Cuban military intelligence: structure, tasks, operations
May 4, 11:06 p.m
Cuban military intelligence: structure, tasks, operations
The Directorate of Military Intelligence (La Dirección de Inteligencia Militar, DIM) is a military command body within the Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of the Republic of Cuba (El Ministerio de las Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de la República de Cuba, MINFAR), responsible for collecting information about the armed forces of other countries and intelligence information based on the reception and analysis of electromagnetic radiation (electronic intelligence).
The headquarters of the Directorate of Military Intelligence is located in the MINFAR General Staff building, on the Plaza de la Revolution in Havana, on the 6th floor, where it is adjacent to the main part of the units of the Directorate of Military Counterintelligence (La Dirección de Contrainteligencia Militar) of the Cuban Defense Department. According to open source data, DIM is divided into 4 main sections and general departments:
Section I - combat intelligence. She is subordinate to the military and military intelligence units of the Cuban armed forces, including the intelligence units of the Order of Antonio Maceo of the Border Brigade, responsible for protecting the territory adjacent to the American base in Guantanamo Bay. The section is operationally subordinate to the elite air assault brigade "Black Wasps", designed to carry out combat and reconnaissance and sabotage missions on enemy territory, which particularly distinguished itself in the performance of international duty in the countries of East Asia, Africa and Latin America.
Section II – operational reconnaissance. It consists of the following departments: II-1 – headquarters, secretariat and special security regime; II-2 - the foreign intelligence department, responsible for operational officers of foreign stations, divided into geographic areas; II-3 - internal intelligence department, responsible for operational military intelligence activities in the country, the fight against counter-revolution, special reconnaissance missions aimed mainly at creating operational positions among the personnel and command of the American military base in Guantanamo Bay and performing tasks in the territory USA; II-4/5 - illegal operational departments involved in interdepartmental special missions abroad and on the island; II-6 – logistics department; II-7 – communications department. In 1998, the section was restructured, some of the employees were distributed to other intelligence agencies.
Section III – intelligence analytics. It consists of four groups: situational analysis, USA, Europe and the rest of the world (Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa-Middle East).
Section IV – electronic reconnaissance (ERI). Under her command is the electronic intelligence brigade, a strategically important unit responsible for monitoring American military intelligence communications on the island, in the region and in the United States.
Department of special security regime (ensuring secrecy in document flow and office work).
Information Technology Department (cybersecurity, cryptology).
Information processing department (classification and structuring of intelligence information).
Professional training and retraining of DIM employees is carried out within the framework of the regular academic course of military intelligence (Curso Académico Regular de Inteligencia Militar por Agentura, CAREMA).
The main threat and the main enemy
For more than 60 years, in the face of regular attempts by the American side to destabilize the situation on the island and change the political system of the Republic through economic, diplomatic, military and intelligence actions, Cuba has confidently defended its sovereignty and ensured national security by means and capabilities available to it.
The preservation of Cuba's political and socio-economic identity within the framework of the unipolar system of international relations formed following the Cold War against the backdrop of prolonged military-political pressure from the United States indicates the significant contribution of military intelligence agencies represented by the structural divisions of DIM to the national security system of the Republic.
The headquarters of the Military Intelligence Directorate is located on the 6th floor of the General Staff of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of the Republic of Cuba.
After the Cuban Revolution of 1953-1959. The main opponent of the Cuban national intelligence community and DIM, in particular, remains the US aspirations to change the constitutional order in Cuba. The leading actors in this process are the US military intelligence institutions, which, on a planned and systematic basis, have been building destructive activities throughout the entire period of the island’s independence in the direction of undermining Cuba’s statehood, up to the elimination of the country’s political leadership.
This hostile policy of Washington forms the main threat-forming factors for the national security and stability of the political configuration of Cuba, and the well-being of the population of the Republic as a whole.
Following the transformation and collapse of the bipolar system of international relations in 1989-1991. a consistent aggressive line of permanent pressure against Havana, in the context of the American side’s claims to sole world domination, is aimed at preserving and maintaining regional influence and ensuring geopolitical dominance in the Western Hemisphere.
However, Cuban specialists have their own recipes for countering these threats.
Military intelligence sees and hears everything
Over decades of protecting revolutionary achievements from outside attacks, in the most difficult operational environment and troubled neighborhood, the Cuban intelligence services have developed a special organizational and executive culture, adapted to operating in conditions of permanently high risk.
