Havana University, wrote in a 2003 paper titled La Odorología Criminalística en Cuba.
He went on to describe details of the police dog program, among them the preservation of scents in pickle-like jars, the warehousing of the scents for up to five years and their use in olfactory versions of line-ups, with six bottles instead of suspects.
But U.S. experts say such broad use of dogs, especially the bottled and warehoused scents, are highly questionable in terms of evidentiary value in court, and thoroughly draconian when applied to political dissidents.
Tags: criminals, cuban police, dissidents, Havana, PNR, police dogs, sniffer dogs
An agent of influence? Image: DePaul College of Law
Alberto Coll, a Cuban-American who was convicted of lying about a trip to Havana was also investigated for espionage.
Coll served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflicts under President George H. Bush, and later as head of the Strategic Studies Department at the Navy War College.
Last year he was accused of being an agent of influence for the Cuban government by Lt. Col. Chris Simmons in the Miami-based TV program A Mano Limpia.
Tags: A Mano Limpia, agent of influence, Alberto Coll, chris simmons, Cuban Government, espionage, Havana, Navy War College
Iranian news agency ISNA reports:
Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said the country’s foreign policy seeks more convergence between Iran and Latin America in all spheres. In a farewell visit with Cuban ambassador to Iran Fernando Garcia Ricardo, Mottaki said the two countries’ massive potentials particularly in medical and health areas can help strengthen bilateral relations. He also called Tehran-Havana relations “strategic”. Also Fernando Garcia Ricardo said expansion of ties with Iran is among Cuba government’s priorities.
Tags: Cuba, Fernando Garcia Ricardo, Havana, Iran, Manouchehr Mottaki, Tehran
Via Emilio Ichikawa:
Among circles friendly to the Cuban regime there has been commentary that Sylvia Wilhelm’s deposition in her defamation case against Lt. Col. Chris Simmons is quite complicated and may even backfire.
There might be moments on the horizon somewhat valuable for some people between Havana and Miami.
Tags: chris simmons, Cuban regime, Havana, Miami, spycatcher, Sylvia Wilhelm
Rodriguez (l); Lage (c); Perez-Roque (r). Image: AP
Via AP:
Cuba abruptly replaced some of its most powerful and visible officials on Monday, including Vice President Carlos Lage and Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque.
The surprise shakeup, involving about 10 top officials, was announced at the end of the midday newscast by Cuba’s supreme governing body, the Council of State.
Among others replaced is Economy Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez.
Lage, 57, was one of five vice presidents below Raul Castro and had served as a de-facto prime minister. He was credited with helping save Cuba’s economy by designing modest economic reforms after the Soviet Union collapsed.
Perez Roque, 43, was previously personal secretary to Fidel Castro and a former leader of the Communist Party youth organization. He had been foreign minister for almost a decade.
Developing…
1640Z – Official Note from the Council of State announcing replacements and structural changes.
- Marino Murillo Jorge replaces Jos
Tags: Carlos Lage, Carlos Valenciaga, Castro, CIA, communist, Control, Council of Ministers, Council of State, Cuba, Cuban, DA, DI, economic reforms, Economy, Felipe P, Felipe Perez Roque, Fidel, Fidel Castro, foreign relations, Government, Granma, Havana, investment, IT, Jos, Military, Military Industries Union, Nomenklatura, party, PLA, Prices, Raul, Raul Castro, Rodrigo Malmierca, Security, shakeup, state, talibans, technocrats, UN, US, vice-minister
Avoiding a social explosion is foremost on the minds of the Cuban nomenklatura. "El Maleconazo" which occurred on the streets of Havana's famous seawall in August, 1994 was the most significant demonstration of social unrest in the island.
A chorus of those sympathetic to the Cuban regime and/or part of the nomenklatura are voicing their opinion about the need to reform Cuba’s system or else social instability caused by a lack of change to the status quo will lead to political destabilization through violence.
A member of said chorus is Ignacio Ramonet (penned an autobiography of Fidel Castro and was editor-in-chief of Le Monde Diplomatique) who wrote a revealing article last week giving a purview of the current situation in Cuba.
Ramonet states: “Raul Castro and his team have dedicated themselves to three pressing problems: food, public transportation, and housing. Three domains where shortages, poverty, and dysfunctions favor permanent unrest of the population.”
