Martinelli explica el caso del buque norcoreano con armas cubanas en el Canal de Panama

Maria Elvira Salazar

Russia Plans Joint Military Drills With North Korea and Cuba

Newsweek

By Damien Sharkov 

Russia could soon be carrying out military drills alongside North Korea and Cuba according to Valery Gerasimov, the chief of staff of the Russian armed forces.

Speaking at a meeting on Saturday which was also attended by Russia’s defence minister Sergey Shoygu, along with the heads of all armed forces branches, Gerasimov announced: “We are planning an expansion of the communication lines of our military central command. We are entering preliminary negotiations with the armed forces of Brazil, Vietnam, Cuba and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.”

“We are going to conduct a series of joint naval and air force exercises, as well as joint drills of our ground troops and air assault troops,” the military official added.

According to the former U.S. ambassador to the Ukraine Steven Pifer, Russia is developing these potential military partnerships as a response to its current international isolation. Due to its involvement in the Ukrainian conflict, the U.S. and EU have both imposed sanctions on the country and certain Russian individuals, and the country was suspended from the G8 last March.

“The Russian military may be reaching out to other countries as part of Moscow’s effort to show that it is not isolated, despite the very negative international reaction to Russian aggression against Ukraine,” Pifer says.

However Pifer, who also served as special assistant to president Bill Clinton on Russia and Eurasia, does not believe Russia’s attempts to embark on new military partnerships will develop further: “I’d be astonished to see Russian and North Korean troops training together,” Pifer says.

“As for Cuba, Moscow has a long history there. My guess is that part of the Russian interest is tit-for-tat: they are unhappy with U.S/ military cooperation with the Baltic states and other countries, such as Georgia, that are close to them, so they hope to tweak the United States by upping their engagement in Cuba.”

However, according to Pifer a Russian partnership with Cuba may also be unlikely due to the recent thawing of relations between Havana and the U.S..

Last week Russian president Vladimir Putin told military officials in Moscow that he would like to expand Russia’s role in the arms trade across the Far East and Latin America.

Image: Arms Trafficking from Cuba's Port of Mariel

capitolhillcubans

The image below is of the Captain's Note from the North Korean ship that was intercepted last year trafficking 240 tons of weapons from Cuba.

It shows his instructions to pick up the shipment at the Port of Mariel and identifies the Cuban military contact.

Note that the Port of Mariel was officially inaugurated in January 2014.  Yet, the weapons were loaded on June 20, 2013.

The only two entities with access to the Port of Mariel were the Cuban military and its Brazilian partner, Odebrecht.

Another Suspicious North Korean Vessel in Cuba

capitolhillcubans

Mu Du Bong/ www.vesseltracker.com

Last year, the Chong Chon Gang was caught red-handed smuggling 240 tons of illegal weapons from Cuba to North Korea.

There were at least seven other North Korean vessels that had made similar trips to Cuba in recent years. Who know what got away.

Currently, there is another vessel, Mu Du Bong, making the same route and trying to avoid detection.

Could the Cuban and North Korean regimes be so brazen?

Absolutely, for they have -- thus far - gotten away scot-free for their previous illegal behavior.

As we warned earlier this year on this issue -- inaction breeds impunity.

From Forbes:

North Korean Ship Tests the Waters Near America's Shores

It’s not often that North Korean-flagged freighters turn up near America’s shores, but when they do, they deserve attention. North Korea has a prolific record of arms smuggling, narcotics dealing, counterfeiting, terrorist ties and missile and nuclear proliferation. So, let’s hope U.S. authorities are keeping a close eye on a North Korean cargo ship called the Mu Du Bong, which late last month called at Cuba, then vanished from the commercial shipping grid for more than a week. This past Thursday, July 10, the Mu Du Bong reappeared at Havana, then began steaming north of Cuba, and as of this writing is cruising the Gulf of Mexico, not all that far from the Mexican port of Tampico — or for that matter, the coast of Texas.

The Mu Du Bong’s mission could be entirely legitimate. But its behavior bears some disturbing similarities to last year’s voyage of another North Korean freighter, the Chong Chon Gang, which last summer sailed into the Caribbean, picked up an illicit load of weapons in Cuba, and got caught trying to smuggle its cargo through the Panama Canal.

Acting on a tip, Panamanian authorities searched the Chong Chon Gang. They discovered some 240 tons of arms and related materiel, including two disassembled MiG-21 jet fighters, additional MiG engines, surface-to-air missile system components, night vision goggles and ammunition — all hidden under more than 200,000 bags of Cuban sugar.

Documents found on board the Chong Chon Gang proved a trove of information for members of the United Nations Panel of Experts on North Korea sanctions, who summarized some of their findings in a UN report released this past March. The U.N. investigators were able to reconstruct an array of techniques with which the Chong Chon Gang tried to hide its illicit mission. They concluded that both the arms shipment and the related transaction between North Korea and Cuba had violated U.N. sanctions on North Korea.

The U.N. report describes how the Chong Chon Gang set out in mid-2013 from North Korea, took on fuel in a Russian Far East port, crossed the Pacific and transited the Panama Canal into the Caribbean. The ship then disappeared from the commercial shipping grid by switching off its onboard transponder, the Automatic Identification System (AIS), with which vessels for reasons of maritime safety are required to signal their identity and real-time location.

While its transponder was switched off, the Chong Chon Gang discharged cargo in Havana, then drifted around north of Cuba for about 10 days, then made a covert stop at the Cuban port of Mariel — where the weapons were loaded on board. The ship then called at another Cuban port, Puerto Padre, where the sugar, a legitimate cargo, was loaded on top on the contraband.

Now comes the Mu Du Bong, a North Korean-flagged general cargo ship, launched in 1984. This vessel is named after a hill in North Korea near Mount Paektu, a locale central to the mythology with which North Korea’s totalitarian regime has deified its founding tyrant, Kim Il Sung.

