Cuba's Recent Involvement in Drug Trafficking: The Ochoa-La Guardia Cases (From International Terrorism: Policy Implications, P 1-30, 1991, Susan Flood, ed. -- See NCJ-132889)

• NCJ Number: 132890
• Author(s): P A Lupsha
• Date Published: 1991
• Length: 30 pages
• Sale Source: University of Illinois at Chicago
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

The trial of General Arnaldo Ochoa Sanchez and several other officers in Cuba's Ministry of the Interior on charges of drug trafficking has shed new light on the extent of drug trafficking in Cuba.

Abstract

General Ochoa was arrested in 1989 and charged with corruption and the dishonest management of economic resources. His arrest occurred less than 2 weeks before he was to be appointed head of the Western Army, the most important of Cuba's three armies. After a quick, televised court martial and trial, General Ochoa and three other officials were found guilty and executed. According to trial data, the so-called LaGuardia Group began discussing drug trafficking in 1986, and the first operation took place in 1987. A key question was whether this activity was authorized at the highest levels of the Cuban government, particularly by Cuban intelligence. Trial evidence and press reports indicate that higher authorities in Cuba did not authorize drug trafficking; rather, drug trafficking of the LaGuardia Group was based on bureaucratic imperatives, ambition, and a misguided desire to obtain as much hard currency for Cuba as possible in the easiest and fastest way. For ideologues of the right and left, however, the Ochoa-LaGuardia affair provided evidence of either involvement in narcoterrorism by Fidel and Raul Castro or plots by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency to undermine Cuba. Regardless of the conclusions reached on official involvement in drug trafficking, the Ochoa-LaGuardia affair has placed the Castro brothers in a no-win situation. If it was an authorized activity to gain hard currency, the Castro brothers are clearly implicated in corruption. If it was not an authorized activity, the actions of Ochoa make it look like the Castros have no control over the actions of key military officers and intelligence agency departments and operations. The operation of Cuba's intelligence service is described, and various drug trafficking operations of the LaGuardia Group are detailed. 1 chart and 73 notes