An open secret was exposed in the recent report of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), based in Washington, which confirmed the existence of at least Four Chinese spy bases in Cuba.
According to the document, they operate in Bejucal, Calabazar and Wajay, near Havana, and a last one, under construction since 2021, in El Salao, very close to the US Naval Base in Guantanamo.
The “aggressive expansion” China’s involvement in Latin America and the Caribbean, Washington’s backyard, through Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road foreign policy, has been denounced for years by analysts such as Dr. in Economics, Rafael Marrero, and retired colonel of the US Armed Forces and former Intelligence officer, Octavio Pérez.
Both analysts, consulted by THE AMERICAS DAILYwarned about the risks that Chinese spy bases pose to US security.
These espionage centers have been located in strategic positions: near Guantanamo Bay, just a few miles from the Gulf of Mexico; the Port of New Orleans, one of the main points of commercial exchange, supply of oil and other important inputs for national consumption; in addition to the coasts and keys of Florida, where the US Southern Command, in Miami.
The Sunshine State is home to, among others, the MacDill Air Force Baseheadquarters of the US Central Strategic Operations Command, in Tampa; Mayport Naval Stationin Jacksonville; the Space Operations Centerat Cape Canaveral, which handles key information for missile development; and more than 40 Department of Defense contractors.
According to CSIS, Chinese spy bases are used to intercept U.S. military signals and communications, as well as monitor the activities of other nations.
“They are strategically located to monitor activities in the Caribbean region and the southeastern US. These activities reinforce China’s military and intelligence presence in the Western Hemisphere, so it represents a challenge to US security“, says Marrero, author of the book America 2.0: The US war of independence against China.
An affront
Perez, an expert in military matters, believes that the audacity of communist China to enter Cuba, 90 miles from the Florida coast, to carry out military espionage operations is “an affront” against the Biden Administration and the country, mainly.
“They wouldn’t dare to have another President, because they know that he would immediately put the brakes on them, but they have made the most of these years and we are going to get the most information out of him, in the time that we can,” he said.
Marrero, for his part, highlights the presence in the White House of a president who, for the first time, “responds to foreign interests”it is something unusual as demonstrated by the complaints about the Hunter’s influence peddling Biden, when his father was Barack Obama’s vice president (2009 – 2017). At that time, the main financier of the Chinese Communist Party was allowed to make investments.
“This gentleman (Biden) represents everyone, except the interests of the United States, that is why we have open borders, Chinese balloons that violate national sovereignty, and a Russian flotilla that threatens maritime sovereignty and endangers national security,” he stressed.
This, added to the “weak, inconsistent and incoherent” policy The US’s expansion into Latin America has allowed China to advance in the region, where it is implementing a “social policy of imperialism” with the clear purpose of seizing seaports, water plants and natural resources that guarantee its presence on the American continent.
“The US has turned a blind eye, because it has been very focused on commercial interests abroad and has neglected its own backroom. Latin America is a high priority area, we should develop alliances with sister countries, which is the only way to combat narcoterrorism, the crime of the Cartel de los Soles, among others, and the Maduro drug regime,” he points out.
Long-term damage
Colonel Pérez explains that the Chinese took over the espionage bases in Cuba, previously occupied by Russia, between 2017 and 2019, and installed a system of satellite dishes capable of intercepting various electronic emanations, with classified or industrial information, “which can do long-term harm”.
In the field of communications, he points out, these surveys are “very dangerous” because they allow them to obtain “countless information” from the population, through which they can “change the sentiment or needs of a people” in order to control the public.
In defense, there is also the threat of a satellite attack affecting the electrical system or a nuclear power station, a situation for which the US Army has prepared itself with the creation of Cyber Command in 2009. “Having another external agent, especially knowing that it does not want anything good and is so close to you, is an imminent danger in all aspects. We do not only have the Russians, we have the Chinese and all these people monitoring the coasts of Florida, which is a very important state for the Department of Defense,” Pérez emphasizes.
A new battlefield
He Cyberspace is the new battlefield to face in the 21st century, which Cuba facilitates by lending its territory for espionage work. An example of this is the Chinese spy balloon that crossed American airspace in February 2023, transmitting through Chinese spy bases the signals of the Command, Control, Communication, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance System (C4ISR), which they use to advance their policy and take control of their country. “a technological mastery in satellite communications, cyber espionage and electronic warfare”says Marrero.
“A couple of weeks ago we had a Russian fleet in Cuba at the naval level, last year we saw an invasion of the airspace by the Chinese and, now, at any moment they can launch a missile against us.” electromagnetic pulse attack and completely disable cyber networks and take over all banking and seaports through a surprise attack, which is what I call a 21st century Pearl Harbor,” he warns.
Today, the US faces a great threat with the important alliances that its main enemies (China, Russia, Iran) have made with the dictatorships of Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela, through which they try to position the BRICS to create a new world orderwhich displaces NATO and ousts the US.
Faced with this, analysts believe that a strong government is needed to reverse Biden’s policies, to resume security issues with allies, to stop illegal migration that puts the country at risk; to reach a Negotiation point with China and Russiaregarding Taiwan and Ukraine, respectively, to “put things back in their place” and “get things back on track.”
“We are already at war. In fact, in a way, we are on the threshold of a third world war. And the position of the US in all these conflicts, the power vacuum that exists in Washington, the lack of leadership in the Democratic Party and in the image of This weak man we have in the White Househas led us to a position of inferiority because you cannot be a leader or inspire strength and an image of power, with an attitude as weak as the one Biden has expressed worldwide,” Marrero emphasizes.
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