Lourdes Base Backgrounder

Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit


source - Walter Lippmann <walterlx@earthlink.net

News that the Russians have now decided not to be in a hurry to pull
out of the Lourdes base means that whatever Putin thought Bush would
give him at their summit last fall, it didn't pan out.

This article was written prior to the latest developments, but will
provide new and deeper background on the topic.

The following article is from CUBAN REVIEW, a most informative
journal in both English and Spanish which comes from Cuba. Its
website is:

www.globalreflection.org/cubanrev

The Russians abandon Lourdes

By Alejandro Carlos

Santa María del Mar beach, Havana. A group of Russian families,
stretched out on the sand, enjoy the pleasure of the Cuban tropical
seashore under a hot summer sun. Near by, Cubans hear them speak and
suppose they are among those receiving medical care at the
neighboring resort of Tarará for aftereffects of the 1986 Chernobyl
nuclear explosion.

But they are mistaken. These are specialists from Lourdes, the
formerly secret military radar base that Moscow has decided to
withdraw from Cuba after 37 years in operation, to please the United
States.

The children playing in the sand are strong and healthy-looking,
different from the 15 thousand that have passed through Tarará in the
last decade and a half with serious sequelae from the explosion of
the Chernobyl nuclear plant. But also, although for the Cubans all
ex-Soviets are bolos (totally lacking in refinement), those of
Tarará, who receive gratuitous treatment, are primarily Ukrainians
and Biolorussians.

One of the Russians turns on the sand and contemplates the nearby
Tropicoco hotel, currently under repair except for its shop that
sells in dollars. His gaze takes in the houses of the beach
neighborhood remodeled for foreign tourism. What he may never know,
however, is that, at the end of the decade of the 80s, Soviet
soldiers disabled in Moscow's war in Afghanistan, recovered from
their wounds and mutilations in these houses, after an unhappy
adventure that Havana never approved but never criticized publicly.

The history of the military love-hate relationship between Moscow and
Havana is by now well known. The understandings between the two
powers at the cost of the small island have finally come to an end.
With Lourdes, the last trace of the Cold War departs from Cuba.

What is Lourdes?

Established in 1964, in the locality of Lourdes, 60 kilometers south
of Havana, the first Soviet and, later, Russian listening center
appears to be a normal neighborhood with the characteristic
five-story blocks of apartments so common in Cuba. The difference is
in the presence of enormous parabolic antennae and the perimeter
defined as a "Military Zone" with "Keep out" warnings.

Since its establishment, first Soviets and, later, Russians have
listened to telephone conversations, intercepted faxes and followed
United States military movements, communicated with their atomic
submarines in this part of the world and with their embassies
throughout America.

A dissident Russian told the United States press that Moscow had
picked up advance information in Lourdes on all the war against Iraq
during the '90s.

In the Soviet era, the stay of military personnel at Lourdes was
gratuitous, included as part of the compensation for the 10,000
million dollars in weapons delivered to the Island as a donation over
three decades.

With the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the Russians established
market relations with Cuba, shelving the earlier preferential
treatment, and the Cubans, in turn, began to charge for the leasing
of Lourdes in gradually increasing amounts that reached 200 million
dollars in the period 1996-2000.

Lourdes accommodates 1,500 Russian specialists within its 72km² and,
in the words of the minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Cuba, General Raúl Castro Ruz, "it is the largest radar center they
have had outside of the territory of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw
Pact countries," and "from which, according to them, the Russians
receive 75 percent of their strategic military information."

Logically, both the Soviets and the Russians shared a good part of
the information obtained with their colleagues of Cuban Intelligence.
Thus, the disbanding of Lourdes affects Cuba from a financial point
of view but is also a hard blow to its national security.

For the United States, the withdrawal represents the elimination of a
thorn from its side that always molested it, to the point that the
U.S. Congress, for years, made financial aid to Moscow dependent on
the closing down of the base.

In December, 2000, Vladimir Putin traveled to Cuba on the first visit
of a Russian president to the Island, during which a series of
strategic agreements were reached with the government of Fidel Castro
that were far from pleasing to Washington. The impression was that,
after a decade of cold-shouldering of Cuba by Boris Yeltsin, the
Russian bear was returning to its strategic positions worldwide.

Putin and Castro visited Lourdes and spoke at a gathering of workers
of the base, briefly reported by the local television, although many
Cubans, unaware until then of the existence of the base, ignored the
full significance of the gathering.

