Chronicle on Cuba - June 2009
Security
June 17: Cuban President Raul Castro greeted visiting Angolan Defense Minister Kundy Pahiama at the headquarters of the Central Committee of Cuba’s Communist Party in Havana. According to official Granma newspaper, Castro sent his regards and best wishes to his counterpart Jose Eduardo Dos Santos and to the Angolan people. Also present in the meeting were Army Corps Generals Julio Casas Regueiro and Leopoldo Cintra Frias, Minister and First Deputy Minister of the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces, respectively (ACN, 17/6/09).
June 21: More details are emerging of the expulsion from Cuba of agents of Spain's National Intelligence Center (CNI) on May 15, in the aftermath of the dismissals of Carlos Lage and Felipe Pérez Roque. The Spanish newspaper ABC revealed that CNI agents were present at the parties where a friend of Lage's and Pérez Roque's secretly recorded their derogatory comments about the Castro brothers and other government officials. Citing unnamed sources, ABC says the CNI agents goaded the two men into uttering the criticism. The Spanish agents, as the newspaper phrases it, "made specific comments to elevate the tone of criticism voiced by the two politicians. The Cuban government soon found out about the meeting [...] and the CNI's performance. For that reason, it urged the agents to leave the island, while simultaneously withdrawing their diplomatic status" (The Miami Herald, 21/6/09).
Junio 22: Al menos 100 militares de las Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Cuba, entre oficiales, cadetes y tropa, ensayaron en Los Próceres su participación en el desfile conmemorativo al 188° aniversario de la Batalla de Carabobo y el Día del Ejército. El general Clíver Alcalá Cordones, comandante de la 41° Brigada Blindada del Ejército y Guarnición Militar de Valencia, había adelantado que 175 militares extranjeros, representantes de los países que integran el ALBA (Cuba, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Dominicana, Honduras, Ecuador, San Vicente y las Granadinas, además de Venezuela), desfilarían junto a la Fuerza Armada Nacional (FAN) en el Campo de Carabobo. No obstante, Rocío San Miguel, directora de la asociación civil Control Ciudadano para la Seguridad y Defensa, advirtió que “esta situación tan particular, sin precedentes” viola el articulo 187, numeral 11 de la Constitución Nacional, pues la Asamblea Nacional debe “autorizar” el empleo de misiones extranjeras en el país y “no hay publicado alguna en Gaceta Oficial que avale esta actuación” (…) Aseguró que el grupo de militares cubanos, “redoblando el paso y portando fusiles, hizo un recorrido desde la Academia Militar hasta la entrada del propio Fuerte Tiuna, portando la bandera de Cuba (...) mientras oficiales superiores filmaban la práctica” desde las tribunas de Los Próceres (El Universal, 23/6/09).
June 24: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and other Latin American leaders have attended a military parade commemorating a battle that paved the way for Venezuela's independence. The celebrations took place in the central state of Carabobo, around 120 kilometers from Caracas. Military units from Cuba and Bolivia joined Venezuelan forces in the parade which included flyovers by the national air force. The celebrations mark the 188th anniversary of the Battle of Carabobo -- led by Venezuelan independence hero, Simon Bolivar (El Universal, CCTV, 25/6/09). |
