Cuba's Long History of Arms Smuggling

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From El Universal:

Cuba has spurred a clandestine industry of weapons

For years, Havana traded arms in Africa and Latin America

One way of exporting the Cuban revolutionary project powered by an anti-US ideology was the supply of weapons to countries and organizations that had troubles to buy them or were banned from doing so. As a result, a black market with Cuban trademark gained strength.

Sale of weapons by Cuba during the Cold War was part of the scheme of Castro's diplomacy. In this way, Cuba formed alliances in all continents and oxygenated its dependent economy as a satellite of the Soviet Union.

The finding on July 10 of 240 tons of arms of Soviet origin and property of Cuba onboard the North Korean vessel "Chong Chon Gang," hidden beneath thousand sacks of sugar, revives the issue of the underground business of weapons.

Havana acknowledged being the owner of the weaponry to the authorities of the Panama Canal. However, it labeled the load as "defensive and obsolete," listed stocks of Mig-21, missiles and tanks, and claimed that everything had been sent to North Korea "for repair" and timely return.

The close ideological ties between Cuba and communist Pyongyang are not a secret. Therefore, Havana's lines of argument are hardly credible according to analysts.

"Cuba seeks a niche in the alternative market of weapons set by North Korea with countries in the Middle East, Africa and Southeast Asia," said Colonel Juan Reynaldo Sánchez, a former bodyguard of Fidel Castro.

A strength scheme

Upon the establishment and internationalization of the Cuban revolution in 1959, Fidel and Raúl Castro erected a weapon business with the Soviet help. Most of the arms would reach Angola or Latin America to bolster guerrillas.

"Cuba backed plenty of anti-US regimes and revolutionary and terrorist groups. Some of them are still alive, trying to impose Marxism. This is the case of the Democratic Republic of Congo," noted Jaime Suchlicki, the director of the Cuban-American Institute.

The connection with the Soviet Union enabled Cuba to develop a local military industry with skilled technicians. To date, 80% of Cuban military materials are of Soviet origin.

"Following the collapse of the socialist field, such industry boasts of 67 sites spread over Cuba, comprising the Military Industrial Union," Sánchez spelled out in a paper posted on website Café Fuerte.

The very Cuban Ministry of Defense has contended that the island "counts on the facilities and the necessary human potential to embark in its territory on any repair of its proprietary armament."

To the mind of Colonel Sánchez, economic restraints would be the only obstacle to undertake such repairs. The Cuban Government has no money to buy spare parts, let alone new weaponry.

Anyhow, "buying the parts from Koreans and repairing the equipment in Cuban factories is cheaper" due to labor savings, he warned.

"Is it possible that Cuba managed to buy modern arms from Russia with Russian credits and even Venezuela's aid? Suchlicki wonders.