According to ship-tracking information on Lloyd’s, the Mu Du Bong has spent the past three years plying the coast of China, close to North Korea. In April, that changed. The Mu Du Bong called at the Russian Far East port of Nakhodka, then crossed the Pacific, transited the Panama Canal in mid-June, and made for Cuba. On June 25, she signaled on AIS a few miles off the port of Mariel; then signaled again on June 29 and 30 from the nearby port of Havana.

Then, for nine straight days, from July 1-9, the Mu Du Bong stopped signaling on AIS, and disappeared from the commercial shipping grid. It’s possible the ship was simply sitting quietly at anchor. But there are echoes here not only of the Chong Chon Gang, but of a number of other North Korean-flagged freighters which over the years have followed this pattern of dropping off the grid in the vicinity of Cuba. In congressional testimony last September, illicit-trafficking expert Hugh Griffiths, of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, described this practice as “a common risk indicator of maritime trafficking.” (Iran in recent years has used the same tactic to mask sanctions-busting activities of its oil tankers) [...]

On the Equasis shipping database, the Mu Du Bong is listed as owned by the Mudubong Shipping Co Ltd, in Pyongyang, with an address care of Taedonggang Sonbak Co Ltd, also in Pyongyang. According to the 2014 UN panel of experts report on North Korea sanctions, the commercial operator for Taedonggang Sonbak is another Pyongyang-based company, called Ocean Maritime Management Company Ltd — which was the commercial operator for the arms-smuggling Chong Chon Gang, and “played a key role in arranging the shipment of the concealed cargo of arms and related materiel.”

The questions multiply. Who is providing insurance for the Mu Du Bong? (Lloyd’s, usually a source for such information, shows nothing). With a number of North Korean banks under U.S. sanctions, who paid the fees for the Mu Du Bong’s passage last month through the Panama Canal?

What might the U.S. do? To date, the U.S. government has not imposed sanctions on North Korean vessels. If the Mu Du Bong heads home by way of the Panama Canal, presumably Panama’s authorities could be asked, politely, to check the cargo. But there is no guarantee this ship will head back through the canal. This is not the Mu Du Bong’s first trip to Cuba. She called there previously, in 2009. On that trip, the Mu Du Bong entered the Caribbean via the Panama Canal, but exited by a different route. After calling at Cuba she plied the Atlantic for months between Latin America and West Africa, with port calls in Brazil, Ghana, the Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone and Senegal, before heading around the Horn of Africa and back to East Asia with stops enroute in Qatar, Bangladesh, Vietnam and Singapore.

Perhaps it’s unlikely that North Korea would so brazenly attempt another smuggling run so close to America’s shores, so soon after the seizure of the Chong Chon Gang. But in dispatching the Mu Du Bong via the Panama Canal to Cuba, Pyongyang is at the very least sticking a thumb in America’s eye, and quite possibly testing the waters for future smuggling runs.

Shipping Company Charged For Cuba-To-North-Korea Weapons Intercepted By Panama

Fox News Latino

Singapore (AP) –  Singapore filed criminal charges Tuesday against a shipping company implicated in a shipment of weapons to North Korea that was seized by Panamanian authorities last year.

Locally registered Chinpo Shipping Company Ltd. was charged with transferring $72,000 to a Panama shipping agent knowing that the funds could be used to contribute to the "nuclear-related, ballistic missile-related, or other weapons of mass destruction-related programs or activities" of North Korea. A Chinpo executive, Tan Hui Tin, was also charged for withholding potential electronic evidence.

The charges stem from an incident that unfolded during the second half of 2013. In July, Panama seized a ship, the Chong Chon Gang, in the Panama Canal which was headed from Cuba to North Korea. Panamanian authorities suspected that it was transporting drugs, but when they searched the vessel they found two Cuban fighter jets, missiles and live munitions hidden in a cargo of sugar.

After the seizure, Cuba said the cargo included "obsolete defensive weapons" including two MiG-21 fighter jets and 15 motors, nine missiles in parts, and two anti-aircraft systems that were being shipped to North Korea "to be repaired and returned."

However, in October, Belsio González, director of Panama's National Aeronautics and Ocean Administration, said that the fighter jets "are in operational condition and their engines are in excellent shape." The Central American nation said that the weapons violated U.N. sanctions that restrict arms trading with North Korea because of its nuclear weapons program.

In February, Panama released all but three members of the ship's crew after Chinpo paid a fine of nearly $700,000.

In March, the United Nations Security Council's sanctions committee named Chinpo as one of two companies involved in trying to ship arms to North Korea. The other was Ocean Maritime Management, a Pyongyang-based company.

Singapore's foreign ministry said authorities received information about Chinpo in January this year.

A panel of experts advising the Security Council said in its annual report on North Korea that the country's embassies, including in Singapore and Cuba, were suspected of helping to organize arms shipments to Pyongyang via complex financial methods that were "pioneered by drug-trafficking organizations."

The report said Chinpo Shipping Company was "co-located" with the North Korean Embassy in Singapore and that the shipping firm acted as the agent for Ocean Maritime Management, which operated the Chong Chon Gang.

A woman who answered the phone at Chinpo declined to comment.

Sen. Marco Rubio: Cuba-North Korea Sanctions Violation Must Be Punished

Capitol Hill Cubans

Rubio: Cuba-North Korea Sanctions Violation Must Be Punished With Real Measures 

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Select Committee on Intelligence, issued the following statement regarding the newly published United Nations report confirming that North Korea violated international sanctions in 2013 with the assistance of the Cuban regime:

“North Korea is the worst of the world’s worst when it comes to breaking its promises, violating international security agreements, destabilizing the world, repressing innocents and displaying generally bizarre behavior befitting a rogue state. The U.S. and international community must send a clear message to North Korea that there are consequences for flagrantly violating previous weapons agreements and trying to circumvent sanctions.

The Cuban regime’s complicity is also reprehensible and must be punished. The Cuban regime’s alliance with North Korea and its active involvement in facilitating this type of illicit activity in our own hemisphere is a threat to America’s security as well as the region.