He cites Aurelio Alonso, sub-director of Casa de las Am
Tags: Cuba, Cuban Communist Party, Cuban Government, Economy, Havana, Raul Castro
The Economist takes a look at the last 50 years of the Cuban revolution:
Half a century on, the euphoria is long gone. Everyday life in Cuba is a dreary affair of queues and shortages, even if nobody starves and violent crime is rare. It is the only country in the Americas whose government denies its citizens freedom of expression and assembly. Cuba
Tags: Cuba, Cuban Communist Party, Cuban Government, Fidel Castro, Havana, Latin America, Raul Castro, Revolutionary Armed Forces, Western Hemisphere
Tags: Cuban military, Havana, Military, MINFAR, Russia
Cuban police have detained 100 dissidents this week in Cuba to avoid their participation in marches commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights according to an announcement made by the Cuban Commission of Human Rights – Comisi
Tags: Cuba, Cuban Government, derechos humanos, dissidents, government action, Havana, political repression, unesco, universal declaration of human rights
Via Christian Science Monitor:
On the eve of the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Wednesday
Tags: activist groups, cuban dissidents, cuban police, Havana, universal declaration of human rights
Cuban police patrol cars stand along Havana Malecon seafront.
Image: Getty/AFP
Carta de Cuba alerts that the Cuban capital is constantly surveilled by patrolling soldiers and police, whom traverse municipalities to impose order reports the independent press during the last couple of weeks. In the municipalities of San Miguel del Padr
Tags: arroyo naranjo, city under siege, eastern provinces, el prado, Havana, La Habana, Maceo Park, Malec, Naranjo, police patrols, Prado Avenue, regla, repressive forces, san miguel del padr, underground economy
Cuban police motorcyclists patrol the streets of Havana. Image: AFP/Getty
La Jornada (Mexico) reports Cuba’s black market “could place in jeopardy the revolution’s very existence,” whereby the national police has hardened its vigilance against the underground economy which could become a high priority mission, according to an official communique released Sunday.
“There is a war without barracks against illegalities and crime,” the unsigned communique published in the Havana weekly Tribuna.
Reported were raids executed in the last two months in the capital including operations against 100 factories, 60 shops and 200 clandestine warehouses.
The campaign started in September in the aftermath of the hurricanes including a system of searching passengers in police checkpoints throughout roadways.
[H/T: La Nueva Cuba]
Tags: crackdown, crime, Cuba, Economy, factories, Havana, police checkpoints
- Russian President Dmitry Medvedev concluded his visit to Havana. He met with Fidel Castro and said that a new bilateral accord will be waiting for President Raul Castro when he visits Russia. Medvedev and Raul Castro signed mining and oil exploration deals and discussed “military technical cooperation.”
- Raul Castro said that he is willing to meet with President-Elect Obama on “neutral ground”
Tags: Cuba, dmitry medvedev, Fidel Castro, guantanamo bay, Havana, Latin America, Nicaragua, obama, Oil exploration, Raul Castro, Russia, Sugar, US, Venezuela
An October photo of a frail Fidel Castro with Ministrel Kirill (Russian Orthodox Church). Image: mospat.ru
Fernando Ravsberg of the BBC writes from Havana about the debate going on in the streets of the capital. Many are asking themselves if there is a paralysis in the reforms started by Ra
Tags: Cuba, Cuban Communist Party, Cuban Government, Fidel Castro, Havana, party congress, PCC, US
Foreign Ministers Perez Roque & Lavrov. Image: AP
Cuban President Raul Castro will visit Russia next year, the Kremlin said on Tuesday, in a new sign that Moscow is reviving a Cold War-era trade and military alliance. “Next year we await … Raul Castro in our country and this will be yet another contribution to the development of ties,” Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque in Moscow.
While Cuba’s foreign minister denies Cuba and Russia are not discussing the possibility of deploying Russian missile shield in the Caribbean country.
Both nations have signed a series of bilateral trade and economic accords. The accords (covered the automobile, nickel and oil industries, as well as the supply of wheat to Cuba) were signed during a visit to Havana by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin.