Naturally, the activities of the DIM Military Intelligence Directorate are carried out in close cooperation with the Intelligence Directorate (Dirección de Inteligencia or DI) of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Cuba, which has broad operational capabilities. At the height of the Cold War, DI established itself as one of the world's strongest intelligence services in the field of undercover work, deploying a layered architecture of a covert apparatus not only in South America, but also, through diaspora capabilities, in the United States itself.
Under the operational subordination of the DIM is the Order of Antonio Maceo airborne assault brigade, better known as the “Black Wasps” (Avispas Negras).
The colossal experience, established culture and special style of Cuban intelligence allowed the DI to maintain a strong position in the top league of intelligence services and in the temporary unstable structure of a unipolar world , after the end (rather of a pause) of the Cold War.
In addition to the traditionally strong intelligence work, the Cuban intelligence community and, in particular, the Directorate of Military Intelligence, is distinguished by a high level of efficiency in the use of electronic intelligence in all its modern forms and manifestations.
Havana's strategic and situational awareness of the hostile activity of the American military-intelligence community, the plans of the Pentagon, and in some cases Langley, which is the fruit of the successful convergence of the capabilities of human and electronic intelligence of the Republic, has more than once become the subject of hearings in the US Congress. The attention of American parliamentarians clearly highlights the concern of the hegemon's political establishment about the intelligence capabilities of Liberty Island. Cuban professionals (despite the obvious comparative disproportion of financial and personnel potentials) are able to repel the enemy, acting “not with numbers, but with skill.”
The island's location, due to a number of geographical and technical factors, is ideal for gaining access to most of the US communications with the outside world, including the main facilities of critical information infrastructure. In fact, Cuba, along with the headquarters of the US National Security Agency (Fort Meade, Maryland), is the most geographically convenient and technically capable location in the Western Hemisphere for large-scale electronic interception of data.
DIM operates one of the largest and most sophisticated electronic intelligence programs in the world. The range of ER facilities at Bejucal, 20 km south of Havana, allows Cuban military intelligence to cover the maximum available range of US communications of interest, both government and private, as well as satellite links between North America and Europe.
At the strategic level, priority targets for collecting intelligence information using DER DIM are the communications channels of the Executive Office of the President of the United States of America, key nodes of military infrastructure, NASA and US Air Force communications, where special attention is paid to missile telemetry systems and means.
In a broader intelligence context, DIM has the operational and technical capabilities to provide covert access to commercial communications services of US financial institutions, including stock exchanges.
At the tactical level, special attention is paid to tracking American geosynchronous satellites, as elements of the US global orbital network, and the possibilities of neutralizing their activity.
Cuba's military intelligence, in addition to the geographical factor of direct operational reach of the country's territory for military intelligence activities against the main enemy (as well as in the reverse order), faces direct military threats emanating from the 117 sq. km of the US Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay.
Guantanamo Bay “under the hood”
The notorious American naval base, the only one located in a socialist country, is located on the island on the basis of the agreement on relations between the Republic of Cuba and the United States signed under conditions of force following the Spanish-American War in 1903 (replaced by new in 1934), as well as agreements to lease land in Cuba to the United States for coaling and naval stations.
In accordance with these documents, “the lease of Cuban territory does not have a fixed duration and the agreement on it can be terminated either by Washington’s decision to leave the base, or by mutual agreement of the parties to terminate the lease.”
Thus, the American military presence on the island is of indefinite duration and is maintained thanks to the significantly predominant military and diplomatic power of the United States, supported by controversial and imposed international legal agreements of the first half of the 20th century with the pre-revolutionary authorities of the island.
The specified naval base is managed by the Southeast Naval Region of the US Naval Facilities Command (Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Florida). The garrison, as well as the Guantanamo Bay Joint Task Force, are subordinate to the US Department of Defense Southern Command (headquartered in Doral, Miami-Dade County, Florida). Up to 8,500 military personnel from the Navy, Marine Corps, US Army and civilian base personnel are stationed at the military facility at any one time. Air service to the outside world is provided by the US Naval Air Station Leeward.
On the territory of the base, outside the jurisdiction of the US legal system, there is a camp opened in January 2002 for detainees accused by the US authorities of committing serious crimes, which has gained worldwide fame due to numerous facts of human rights violations, cruel treatment and torture.
The military prison at Guantanamo Bay is actually a concentration camp, which currently continues to house about 30 prisoners. The true situation and the number of prisoners do not appear in the public space.
However, it is reliably known that the US Central Intelligence Agency has access to prisoners of particular interest to the American side and uses a separate prison infrastructure in the camp to carry out its operational tasks in the region.
American naval base Guantanamo Bay.
