On June 8, 2023, the Wall Street Journal shocked the public by publishing an article detailing a deal between the Cuban and Chinese governments that allowed China to conduct spying operations from the island, with the intent of specifically targeting the United States. The Wall Street Journal published an equally concerning article on June 20, 2023, two weeks later, revealing information about the planned construction of a Chinese military base on the Cuban coastline. (READ MORE: Winkin’, Blinken, and Nod: Biden Administration Fails on Cuba)
Although unexpected and disturbing, this news didn’t come out of the blue: Cuba has a long history of antagonism toward the United States and its allies, one spanning 65 years.
Communist Cuba’s Anti-Americanism
Ever since Fidel Castro seized control of the island on Jan. 1, 1959, Cuba has played an integral role in an axis of states united by zealous anti-Americanism and by a desire to see the collapse of the liberal world order with which the name “America” has become synonymous.
On Jan. 3, 1959, just two days after Castro came to power, Che Guevara (an infamous Argentine itinerant-revolutionary and icon of the militant left) was given command of La Cabaña, a political prison used for the detention and mass execution of Castro’s political opponents, as well as those who were considered pro-Batista or anti-revolution. Put another way, as soon as Castro emerged from the revolution, he began to oppress the Cuban people.
Within just a few weeks after seizing power, Castro and Guevara began to work to export the Cuban Revolution. Castro developed an infrastructure that enabled Cuba to offer direct and indirect support to international terrorist organizations for decades, arguably allowing the country to conduct itself in the same manner today. Cuba offered training to guerillas in terrorism and communist ideology on Cuban soil. Cuba provided significant financial support to worldwide terrorist organizations — as well as offensive equipment and military advisors. Most importantly, Cuba offered foreign terrorist groups robust propaganda support and intelligence from Cuba’s capable clandestine services. This policy eventually placed Cuba on the U.S. “State Sponsors of Terrorism” list.
During the Cuban Missile Crisis, in correspondence between Castro and Nikita Khrushchev (which has now received the harrowing nickname “The Armageddon Letter”), Castro urged the Soviet Union to begin a nuclear war with the United States because he believed that — with the assistance of a victorious Soviet Union — a global communist revolution would rise from the ashes of the previous world order.
In its efforts to damage the United States and foment instability in various regions of the world, Cuba has developed extraordinary intelligence services, which rely heavily upon Cuba’s truly world-class SIGINT capabilities. Cuba regularly trafficks the intelligence it gets from intercepting U.S. communications and selling damaging information to United States’ enemies and rogue states, including but not limited to Iran, Russia, North Korea, and China.
Refined Cuban Spy Networks
In the ’90s, a network of Cuban spies known as the WASP Network was discovered in the United States. The network consisted of approximately 40 Cuban government agents — and spying wasn’t their only assignment. These agents were tasked with collecting information on U.S.-based military installations and Cuban exile groups, and they were also expected to smuggle arms and explosives into the United States, plot terrorist attacks against civilian targets, and kill Americans on American soil.
After 9/11, when the United States was vulnerable and the American people in mourning, Cuba thrust a knife into our back. Cuban government agents flooded U.S. intelligence services with false information regarding Osama bin Laden’s whereabouts in an attempt to stall the investigation and foil our efforts to locate him.
During the U.S. intervention in Iraq, the Cuban government gave information to Hussein’s government on U.S. troop movements and military operations, almost certainly resulting in American casualties. Similarly, Cuba provided intelligence on U.S. counterterrorism missions to the Pakistani government, and to al-Qaeda through Pakistan. This might have been the single-most-concerted effort to kill American troops taken by any foreign government in recent years, short of an act of war. (READ MORE: Highlighting the World’s Worst Religious Persecutors)
Just a few years ago, we learned that the Middle Eastern terrorist group (and Iran-proxy) Hezbollah was operating a base in Cuba with the purpose of collecting intelligence for further operations against the United States and our allies (with Cuba’s fiat).
Cuba’s recent cooperation with Chinese aggression is just another in a long line of Cuban provocations and attempts to endanger American citizens’ lives and livelihoods. The Cuban threat has been largely ignored for several decades; we can only hope this revelation awakens the American people to the ruthless dictatorship living — and plotting — just over the horizon.
Logan is a student at the University of Connecticut studying history and global studies. Presently, he is a researcher at the Center for a Free Cuba, an organization dedicated to monitoring human-rights abuses within Cuba and to advocating for Cuba’s eventual liberalization.