Tags: alliance, Caribbean, Cuba, Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin, Havana, Moscow, President Raul Castro, Raul Castro, Russia
Russia Today (English-language news channel broadcast from Moscow) – Spotlight: Russia returns to Latin America
A Russian military delegation began their visit to Havana yesterday to review with their Cuban counterparts training and upgrading air defenses on the island.
The visit further reinforces a Russian resurgence while making its presence known in the United States’ own backyard – Latin America.
"Kvadrat" ADM system. Image: NIIP
RIA Volsti reports on Gazeta.ru‘s story: “According to the Russian Defense Ministry, this is a planned visit aimed at discussing the maintenance and repair of the Russian-made Igla, Osa, Kvadrat and P-18 and P-19 air defense systems. They are used to protect airfields and longer-range air defense systems, such as S-300 and S-400. Russian military analysts say Russia is unlikely to limit its assistance to Cuba to repairs of obsolete systems. Anatoly Tsyganok, head of the Military Forecast Center at the Institute for Political and Military Analysis, said the visit was connected to U.S. missile defense plans for Europe. Alexander Pikayev, an expert at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences, echoes this view:
“Although it will be denied officially, Russia’s actions are clearly a reply to the deployment of U.S. ballistic missile defense systems in the Czech Republic and Poland, and to NATO’s decision to help Georgia restore its air defense system.”
Also, the Swiss International Relations and Security Network takes a look at the resurgence and what it means for Russian and US strategic interests in the hemisphere:
For some Latin American countries, Russia’s return to the continent is a welcome development that limits US dominance. But for others, it bodes ill as they fear deliveries of Russian arms to the region may tilt the military balance, if not lead to a Cold War on the continent.
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Tags: Alexander Pikayev, Cuba, defence installations, General-Lieutenant Alexander Maslov, Havana, Igor Konashenkov, Latin America, Lt. Gen. Alexander Maslov, military technologies, missile defense systems, RIA Volsti, russian defense ministry
Raul Castro and Carlos Valenciaga in 2007. (Image: AP)
Carlos Valenciaga, Fidel Castro’s personal secretary and at one time head of his Coordination and Support Staff – Grupo de Coordinacion y Apoyo al Comandante en Jefe (GCA), has been removed from office as reported by Penultimos Dias.
A rumor surfaced in early October that he was dismissed because of corruption, however, it seems that it was due to an error made in transferring funds from the US to European banks.
An unconfirmed story implicates two sons of Abraham Masiques (founder of Cubanacan and general director of the Havana Palace of Conventions – Palacio de Convenciones de La Habana (PALCO)) in the transfer.
It is said that Masiques’ sons have been detained and Valenciaga has been placed in “plan pijama”.
Other rumors indicate that after having been informed of Valenciaga’s illicit transfers,
Tags: Abraham Masiques, Carlos Valenciaga, cubanacan, Fidel Castro, Havana, PALCO, Raul Castro
If proven true, U.S. foreign policy toward Cuba will change dramatically with the next presidential administration on the prospect of a viable strategic source of oil in close proximity to U.S. shores.
Via BBC:
The state-owned Cuban oil company says the country may have more than 20bn barrels of oil in its offshore fields – more than double the previous estimate.
Cubapetroleo’s exploration manager said drilling in the offshore wells would begin as early as the middle of 2009.
Such reserves would place Cuba among the top 20 oil producing nations.
Cubapetroleo’s estimates are based on comparisons to known oil reserves found within similar geological structures off the coasts of the US and Mexico.
The company said Cuba had undersea geology “very similar” to that surrounding Mexico’s giant Cantarell and Poza Rica oil fields in the Bay of Campeche.
‘More data’
Cuba’s share of the Gulf of Mexico was established in 1977, when it signed treaties with the US and Mexico.
The US Geological Survey (USGS) recently estimated that as much as 9bn barrels of oil and 21 trillion cubic feet of natural gas could lie within that zone, in the North Cuba Basin.
However, Cubapetroleo exploration manager Rafael Tenreyro Perez said his company’s estimate was higher because it had better information about Cuba’s offshore geology.
“I’m almost certain that if [USGS officials] ask for all the data we have, their estimate is going to grow considerably,” he told a news conference in the capital, Havana.
If correct, Cuba’s oil reserves would be almost the same as those of the US – 21bn barrels, according to the Oil & Gas Journal – and nearly twice the size of Mexico’s – 11.7bn barrels.
