Focus on Cuba

Introduction

Since 1948 when, as a young student, Fidel Castro participated in the violence that rocked Colombian society and distributed anti-U.S. propaganda, he has been guided by two objectives: a commitment to violence and a virulent anti-Americanism. His struggle since and his forty-five year rule in Cuba have been characterized primarily by these goals.
In the 1960’s, Castro and his brother, Raul, believed that the political and economic conditions that produced their revolution existed in Latin America and that anti-American revolutions would occur throughout the continent. Cuban agents and diplomats established contact with revolutionary, terrorist and guerrilla groups in the area and began distributing propaganda, weapons and aid. Many Latin Americans were brought to Cuba for training and then returned to their countries.
At the Tricontinental Conference held in Havana in 1966 and attended by revolutionary leaders from throughout the world, Castro insisted that bullets not ballots was the way to achieve power and provided the institutional means to promote his anti-American, violent line. He insisted that “conditions exist for an armed revolutionary struggle” and criticized those who opposed armed struggle, including some Communist leaders in Latin America, as “traitorous, rightists, and deviationists.”
Castro’s attempts in the 1960’s to bring revolutionary, anti-American regimes to power failed. His support for guerrillas and terrorist groups in Guatemala, Venezuela, and Bolivia only produced violence and suffering to those countries and their people, which repudiated violence as a means to achieve power. Violence resulted in military regimes coming to power in several Latin American countries
For the next two decades, the Cuban leadership, supported by the Soviet Union, modified its tactics. In addition to agents from the America Department, the subversive arm of Cuba’s Communist Party, Castro used his Armed Forces to help friendly groups achieve power in Latin America and Africa. In Nicaragua Cuban military personnel, weapons and intelligence supported and helped bring to power the Sandinistas. In El Salvador, a bloody civil war in part fomented and aided by Cuba, ended in a stalemate and a negotiated peace.
In Africa, Castro achieved his most significant victories. The Soviet-Cuban backed Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) faction was installed in power in Angola and other Cuban supported regimes came to power throughout the continent. The Cuban military also trained and supplied the South-West African Peoples Organization (SWAPO) and the African National Congress (ANC), forces fighting the South African regime.
Castro also became involved with African-Americans in the U.S. and with the Macheteros, a Puerto Rican terrorist group. Cuba focused particular attention on the black struggle in the U.S., providing aid and training to the Black Panthers and the Black Liberation Army, as well as a safehaven on the island for black leaders. Castro continuously promoted the independence of Puerto Rico and supported the Macheteros who committed terrorist acts and bank robberies in the United States. Several still live in Cuba.
Cuban military and intelligence personnel aided Middle Eastern groups and regimes in their struggle against Israel, and Cuban troops fought on the side of Arab States, particularly Syria, during the Yom Kippur war. Castro sent military instructors and advisors into Palestinian bases; cooperated with Libya in the founding of World Mathaba, a terrorist movement; and established close military cooperation and exchanges with Iraq, Libya, Southern Yemen, the Polisario Front for the Liberation of Western Sahara, the PLO and others in the Middle East.
Despite the collapse of the Soviet Union, Castro continues to undermine U.S. policies in the Middle East in several ways: a) by portraying U.S. actions and diplomacy in the region as those of an aggressor, seeking to impose hegemony by force, particularly in Iraq and the perpetration of unjustified economic sanctions on Iran; b) by portraying the U.S. as the main obstacle to a peaceful settlement of the Israel/Arab conflict; and c) by discrediting U.S. policies and seeking support for Cuba at the U.N. These anti-American views and policies are conveyed as a systematic message through a network of Cuban embassies and agents, as well as at the U.N. and other non-governmental political, religious and cultural organizations.
While not abandoning his close relationships in the Middle East, Castro has recently concentrated his support on several groups: the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC), where Castro, and his new ally Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, see significant possibilities for success; ETA, the Basque terrorist/separatist organization from Spain, which has found refuge and support in Cuba, and the Irish Republican Army (IRA), which established its Latin American headquarters in Havana.
American policymakers should pay careful attention to the intricate web of relationships which emerges so clearly from the chronology that follows. It carefully details Castro’s involvement with and support for terrorist regimes and organizations during the past four and a half decades. Cuba’s geographical location, Castro‘s continuous connections with these groups and states and the harboring of terrorists in Havana creates a dynamic that requires vigilance and alertness.
It should be emphasized that in addition to violence and terrorism, Castro and his regime, have been for more than four decades, the most vocal and active proponents of anti-Americanism. The often-repeated view in many countries that the United States is an evil power, guilty for much of the problems and sufferings of the developing world, is owed in great part to the propaganda efforts of Fidel Castro.

