Through the real life experiences of a retired Cuban intelligence officer and a retired KGB officer, this one-day introductory course focuses on one of the most effective and least known of the Communist intelligence organizations: the Cuban Directorate of Intelligence (DI) of the Ministry of Interior. We will discuss the formation, development/evolution and current state of the intelligence gathering organizations that exist in Communist Cuba. The course will cover the qualifications, selection process, and training of Cuban intelligence officers and their subsequent modus operandi, tradecraft, and targeting efforts. Other topics will include intelligence training of allied intelligence and CI services, biochemical capabilities, and cyber and radio frequency weapons. Various case studies will demonstrate Cuba’s main intelligence target: America.

The course begins with an overview of the history of Cuba. Of particular concern is Cuba’s relationship with America, including the development, around the mid-20th Century, of strong anti-American sentiments among certain sections of the population, which was the foundation for the triumph and consolidation of Fidel Castro’s communist revolution. We will cover the origins of the repressive ideology in Castro’s inner circle which gave birth to the front runner of all intelligence organizations in Cuba, the small group known as G-2, under the direction of Ramiro Valdes, as part of the Revolutionary Army (Ejercito Revolucionario de Cuba). We will explain the process which allowed for the development of sophisticated intelligence organizations, with repression as their first objective, from the original G-2 group and from the Departmento de Liberacion (Department for Liberation) belonging to the Communist Party.

The course will review the consolidation and maturation of these organizations through the 1970s and1980s until the crisis in 1989, when several high ranking officers from the Ministry of Armed Forces and the Ministry of Interior were show-trialed and executed or given long prison terms (the Causa Uno Crisis). The seminar will provide an overview of the Cuban DI’s and the Cuban government’s partnerships with Nicaragua, Panama, Venezuela, China, and North Korea, as well as their involvement with North Vietnam during the Vietnam War. The concluding lecture for this seminar will be expose students to a brief analysis and forecast of what the future will bring to post-Castro, post-embargo Cuba, and the possible future of the intelligence organizations in that country in case the essence of the regime does not change. [1 day]