It could generate unprecedented wealth for the Communist-run state.
Mr Tenreyro said he expected the first production well to be drilled before the middle of next year by a consortium led by the Spanish oil company, Repsol, and that more wells could be started before 2010.
Cuba currently produces 60,000 barrels of oil a day.
It depends on Venezuela for an additional 93,000 barrels a day, which it receives at preferential rates in exchange for the services of thousands of Cuban doctors working in Venezuela.
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Tags: Cuba, exploration, Gulf of Mexico, Havana, North Cuba Basin, oil producing nations, oil reserves, US, Venezuela
Tags: black youths, capital streets, Cuba, Havana, PNR, Police, police presence, uniformed police
Lt. Col. Chris Simmons appeared on Oscar Haza‘s program A Mano Limpia in Miami tonight. Simmons continued from where he left off in a previous program with Haza to expose individuals allegedly associated with Cuban intelligence and he also discussed the state of Havana’s intelligence operations (a restructured General Directorate of Intelligence – DGI).
The following persons are alleged by Simmons to be Cuban agents:
- Jean Guy Allard – French-Canadian journalist who writes for Granma International;
- Ramon Sanchez Parodi – first head of Cuban Interests Section, lifelong Cuban intelligence officer, closely associated with academic associations, civic groups. Now chief of Cuban Customs;
Simmons alleges the following individuals are former/present Cuban agents in Miami, and elsewhere:
- Lisandro Perez – professor, Department of Sociology & Anthropology. Florida International Univeristy;
- Silvia Wilhem – executive director of the Cuban American Commission for Family Rights (who was burned by Cuban spy, former FIU psychology professor Carlos Alvarez).
- Julia Sweig – Council on Foreign Relations resident Cuba expert. She was assisted, according to Simmons, by Jose Antonio Arbesu (former Chief of the Cuban Interests Section) along with four other agents whom provided access to Cuban government documents for her book: Inside the Cuban Revolution.
Simmons also revealed that China is allegedly providing Cuba every three months with arms (all types), supplanting Russian arms, in exchange for the intelligence Cuba provides to the Chinese government.
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Tags: carlos alvarez, China, Cuba, cuban interests section, granma international, Havana, intelligence officer, Jean Guy Allard - French-, Jose Antonio Arbesu, Julia Sweig - Council, lisandro perez, Lt. Col. Chris Simmons, Miami, Oscar Haza, Silvia Wilhem
Tags: agricultural production, America, Brazil, coffee harvest, communist regimes, electricity grid, enormous damage, export crops, Fidel Castro, food supplies, Gustav, harvest in the east, Havana, Ike, oil industry, powerful hurricanes, private enterprise, Russia, Spain, state reserves, sugarcane fields, tourist resorts, United States, Venezuela
Via Deutsche Welle:
The Cuban government under new leader Raul Castro has reportedly accepted the resumption of formal political dialogue with the EU after it lifted diplomatic sanctions against the island two months ago.
The EU representative in Havana, Javier Nino this week signaled interest in taking up formal talks with Europe in what could be a first step towards normalization of strained relations between the 27-member bloc and Cuba.
In a letter handed over earlier this month at the embassy of France, current holder of the EU’s rotating presidency, Nino said the communist regime was interested in restarting dialogue with the EU
“The Cuban government agrees to begin dialogue. (…) The EU proposal is an unconditional dialogue, mutual benefit, mutual respect on a number of issues such as rights and environmental issues,” Nino told news agency AFP on Tuesday, Sept 16.
“At this moment the two sides are negotiating over when (plans for) the dialogue can be firmed up, but ideally it will be relatively soon,” he said, adding that no date or venue had been set.
EU lifted sanctions against Cuba
Dialogue between Cuba and Europe broke off when the EU imposed diplomatic sanctions against the Caribbean island in 2003, angering Havana, after the Cuban government arrested 75 dissidents.
The sanctions were suspended in 2005, but not formally lifted until July 19.
The EU has said the sanctions will be reviewed annually with an eye on the human rights situation in Cuba. The elimination of sanctions was accompanied by an invitation for the communist-run government to join in a “global political dialogue.”
