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  • In a world of shifting alliances, Cuba stands on principles – By Owei Lakemfa

    In a world of shifting alliances, Cuba stands on principles – By Owei Lakemfa

    I walked into the Casa de Africa or Africa House in Havana. I wanted to find out what made it uniquely African. But I was in for a surprise. I had not realised that it also housed a unique class for children learning basic subjects like history, geography and African languages, including Yoruba.

    I tried to tip toe so as not to disturb the class. The tour guide, Miguel Abreu and I spoke in low tones. But the children had been told a friend of Cuba was visiting. They rose and welcomed me with a song.

    How was I to explain to these fifth graders that the primary cause of their country’s problems is that it has a neighbour 95 miles away which for 63 years has imposed severe sanctions on it?

    So, I assured them that their country has friends across the universe, particularly in Africa. The interpretation in Spanish, was by one of the children. We took photographs and they continued their lessons.

    At the House, I also ran into an African delegation which included the Zimbabwean and Namibian Ambassadors. We took photographs under a huge map of Africa.

    Cuba had made a decisive military intervention in Africa, sending thousands of its youths to fight Apartheid forces and liberate the continent from colonialism. The Castro government in the 1980s had to explain to the Cuban people why their youths were shedding precious blood to extricate African countries like Angola, Zambia, Botswana, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zimbabwe from the stranglehold of the Apartheid forces and, to decolonise Namibia and South Africa. The establishment of Casa de Africa was partly to explain to the people why Cubans were fighting and sacrificing their lives in Africa, some 11,000 kilometres away.

    The Director of the House is Alberto Granado Duque. He is the son of Alberto Granado, the biochemist who with the legendary revolutionary, Ernesto  Che Guevera in 1951, set out on a motorcycle tour of Latin America. Amongst those who had visited the House was the Ooni of Ife Olubuse who was there in 1986.

    Part of the theme the House depicted was that Africa is the mother of humanity and that slavery was the greatest crime against humanity.

    Many of the slaves brought to Cuba were from the ‘Congo and Calabari’ area of present day Nigeria. They were in constant revolt against the system and many lost their lives in the process. For them, it was either freedom or death. This might explain where Cubans got their resolve to resist oppression under any sky.

    The slaves who worked an average 15 hours daily, in their spare time played rumba, deepened their ancestral culture most of which they eventually merged. Even when they conspired against the slave owners and the system, in many cases, they used gestures and symbols. The 78-year-old Abreu told me: “We speak with our eyes, our hands and our legs.”

    Some of the almost 5,000 pieces on display included chains and shackles used during the slavery era. Cuba was one of the earliest sugar producers in the world and it was for it millions were enslaved. One of the main reasons for the US blockage since 1962, was the nationalisation of the sugar industry by the Castro government.

    Also on display was the traditional religion of the Cuban people which is a blend of African traditions, mainly of the Yoruba people, and Catholicism. It is called Santeria.

    On display at the House were gods of this religion, especially Obatala, Yemaya (Yemoja)  O Hun (Osun), Oya and Sango, the god of thunder and lightning.

    There were also gifts from various parts of Africa on display. These include two stuffed lions given to Fidel by Emperor Haile Sellasie and, a lion skin by then Somalian President Siad Barre. There were also two big carvings by Nigeria’s Bisi Fakeye.

    I was also at Africa Heroes Park in Havana. There busts of outstanding African leaders like those of Samora Machel and Eduardo Modlande from Mozambique, Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo of South Africa, Sekou Toure of Guinea, and Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana were on display. Also in the park were busts of Kenya’s Jomo Kenyatta, Amilcar Cabral of Guinea Bissau, Laurent-Desire Kabila of the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Mwalimu Julius Nyerere of Tanzania. Three former Nigerian leaders, Tafawa Balewa, Obafemi Awolowo and Nnamdi Azikiwe were painted on a pedestal, obviously waiting for their busts to be made or donated.

    My primary purpose for being in Cuba from March 13-22, 2025 was to attend the Fourth International Colloquium, otherwise called the Patria. The conference held against the background of two anniversaries: the 133rd year since the establishment of the ‘Patria Newspapers’ founded by Cuban international revolutionary, Jose Marti, and the twentieth anniversary of the international television network, teleSUR inspired by Fidel Castro, then President of Cuba and, Hugo Chavez, then President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

    The colloquium explored the dynamics of power in an interconnected world, challenges of hate speech, disinformation and the general manipulation of information. It also examined the global hegemonic powers in techno-politics and how collective efforts can be made by other groups to foster “networks of hope and popular mobilization.”

    The Cuban President, Miguel Diaz-Canel, attended sessions of the conference. At the opening ceremony, he spent generous time taking photographs on the steps of the University of Havana. It was when he was leaving I realised that a car I was a few metres away from was actually his official car and that three men I stood around with were his bodyguards. I was used to bodyguards in dark suits, wearing dark glasses and dangling earphones. In contrast, the Cuban Presidential guards seemed to have blended with the populace and environment.