Chronology

1959-1967
· Raúl Castro and Che Guevara visited Cairo and established contacts with African liberation movements. Both Cuban leaders visited Gaza and expressed support for the Palestinian cause.
· Members of the Dominican Republic “Agrupación Política Catorce de Junio” received military training in Cuba.
· Major emphasis was placed on instructing several hundred pro-Castro Latin Americans in violence and guerrilla warfare. Dominicans, Guatemalans, Venezuelans and Chileans were trained in special camps in Cuba and infiltrated back to their countries.
· Castro established relations with the Algerian FLN; weapons were shipped to the FLN through Morocco (1960-1961). Cuba also provided shelter, medical and educational services and cooperation in the fields of counter-intelligence and intelligence.
· African leaders from Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Nigeria, South Africa, Spanish Guinea, Tanganyika and Zanzibar arrived in Cuba for military training.
· Che Guevara engaged in guerrilla operations in Congo-Kinshasa (former Zaire) in 1965.
· Conference of Latin American Communist Parties held in Havana agreed to “help actively the guerrilla forces in Venezuela, Guatemala, Paraguay, Colombia, Honduras and Haiti”.
· Members of the Movimiento de la Izquierda Revolucionaria (MIR), trained in Cuba, landed in the Venezuelan coast.
· Cuban trained Guatemalans Cesar Montes and Luis Turcios Lima led a violent terrorist/guerrilla campaign against the government in Guatemala. Montes organized the Ejercito Guerrillero de los Pobres (EGP) and later joined the FMLN in El Salvador participating actively in the country’s bloody civil war.
· Cuba welcomed and supported the founding of the PLO.
· The Tricontinental Conference was held in Havana in January, 1966 to adopt a common political strategy against colonialism, neocolonialism, and imperialism. Cuba provided the organizational structure to support terrorist, anti-American groups in the Middle East and Latin America. The Organization for the Solidarity with the Peoples of Africa, Asia and Latin America (OSPAAL) was created.
· Fidel Castro created The National Liberation Directorate (DLN) in Cuba to support revolutionary groups throughout the world. DLN was responsible for planning and coordinating Cuba’s terrorist training camps in the island, covert movement of personnel and military supplies from Cuba and a propaganda apparatus.
· A Cuban controlled Latin American Solidarity Organization (LASO), with its permanent seat in Havana was created to “coordinate and foment the fight against North American imperialism”.
· Castro supported the Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional (FALN) in Venezuela and promoted violence and terrorism against the democratically elected regime of Rómulo Betancourt.
· Castro sent weapons via Cairo, to the NLF in Southern Yemen.
· Cuba published in various languages and distributed widely a small book by French Marxist Regis Debray, Revolution in the Revolution, promoting guerrilla warfare in Latin America.
· Cuban supported guerrillas led by Che Guevara moved into Bolivia in an attempt to create “many Vietnams “ in South America.
· Cuba and Syria developed a close alliance and supported FATAH and the Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF).

1968-1975
· Cuban military, political and intelligence support was provided to Palestinian organizations.
· Castro sent military instructors and advisors into Palestinian bases in Jordan to train Palestinian Fedayeen (1968); first high-level delegation from FATAH-PLO visited Cuba (1970).
· Several missions sent to Southern Yemen to support NLF/FATAH Ismail both politically and militarily.
· Castro began supporting and training M19, a Colombian guerrilla group.
· In 1970 a “Mini Manual for Revolutionaries” was published in the official LASO publication Tricontinental, written by Brazilian urban terrorist leader Carlos Marighella. It gives precise instruction in terror tactics, kidnappings, etc. Cuba translated and distributed worldwide the “manual.”
· Economic, political, and military cooperation began with Libya and Somalia.
· In 1974 Cuba's National Liberation Directorate (DLN) was reorganized into the America Department (DA) under the Communist Party of Cuba Central Committee. The DA centralized control over Cuban activities for supporting national liberation movements. The DA was responsible for planning and coordinating Cuba’s secret guerrilla and terrorist training camps, networks for the covert movement of personnel and material from Cuba, and a propaganda apparatus. DA agents also operated in Europe and other regions. Trusted Castro ally Manuel Piñeiro, “ Barbaroja” was placed in charge.
· Cuba provided training and support to the Tupamaros, a terrorist group operating in Uruguay and to the Nicaraguan Sandinistas. Cuban military officers trained and joined the Sandinista guerrillas.
· Cuba provided military support and troops to Syria against Israel during the Yom Kippur War (1973-1975).
· Black Panther Party members from the U.S. received weapons and explosives training in Canada and Havana.