News of a thaw in relations between EU and Cuba came after the island was battered by Hurricane Gustav and just before Hurricane Ike, which caused an estimated $5 billion in damages.
Tags: Caribbean, Cuba, dialogue, diplomatic sanctions, dissidents, Europe, Havana, human rights situation, political dialogue, Raul Castro
Stratfor issues weekly guidelines to its analysts and this week focuses on Latin America with a theory of normalized relations between Cuba and United States:
Cuba remains the mystery. Havana is oddly quiet. Are there discussions going on with the United States? There should be, as far as the United States is concerned, but with an election coming, such talks are hard to set up. The Cubans don
Tags: bush administration, Cuba, cubans, Havana, Latin America, United States
Via Cuban state media:
The Saturno motor vessel of the Cuban Revolutionary Navy, is expected to arrive in Isla de la Juventud on Thursday loaded with materials for the reestablishment of the communications and energy systems in this area, devastated by hurricane Gustav.
The ship set sail on Tuesday from the Haiphong terminal of Havana’s port carrying four containers with power generators, communications equipment and liquid containers and 50 poles for the erection of electricity wires,according to statements by the ship
Tags: electricity, energy, equipment, Havana, hurricane gustav, recovery efforts
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
Tags: Central America, clash of civilizations, commercial profit, criminal organizations, drug traffickers, Havana, mafia families, Mara Salvatrucha, national borders, Organized crime, post-Castro, Security, smuggling, state actors, street gangs, Violence
ISN Security Watch has an article addressing Cuba’s international relations leverage and foreign investment:
When Russian daily Izvestia reported on 21 July that Russian Tu-160 and Tu-95MS bombers had landed in Cuba, it set off a sprint in Washington as analysts and military leaders struggled to understand the situation.
At first, it appeared that Moscow had made a very serious gesture. Russia’s perceived geopolitical maneuver in Cuba, many thought, was in response to the US’ plans for an anti-missile shield defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic.
By 24 July, after three days of media hype and speculation over Russia’s true intentions, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Ilshat Baichurin, dismissed any intention for a strategic deployment in Cuba.
Two events quickly followed up this announcement. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin arrived in Cuba on 30 July for extended talks with Raul and Fidel Castro. A former KGB operative and known confidant of now-Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Sechin was an active operative during the Cold War and enjoyed a deep relationship with the Castros.
Putin then followed up Sechin’s visit with a 5 August announcement that Russia ought to “restore [its] position in Cuba and other countries.”
Observers agree a military presence in Cuba is not in Moscow’s best interests; rather, closer economic ties would behoove both nations. Sechin’s recent visit underlines the latter observation and coaxes Washington into a more open posture toward Cuba, an island nation the next US presidential administration would likely prefer not to lose again to the Russians. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Caribbean, Castros, Cuba, Czech Republic, Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin, East European, Havana, Moscow, Poland, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Raul Castro, Russia, russian defense ministry, US, Washington, Western Hemisphere
The Wall Street Journal tells the story of Armando Valladares, author of Against All Hope which details his harrowing twenty-two year imprisonment as a political prisoner of the Cuban government:
In late December 1959, nearly a year after Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista had been run out the country by a movement that had a goal of restoring the 1940 Cuban constitution, Fidel Castro was tightening his grip.
At the time, Armando Valladares was a 22-year-old government bureaucrat at the Post Office Savings Bank. One day a group from the Communist Party showed up in his office and put a sign on his desk that read “If Fidel is a communist, put me on the list. He’s got the right idea.”
Castro had not yet made public his communist intentions. But Mr. Valladares says that “the sign was part of the campaign by the party and by Fidel to prepare the population for communism, which most knew little about. The idea was that since Fidel had already made his name synonymous with the Cuban messiah, he must be right about communism.”
Mr. Valladares told his visitors that he didn’t want that sign on his desk. “Five or six days later, in the wee hours of the morning, they came to my house. My mother’s room was closest to the front door so she heard the knock and got up to see who was there. When she opened the door, the men pushed her out of the way and rushed into the house. I awoke with a machine gun against my temple.”
The young Valladares had a lot of company. Thousands were being rounded up. Some waited months for their trials. Many others were immediately marched before firing squads.