The Obama Administration should stop allowing military-affiliated hotels, restaurants and other tourist facilities in Cuba to profit from American travel. The administration should also work with like-minded nations and others interested in upholding international non-proliferation accords to condemn this behavior and take meaningful actions to punish it.”

Must Read: U.N. Releases Concerning Report on Cuba -North Korea ...

Capitol Hill Cubans

The U.N.'s Panel of Experts ("Panel") has released its official report on North Korea's illegal trafficking of weapons, in conjunction with Cuba's Castro regime.

In July 2013, a North Korean flagged vessel, Chong Chon Gang, was intercepted carrying weaponry from Cuba hidden under 200,000 bags of sugar.

According to the report, such weapons trafficking remains "one of [North Korea's] most profitable revenue sources."

The report also documents North Korea's efforts to sell weaponry to Iran, Somalia, Eritrea, Myanmar and other countries of concern.

In the case of Cuba, it's the first time a nation in the Western Hemisphere is found in blatant violation of U.N. sanctions.

Moreover, the report notes similar Cuba trafficking patterns by other North Korean ships in the recent past.

Here are some notable excerpts from the report:

- The Panel concluded in its incident report submitted to the Committee that both the shipment itself and the transaction between Cuba and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea were sanctions violations.

- The Panel found that the hidden cargo amounted to six trailers associated with surface-to-air missile systems and 25 shipping containers loaded with two disassembled MiG-21 aircraft, 15 engines for MiG-21 aircraft, components for surface-to-air missile systems, ammunition and miscellaneous arms-related materiel.This constituted the largest amount of arms and related materiel interdicted to or from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea since the adoption of resolution 1718 (2006).

- No records show the ship stopping at any countries other than Cuba between exiting the Panama Canal on 1 June and its return passage on 11 July.

- On 20 June, the ship docked in the port of Mariel, where it took onboard the arms and related materiel.

- Cuba argued that “maintenance”, as set out in paragraph 8 (c) of resolution 1718, was distinct from “repair”, which Cuba claimed was the basis of its contract with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea... The Panel is unconvinced by Cuba’s rationale to distinguish “maintenance” and “repair.”

- The transportation of undeclared weapons and explosives in this manner posed a significant danger to all persons and facilities in proximity to the ship and should be a cause of concern among shippers, port authorities, the international maritime community and insurers.

- Evidence found on the ship (see annexes XX and XXI) pointed to involvement of Democratic People’s Republic of Korea embassy staff in Cuba. Contact phone numbers and records found in the captain’s notes led the Panel to conclude that embassy officials in Havana were engaged in making arrangements for the shipment of the consignment of arms and related materiel, including the payment methods.

- In its consultations with the Panel, Cuba confirmed the parties involved in the sugar and said that the arms shipment was part of a governmental agreement. It declined,however, to give the Panel copies of these agreements, citing confidentiality clauses in the contracts.

- The incident involving the Chong Chon Gang revealed a comprehensive, planned strategy to conceal the existence and nature of the cargo.

- All identification markings and insignia of the Cuban Revolutionary Air Force had been removed from both MiG-21 aircraft; the Panel observed signs of overspray and scratch marks in places dedicated to original insignia.

- While the age of the items found in the shipment varied greatly, most appeared to have been well maintained. Records accompanying a great deal of the equipment indicated or certified the equipment functioned in accordance with specification or had been calibrated just prior to packing.

- It is the Panel’s view that examining individually the items and their handling suggest that some, if not all, of the consignment was not expected to be returned to Cuba.

- [The Panel] notes that the voyage of another Democratic People’s Republic of Korea-flagged and -owned vessel to Cuba presents a very similar pattern to the recent voyage of the Chong Chon Gang.

- On April 2012, the general cargo vessel O Un Chong Nyon Ho (IMO 8330815) operated by OMM,11 sailed directly from Nampo to Cuba and back without any further calls in the region. After having stopped in Havana and Puerto Padre, the O Un Chong Nyon Ho drifted for several weeks off northern Cuba before returning for three weeks to Havana. Its Automatic Identification System was switched off (in violation of IMO requirements) during these three weeks, however, effectively preventing determination of further ports’ calls,as in the case of the Chong Chon Gang.

Will U.S. Outsource Decision on Cuba's Illegal Weapons Smuggling to Russia?

Capitol Hill Cubans 

Since General Raul Castro became dictator-in-chief, the Cuban regime has dramatically increased repression against its own people, taken an American hostage and consummated the subversion of democracy in Venezuela.

Despite this, the Obama Administration has continued to "extend its hand" and unilaterally ease sanctions (twice).

Now, the Castro regime has been caught red-handed smuggling illegal weaponry to North Korea. 

So what will be the U.S. response?

According to the State Department (below), the U.S. will take "appropriate action," but stressed this is a U.N. Security Council issue.  

In other words, the U.S. will consider outsourcing its decision to Russia (a veto-wielding member of the U.N. Security Council).

While we are at it -- why not let the U.N. Security Council decide how to deal with Russia's illegal actions in Ukraine as well?

Probably not a good idea.

To recap, this is the first time any country in the Western Hemisphere has been found in violation of an international arms embargo. 

Moreover, it's the most egregious violation of North Korea sanctions -- by any country -- to date.

And yet, the U.S. is going to let Russia decide (which has a military spy ship docked in Havana harbor) how to deal with Castro's regime?

Let's hope not.

Or Castro will be laughing with his friend Assad.

Click here to see details of the U.N. Panel of Experts report on Cuba's weapons smuggling to North Korea.

Otherwise, here's a good summary from The Miami Herald:

UN: Cuba would not ID those responsible for North Korea arms shipment

Cuba's government refused to identify the people or entities involved in a weapons shipment to North Korea last year that violated a U.N. arms embargo, and might have violated the embargo twice more in 2012, according to a U.N. report made public Tuesday.

Some of the weapons and equipment that Cuba described as "obsolete" had been calibrated just before they were put aboard the freighter Chong Chon Gang, the document added, and Cuban insignias on two MiG21 warplanes were painted over.