    At the over one hour closing session, Diaz-Canel simply listened.

    There were lots of documentaries. In one of them, a Palestinian woman tells an Israeli: “You are stealing my house” The Israeli replied: “If I don’t, someone else will steal it.”

    Delegates generally agreed that the criteria for belonging to the emergent group is to be anti-imperialist, anti-fascist and anti-Zionist. A participant raised the problem of Zionism hiding under Judaism; how to separate the parasite from Judaism.

    There were lots of discussions on media linkages and suggestions made about organising groups per country.

    I also had the privilege of meeting a management team of the University of Havana led by the Vice Rector, Dionisio Zaldivar. At the university which was established on January 5, 1728, we discussed possible linkages with some Nigeria universities. I proposed these could be in the fields of history and international relations.

    I found Cuba while existing in a world of shifting alliances, ever standing on principles.

  • Visiting Fidel Castro in Havana – Owei Lakemfa

    Visiting Fidel Castro in Havana – Owei Lakemfa

    I never personally met Fidel Castro Ruz, one of the iconic figures of the  20th Century. I only saw him once in the streets of Havana while he drove and the crowds cheered. On November 25,  2016, this African-Latin American ancestor joined the pantheon.

    When on Friday, March 14, 2025 I  visited the Fidel Castro Ruz Centre in Havana, Fidel came alive for me. I was transfixed to the gun he used in the Sierra Maestra Mountains  where he led a dozen surviving youths to perform what Pentecostals will call a miracle. That foci,  with the assistance of peasants and many supporters across Cuba, in twenty five months, defeated what was then one of the strongest armies in Latin America.

    A photograph of Fidel slinging his gun in the thickset of the mountains  was iconic. Now I was seeing it, preserved for generations.  He never attended any military school. He had gotten the inspiration to fight from the examples of Jose Marti, Antonio Maceo, Simon Bolivar and other liberation fighters. As for theoretical  military studies, he had gotten most of it from  the 1929  novel  ‘A Farewell To Arms’ by the famous American writer, Ernest Hemingway.  His military experience and tactics,  he learned primarily in the battle field.

    The military victory the rebels scored on January 1, 1959 made Fidel one of the most successful guerrilla generals in history.  When a military force, put together and  trained by the United States, US Central Intelligence Agency, CIA  invaded Cuba  on April, 17, 1961, Fidel as Commander-in-Chief of the Cuban Armed Forces, went personally to the battle field. It was quite unconventional for the President of a country to personally  go into the  battlefield. But Fidel did and, in three days, the Bay of Pigs invasion was over, the enemy was routed. Over 1.000 invaders were taken prisoners of war, POWs. The humiliated US government was made to pay   Cuba $53 million  in food and medical suppliers in order to get the POWs released.

    This victory solidified Fidel as a practical general in conventional warfare. So he became  an experienced and successful general in both guerrilla and conventional warfare.

    At the Castro centre, the mythical Fidel was also present. After the young rebels crushed the Batista army in the decisive Battle of Santa Clara led by another  another famous revolutionary, Ernesto Che Guevera and, they entered Havana, Fidel spent a week in caravans travelling to  the country’s capital. On January 8, 1959 he arrived in Havana to address a city overflowing with people. As he did so, a white dove flew through the crowds and landed on his shoulder.  To some   in the crowd, it reminded them of the dove at the baptismal of Jesus.  But to many  Cubans,  it was  the consecration  of Fidel by the Afro-Cuban  god, Obatala.  It was the sign that he was fearfully made and  cannot be killed by  by humans.  This took the form of realism with a record 634 assassination attempts made on his life principally by the CIA.  The attempts had taken some urgency after President Dwight  D. Eisenhower in March, 1960 directed the CIA  to remove Fidel by any means necessary.

    Some months later, Fidel attended the United Nations General Assembly and there was an alleged attempt to poison his cigars.

    The UN  visit itself was quite explosive. It was his first major appearance on the world stage and was clearly the most talked about President at the world assembly with the press covering his every move.

    Fidel had  checked in at the  Shelburne Hotel  in Midtown Manhattan, but stormed out when the hotel asked him to pay a $20,000 deposit. The legendary  African-American leader, Malcolm X then secured accommodation  for him and his entourage at the  Hotel Theresa in Harlem where his  Organization of  Afro-American Unity, OAAU had offices.

    The Theresa was a Whites Only hotel which flung its doors open to people of all  colours  in 1940 after it had been bought by an  African-American, Love B. Wood. It had become a centre of African-American activities, and Fidel’s stay became a game changer for the hotel.

