Raul Says Lourdes Base is Packed Up & Closed

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


[ *Russian* *spy base* *Communist-run* Cuba

One would never guess this place was part of the SALT and START
treaties designed to monitor compliance with arms-control treaties.]

source - JosePertierra@aol.com


Russian spy base in Cuba closed - Raul Castro

BAUTA, Cuba, Jan 26 (Reuters) - A Russian spy base in communist-run
Cuba has finally been closed and its electronic equipment is waiting
to be transported back to Moscow, the head of Cuba's armed forces
Raul Castro said on Saturday.

"The Lourdes base exists no more. It has been dismantled and the
complete withdrawal is the Russians' responsibility," Raul Castro,
the No. 2 in Cuba's political hierarchy after his brother President
Fidel Castro, told reporters.

Russian President Vladimir Putin pleased Washington and infuriated
Havana last October by announcing that Moscow was pulling out of the
spy station less than 100 miles (160 km) from U.S. soil.

The decision to evacuate Lourdes, which Moscow used as a listening
post for monitoring U.S. communications throughout the Cold War,
spelt the end of four decades of Russian military presence in Cuba.

The full dismantling of the base, just outside Havana, apparently ran
into operational snags in early January and was delayed beyond
previously-announced dates, diplomatic and military sources said.

Raul Castro confirmed, however, that the base was no longer
operational. "The antennae are down. Nothing works any more. There
are a few Russians still there until they finish collecting the
equipment and decide by what air or naval means they take back what
remains there," he said.

"When all the Russians have gone, you can be invited to visit the
remains of the base, the buildings that are there," he added in
comments to reporters after a government rally in the town of Bauta,
outside Havana. "Maybe by then we will know what we are going to do
with it in the future."

Raul Castro said the Christmas and New Year festivities were the
reason the full dismantling of the base had taken longer than
expected.

When Moscow announced its withdrawal from Lourdes, Bush called the
intelligence center a Cold War relic whose demise would help
cooperation between the United States and Russia.

But Cuba's ruling Communist Party said the financial saving for
Russia, cited as its main motive, was negligible and the closure
would pose a security risk.

"From the Lourdes center, Russia was receiving 75 percent of the
strategic information it needed to prevent an aggression and it has
been the principal tool for controlling the fulfillment of the
(nuclear) disarmament agreements with the United States," a
government statement said soon after the announcement.

16:01 01-26-02
 
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nyteeu-01.27.02-00:43:54-2404