The report also declared that the shipment intercepted in Panama violated the U.N. embargo on the Asian nation, and that despite Havana's denials there were indications Cuba intended to turn over the weapons to the Pyongyang government.

Cuba's 240-ton shipment was "the largest amount of arms and related materiel" interdicted going to or from North Korea since the Asian nation was hit with an arms embargo in 2006 because of its nuclear weapons program, the document added.

The public part of the 127-page report makes no recommendations on sanctions for Cuban or North Korean entities involved in the violations. But it mentions a secret annex submitted to the U.N. Security Council, or UNSC, committee in charge of banking and travel sanctions on violators.

The U.S. State Department said it will “pursue appropriate action” based on the report but added, “We do not view this as a bilateral issue between the United States and Cuba. This is about a potential violation of U.N. Security Council sanctions on North Korea.”

Anti-Castro activist Mauricio Claver Carone urged the Obama administration to adopt "tangible repercussions that would make it unequivocally clear to the Castro regime that such behavior isn't inconsequential. Otherwise, it will continue to feel emboldened."

Cuba declared in July that it sent the weapons to North Korea to be repaired and returned. It later argued to U.N. investigators who visited Havana that they did not violate the U.N. ban on the "supply, sale or transfer" of weapons to Pyongyang because Cuba retained ownership and the embargo covers "maintenance" but not "repairs."

Those arguments were rejected in the document Tuesday, the annual report by the panel of U.N. experts that investigates all violations of the North Korea sanctions. It was submitted last month to the UNSC committee that enforces the embargo, and parts of it had leaked to the news media.

"The Panel is unconvinced by Cuba's rationale to distinguish 'maintenance' and 'repair,'" the report said, adding flatly that the shipment "violated the sanctions."

Although Cuba told the U.N. investigators that the state-run Cubazucar had shipped the 200,018 sacks of sugar that covered and hid the weapons on the Chong Chon Gang, it refused to identify the Cubans involved in the weapons shipment and contract with Pyongyang.

"It declined ... to give the panel copies of these agreements, citing confidentiality clauses in the contracts," the report said. "The Panel is not, therefore, able to identify the entities or individuals involved in these agreements."

The report said the weapons were loaded aboard the freighter at the port of Mariel west of Havana that's being expanded by a consortium of Almacenes Universal S.A., run by the Cuban military and Brazilian enterprises.

Packed in 25 metal shipping containers and six trailers were two anti-aircraft missile systems, two MiG-21UM jet trainers, 15 engines and afterburners for the MiG21s, artillery shells and other munitions and materiel - most of it from the Soviet era.

While Cuba claims the weaponry was to be returned to the island, the report said it was the "panel's view that examining individually the items and their (packaging) ... suggest that some, if not all, of the consignment was not expected to be returned to Cuba."

And although Cuba claims the weapons were "obsolete," the report added, "records accompanying a great deal of the equipment indicated or certified the equipment functioned in accordance with specification or had been calibrated just before packing. Further, some of the equipment was unused or still in its original packaging."

What's more, the report said, Cuba had confirmed that North Korean military officers visited the island in 2012 to assess the weapons that were shipped in 2013. If the visit was "to provide services or assistance ... they would also have been a violation."

The report added that another North Korean freighter docked in April 2012 at some of the same Cuban ports as the Chong Chon Gang. Havana claimed it made only one weapons shipment last summer, but the experts could not confirm that claim.

The report also detailed the efforts to hide the Cuban weapons under the sugar and the freighter's failure to report its true cargo as it prepared to cross the Panama Canal westbound to North Korea. Panama intercepted the ship on a tip it was carrying drugs.

Cuba argued that it was not responsible for hiding the weapons under the sugar, according to the U.N. experts' report.

The document included the text of a message, marked "secret," notifying the captain of the freighter that he would be taking on some unscheduled cargo in Cuba and telling him to inform only his deputy captain and the political and security commissars aboard.

"After unloading in Havana ... load the containers first and load the 10,000 tons of sugar (at the next Port) over them so that the containers cannot be seen," added the message, found aboard the ship.

"The extraordinary and extensive efforts to conceal the cargo of arms" and the freighter's failure to include the weapons in its cargo manifest "point to a clear and conscious intention to circumvent" the arms embargo, the report said.

Odebrecht's Cuba Port at Center of Illegal Weapons Smuggling

capitolhillcubans

A U.N. Panel of Experts has just submitted its findings to the Security Council's Sanctions Committee, which shows that Cuban weapons systems were loaded onto a North Korean ship at the Port of Mariel on June 20, 2013.

This has been determined to be a violation of international sanctions.

On June 22nd, the ship then sailed to Puerto Padre, where it sought to conceal the weapons with 10,000 tons of sugar. And on July 5th, it departed towards the Panama Canal, where it was intercepted, en route to Nampo, North Korea.

The U.N. Panel also determined that there was a "comprehensive planned strategy to conceal the existence and nature of the cargo."

The ship's automatic identification system was turned off to hide its stop at the Port of Mariel. Moreover, while the logs showed multiple ports of call, they omitted the Mariel stop.

This is the same Mariel port that the Brazilian conglomerate, Odebrecht, has been expanding (since 2011) in partnership with Castro's military.

In other words, this Cuba-North Korea weapons transfer occurred right under Odebrecht's nose (at best).

So not only is Odebrecht cooperating with a brutal dictatorship, but it's facilitating its illegal activities.

Cuba: Legisladores contrabandistas. La Ley cubana de Navegación Marítima y el buque coreano Chong Chon Gang

Diario de Cuba

Alberto Méndez Castelló

La pasada semana concluyó en La Habana el Congreso Internacional Abogacía-2013. Entre otros temas debatieron en ese evento sobre "la proyección ética y social de los abogados". Eso está bien. Pero de mayor latitud hubiera sido hurgar en la proyección ética y social del legislador y el operador de las leyes en Cuba. Por ejemplo:

La Asamblea Nacional del Poder Popular, en la Sesión del pasado 6 de julio, correspondiente al Primer Período de Sesiones de la VIII Legislatura, dictó la Ley No. 115 de la Navegación Marítima, Fluvial y Lacustre, que, con su publicación en la Gaceta Oficial, entró en vigor este 4 de noviembre.