These include the kidnapping of CIA targets from among representatives of regional political forces, security forces, and left-wing movements opposed to Washington. In Guantanamo they are subjected to special psychological treatment and are recruited. “Enhanced methods” of interrogation, including the use of psychoactive substances, are actively used against those who disagree. Undesirables, after such forceful influence and psychological treatment, are often subject to liquidation.
In this context, let us recall direct historical analogies - public reports by human rights activists, including American ones, on the results of Operation Condor in the 1970s - 1980s, as a result of which, on instructions from Langley, about 60,000 fighters for the independence of the continent were killed.
Nothing has changed in the CIA's methods since then, and Guantanamo is likely to be actively used for similar dirty purposes to this day.
The Cuban side has repeatedly raised the issue of the need for an international investigation into massive violations of human rights and international conventions by the American authorities in Guantanamo at the UN level. But the crimes of the CIA, unfortunately, for the most part fall out of sight of human rights structures and international organizations. And anyone who begins to show excessive curiosity about such a fact may find himself in one of the many illegal American intelligence prisons scattered around the world.
As part of the implementation of a complex of electronic intelligence activities at the American base in Guantanamo Bay, under the special control of DIM are the branch of the Main Naval Computer and Telecommunications Station in the Atlantic Area (NCTAMS LANT) of the Naval Information Forces (NAVIFOR) of the US Navy Fleet Forces Command (component Naval Forces Northern Command and the functional maritime component of the joint command of the US Department of Defense Strategic Command).
NAVIFOR carries out the integrated use of the information capabilities of the Navy (electronic communications, telecommunication networks, cryptology, meteorology, oceanography, electronic reconnaissance and warfare, operations in cyberspace, space navigation) to weaken and destroy the enemy’s combat capabilities, discredit and misinform him, as well as enhance the effectiveness of operations allies in a multi-domain war.
NCTAMS LANT at Guantanamo Bay operates and maintains elements of the station's Naval Telecommunications System and Military Communications System, including core communications (networks, information infrastructure, and associated technical equipment), frequency management, and coordination of DoD Defense Information Systems Agency nodes at military base.
The data transmitted by NCTAMS LANT is valuable for the Cuban side both in terms of access to internal communications at the American base, and in terms of external communication channels in Guantanamo with higher authorities located 800-1300 km to the north, in Florida.
"Black Wasps": true
to international duty The operational subordination of the DIM is the Order of Antonio Maceo Air Assault Brigade, better known as the "Black Wasps" (Avispas Negras). Before fulfilling their international duty in Angola, Cuban military commandos were divided into landing and sabotage units. Personnel recruitment was carried out at the expense of fighters who took part in special operations during the Revolution, who had experience in guerrilla warfare in the troops of Ernesto Che Guevara.
In 1963, on the initiative of Fidel Castro, special forces groups (Grupos Destinos Especial), known as the “Tigers”, were formed, in 1974 - an airborne brigade. Their first serious baptism of fire took place in Angola.
During Reagan's US expansion in Central America, Cuban military intelligence provided advice to Nicaragua, Grenada and Panama in repelling American aggression.
MINFAR analyzed the actions of the Cuban Expeditionary Force in the Battle of Quifangondo in October-November 1975, where the participation of the Tigers, then special forces units of the Cuban Ministry of the Interior, played a significant role in the battle.
During a large-scale operation in Angola, Cuban military intelligence special forces were coordinated and gained combat experience in confrontation with the South African armed forces, mercenaries from NATO countries and local armed groups subordinate to them.
The official history of the modern “Black Wasps” dates back to December 1, 1986, when a separate brigade of the same name was created within the structure of the Revolutionary Armed Forces. In 1989, the special forces of the Cuban Ministry of Internal Affairs were subordinated to MINFAR and merged into a single structure with the special forces of military intelligence.
Doctrinally, the brigade's training was mainly aimed at countering possible attempts at military intervention in Cuba by the United States. Accordingly, much attention is paid to the specifics of conducting combat operations in the Caribbean tropics.
Also, the “Black Wasps” are considered the most prepared and combat-ready unit for war in rural conditions. A special feature of the unit’s use is the use of tactics of small mobile autonomous groups of 5-6 fighters, capable of penetrating deep behind enemy lines and causing critical damage to key military communications.
Individual training is carried out at the National School of Special Forces. Here, special forces soldiers of the Cuban military intelligence undergo comprehensive, in-depth training in reconnaissance and sabotage activities, which goes far beyond the scope of traditional special operations forces training. In terms of combat training, the Black Wasps cooperate with special forces instructors from China, North Korea, Vietnam and Russia.
