POLITICS: No Non-conventional Weapons in Cuba , says Castro

By Dalia Acosta Reprint | | Print |

Dalia Acosta

HAVANA, Apr 10 1998 (IPS) - Cuban President Fidel Castro, responding to the decision by the U.S. Defence Department that Cuba is not a national security threat, has been at pains to stress Cuba is not producing biological, chemical or nuclear weapons that could be used against the United States.

Castro called that idea “absurd” during an interview with the local press and reporters from the Dominican Republic, published Friday by the daily ‘Granma’, the publication of the governing Communist Party.

“We know our strengths and we are strong in defending ourselves from any aggression here, in our territory,” the president said answering questions on whether his country could pose any threat to the United States.

The Cuban government has never considered the idea of using Cuba’s thousands of scientists and researchers and its large research centres to produce biological, let alone chemical or nuclear, weapons, Castro said.

“It has never, never occurred to us to produce biological weapons,” he stressed.

The idea that Cuba could produce biological weapons is based on the fact that the Caribbean nation has a network of biotechnology research and production centres, mainly dedicated to medical and agricultural projects.

But Castro labelled “absurd” any thoughts of a small country like Cuba attempting to use such weapons against a world nuclear power such as the Unityed States.

The U.S. Defence Department report giving details of why Cuba did not poose any threat to Washington’s security was to have been released March 31, but this was postponed to allow an exhaustive review by Defence Secretary William Cohen.

The Miami newspaper the ‘New Herald’ said the review was ordered in response to Democratic Senator Bob Graham’s request that an evaluation be based on Cuba’s capacity to carry out attacks with nonconventional weapons.

“I wanted the report to force the Department of Defence to confirm that Cuba’s capacity poses a threat to the United States. And since Castro has precedents of using that capacity against the United States, to prepare contingency plans in case of attack,” Graham told Congress.

The Defence Department report was drawn up in compliance with an amendment sponsored by Graham last year, which was based on the premise that Cuba was a U.S. national security threat.

The senator expressed his concern over Cuba’s capacity to produce biological weapons, the presence in its territory of a Russian espionage station, and the use for many years of “mass emigration as a political weapon.”

As examples of threats against U.S. national security, Graham mentioned the 1962 missile crisis, the 1980 Mariel Port exodus of emigrants, and the 1996 shooting down of two small civil aircraft flown by the Cuban exile group ‘Brothers to the Rescue’.

“The systematic provocation and threat to the well-being of Americans is clear. Unfortunately, what is also evident is our poor preparation to respond to Cuban provocations,” said Graham.

Political observers in Cuba said the only danger that Cuba could pose to the United States would be to allow new hordes of emigrants to leave these shores. This was improbable if both countries live up to the terms of the migration accords that stipulate the repatriation of undocumented immigrants intercepted at sea, the observers agreed..

This year, Cuba earmarked 680 million pesos – on par with the dollar at the official exchange rate – of its budget to defence and interior order, far below the 2.68 billion pesos that went to public health and education.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuba’s armed forces have been slashed in half, and since then the troops have dedicated a full 70 percent of their time to agricultural and maintenance work.

“We have no response capacity that could affect the U.S. territory or population,” said Castro, who described the Defence Department report “objective.”