New Red Terror
April 18, 2003
By Toby Westerman
Copyright 2003 International News Analysis Today
www.inatoday.com
As the world's attention centers upon Iraq and Syria, a new "red terror" is sweeping across the Caribbean island of Cuba.
"People are afraid…Castro is inflicting terror" upon the Cuban people, states Ninoska Perez, a director of the Cuban Liberty Council, an organization devoted to the establishment of democracy in Cuba. Perez made her remarks during an exclusive interview with International News Analysis Today.
The original "red terror" arose from the brutal oppression of opponents - real and imagined -- of communism following the October Revolution in Russia.
Perez lashed out against the Cuban communist government and its jailing of 78 Cubans for up to 28 years, declaring that the wave of oppression "shows the magnitude of Castro's despotism."
The latest series of arrests and trials indicate an increase in the level of the always-present political oppression in communist Cuba.
Perez indicated that the suppression of dissidents was aimed at top Cuban officials as well as ordinary citizens.
"This is a big blow to the dissident movement in Cuba…[and] sends a message to the people around him [Castro], the people on the street, that there is a limit to what he will tolerate," said Perez.
"A lot more is going on in Cuba than we know - a lot more inside Castro's ranks, in certain levels of the [Cuban] armed forces and the Communist Party," Perez speculated.
The Cuban Justice Ministry described the arrests and trials with a terse press release. Dissidents were described as "counterrevolutionaries…arrested for their known participation in mercenary activities…against the independence and territorial integrity of the Cuban state," according to Radio Havana Cuba, the official broadcasting service of the Cuban government.
Despite worldwide condemnation for his political repression, Castro still has friends - powerful friends.
China maintains "high level military contacts" with Cuba, and is constructing an electronic spy base eight to ten miles from Russia's Lourdes intelligence facility, according to Dennis Hays, Executive Vice President of the pro-democracy exile group, the Cuban American National Foundation.
The Chinese spy base, which would be capable of intercepting, and possibly jamming, U.S. electronic signals, "should be a security concern" to the U.S., urged Hays in an interview with INA Today.
Hays also warned that the communist Chinese are active throughout the South American continent.
The Cuban state-run press is openly discussing the "very strong ties with the Cuban military," said Perez, who notes that several Chinese generals have recently visited Cuba.
In addition to China, Cuba's traditional friend and supporter, Russia, is still involved in the island.
Despite Russian declarations - and Cuban denunciations - concerning the purported closure of the Lourdes base, the facility remains at least partially open, Perez revealed.
Havana proudly boasts of Moscow's continuing interest in Cuba, quoting Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov's recent remarks concerning Cuban-Russian relations. During a March, 2003 meeting in Moscow with Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque, Ivanov stated that "Moscow considers Cuba its key partner in Latin America," according to Radio Havana Cuba.
Observers note that not only does Russia have close relations with Cuba, Moscow is also the chief sponsor of China's vast military modernization program, enabling Beijing to eventually challenge the U.S. in the Pacific, and potentially - with Cuba's help -- in the Caribbean.
Copyright 2003
International News Analysis Today
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