Castro's True Destiny? © ABIP 1997

Agustín Blázquez with the collaboration of Jaums Sutton

"When this war is over, a much wider and bigger war will begin for me, the war I am going to wage against them (the US). I realize that this is going to be my true destiny, "Castro wrote on June 5 1958 (available in public records), to his secretary, Celia Sánchez.

In October 1962, Castro thought he was meeting his "destiny" during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Declassified records show that during the crisis Castro asked Soviet Prime Minister Khrushchev for a nuclear strike against the U.S..

The Soviets declined, but the persistent Castro waged his war against the US in different ways, for example: With drugs.

On September 22, 1963, The Miami Herald said that federal narcotics officials "can date an 'alarming rise' in the cocaine traffic into the US from Castro's accession to power. It may be that Castro is relying on dope smuggling to get badly needed dollars for foreign exchange that he could not otherwise obtain." Castro has always hated the US but not its dollars necessary to keep himself in power.

Havana, January 1966: Castro's Tri-Continental Conference of worldwide communists, revolutionaries and terrorists, the decision reached called for the planned destabilization, exploitation and undermining of the US and its people through drug-trafficking and the promotion of other corrupting criminal activities.

Since then Castro has offered safe heaven to drug traffickers for a share of their profits. Cuba's radar system guides the traffickers through the safest routes into the US. Castro's regime advises them to use Cuban flags so that the US Coast Guard (avoiding international incidents) won't interfere.

But finally, in the 1982-83 Senate and House Congressional Hearings, Castro's involvement in drug-trafficking became evident and the US began complaining to Cuba.

The 1989 cover-up trial using Gen. Arnaldo Ochoa as the fall guy for Castro-sanctioned drug trafficking and Ochoa's subsequent execution was not the end of Cuba's involvement with traffickers.

In February 1994, in Bogota, Colombia, the files and videotape records of slain drug lord Pablo Escobar, implicated Castro's brother, Raul, Cuba's Defense Minister, in the drug operation. Castro knew, because nothing happens in Cuba without his direct knowledge and approval.

On June 6, 1996, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Chief, Thomas Constantine, declared at a Congressional hearing that Castro's regime is still offering protection to drug traffickers in his waters and air space.

On July 25, 1996, The Miami Herald reported that DEA agents found, in a Miami warehouse, 5,828 pounds of cocaine, 30 boxes of Cuban cigars and recent photographs of Cuban-American drug trafficker Jorge Luis Cabrera with Castro in Havana. The apprehended traffickers detailed their Colombia-Havana-US route with Castro's help.

During the Cold War, the Soviets built the largest and most sophisticated intelligence station in the world at Lourdes, Cuba, equipped with state of the art listening devices. Although the Soviets officially left Cuba, about 200 Russians continue operating this facility.

The Russians are giving Castro's regime $200 million credit annually for their use of the Lourdes spy base, and they are upgrading its capabilities. Paradoxically, the US will give to Russia in 1997, $95 million in direct aid!

At Lourdes, Russia is intercepting sensitive US military and economic communications (telephone conversations, fax, e-mail and encrypted messages). From a recent Pentagon Defense Intelligence Agency study, James M. D. Adams, Washington Bureau Chief of The Sunday Times of London, reports that the Russians are obtaining 75% of their "military strategic information from the base."

The US military is aware of Castro's chemical and biological capabilities. Reports point to a 1992 purchase from US "ally" (Italy) of a 10,000 RPM centrifuge installed in a militarily protected chemical and biological warfare factory in East Havana (one among an estimated four).

Castro is determined to complete the Chernobyl-like nuclear reactors that the Soviets started building in 1983 in a seismically active area.

Construction of the Juraguá Nuclear Plant (conveniently located near a nuclear submarine base) was suspended in 1992.

In January 1997, Castro publicly announced its indefinite postponement due to lack of financial resources. However, in February 1997, Russia told the US that it intends to resume the construction in 1998 with the help of German, French, Italian, Canadian and Latin American governments and/or companies.

Experts say that the plant is "shoddily" constructed, "the reactors are fatally flawed", and that "the first reactor's dome would not be able to contain the pressures associated with meltdown conditions."

According to Jose R. Oro's THE POISONING OF PARADISE, "The ecological impact in the event of an accident or deliberate misfortune will be enormous, involving the practical annihilation of Cuban lives and properties."

Juraguá is 180 miles off the US coast and U.S. government agencies estimate that in case of an accident and widespread lethal radiation, 50-80 million Americans will be affected as far as Washington, D.C. to the north and Texas to the west.

Central America and the Caribbean will be affected, as well. Why are our supposed friends and allies irresponsibly helping Castro finish this ill-conceived and potentially disastrous project in which millions could die in case of an accident?

Nuclear power is dangerous in Castro's hands. He has finally signed the 23-nation Treaty of Tlatelolco in March 1995, but to date has not ratified it. This treaty requires that Latin American states refrain from possessing or acquiring nuclear weapons and from permitting the deployment or storage of nuclear weapons in their territories by other countries. What does Castro have in mind for his grand finale?

On many occasions, Castro has bragged about his MiGs fighters having the capability to destroy South Florida.

Records show that at 3:15 p.m. on February 24, 1996, two Cuban MiGs, pursuing an unarmed Brothers to the Rescue's U.S. civilian plane were detected by Jeffrey Houlihan, a Customs radar operator at California's March Air Force Base, well inside a U.S. air defense zone just three minutes from Miami and the US did nothing about it.

There are five nuclear reactors in Florida, two of them on Turkey Point, 28 miles south of Miami. Castro might already have a plan . . ..

For those thinking that Castro has mellowed with age, I submit what he recently said when addressing a military parade in Havana, "We hope that death will be generous enough, when our turn comes, to allow us to have the ability to squeeze a trigger, or throw a grenade, or push a button and detonate a big mine. The weapons of the revolution and socialism will not be given up without a fight."

Castro, a believer of his "destiny," won't go away quietly and may want to leave his mark. And those who say that with the end of the Cold War, Cuba is no longer a threat to US security, need to reconsider.

© ABIP 1997

Agustín Blázquez is a Washington-based documentary film producer and director, including the films "Covering Cuba," "Cuba: The Pearl of the Antilles",  "Covering Cuba 2: The Next Generation." and Covering Cuba 3: Elián. And author with Carlos Wotzkow of the book Covering and  Discovering

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