By Eugene Pons
Institute for Cuban & Cuban-American Studies, Occasional
Paper Series, September 2001
FOREWORD
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-two years 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 Iraq and 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 this chronology. It
carefully details
Castro's involvement with and support for terrorist
regimes and
organizations during the past four 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.
Jaime Suchlicki,
Director
Institute for
Cuban and Cuban-American Studies
September 2001
Castro and Terrorism
A Chronology
By Eugene Pons*
1959-1967
* Raúl Castro and Che Guevara visited Cairo and established
contacts with
African liberation movements stationed in and supported by
Cairo. 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; official
and public support
was extended, weapons were shipped to the FLN through
Morocco (1960-1961).
Cuba 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.
* A revolutionary trained in Cuba, John Okello, overthrew the
pro-Western
government in Zanzibar in 1964 and proclaimed the "People's
Republic of
Zanzibar" which was promptly recognized by Cuba and the Soviet
Union.
* Conference of Latin American Communist Parties held in
Havana agreed
to "help actively the guerrilla forces in Venezuela,
Guatemala, Paraguay,
Colombia, Honduras and Haiti".
* Group of Venezuelans, members of the Movimiento de la
Izquierda Revolucionaria
(MIR), trained in Cuba and landed in the Venezuela
coast in the
State of Miranda.
* 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) in
Guatemala. In
the 1980's he joined the FMLN in El Salvador and participated
actively in
the bloody civil war in that country.
* Cuba welcomed the founding of the PLO. First contacts with
Palestinian
FATAH in 1965 in Algiers and Damascus.
* 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".
* In Venezuela, Castro made a relentless and determined effort
to create another
Cuba by supporting the Fuerzas Armadas de Liberaci n
Nacional (FALN)
and promoting violence and terrorism against the
democratically
elected regime of R mulo Betancourt.
* Castro sent weapons via Cairo, to the NLF in Southern Yemen.
Cuban agents
were sent on fact-finding missions to North and South Yemen
(1967- 1968).
* Cuba published a small book by French Marxist journalist
Regis Debray
Revolution in the Revolution, promoting guerrilla warfare in
Latin America.
The book was translated into various languages and
distributed
widely.
* 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
* Cuba continued its military and political support for FATAH
after the Syrians
broke with the latter, and Cuban military, political and
intelligence
support was granted to other 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 of M19, a Colombian
guerrilla group
that captured the Dominican Embassy and the Justice building
in Bogota and
assassinated several prominent Colombian judges.
* In 1970 a "Mini Manual for Revolutionaries" was published
in
the official
LASO publication Tricontinental, written by Brazilian urban
terrorist leader
Carlos Marighella. The mini manual gives precise
instruction
in terror tactics, kidnappings, etc. The short book was
translated into
numerous languages and distributed worldwide by Cuba.
* Cuba commenced political and military cooperation with
Somalia's Siad
Barre (1969).
* Economic and political cooperation began with Libya in 1974.
* In 1974 the 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 Pi±eiro, " Barbaroja" was placed in
charge.
* Cuba provided training and support to the Tupamaros, a
terrorist group
operating in Uruguay.
* Cuba's America Department (DA) set up a network for the
funneling of
weapons and supplies to the Sandinistas in Nicaragua.
* In 1979 second in command in Cuba's America Department (DA)
Armando Ulises
Estrada, helped unify Sandinista factions fighting Somoza.
* Closer connections with FATAH-PLO and other Palestinian
organizations
were reinforced, including training of Latin American
guerrillas in
Lebanon; Cuba's military support included counter-intelligence
and intelligence
training.
* Arafat visited Cuba in 1974.
* Cuba provided military support and personnel to Syria during
the Yom Kippur
War (1973-1975).
* Black Panther Party members from the U.S. were trained in
Canada by Cuban
personnel. Black Panther leaders and other U.S. blacks also
received weapons
and explosives training in Havana.
* Cuba joined with Algeria and Libya on a diplomatic/political
offensive in
support of Frente POLISARIO (People's Front for the Liberation
of Western Sahara
and R o del Oro); later on provided military cooperation,
and medical
services.
1976-1982
* The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) estimated that
there were 300
Palestinians training in Cuban camps.
* Cuba supported the so-called "Steadfastness Front" against
the U.S. backed
Camp David accord.
* Illich Rßmirez Sßnchez, 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
urban guerrilla
tactics, automatic weapons, explosives and sabotage in Cuba.
* Abu Iyad, a close aid to Yasser Arafat, stated in 1978 that
hundreds of
Palestinian had been sent to Cuban terrorist camps.
* Additional military and political support provided to the
Palestinian
cause; Arafat attended the Sixth Non-Aligned Conference in
Havana (1979).
* During Havana visit, Arafat signed agreement for military
cooperation
and arms supply.
* Significant hard currency loans (tens of million) were
facilitated
by Arafat-PLO to the Cuban government under very soft terms;
Cuba granted
diplomatic and political support to Arafat during the 1982
Israeli invasion
of Lebanon.
