CASTRO
AND TERRORISM
A CHRONOLOGY
1959-1967
By Eugene Pons
[REF:
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
[
Glossary of Acronyms ]
* Ra·l 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 "Agrupacion Polatica 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
Liberacion
Nacional (FALN) and promoting violence and terrorism against
the
democratically elected regime of Romulo 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 Pieiro, " 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 Ramirez Sanchez,
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,
Jose Angel Urtiaga
Martinez and Jesus 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
Panama 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.
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