What’s Behind the Arms Smuggling?

Cuba: What's Behind the Arms Smuggling? / Ivan Garcia
Posted on July 19, 2013

Reinaldo's family had finished dinner when, in passing — it wasn't
headline news on the nightly broadcast — Rafael Serrano, the histrionic
presenter, read an official press release from the Ministry of External
Relations revealing the regime's point of view with regards to the North
Korean cargo ship Chong Chon Gang, intercepted at the port of Colon,
Panama, with conventional weapons and anti-aircraft missile systems
belonging to the Cuban armed forces.

"The information isn't clear, Reinaldo speculates. "Supposedly the army
sent that batch of obsolete weapons to be modernized in Pyongyang. It
seems that the grandson of Kim Il Sung, the current leader in the
isolated nation, has factories to modify and renovate Russian weapons. I
do not know what's behind it. Or of Cuba is selling old weapons to North
Korea to strengthen them militarily, or if the Cuban State is in full
modernization of their old weapons and if so, I wonder what the goal it."

The regime's version says that the batch of obsolete weapons
manufactured in the last century traveled to North Korea to be
renovated. As a rationale, it invokes sovereignty and national
security. A former soldier consulted explained that whenever a nation is
caught in such an action it justifies itself with external threats.

"In any government, democratic or autocratic, there are authorized
groups within the sewers of power who do the dirty work. An example is
the case of former CIA analyst Edward Snowden. The young man has brought
to attention the broad U.S. electronic eavesdropping on global
communications. Barack Obama is left with the evidence. And it's the
case in Spain with Luis Barcenas, former treasurer of the Popular Party,
who with his explosive statements can blow up the executive of Mariano
Rajoy. But in both countries there is freedom of expression, journalists
investigate things and publish them. In Cuba, thanks to the absolute
power exercised by the government over the media, it is easier to
manipulate citizens," argues the former soldier.

According to the retired soldier, it is true that Cuba's weaponry is
defensive and outdated. "The armed forces' most modern technology, such
as the MIG-29, T-62 tanks and anti-aircraft missile systems ,are
antiquated. The topic of discussion is why Cuba now decides to modernize
its weaponry. There is no threat from United States: against its power
and advanced technology, it would mean little or nothing to renovate
existing arsenals. I think it's a matter of business and they were
selling those weapons under the table to North Korea."

In the quiet Sevillano neighborhood south of Havana, people didn't pay
much attention to the North Korean ship detained in Panama. The
youngsters, on vacation, played football with stones marking the goals.

On the streets, vendors hawked onions at a good price. A tall
gray-haired man was engaged in buying gold jewelry. And two burly men
were repairing old mattresses in the garage of a house.

What the North Korean ship also caught by surprise was ordinary Cubans.
And if something caught my attention it was the fact that old weapons
were hidden under 10,000 tonnes of sugar, a product in decline on an
island that was once the 'world's sugar bowl.'

Iván García


18 July 2013

Source: "Cuba: What's Behind the Arms Smuggling? / Ivan Garcia |
Translating Cuba" -
http://translatingcuba.com/cuba-whats-behind-the-arms-smuggling-ivan-garcia/