Mr. Valladares got his day in court within the week. The judge, he says, sat with his feet up on the desk reading a comic book and making jokes. The search of his home had produced “no evidence, no weapons, no propaganda opposing the state.” Nevertheless he was convicted as a potential conspirator against the Revolution and sentenced to 30 years. His cell mates applauded the decision, because the only other possible sentence was the death penalty.
Tags: Felipe Gonz, Fidel Castro, Geneva, Havana, imprisonment, Miami, Mr. Valladares, Pedro Luis Boitel, Spain, US, Venezuela
Cuban media reports 704 new police officers from diverse specialties have graduated from the Tarar
Tags: Havana, police officers
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.
Tags: American mafia, Havana, Organized crime
Reuters/Brazil Online (via O Globo Online) reports Ra
Tags: Brazil, Havana, Lula da Silva, Raul Castro, Ricardo Alarcon
The change in command of the Central Army, which took place at the end of May with an unknown military figure, raises speculation General Raul Castro is shoring up his group of generals loyal to him and the military regime under his control.
Division General Ra
Tags: Central Army, Defense Minister Raul Castro, General Ramon Espinosa, General Raul Castro, Havana, Western Army
From The Economist print edition
Outsiders bet that bigger changes are on their way
THE diplomatic sanctions imposed by the European Union after Cuba jailed 75 dissidents in 2003 were hardly painful. They mainly consisted of restricting political contacts and inviting dissidents to embassy functions, prompting a boycott by Cuban officials that became known as the
Tags: America, Brazil, Caleb McCarry, China, communist, Cuba, farming, Felipe Calder, Felipe P, Fidel Castro, Havana, investment, investor, John McCain, Latin America, Luiz In, Mexico, MEXICO CITY, Spain, Sweden, United States, Venezuela, Washington
From Stratfor:
Summary
The following are internal Stratfor documents produced to provide high-level guidance to our analysts. These documents are not forecasts, but rather a series of guidelines for understanding and evaluating events, as well as suggestions on areas for focus.
Analysis
All guidance from last week remains in place. Supplemental guidance:
3. Venezuela and Cuba: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez tried to create a police state then backed off. Next thing we hear are stories the he is giving sanctuary to Hezbollah, which we assume is psychological pressure from Washington. Then he turns up in Havana for talks with Fidel and Raul Castro. In the meantime the European Union drops whatever sanctions are left on Cuba. Cuba needs Venezuelan help on oil. But it also seems to want to get out of its isolation. It
Tags: Analysis, Castros, Cuba, Fidel, Havana, Hezbollah, Intelligence, President Hugo Chavez, Raul, Stratfor, Venezuela, Washington
Via MSNBC:
U.S. intelligence officials are analyzing newly released video of Cuban leader Fidel Castro for clues about his health and political viability, NBC News has learned.
The CIA has a medical intelligence unit that has long tracked the health of Fidel Castro and his brother, Raul, now the country
Tags: CIA, Cuba, Fidel Castro, Havana, Intelligence, President Hugo Chavez, Raul Castro, U.S. intelligence, Venezuela
Via Ria Novosti:
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin has been appointed ambassador to Cuba, the ministry announced on Monday. Kamynin, 51, served as ambassador to Spain and Andorra from 2002 to 2005, and as a counselor to the Russian Embassy in Havana from 1999 to 2002. He also served two four-year stints at the Soviet Embassy in Mexico from 1978 and 1987. The new ambassador will be replacing Andrei Dmitriyev, 67, who had held the post since June 2000.
Tags: Havana, Mexico, Russia, Russian embassador
How Havana might change after Castro, from the Atlantic Monthly:
The American embargo on Cuba has spanned 48 years
Tags: Fidel Castro, Havana, post-Castro, Raul Castro
Cuba politics: Freedom calls
14 July 2010 at 0937 in Brazil, Catholic Church, China, Commentary, Diplomacy, Fidel Castro, Government, Havana, International Relations, Nomenklatura, Opposition, Politics, Population, Raul Castro, Russia, Spain, US, Vatican, dissidents, prisoners by Armando F. Mastrapa 3d
From the Economist Intelligence Unit:
Tags: Brazil, Castro government, China, cuban americans, Cuban Government, Cuban political prisoners, economist intelligence unit, EU, European Union, Havana, Obama administration, Russia, Spain, US mid-term elections, Venezuela