Significant operations of the Black Wasps occurred in the period before joining the MINFAR air assault brigade, when part of the unit was subordinate to the Cuban Ministry of Internal Affairs. The Cuban special forces achieved their greatest successes in Angola, in battles against the South African army and the UNITA movement. The main tasks performed by the “Black Wasps” in Operation Carlota are reconnaissance activities and penetration into enemy territory, searching and destroying columns, mining enemy movement routes, and organizing ambushes. Some episodes of this war demonstrated the heroism of the Black Wasps in the performance of their international duty.
In particular, during the Battle of Kangamba in August 1983, Angolan and Cuban forces, besieged by UNITA militants supported by the South African Air Force and Special Forces, faced the threat of operational encirclement and the destruction of the garrison, which was subjected to massive enemy rocket and artillery fire. The Cuban columns did not have time to reach the remote city in an acceptable time, and the supplies of unguided aircraft missiles, which allowed the Cubans to restrain the enemy with airstrikes, and the garrison's ammunition were running out.
At the most critical moment of the battle, the Cuban command in Angola ordered the destruction of special communications equipment in Cangamba, Fidel Castro personally addressed the defenders of the city: “Let Cangamba become a cemetery for mercenaries serving the hated interests of South African racists. Let Cangamba become an eternal symbol of the courage of Cubans and Angolans. Let Kangamba be an example that the blood shed by Angolans and Cubans for the freedom and dignity of Africa was not in vain. I believe in your unmatched courage and promise you that we will save you at any cost. Homeland or Death! We will win!". The only possible option for saving the garrison before the arrival of reinforcements was to strike the rear of the besiegers with special forces.
The first mixed Cuban-Angolan helicopter landing landed a few kilometers from Kangamba, but on the approaches to the city it suffered losses in a short, intense battle with superior enemy forces and was forced to retreat. Having launched another attack under heavy enemy mortar and artillery fire, the Black Wasps managed to turn the situation around through the active use of mobile automatic grenade launchers against UNITA positions and risky cover maneuvers with military helicopters.
The UNITA besieging forces suffered significant damage, the enemy was distracted by the actions of the Cubans in the northern direction from Cangamba, in their rear. Then a helicopter landing was carried out in the south-eastern direction, forcing the demoralized militants to retreat. The Commander-in-Chief of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Cuba, Castro, kept his word - the garrison was saved, the enemy was defeated. Largely thanks to the heroic efforts of the Black Wasps.
Cuban experience is in demand in a multipolar world
More than six decades of confrontation with the American military-intelligence community, three of which fell during the period of American hegemony, have allowed the Cuban intelligence community to accumulate unique experience and knowledge that is in demand among colleagues from countries seeking to defend their sovereignty in a turbulent world. in the context of the transition to multipolarity.
The Cold War, common threats and challenges from the collective West, led to close interaction between the Cuban intelligence community and the intelligence and state security agencies of the USSR and the Warsaw Pact countries. During its formation, the MINFAR Military Intelligence Directorate distinguished itself, fulfilling its international duty in Algeria, and continued its combat path in Africa, which was freed from colonial oppression - Guinea-Bissau, the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, Alvaro Lopez Miera, participated in long-term Cuban military missions in Angola and Ethiopia, fulfilling his international duty.
In Angola, the Cuban contingent, as part of the large-scale and lengthy Operation Carlota, played a key role in defending the independence and sovereignty of Luanda. The operational and combat activities of DIM allowed the Cuban side to make a significant contribution to defeating the armed forces of the racist regime of South Africa and their proxy forces in Angola.
Including the decisive Battle of Cuito Cuanavle, during which Cuban special forces repeatedly staged successful sabotage behind enemy lines and ambushes elite South African units staffed by racist mercenaries from the United States and Western Europe.
The participation of Cuban military intelligence was crucial in repelling the invasion of Ethiopia by Somali forces during the Ogaden War. In the Middle East, DIM participated in the Cuban military mission to support Syria in the October War of 1973.
During the Reagan US expansion in Central America, Cuban military intelligence provided advisory assistance to Nicaragua, Grenada and Panama in repelling American aggression. The DIM electronic intelligence station until recently ensured its operation during the US invasion of Panama in 1989.
DIM had a significant influence on countering the terror deployed by the American military-intelligence community in South America as part of Operation Condor. The role of Cuban military intelligence in supporting the national resistance of the Argentines in the “Dirty War” and the Chileans to the regime of Augusto Pinochet is significant.