"Russia and Cuba are interested in continuing to foment the activity
(of Lourdes). It has been fully functional for some time, in
accordance with international norms and rules. It has operated
successfully, and Russia and Cuba declare themselves to be countries
interested in continuing to foment its activity," Putin said in
Havana.

The Cuban government admitted later that "some differences" had
arisen between the Cuban and the Russian military representatives
during Putin's visit concerning a reduction in the compensation paid
by the Russians for the base.

A few months later, the Russians began to drop behind in their
payments, but the common will of the two governments to maintain the
facility was evident.

Nevertheless, following the ominous events of September 11 in the
United States, Moscow suddenly decided to withdraw the base and began
to negotiate with its Cuban partners. The conversations took on an
urgent tone in October, precisely 39 years after the famous Missile
Crisis of October 1962.

Just as the U.S. president, George W. Bush, was preparing to travel
to Shanghai, China, to attend the Asia-Pacific Cooperation Forum, the
Russians decided to rush the negotiations to enable Putin to meet
Bush with the news of the forthcoming closure of Lourdes and Russia's
withdrawal as well from the Cam Ranh base in Vietnam.

Its departure from the Cam Ranh naval station is considered merely
symbolic by many. Built by the United States during that country's
war in Vietnam, it was leased to the Soviet Union in 1979.

By now, Cam Ranh has no military relevance for the United States,
20,000 kilometers distant. At the same time, Russia no longer has a
surface fleet to station at Cam Ranh.

On October 16, this year, a Russian presidential envoy sought to
pressure the Cuban government to sign an agreement for the definitive
shutdown of Lourdes. The Cubans responded that, since September 11,
the "aggressive and warlike" attitude adopted by Washington was more
marked than ever and that the closure of the base constituted "a
grave danger for Cuban security." The Island, therefore, was not in
agreement with canceling the agreement signed in 1994.

In the evening of that same day, another envoy from Putin insisted
with the Cubans in an attempt to pin down the agreement before the
forthcoming meeting with Bush.

The Cubans considered that the news was to be "a special gift" for
the U. S. president.

On October 17, Putin publicly announced a series of reforms in the
Russian military budget, now preparing to confront terrorism, among
them, the closure of Lourdes.

Surprised and not a little angered by the public announcement
concerning still-unconcluded negotiations, the Cubans made no effort
to hide their disaccord. "The agreement on the Lourdes Radar Center
is not canceled, since Cuba has not given its approval and it will be
necessary for Russia to continue negotiating with the Cuban
government, taking into account that important questions remain to be
solved in relation to the question," stated the official note
published on the first page of the daily Granma.

The government of Havana, nevertheless, affirmed its "great regard
and respect" for Putin and Russia, and stated that it abstained from
"making any judgment or criticism whatsoever at this moment."

The dispute on Lourdes explodes

The Chief of Staff of the Russian army, General Anatoli Kvashnin,
defended the measure announced by Putin.

"Russia is withdrawing its military bases from Cuba and Vietnam,
motivated by the change in the world political-military situation and
taking into account financial savings for the army and the fleet. The
leasing of the Radar Center costs 200 million dollars, in addition to
personnel maintenance. With that money, we can buy and send 20
reconnaissance satellites into space and buy some 100 radars."

Putin's announcement of the withdrawal from Lourdes was received with
applause in Washington. Bush, en route to China, stopped over in
California and expressed his pleasure. "This decision is another
indication that the Cold War has ended. President Putin understands
that Russia and the United States are no longer adversaries; we don't
judge events according to how much they complicate the life of
another country," Bush said.

The Cuban note, meanwhile, was interpreted by the world as presaging
new tensions between Moscow and Havana.

One day later, the Russian foreign office spokesman, A. V. Yakovenko,
tried to smooth tensions, but indicated in an ambiguous statement
that the Russian intention to close Lourdes was irrevocable,
regardless of Cuban disagreement.

"We have been commenting on the problem with our Cuban colleagues for
some time, so the decision adopted cannot have been unexpected. I
want to emphasize that we do not wish this step to be reflected in
the character of our bilateral relations, which are developing
actively and advantageously," the spokesman said.

At the same time, news of the Russian withdrawal from Lourdes raised
protests within a sector of the Russian Army that had never distanced
itself much from Cuba, even in the Yeltsin epoch.