Dice la supradicha Ley de Navegación en su Artículo 74.1: "La navegación de los buques, embarcaciones y artefactos navales extranjeros a través del mar territorial, se efectúa de acuerdo al régimen de paso inocente, siempre que se realice con el fin de atravesar las zonas abiertas a la navegación de este mar".

Y abunda el precitado Artículo 74 en su apartado 3: "Se considera que el paso de un buque, embarcación y artefacto naval extranjero es perjudicial para la paz, el buen orden, la defensa o la seguridad nacional, si en el mar territorial se realiza alguna actividad ajena a la navegación de paso inocente, conforme a lo establecido en los convenios internacionales de los cuales es Parte la República de Cuba y lo que se dispone en el Reglamento".

En Derecho Internacional, el paso de una embarcación es inocente mientras no sea perjudicial para la paz, el buen orden y la seguridad del Estado ribereño.

Al respecto conceptúa el Artículo 134 del Decreto No. 317 del Consejo de Ministros, Reglamento de la Ley de la Navegación Marítima, Fluvial y Lacustre: "No se considera como inocente el paso de un buque, embarcación y artefacto naval extranjero por el mar territorial cubano, si realiza alguna de las actividades siguientes:

"c) Lanzar, recepcionar o embarcar aeronaves o cualquier dispositivo militar.

"e) Embarcar o desembarcar cualquier producto, moneda o persona, en contravención de las leyes y reglamentos aduaneros, fiscales, migratorios o sanitarios.

"h) Realizar cualquier otra actividad que no esté directamente relacionada con el paso inocente".

Concerniente al despacho de arribo a puerto, el Reglamento de la Ley de Navegación cubana expresa en su Artículo 146: "El Capitán o Patrón del buque, embarcación y artefacto naval, a través del agente consignatario, tiene que presentar ante la Capitanía de Puerto el aviso de arribo y entregar a los efectos del despacho la documentación siguiente:

"a) Declaración general.

"b) Lista de los miembros de la dotación.

"c) Lista de pasajeros.

"d) Declaración de armamentos y narcóticos.

"e) Declaración de polizontes y deportados.

"f) Manifiesto de carga y la declaración de carga peligrosa, si la transporta."

Tensión al Derecho

Mientras en La Habana los diputados a la Asamblea Nacional del Poder Popular rubricaban este profuso articulado en materia de Derecho Marítimo, militares bajo el mando de generales-diputados, también firmantes de la nueva Ley de Navegación, pisoteaban esa legislación todavía con la tinta fresca, cargando en el mercante norcoreano Chong Chon Gang un alijo de armas, en contravención no ya del Derecho Internacional, sino también de sus propios postulados jurídicos, moralmente, muertos al nacer con su actuar delictuoso.

"Los cambios en el país ponen en tensión al Derecho, porque en algunos casos no se corresponden con la sociedad actual", dijo el Dr. Ariel Mantecón, presidente de la Organización Nacional de Bufetes Colectivos al periódico Juventud Rebelde, en un artículo titulado La ley debe parecerse a su circunstancia, publicado en su edición del pasado viernes 22 a propósito del Congreso Abogacía-2013.

Aunque ajustado a derecho es imposible encontrar congruencias lícitas en lo articulado por la recién promulgada Ley de Navegación cubana y las circunstancias ilícitas que condujeron a la detención del carguero norcoreano en aguas panameñas, lleva toda razón el Dr. Mantecón, solo que no son los cambios ocurridos en Cuba en los últimos meses los que ponen en tensión al Derecho, sino las continuas y sistemáticas infracciones y quebrantamientos de leyes, precisamente a manos de sus operadores, ocurridas durante ya más de medio siglo, en detrimento de derechos universalmente aceptados, los que ponen en entredicho el papel de las leyes y el de sus manejadores en la Isla.

De ahí el origen de los tan publicitados cambios ocurridos en los últimos meses en Cuba: del ejercicio de una jurisprudencia en todas las ramas del árbol jurídico contranatural, que, por inoperante, ahora tratan de enmendar.

Tal conculcar de leyes de carácter continuado, tiene como punto de partida la derogación de la Constitución de 1940 en 1959, para dar paso a un régimen de gobierno por decreto, legitimado en 1976 por una Constitución carente de interpretación de derechos y por una Asamblea Nacional del Poder Popular que, mientras legisla, propicia que los dueños del poder real actúan según entienden conveniente. Eso, es una verdad de Perogrullo.

A propósito del alijo de armas no declaradas y ocultas bajo un cargamento de azúcar, ocupadas por autoridades panameñas a bordo del carguero Chong Chon Gang, el abogado de los marinos norcoreanos, Julio Berríos, dijo a la AFP: "La tripulación no conocía lo que transportaba porque la carga la realizaron los cubanos".

"Nosotros cargamos el azúcar, pero no sabíamos que dentro de los contenedores había armas", dijo a este corresponsal un obrero portuario en Cayo Juan Claro.

Por esas raras coincidencias históricas, así se promulgó la nueva Ley de Navegación Marítima, Fluvial y Lacustre de Cuba en la primera decena del pasado mes de julio: mientras en La Habana conceptuaban lo lícito y lo ilícito en materia de navegación, ocultando armas en contenedores bajo toneladas de azúcar en Puerto Carúpano, generales-diputados hacían a la vez de legisladores y de contrabandistas.

Sí, ¡cómo no!, en Abogacía-2013 debió ahondarse en la proyección ética y social de legisladores y operadores de las leyes en Cuba, valga decir dos ocupaciones distintas con demasiada frecuencia en manos de los mismos individuos, por sencillísimas razones de moral.

El precedente del carguero norcoreano llevando armas ocultas desde Cuba al mismo tiempo que en la Isla el Parlamento votaba una nueva ley sobre la licitud de la navegación por mares, ríos y lagos así lo confirma.

