While Democrats (and some Republicans) continue lobbying to lift sanctions against Cuba, the Castro dictatorship continues to support terrorism all over the world.
Cuba’s support for terrorism
Although President Barack Obama removed Cuba in 2015 from the U.S. State Department list of countries supporting terrorism, and President Trump included it again in 2020, the Cuban regime continues to support terrorist groups and countries, and harbors U.S., Spanish, and Colombian terrorists in the island.
Iran, Cuba, and Venezuela have developed a close and cooperative relationship against the U.S. in partnership with terrorist groups and states. The three regimes increasingly coordinate their policies and resources in a three-way association aimed at counteracting and circumventing U.S. policies in the Middle East and Latin America. Within this relationship, Cuba plays a strategic role in terms of geography (proximity to the U.S.), intelligence gathering (both electronic eavesdropping and human espionage) logistics, and training.
In addition to its proven technical prowess to interfere and intercept U.S. telecommunications, Cuba has deployed around the world a highly effective human intelligence network. The type of espionage carried out by Ana Belén Montes, the senior U.S. defense intelligence analyst who spied for Cuba during some 16 years until her arrest in 2001, has enabled the Cuban regime to amass a wealth of intelligence on U.S. vulnerabilities as well as a keen understanding of the inner-workings of the U.S. security system.
Such information and analysis were provided to Iraq and now to strategic allies like Iran. While one may argue that factors such as Iran’s limited military capabilities and sheer distance diminish any conventional concerns, one should expect that Tehran, in case of a U.S.-Iran conflict, would launch an asymmetrical offensive against the U.S. and its European allies through surrogate terrorist states and paramilitary organizations. In such a scenario, Cuban intelligence would be invaluable to Iran and its proxies, and Cuban territory could be used by terrorist groups to launch operations against the U.S.
Following is recent evidence of Cuba’s involvement with terrorism:
- Cuba directly and through Venezuela continues to provide intelligence to Hamas and Hezbollah.
- Hezbollah, on orders from Hasan Nasrallah, set up an operational base in Cuba.
- Working in coordination with the Cuban government, Venezuela is promoting Hezbollah and Iranian targets in South America and against the U.S. They fundraise for Hezbollah, facilitate travel for Hezbollah activists to Venezuela, and through Venezuela to other countries. This is all part of the strategic alliance between Venezuela, Cuba, and Iran.
- Venezuela is providing its territory to train, with Cuba’s support, terrorist fighters from Latin America and the Middle East.
- Cuban military officers are acting as liaison between Venezuelan military and the narco-guerrillas of the Colombian FARC. Cuban General Leonardo Ramon Andollo,Chief of Operations of the Cuban MINFAR (Ministry of the Armed Forces), has visited Venezuela several times and acted as a go between the Cuban and Venezuelan military involved in drug trafficking.
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