Retired Lieutenant-General Nicolai Leonov, former head of the
Analysis Division of Soviet Intelligence, criticized the presidential
decision. "We have no other point on the planet from which to
guarantee the collection of precise intelligence."

As to Russian behavior vis-à-vis the United States with regard to the
closing of Lourdes, the former Intelligence chief added that
"everything seems to indicate that the "little Russian pup" has once
again fallen on her back and raised her legs before the United States
bloodhound. For me, this is very painful."

The vice-president of the State Duma, Vladimir Zhirinivki, affirmed
that, with the closing of Lourdes, "Russia will be left without eyes
or ears," while the secretary of the Communist Party of Russia, Oleg
Kulikov, opined that Putin was Bush's "press secretary", whose policy
is to make concessions to the United States.

The wound that doesn't heal

But the main blow that the Cubans have received from their former
economic, political and military allies of three decades was the
disintegration of the Soviet Union itself.

The initial cost to the Island of the cancellation of all existing
contracts exceeded, according to official Cuban sources, 6,000
million dollars. With the disappearance of the USSR, the island's
Gross Domestic Product abruptly dropped 38 percent, submerging the
country in a profound crisis that the Cubans refer to as "the Special
Period" and from which they have still not fully emerged.

Castro spoke at the time of a "double blockade," referring to the
United States embargo imposed on the Cuban nation since 1962,
combined with the effects of the Soviet disappearance.

To give an idea of the peculiar situation, it is enough to recall
that the country carried on 75 percent of its foreign trade with
Moscow and that this trade was governed by preferential treatment
that Castro's government considered "fair prices" and that its
enemies termed "subsidies" for the Island's economy.

With Cuba totally dependent from the standpoint of energy, the USSR
sold it 13 million tons of oil annually as well as the majority of
raw materials and basic products used by Cuban factories. The Soviets
were also the major suppliers of cereals for human and animal
consumption on the Island.

Since Cuba did not belong to the multilateral credit organizations,
Moscow was its main and almost-exclusive source of financing and
economic and scientific-technical collaboration.

Together with the USSR, the whole Soviet bloc collapsed, obliging
Cuba to reorient its economy following the disappearance of the
market to which it had supplied sugar and citrus products as a member
of the Council of Mutual EconomIc Aid (CMEA).

The demise of the communist bloc left Cuba politically alone amidst
"a sea of capitalism," as Castro averred, and much more vulnerable to
United States hostility.

The Cubans are still nursing these wounds, that have still not
healed.



The monument on Chivo Beach

At the eastern exit to the tunnel of Havana, on the rugged coast of
coral reef, a semi-abandoned monument recalls the Missile Crisis of
October 1962, when the world teetered on the verge of a nuclear
holocaust.

The monument -- which included one of the missiles that had created
the tensions of those days -- was inaugurated in 1992, on the
occasion of a conference in Havana on the 30th anniversary of the
Crisis. During the conference, the missile was retired -- according
to some, to protect it from the damage occasioned by the nitre. The
monument was forgotten, but the Cubans have never forgotten the
Crisis, that constituted the first Russian military slight.

After having installed the missiles with nuclear warheads on the
Island, the Russians submitted to strong United States pressures that
obliged them to negotiate. Although Fidel Castro proposed a set of
five points as a condition for the withdrawal, the superpowers
arrived at an agreement, and the missiles were withdrawn without
consulting Cuba.

The result of the negotiations was the establishment on the Island of
a motorized brigade of the Red Army of slightly over one thousand
men, whose existence provided support that was more symbolic than
real.

In 1992, the new Russian government of Boris Yeltsin decided to
retire the motorized brigade, "unilaterally, by virtue of previous
negotiations and agreements with the United States," according to the
Cuban government. The decision was consummated in 1993, and Havana
"swallowed" the second military snub from its former ally.

In October 2001, exactly 39 years after the Missile Crisis, Putin
announced the withdrawal from Lourdes, still without Cuban consent.

"We have always abandoned Cuba. When we had to remove the missiles in
'62, we didn't ask Fidel (...). When we retired the Brigade that was
there for several dozen years, we again relegated them to a second
plane. We never consulted them, never counted on our allies," said
Lieutenant-Colonel Leonov, who added: "That is lamentable for a
State. Who will want to be our ally? Most likely, no one."

Copyright© by Cuban Review 1996-2001. All rights reserved.
 
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