Panama sets $1M fine for North Korea ship and everything is "fine"

lasvegassun

The lawyer for the crew members of a North Korean ship seized by Panama says the Panamanian government wants $1 million to allow the vessel to leave.

Attorney Julio Berrios says a delegation of seven North Korean diplomats was informed of the amount in a meeting with Panamanian officials Wednesday. He says North Korea considers the fine "unjust."

Panamanian authorities previously said they would impose an unspecified fine because the ship's crew threatened Panama's security by not declaring it was transporting weapons.

The ship was headed from Cuba to North Korea when it was seized by Panamanian authorities, who said they suspected it carried drugs. Officials say the ship carried two Cuban fighter jets in perfect condition, contradicting Cuba's explanation that the cargo included "obsolete defensive weapons."

Biden: Cuba-North Korea Arms Smuggling Threat to Global Security

capitolhillcubans

The questions remain:

Will Cuba suffer any consequences for this violation of international sanctions and threat to "global security"?

Or will it continue to be "business as usual"?

Excerpt from today's remarks by U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden in Panama City:

As we streamline the travel and trade, we're also working together to stop illegal trafficking. Panama has interdicted 175 metric tons of cocaine. Cooperation between our law enforcement agencies is excellent and been at a peak that hasn't existed before. And Panama is rising and in some cases exceeding its responsibilities not only to us, but to the region.

And so last July, a vessel traveling through the Panama Canal from Cuba to North Korea claimed it was carrying sugar. Well, it was a sweet cargo, but it wasn't sugar. It wasn't sugar. And Panama did something we haven't come to expect everywhere in the world -- it stepped up. It stepped up where others might have stepped back. We think it's a violation of U.S. sanctions. But, nonetheless, Panama stepped up. You found and confiscated weapons heading from Cuba to North Korea.

The United States is thankful for your taking on that international responsibility. And you made a significant contribution for real to global security, not just U.S. security. We are pretty well capable of handling our own security. But you contributed to global security. That is what responsible nations do and that's what you have done.

Panama Preparing to Free Most of North Korea Crew - NYT

The authorities in Panama said Monday that they would release 33 of the 35 North Korean crew members of a rusting freighter impounded more than three months ago for carrying a secret stash of Soviet-era Cuban military gear hidden under bags of brown sugar.  

Neither the captain, who tried to slit his throat when the Panamanian marine police boarded the vessel, nor the captain’s aide are free to go, said a top official at Panama’s Foreign Ministry. The official, who spoke by telephone on the condition of anonymity because of ministry policy, said the two North Koreans had not cooperated and may still face criminal charges. 

Keep reading on NYTimes.com >>

Cuba Ignores U.N. Requests for Info on Weapons Smuggling

capitolhillcubans

From National Journal:

Cuba Ignoring Panama, U.N. Requests for Info on N. Korea Arms Shipment

Cuba is not responding to requests from Panama and the U. N. Security Council for more details about an arms shipment that was interdicted on its way to North Korea, which Havana originally claimed was to have been returned after the weapons were repaired, Reuters reported on Friday.

Panamanian Foreign Minister Fernando Nunez Fabrega said there has been no communication between Havana and Panama City since an investigation into the weapons, discovered in July on the Chong Chon Gang North Korean freighter, revealed they were "obviously not obsolete" -- as the Cuban government originally claimed.

Cuba called off a planned September meeting with Panama at the United Nations and has ignored all other Panamanian requests for contact.

"It was like talking to a brick wall," Nunez Fabrega said in an interview.

The Security Council subcommittee with oversight on North Korean sanctions also has been unsuccessful in its requests for information from Cuba about the interdicted shipment of 25 containers of undeclared weapons, according to Reuters. U.N. sanctions experts already have inspected the arms and are preparing an official report on the matter.

Security Council sanctions forbid all U.N. member states from engaging in any weapons dealings with Pyongyang.

An analysis by independent experts has concluded the arms shipment was much greater in size than Havana originally admitted and that a number of the armaments were in "mint condition." The report states the weapons -- including two Soviet-era MiG fighter jets, anti-aircraft missiles and anti-tank guns -- were meant for North Korea's military.

"Of the 15 [discovered] jet engines, 10 were in immaculate condition," Nunez Fabrega said.

Panama has decided to soon allow almost all of the 35-member North Korean ship crew to go free, as they appear to have been unaware they were transporting weapons, the minister said. The freighter's captain and his first mate could face prosecution.

The Chong Chon Gang also will likely be released to its owner, he said.

Aviones Mig de Cuba que iban en buque coreano están en estado operativo

EL UNIVERSAL

www.surflorida.com

Los dos aviones de combate cubanos descargados en partes del buque norcoreano retenido en Panamá con una carga bélica oculta procedente de la isla, están en condiciones operativas y no es material obsoleto como dijo La Habana, informaron fuentes del gobierno panameño el viernes.

Las fuentes, familiarizadas con el caso y que pidieron no ser identificadas porque no estaban autorizadas para hablar del tema, levantaron serias dudas sobre la información de Cuba de que los pertrechos militares encontrados bajo toneladas de azúcar estaban en desuso e iban a ser reacondicionados en Corea del Norte y luego devueltos a la isla.

"Los dos aviones Mig están en buen estado, en perfectas condiciones para operar. Los motores (15 en total) son nuevos y se utilizarían como reemplazos", dijo una de las fuentes a The Associated Press. "Eso de obsoleto no es correcto".

"Esto es parte de un acuerdo entre los dos países, mediante el cual Cuba enviaba material de defensa para Corea del Norte. Cuba recibiría en total por ello 200 millones de dólares", agregó.

Dijo que en los tanques de los aviones había combustible, lo que abre la posibilidad de que los aparatos hayan sido usados en tiempos recientes, añadió.

La AP buscó la versión del ministro de Seguridad Pública de Panamá, José Raúl Mulino; del canciller Fernando Núñez Fábrega y del fiscal en asuntos de drogas Javier Caraballo, pero los tres funcionarios estaban de viaje en el exterior. Se les envió correos electrónicos, que no fueron respondidos de inmediato.

