Cuba

New Cuban radar site near US military base could aid China spying – report

Satellite images appear to show that Cuba is building a new radar site likely to be capable of spying on the US’s nearby Guantánamo Bay naval base, in the latest upgrade to the country’s surveillance capabilities long thought to be linked to China.

The base, under construction since 2021 but previously not publicly reported, is east of the city of Santiago de Cuba near the El Salao neighborhood, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said in a report published on Monday and later referenced by the Wall Street Journal.

Cuban vice foreign minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio denied that Cuba was harboring Chinese military interests on the island.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"China - Communist Slave State", Cuba, USA

Father’s Day Message? Sending Canadian vessel to Cuba alongside Russia’s was carefully planned: Minister

OTTAWA – National Defence Minister Bill Blair’s office says sending a Canadian ship to Cuba, where it docked alongside some of Russia’s fleet, was a “carefully” planned move to increase its presence in the region.

Spokesman Daniel Minden issued a statement saying the visit to Havana’s port “was carefully and fulsomely planned,” and the minister authorized it on the advice of the Royal Canadian Navy and Canadian Joint Operations Command.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada, Canada's Corrupt Liberal Government, Cuba

US ex-ambassador sentenced for Cuban espionage

Former US diplomat Victor Manuel Rocha led a double life spanning decades. While working for the US government, he also served as a spy for Cuba.

Rocha was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Friday after pleading guilty to acting as an illegal foreign agent and will pay a $500,000 (€469,000) fine. He is also required as part of a deal with prosecutors to disclose details of his cooperation with Cuban intelligence.

The US Justice Department called it “one of the highest-reaching and longest-lasting infiltrations of the US government.”

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCuba, Espionage, USA

The Cuban spying case that has shocked the US government

When the former US ambassador to Bolivia, Manuel Rocha, was arrested in Miami recently and charged by his previous employer – the US government – with having spent more than 40 years as a Cuban agent, it amounted to one of the biggest spying scandals involving the communist-run island this century.

The US Attorney General, Merrick Garland, called Mr Rocha’s alleged crimes “one of the highest-reaching and longest-lasting infiltrations of the US government by a foreign agent”.

While Manuel Rocha is yet to enter a plea, many observers remain baffled as to how he could have risen so high in the US diplomatic service while evading detection for so long, apparently honing a reputation as a hard-nosed conservative while secretly harbouring a deep-seated allegiance to the Cuban Revolution.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCuba, USA

US charges ex-ambassador with spying for Cuba over four decades

The US has charged one of its former diplomats with spying for Cuba, in what appears to be one of the most serious breaches of the State Department for decades.

Victor Manuel Rocha, who served as US ambassador to Bolivia from 2000 to 2002, was charged with committing multiple federal crimes including acting as an illegal foreign agent.

It is alleged his actions on behalf of Havana dated back four decades.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCuba, Espionage, USA

China in Cuba: Nuclear-Armed Communists on the Warpath

China, according to “fragmentary” U.S. intelligence reports, is about to establish a “joint military training facility” with Cuba on that island.

Chinese military personnel are already listening in on American communications from the Lourdes base near Havana and three other Cuban locations. Two of those locations have been known for some time: Bejucal and Santiago de Cuba. These facilities, it appears, have been in operation for all or most of this century.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"China - Communist Slave State", Cuba, USA

Beijing is building an electronic eavesdropping facility on Cuba just 100 miles from the Florida coast

Beijing is set to build an electronic eavesdropping facility on Cuba, just 100 miles from the coast of Florida, that will be able to gather US military secrets.

Citing officials ‘with highly classified intelligence’, The Wall Street Journal said China and Cuba have reached a secret agreement to establish the base.

The newspaper reported its sources as saying Beijing had agreed to pay cash-strapped Havana several billions of dollars to allow it to build the facility, and that at this stage an agreement had been reached ‘in principle’.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"China - Communist Slave State", Cuba, Espionage, USA

Anti-regime activists in Canada accuse Cuba of using YouTube channel to intimidate them

Thirteen Montrealers say they’ve been targeted by a campaign of harassment launched by the Cuban government to keep them from protesting against one-party rule on the island.

A social media account which — according to a Cuban defector — is being run by Cuba’s state security has been spreading detailed allegations against the 13 men accusing them of trafficking cocaine from Colombia to Canada.

Carlos Andrades said he’s one of them. On March 21, he arrived in his native Havana for a visit with his 95-year-old mother. Travelling with him were his Canadian-born daughters and grandson.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada, Cuba

Ana Montes: Top spy freed in US after more than 20 years

Ana Montes – among the best-known Cold War spies caught by the US – has been released from prison after more than 20 years in custody.

The 65-year-old spent almost two decades spying for Cuba while employed as an analyst at the Defence Intelligence Agency.

After her arrest in 2001, officials said she had almost entirely exposed US intelligence operations on the island.

One official said she was among “the most damaging spies” caught by the US.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCuba, Espionage, USA

‘Cuba Is Depopulating’: Largest Exodus Yet Threatens Country’s Future

The pandemic and tougher U.S. sanctions have decimated Cuba’s economy, prompting the biggest migration since Fidel Castro rose to power.

BARACOA, Cuba — Roger García Ordaz makes no secret of his many attempts to flee.

He has tried to leave Cuba 11 times on boats made of wood, Styrofoam and resin, and has a tattoo for each failed attempt, including three boat mishaps and eight times picked up at sea by the U.S. Coast Guard and sent home.

Hundreds of homemade, rickety boats have left this year from the shores of Baracoa, a fishing village west of Havana where Mr. García, 34, lives — so many that locals call the town “Terminal Three.”

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCuba

Canada asked to hit itself & Cuba with sanctions for repressing thousands after major protests

A Cuban-Canadian rights group is formally requesting that Ottawa slap sanctions on officials in Cuba for Havana’s repression of demonstrators at a July, 2021, protest.

Democratic Spaces, founded and directed by Michael Lima, a Cuban-Canadian, is filing a request with the Department of Global Affairs’ sanctions policy and operations co-ordination division on Monday morning. Mr. Lima is a human-rights activist and researcher.

“Levels of repression in Cuba today are the highest in two decades,” Mr. Lima said.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada, Cuba, WTF?

‘There will be more failures’: frustration as Cuba’s infrastructure crumbles

Countrywide blackout after Hurricane Ian was the latest disaster straining Cuba’s already disintegrating infrastructure

Yamile Sánchez leaned from her colonial-era window into the street in central Havana, a large pile of avocados visible behind her. “The damage used to be sorted out much faster,” she said. “Even when the storms were worse.”

The avocados, dusty green in contrast to Sanchez’s worn blue shutters, each had a bruise on one side. They had fallen during the passage of Hurricane Ian last week, as had Cuba’s entire electricity grid.

She was selling the windfall, avocados being the only thing cheap and available on the Caribbean island right now.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCuba