Chronicle on Cuba - February 2004

Security

February 9: Brigadier General Ji Shaoying, deputy chief of Communications for the Chinese Liberation Army, arrived in Havana heading a military delegation. Cuban Brigadier General José Ayanes Díaz welcomed the Chinese delegation at the Jose Marti International Airport and explained the extensive program of activities planned by Cuba for their visit. Shaoying will hold talks with top Cuban army chiefs, leaders of the Cuban Communist Party and Cuban media officials, as well as visiting military units and places of historic, social and cultural interest. (Prensa Latina, 9/2/04)

February 15: A military ceremony in Cuba served to show that Cuba is preparing for a military invasion from the United States. The event took place at a tanks unit called “Rescate de Sanguily” and was attended by high-ranking officers of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR). The event also marked the beginning of the defence preparation year in that unit. (World Data Service, 15/2/04)

February 17: After Cuban leader Fidel Castro called a US invasion of the island a "sure thing" in his last speech, the neighborhood watch Committees for the Defense of the Revolution together with Civil Defense authorities have been preparing an evacuation plan they are calling "update in time of war" which they expect to deliver to provincial authorities in late February. "We have had to activate evacuation plans," said one Committee president in the Havana municipality of 10 de Octubre. (UPECI, 17/2/04)