La oficina de la AP en La Habana consultó a las autoridades cubanas, pero hasta el momento no había ningún comentario inmediato.

It's Official: North Korea Fires Cuban Weapons Smuggler

capitolhillcubans

These dictatorships are so predictable.

Amid a U.N. Security Council investigation into the smuggling of Cuban weapons to North Korea, which is in blatant violation of international sanctions, Castro and Kim have moved swiftly to pass the blame to so-called "hard-liners" within their totalitarian regimes.

(In an old propaganda trick, if they focus the media narrative on labeling others within their regime as "hard-liners," they -- by default -- must be considered "soft-liners.")

Taking no risks whatsoever, the chief of Cuba's air force and air defense systems, General Pedro Mendiondo Gomez, died (was killed) over the summer in a mysterious car wreck.

So much for the "soft-liner" approach.

Meanwhile, today, the Kim dictatorship made it official (as we'd posted over a month ago) that its military chief, General Kim Kyok-sik (pictured lovingly above with General Raul Castro), has been officially replaced.

Pass the hand sanitizer, please.

From The New York Times:

North Korean Leader Tightens Grip with Removal of Top General

North Korea’s state media on Thursday confirmed the removal of a hard-line general as its military chief, the latest sign of a military overhaul in which the country’s supreme leader, Kim Jong-un, has replaced nearly half of his country’s top officials in the past two years, according to South Korean officials.

The firing of Gen. Kim Kyok-sik and the rise of Gen. Ri Yong-gil to replace him as head of the general staff of the North’s Korean People’s Army was the latest in a series of high-profile reshuffles that Kim Jong-un has engineered to consolidate his grip on the North’s top elites.

Armas cubanas en Panamá: Desaparecidos Jefe de Ejército de Corea del Norte y de la DAAFAR cubana

muerto el perro se acabo la rabia, o no?
----------------------- 
Cubanet

MIAMI, Florida, 30 de agosto, 2013, redacción, www.cubanet.org – La visita a Cuba del general Kim Kyok Sik, semanas antes de que Panamá interceptara un embarque de armas cubanas en ruta a Corea del Norte, puede haber provocado que el general fuera relevado y desaparecido, cuestiona el informativo NK –News.

Kim Kyok Sik –según NK–, que ocupaba el cargo de Jefe del Ejército Popular de Corea, no ha sido visto en público desde principios de agosto. Tampoco apareció junto al máximo líder Kim Jong Un, en un partido de fútbol el pasado miércoles.

“Kim Kyok Sik no ha sido visto desde el 3 de agosto, casi un mes. Tal vez fue castigado por el fiasco de Panamá”, asegura Aidan Foster Carter, observador de Corea de Corea del Norte para Noticias NK.

“La reciente visita del general Kim a La Habana pudo haber sido para sellar el acuerdo del envío de armas que acabó en un vergüenza para los dos países. En Pyongyang, el precio del fracaso es alto –o incluso sombrío–, agregó Foster-Carter.

General Pedro Mendiondo, fallecido recientemente en un accidente en Cuba

Aparentemente Kim ha sido sustituido por dos generales de cuatro estrellas, Ri Yong Gil y Jang Jong Nam. Imágenes publicadas por medios surcoreanos mostraron que ambos generales llevaban cuatro estrellas en sus uniformes militares, en lugar de los tres que ostentaban anteriormente.

Ri, quien ocupa el cargo de Jefe del Departamento de Operaciones – bajo las órdenes de Kim Kyok Sik — aparece en las notas de la prensa estatal en el lugar que habitualmente ocupaba Kim. Y los medios norcoreanos suelen ser muy cuidadosos al catalogar a los oficiales de élite, en orden y rango de importancia. En las últimas fotos, Jong Nam, ascendido en mayo, se muestra junto a Ri.

“Kim parece haber caído solo –siguiendo a otras figuras desaparecidas desde que Kim Jong ocupó el liderazgo del país. Los cuatro altos mandos, que estuvieron junto al féretro de Kim Jong Il, ahora están fuera del juego en Norcorea “, explicó Aidan Foster- Carter.

En el otro país implicado en el escándalo del canal de Panamá, en Cuba, el general Pedro Mendiondo, quien atendió la visita a la Isla, de Kim Kyok Sik, falleció el pasado domingo en un accidente de tránsito, ocurrido en momentos en que inspectores de Naciones Unidas solicitaron viajar a la Isla como parte de la investigación que conducen en relación con las armas de defensa coheteril y aviones cubanos ocultos en el barco norcoreano. Esas armas, denunciadas por organizaciones suecas como “no todas obsoletas”, estaban bajo la jurisdicción de Mendiondo, en su calidad de Jefe de la Fuerza Aérea y Defensa Antiaérea de Cuba.

Encuentran contenedor con dolares y euros falsos en el barco coreano detenido en Panama

Segun el sitio del periodista Nelson Bocaranda RunRun.es 
 

El tema aún permanece en secreto. Pero esta semana en las Naciones Unidas se hablará del asunto ya que allí es que se estará decidiendo la suerte del barco norcoreano detenido en Panamá con un enorme cargamento de armas y municiones que incluye hasta un par de aviones MIG rusos que todavía podrían volar. Cada día hay nuevos hallazgos como el de motores y plantas nuevos que desmienten que hayan sido enviados a ser reparados.  Interesante que en la exhaustiva revisión que las autoridades panameñas vienen haciendo del buque y su carga apareció un contenedor lleno totalmente de billetes de Euros y Dólares. Harán las pruebas para determinar si son falsos, como se presume, o verdaderos.

Cualquier resultado es muy grave para Cuba y Corea del Norte pues de las dos maneras hay delito. Un diplomático en la ONU recordó que en el año 1969 había sido detenido en Madrid el cubano Rafael Manuel García Bango y Dirube por tráfico de dólares falsos y que tras haber sido condenado a 18 años de prisión fue canjeado en 1974, cumplidos cinco años de la pena, por dos prisioneros españoles en Cuba. Así que la experiencia en falsificación la tienen. Hasta ahora son especulaciones pero la investigación multi-gubernamental avanza sobre toda la carga encontrada. El destino del carguero sigue estando incierto.