DIM has special, friendly relations with its Venezuelan colleagues. Cuban military intelligence has provided and continues to provide adequate support to Caracas in containing Washington's efforts to destabilize the situation in the country. This applies both to the electronic intelligence capabilities of the DIM, used to disavow the plans of the American side, and to operations to neutralize American agents. These actions turned out to be especially effective given Washington’s intentions to provoke a military invasion of Venezuela and the efforts of the US intelligence community to organize the so-called “armed opposition” in the country with the goal of violently overthrowing the constitutional order.
Cuba's strategically important geographic location in the Western Hemisphere and the island's unique conditions for electronic intelligence in relation to American communications made the operational capabilities of the Cuban Office of Military Intelligence extremely broad, reaching a global level in its significance.
If during the Cold War the USSR was Cuba's main ally, now, in addition to its legal successor, the Russian Federation, Chinese colleagues should also be considered among the priority partners of Cuban intelligence. Coupled with Havana’s strong commitment to rejecting the Western model of ultra-globalism and American hegemony, the potential for cooperation with the Republic in the field of technical intelligence attracts colleagues from other countries facing hostile actions from Washington, primarily Iran and the DPRK, to interact with DIM.
Russian-Cuban cooperation in the fields of security and intelligence received a new impetus in March 2023, when Secretary of the Russian Security Council Nikolai Patrushev paid an official visit to Havana, where he was received by Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel and Revolutionary leader Raul Castro.
The parties held extensive interdepartmental consultations on security issues. Issues of bilateral cooperation between the intelligence services were discussed in detail. Particular emphasis is placed on the joint efforts of Russia and Cuba to counter “color revolutions” and the destructive activity of non-governmental organizations. In these matters, the operational and technical capabilities of the MINFAR Directorate of Military Intelligence are of key importance.
In February of this year. Nikolai Patrushev visited Havana again. During his meeting with the President of Cuba, among other issues, issues of interaction between Moscow and Havana in the field of security were discussed.
In June 2023, the Russian Ministry of Defense was visited by a large delegation of Cuban colleagues led by the Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, Army Corps General Alvaro Lopez Miera. At the negotiations, the parties discussed a wide range of issues in the military and military-technical field, including, probably, the continuation and development of cooperation in the field of electronic intelligence, interaction between military intelligence agencies of Russia and Cuba in countering common threats from the United States and NATO.
It should be noted that General Miera, a graduate of the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the USSR, participated in long Cuban military missions in Angola and Ethiopia, fulfilling his international duty. The joint historical experience of Russia and Cuba in the context of helping friendly African countries defend their sovereignty in the face of the challenges of the aggressive intentions of the United States and NATO will undoubtedly be in demand in the process of transition to a multipolar system of international relations.
It can be stated that with the emergence of new regional poles and the transformation of the geopolitical map of the world towards increasing the autonomy of the Global South from the influence of Western supranational governance institutions, countries with long-term experience in countering their destructive influence, including sanctions, are reaching a new level of cohesion and independence.
Regional connectivity is increasing, international communications are deepening, including in matters of military and military-technical cooperation. Moscow and Havana’s plans to conduct joint exercises and implement programs in the field of military education are becoming permanent.
Thus, during a long-distance navigational voyage in July 2023, the Russian Navy training ship Perekop arrived in the capital of Cuba. The first call in 40 years by a Russian training warship at the port of Havana and the passage itself to the Caribbean Sea through the Atlantic Ocean, 150 km from US territory, provided for coordinated actions of maritime electronic intelligence of the two countries.
The US military-intelligence community closely monitored the activity of the Navy ship and the interaction of Russian sailors with their Cuban counterparts, which indicates Washington's sensitivity to the development of Russian-Cuban cooperation in the areas of defense and security, especially in the Western Hemisphere, in close proximity to US territory.
The Pentagon views the intensification of strategic cooperation between Russia and Cuba as a clear challenge; the CIA is making efforts to discredit it in the media space, launching anti-Russian information campaigns in affiliated regional media.
It is obvious that in this context, Washington will continue attempts to restore American influence in the Western Hemisphere, increasing its military and intelligence activity in the region, actively using the methodology and tools of hybrid confrontation.
The main targets of the US destructive influence in the 21st century will continue to be Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua - perceived by the enemy as a bulwark of resistance to attempts to restore the Monroe Doctrine, promoted under the auspices of Washington.
Havana’s successful historical experience in defending its independence, the cohesion of regional allies and the restoration of the Russian military-political and economic presence in Latin America and the Caribbean, along with China’s gaining regional weight, leaves no chance for Washington to maintain its monopoly of influence in the Western Hemisphere.
(c) A. Stepanov, A. Hoffmann
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