1976-1982
· Cuba supported the so-called "Steadfastness Front" against the U.S. backed Camp David accord.
· Illich Rámirez Sánchez, known as “Carlos, the Jackal”, responsible for numerous terrorist acts in Europe, trained in Cuba. He attended the 1966 Tricontinental Conference in Havana and later trained in Havana in urban guerrilla tactics, automatic weapons, explosives and sabotage.
· Abu Iyad, a close aid to Yasser Arafat, stated in 1978 that hundreds of Palestinian had been sent to Cuban terrorist camps. The CIA estimated that there were 300 Palestinians training in Cuba.
· Arafat visited Cuba and signed an agreement for military cooperation and arms supply.
· Arafat loaned Castro tens of millions of dollars. Castro supported Arafat during the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon.
· Cuba deployed military forces in support of the Ethiopian regime.
· Cuba supported the Dhofaris in their armed struggle against the monarchy in Oman.
· The Cuban trained Congolese National Liberation Front invaded Shala, Zaire.
· As part of Cuba's alliance with Ethiopia, the Cuban leadership supported the Liberation Movement of Southern Sudan.
· Cuba developed close ties with and sent military advisors to Iraq.
· Cuba’s America Department (DA) operated a weapons pipeline to the Farabundo Martí National Front (FMLN) a terrorist group attempting to gain power in El Salvador.
· Cuba cooperated with Libya in the political founding of the World MATHABA in Tripoli, coordinating revolutionary violence throughout the world.
· Cuban trained terrorists, members of the Guatemalan EGP, kidnapped several businessmen in Guatemala.

1983-1990
· Argentine born Cuban intelligence agent Jorge Massetti funneled Cuban funds to finance the Puerto Rican Machetero terrorist group.
· Cuba’s America Department (DA) provided weapons and financial aid to the Chilean MIR.
· Cuban agents in Mexico engaged in bank robberies to finance several terrorist groups from Latin America operating out of Mexico.
· Several dozen Mexicans received training in terrorism and guerrilla warfare in Sierra del Rosario, Pinar del Rio Province and in Guanabo, in eastern Cuba.
· After the establishment of the Palestinian National Authority, Cuban-Palestinian military cooperation increased.
· Cuba provided weapons and demolition training to the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) in Perú.

1991-2000
· ETA, a Spanish terrorist organization, established the Cuartel General (General Headquarters) in Havana.
· On February 24, 1996, Cuban Air Force Migs shot down, in international waters, two small unarmed civilian planes belonging to Brothers to the Rescue, a Miami based group. All occupants were killed, including three American citizens.
· PLO leaders continued close relations with the Cuban leadership, having access to specialized military and intelligence training in Cuba and by the sharing of intelligence.
· Cuba continued to provide safe haven to several terrorists fugitives from the U.S. They include: Black Liberation Army leader Joanne Chesimard aka Assata Shakur, one of New Jersey’s most wanted fugitives for killing a New Jersey State trooper in 1973 and Charlie Hill a member of the Republic of New Afrika Movement wanted for the hijacking of TWA 727 and the murder of a New Mexico State trooper.
· A number of Basque ETA terrorists as well as members of the Puerto Rican Machetero group continue to live in Cuba.
· Castro refused to join the other Ibero-American heads of state in condemning ETA terrorism at the 2000 Ibero-American Summit in Panamá.
· Colombia's two largest terrorist organizations, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN), continue to maintain a presence on the island.
· Colombian police arrested three IRA members and accused them of training the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). One of the three, Neil Connelly had been living in Cuba as the IRA representative for Latin America.

2001 to date

.· In July 2001, senior Cuban and North Korean military leaders met in Pyongyang. Vice Marshal Kim Yong Chun, Chief of Staff of the Korean People’s Army (KPA), stated to the visiting Cuban delegation headed by Gen. Alvaro Lopez Miera, Chief of Staff of Cuba’s Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR), “the people and army of the DPRK [North Korea] would always stand by the people and army of Cuba.” As the North Korean host noted, “friendly relations have been put on a higher plane under the profound care of Kim Jong Il and Fidel Castro.”
· In September 2001, the FBI arrested Ana Belen Montes, the senior Cuba analyst at the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, on charges of espionage against the United States on behalf of the Cuban government. Montes, who had access to daily U.S. intelligence briefings from around the world, continuously supplied highly classified information to Havana over a 16-year period. According to Richard Nuccio, former adviser on Cuba to President Clinton, “if damage was done [by Montes], it would be about what she learned [and shared with Cuba] about the U.S.” Ms. Montes received a 25-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to spying for Cuba.
· In July 2003, Cuba effectively jammed U.S.-based Farsi-language news broadcasts to Iran by the Voice of America (VOA) and private Iranian-American TV stations. The jamming was tracked to Havana, in the vicinity of a Sino-Cuban electronic warfare facility jointly operated by the Cuban and Chinese armed forces. The Chairman of the VOA’s Board of Governors, Kenneth Tomlinson, accused the Cuban government of acting “at the behest of the mullahs in Iran,” noting that, for technical reasons, “Iran need someone in this hemisphere to do its dirty work.” After denying that any jamming signals had emanated from the island, in late August 2003 the Cuban government issued a brief statement attributing the interference of the U.S. satellite transmissions to the Iranian embassy in Havana.
· In October 2003, Dr. David Kay, head of the team searching for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, disclosed on ABC News that his team had found evidence of “North Korean missiles going to Cuba.”
· In January 2004, a senior U.S. Department of Defense official stated that “the communist government of Cuba shared intelligence on the United States with Saddam Hussein’s regime” in exchange for clandestine Iraqi oil shipments to Cuba.