¿Habría prevista otra parada al pasar a navegar el océano Pacífico?

U.S. Had Evidence of Cuba's Missiles to North Korea

capitolhillcubans

A Letter to the Editor of The Wall Street Journal:

Missile Crisis Wasn't End of Cuba's Missiles

The U.S. government has had evidence of missiles in Cuba—particularly North Korean—for at least two decades.

Mary O'Grady well reminds us of the criminal nature of the Cuban dictatorship, caught smuggling banned missiles and weapons to North Korea through the Panama Canal ("The Castro Brothers Get Caught in the Act," Americas, July 29). Aside from other important threats Cuba poses to our security, the U.S. government has had evidence of missiles in Cuba— particularly North Korean—for at least two decades.

In 1991, it was reported in the media that U.S. spy satellites had discovered at least one, and possibly several, banned SS-20 missiles in Cuba, a finding that was under top-secret White House scrutiny.

In 2003, David Kay, special adviser on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, publicly stated that evidence had been found in Iraq "of North Korean missiles going to Cuba." A few days later, Fox News (Oct. 23, 2003) reported that Hwang Jang Yop, former secretary to North Korea's main decision-making body, the Central Committee, who defected in 1997, had information on "extensive exchanges" of weapons and information between North Korea and Cuba.

Maria Werlau
Executive Director
CubaArchive.org
Summit, N.J.

HuffPost: Not Surprised by Cuba's Weapons Smuggling to North Korea

capitolhillcubans

By Mauricio Claver-Carone in The Huffington Post:

Not Surprised by Cuba's Weapons Smuggling to North Korea

A lot of people were baffled -- although it's not clear why the befuddlement -- that Cuba's Castro brothers were caught red-handed smuggling fighter jets, radar and missile components, and other weaponry to Kim Jong-un and North Korea in violation of the U.N. Security Council's arms embargo.

It was no great surprise to those who've watched the defiant dictators of Cuba. We know the Castros don't think with their brains first. Instead they remain obsessed with flashing their cojones. What's baffling is that year after year they still get with away with it.

It can't be a surprise either that the world's remaining totalitarian states pursue their own survival, mutually assisting each other politically, economically and militarily. Apparently neither wants the dubious honor of becoming the world's sole remaining totalitarian state.

Throughout their long rule in Cuba, the Castro brothers have acted illegally and irresponsibly with brawn -- even when it's borrowed at the time from allies-of-convenience. It's a "machismo" thing that they enjoy practicing at home, as for example, their use of brute force against the Havana democracy advocates known worldwide as "The Ladies in White."

In 1962, Fidel Castro was lusting over the nuclear missiles of the Soviet Union. He provoked the "Cuban Missile Crisis" and then urged Nikita Khrushchev, then-Soviet premier, to push the button and launch a nuclear strike against the United States. The Castro objective was: Kill tens of millions of Americans. Khrushchev wrote about the incident in his memoirs concluding that Fidel Castro is crazy. Apparently Fidel and Raul didn't care that the United States would retaliate and obliterate the island of Cuba.

The Castros' power fantasies and fallacies don't seem to fade. In the 1980s, Fidel's ego took a beating and Cuba's economy foundered under the weight of his ill-considered military adventures in Africa, which became deeply unpopular in Cuba. To keep playing on the world stage, the Castros are always searching for "hard currency" and the Angola war was one way to extract it from the Soviet Union.

As Soviet cash dried up, the Castros turned to courting Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar and the Medellin Cartel, opening Cuba's ports to the cartel for trans-shipping narcotics. To Fidel, who considers the United States his arch enemy, this too was an entirely sensible policy: If he couldn't nuke his capitalist American enemies, or run 'em out of Africa, he'd ship 'em drugs and Americans would poison themselves. What's to lose?

When the United States turned up the heat on drug smuggling, Fidel and his brother Raul, then-head of Cuba's armed forces, identified Gen. Arnaldo Ochoa Sanchez as their scapegoat. Cubans in general held Ochoa's legendary courage in the African wars in high esteem. To the Castros that made him a potential rival. In quick order, Ochoa was accused of drug trafficking, given a televised Stalinist-style trial and executed.

Several months later, the United States invaded Panama and arrested its leader Manuel Noriega for selling "safe passage" through the Panama Canal to the Medellin Cartel. Noriega was hauled off to Miami, tried and convicted. Testimony and evidence gleaned in that trial led U.S. prosecutors, in 1993, to prepare a racketeering indictment naming Raul Castro and 12 other high-ranking officers in Cuba's armed forces as drug-trafficking conspirators with the Medellin cartel. The Clinton administration later chose not to pursue the charges.

Economic depression gripped Cuba in 1996, which the Castros named "the Special Period." The suffering populace was unhappy and 130 opposition groups, banded together as Concilio Cubano, announcing a February 24th "unity rally" demanding free elections. To thinking people, the date might have been a good time for the Castro government to announce political and economic reforms. Instead Raul Castro rolled out his guns and ordered Cuban Air Force MIG fighters to shoot down a couple of civilian-American Cessna's flying over international waters in the Florida Straits in search of Cuban rafters to rescue. Four men died when the small planes were shot down. There was an international outcry and investigation that pinned responsibility on Raul. World attention was diverted from the rally in Havana, and the protesting dissidents arrested and jailed.

Madeleine Albright, former Secretary of State and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, famously called out the Castros for their criminal acts: "This is not cojones, this is cowardice."

Now, Panamanian authorities have found an arsenal of Cuban weapons loaded onto a North Korean ship, the Chong Chon Gang, and hidden by bags of sugar, all loaded in Havana. Ironically the Panamanians had stopped the ship expecting to find drugs. In the last few years, five other ships have set sail from North Korea, docked in Havana and then returned directly to North Korea via the canal. Who knows what else has passed through the canal? Kim and the Castros know, but those addicts of power, force and flouting impunity are not gloating... yet.