Covert Cuban Intelligence Operations in the Americas
J. B. Wolf, Antiterrorist Initiatives, Plenum Press, New York, 1989.
The Americas department is a division of the Cuban General Directorate of Intelligence (D.G.I.) that manages all of Havana’s covert activities in the Western hemisphere, especially its moves to undercut democracy and capitalism. A handful of strategically placed D.G.I. operatives are assigned the task of implementing programs that are formulated in cooperation with the Kremlin. These agents execute measures intended to divert American society from the orderly pursuit of its national purpose.
Cuban intelligence is skilled in manipulating the terrorist groups that are lodged in a targeted country, edging them into using armed propaganda to highlight significant economic and social grievances. The objective of these Communist-contrived terrorist acts is to advertise that the American system of government is in shambles and that Americans lack the will to protect their vital national interests.
Moscow calculates that acts of terror by its surrogates, that is, the groups which are used for the purpose of masking its own involvement, will cause the citizens of the United States to question the determination and foresight of their government and business leaders. Once this process begins, the Kremlin conjectures, any American approach to protect its interests will be characterized by indecisiveness and failure.
The Soviet Union forecasts that the American people, upon being confronted with danger and riddled with discord, will abandon democracy and accept some form of dictatorial rule in its stead. According to J. B. Wolf, Antiterrorist Initiatives (© Plenum Press, New York 1989), Karl Marx theorized that dictatorships are eventually transformed into socialist systems through an inevitable historical process that is keyed to violence, its catalyst for change. Italy’s Red Brigades, West Germany’s Baader-Meinhof Gang, and various Latin American terrorist organizations have served as instruments for the Communist bloc in its campaign of surrogate warfare directed against the United States and its Allies.
The dimensions and characteristics of this form of warfare have received scant attention in the popular media. American officials admit that their country can wage nuclear war, or participate in a large-scale guerrilla war, but has not yet developed a comprehensive strategy to protect itself against acts of terror unleashed by the Kremlin’s surrogates.
The Communists have skillfully contrived a scenario of terror that is designed to constrict the economic system of the United States. The plan involves the use of terrorist action in overseas areas vital to American interests, particularly in Central America. Among the significant components of this strategy are:
- The disruption and eventual severance of the trade connections between the United States and Western Europe by creating an insecure environment for commerce.
- The reduction of the American corporate investment and involvement in Central and Latin America, Asia, and Africa as a consequence of the high risk and vulnerability of business assets.
- Denying the United States safe access to oil produced by the OPEC countries, while simultaneously increasing its dependency on foreign oil. The American antinuclear movement and advocates of environmental stability are unwitting but vital components in this portion of Moscow’s analysis.
The D.G.I., while acting as Moscow’s surrogate, manages intelligence operations specifically contrived to assist the Communists to realize their objectives in the Americas, particularly by acts of terror and trade in narcotics.
Book: Antiterrorist Initiatives
Traditionally, terrorist bands operating in rural or urban areas use vio lence to cast themselves as a legitimate political force. Necklacing, plac ing an oil-soaked tire around the neck of an informer and then igniting it, and knee-capping, positioning a handgun behind the kneecap of a “tout” (a police informer) and then squeezing the trigger, are among the enforcement methods used by clandestine groups to administer “revo lutionary justice.” Necklacing is used by the African National Con gress (A.N.C.). Knee-capping is a traditional Irish Republican Army (I. R. A.) tactic. Governments frequently lend credibility to the terrorists’ claim of legitimacy by not implementing measures intended to extirpate them. Frequently, democratic societies fear that rigid control measures pose a threat to civil liberties. Reluctant to move, a democracy is often ham strung by terrorists bent on manipulating its values. A media campaign, intended to mobilize public opinion against the terrorists and garner mass support for the government and its control measures, is the linchpin of any antiterrorist campaign. Centralized intelligence-gathering is another essential component. Terrorism, when it becomes a regular campaign of bombings and other atrocities, is no longer a problem for just the police and the army. The entire society is affected. For example, all groups comprising the multi ethnic popu- vii viii PREFACE tion of Sri Lanka and South Africa are presently exposed to the terror ist threat.
- ISBN‑10: 0306431238
- ISBN‑13: 978‑0306431234