* The Aden (South Yemen) regime supported the Ethiopian
radical officers
commanded by Mengistu Haile Mariam, sending Yemeni military
units in support
of the latter against Somali aggression, and asking the
Cubans to do
the same. Cuba joined in, first with a group of officers headed
by General Arnaldo
Ochoa, a move that was followed later on by the
deployment of
large Cuban forces against the Somali invasion. Also as part
of the alliance
with the Aden regime, Cuba granted some small-scale support
to 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 Mengistu Haile Mariam's
regime in Ethiopia,
the Cuban leadership decided to engage in active
political and
military support of the Liberation Movement of Southern Sudan
headed by John
Garang against the Arab-Muslim regime in Khartoum.
* Cuba developed closer ties with and sent military advisors
to Iraq.
* Cuba's America Department (DA) operated a weapons pipeline
to the Farabundo
Mart 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, to provide political support and coordinate
revolutionary
violence throughout the world. Cuba supported Libya's stand on
Chad and the
FRENTE POLISARIO.
* Cuban trained terrorists members of the Guatemalan EGP
kidnapped a
businessman in Guatemala. Several were arrested in Mexico when
attempting to
collect ransom.
* Despite its close links with Baghdad, Cuba recognized and
praised the
Iranian Revolution. Once Iraq attacked Iran, Castro withdrew his
military advisors
from Baghdad and adopted a position of official
impartiality,
though more sympathetic to Baghdad, due to his past relations.
1983-1990
* Argentine born Cuban intelligence agent Jorge Massetti
helped funnel
Cuban funds to finance Puerto Rican terrorists belonging to
the Machetero
group. The Macheteros highjacked a Wells Fargo truck in
Connecticut
in September 1983 and stole $7.2 million.
* Cuba's America Department (DA) provided, thru Jorge
Massetti, weapons
and several thousand dollars to the Chilean MIR.
* Libyan support to Latin American revolutionary movements,
especially in
Central America and the whole of the World MATHABA project,
declined after
the U.S.bombing of Tripoli in 1986.
* Cuban agents in Mexico engaged in bank robberies to finance
several terrorist
groups from Latin America operating out of Mexico.
* The Palestinian Intifada increased Cuba's support for Arafat
and the PLO,
both diplomatic and military.
* 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 negotiations leading to the establishment of the
Palestinian
National Authority, Cuban-Palestinian military cooperation was
enhanced, including
the areas of counter-intelligence and intelligence.
* In early 1989, Cuban General Patricio de la Guardia directed
a plot in Havana
and charged Jorge Massetti with blowing up the U.S.
transmission
balloon of TV Mart located in the Florida Keys.
* Cuba condemned Iraq for its invasion and annexation of
Kuwait, supporting
the latter's sovereignty; it also condemned U.S. military
operations in
the Gulf and abstained at the U.N. from supporting the bulk of
the sanctions
imposed on Baghdad. A Cuban military delegation was sent to
Iraq to learn
and share what was considered vital information and
experiences
from U.S. combat operations in Kuwait and Iraq.
* Cuba provided advanced weapons and demolition training to
the Tupac Amaru
Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) in Per·. The Tupac Amaru
attacked the
U.S. Embassy in 1984; bombed the Texaco offices in 1985 and
attacked the
residence of the U.S. Ambassador in 1985 all in Lima, Per·.
1991-2001
* ETA, a Spanish terrorist organization seeking a separate
Basque homeland,
established the Cuartel General (General Headquarters) in
Havana.
* A high-level PLO military delegation including the head of
Intelligence
paid a visit to Cuba.
* 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.
* The election of Abdelaziz Bouteflika (April 1999) as
President of
Algeria, opened new opportunities for Cuba, given Bouteflika's
close relationship
with the Cuban government for more than three decades.
* PLO leaders continue to have close relations with the Cuban
leadership,
having access to specialized military and intelligence training,
either in Cuba
or Palestinian territory, and in the sharing of intelligence.
* A spokesman for the Basque government in Spain met in Havana
with two high
level ETA terrorist taking refuge in Cuba, Jos Angel Urtiaga
Martinez and
Jes·s Lucio Abrisqueta Corte.
* 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 who gained sanctuary
in
Cuba some years
ago continued to live on the island, as did several Puerto
Ricans members
of the Machetero Group.
* Castro refused to join the other Ibero-American heads of
state in condemning
ETA terrorism at the 2000 Ibero-American Summit in
Panamß
and slammed Mexico for its support of the Summit's statement against
terrorism.
* Castro continues to maintain ties to several state sponsors
of terrorism
in Latin America. Colombia's two largest terrorist
organizations,
the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the
National Liberation
Army (ELN), both maintain a permanent presence on the
island.
* Colombian officials arrested IRA members Niall Connelly,
Martin McCauley
and James Monaghan and accused then of training the
Revolutionary
Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Connelly had been living in
Cuba as the
representative of the IRA for Latin America.
* Former Defense Department counter-terrorism expert
John
More told UPI
that Cubans, militant Palestinians, Hezbollah and even
advisors from
the leftist government of Venezuela are all active in
Colombia.
* During the trial of several Cuban spies in Miami, one of
the
accused Alejandro
Alonso revealed on December 30, 2000 that he was
instructed from
Havana to locate areas in South Florida "where we can move
persons as well
as things, including arms and explosives."
* Speaking at Tehran University in Iran on May 10, 2001 Fidel
Castro vowed
that "the imperialist king will finally fall".
*Eugene Pons is the Coordinator of Cuba's Information System at the
Institute for
Cuban and Cuban-American Studies, University of Miami.