    Famously,  Soviet Premier, Nikita Krushev visited Fidel in  the hotel as did then Indian  leader,  Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and President  Gamar Abdel  Nasser of Egypt. Famous intellectuals like  the sociologist, C. Wright  Mills and famous writer, Langston Hughes, author of the iconic play ‘A Raisin in the Sun’ also visited him.

    Cuba, led  by Fidel sent its youths to  go fight the very powerful Apartheid regime in South Africa which  was backed by major Western powers like the US and United Kingdom.  Cuba lost lots  of those youths  under the African sun. But the Apartheid forces were routed from Angola and pushed into Namibia where they  sued for peace. The direct result was the independence of Namibia and South Africa.

    When due to the Cuban military defeat of Apartheid, the legendary Nelson Mandela was released from  27 years  imprisonment, he visited  Cuba in 1991.   There he said: “In all my years  in prison, Cuba was an inspiration and Fidel Castro was a tower of strength.” This visit is kept alive in the  highly digitalized Castro centre.  Famously, as Fidel talked, Mandela interrupted him: “Before  you say anything, you have to tell me when you are coming to South Africa. When are you coming?”  To which Fidel responded: “I have not visited  my South Africa homeland.”  In 1994, Fidel was in South Africa, and the entire country rose in unison  to receive him.

    The Castro  Centre also has lots of clips showing Fidel’s visits to many countries. The ones I found most interesting were those to Algeria and, Guinea  in which the Pan Africanist President  Sekou Toure was with Fidel.

    The centre houses many personal belongings of Fidel including the original podium and microphones  from which he made many  simple, but very powerful speeches, some of his books, military uniforms and clothes he wore.  The centre is  also about Cuban history including life before the revolution and, the revolution, turning  74 Batista military fortresses into schools for children.

    But even as I visited, the punitive 63-year blockade  unilaterally imposed on Cuba since February 1962 by President John F. Kennedy was still in place. It continues to impose serious hardship on the people whose only crime is choosing to live as free people under a political system of their choice. One of the effects is that Cuba is not allowed to trade at the international market, not even to buy medicines or spare parts for their aging electricity system which collapsed for forty eight hours during my visit. But the workers, symbolising the resilience of the Cuban people, restored the system.  Truly,  a people, united, can never be defeated.

  • The big American cock and the small Cuban needle – By Owei Lakemfa

    The big American cock and the small Cuban needle – By Owei Lakemfa

    United States of America, USA, the most powerful country in the universe, to place a country on the list of states “sponsoring” terrorism.

    So, when on May 15, 2024 it placed Cuba in this category, it was bound to attract attention. However, th the cat and mouse game between both countries since  November 3, 1961 when  President John Fitzgerald  Kennedy  signed “The Cuban Project.” Otherwise called  ‘Operation Mongoose’ it was a project by the US authorising the use by  all means including terrorism, against Cuban civilians to overthrow the Cuban government.

    At inception, the Operation was jointly  led by US Air Force  General Edward Lansdale  and   William King Harvey of the  Central Intelligence Agency, CIA.

    The Kennedy administration had begun with the  invasion of Cuba by  exiles backed  by the American military in what became known as the Bay of Pigs Invasion. There were other attacks including hundreds  of attempts to assassinate former Cuban President Fidel Castro Ruiz.

    Terrorism is essentially the use of violence to further political goals. But the USA has  a number of definitions depending on various institutions like the CIA.

    However, since we are concerned  here with international relations, we can adopt the  USA State Department definition  which states that terrorism  is: “an activity that one,  involves a violent act or an act dangerous to human life, property, or infrastructure;  two,  appears to be intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or,  three,  to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping.”

    Now, Cuba  does not involve itself in violent acts that are dangerous to humanity. Its acknowledged acts outside its borders are primarily two. The first, is sending medical personnel in their tens of thousands to various countries especially Asia, Latin America and Africa, including Nigeria. One of its remarkable successes, was helping to contain Ebola in Africa.

    But is most spectacular contribution to humanity was during the Covid-19 pandemic. First,  it was perhaps the  only country in the world that refused to shut its borders against other human beings. When  in March 2020, the British cruise ship, MS Braemer with 682 passengers  on board was ravaged with Covid-19 and left to drift in the Caribbean with no country allowing it to berth, Cuba brought in the ship.

    It followed this up  by sending 3,700 healthcare personnel around the world to combat the pandemic. This included missions to  Italy,  Azerbaijan, Qatar, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates,  Honduras, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Peru, Antigua, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent, Suriname, Jamaica, Haiti, Belize,  Barbados,  Martinique and Trinidad and Tobago.

    Here in Africa, Cuban doctors and nurses helped to Combat Covid-19 in  Angola, Togo, Cape Verde, South Africa, Guinea Conakry, Guinea Bissau,  Sao Tome and Principe, Equatorial Guinea, Sierra Leone and Kenya.

    This internationalist intervention  by the Cuban doctors called “The White Coat Army” was so over whelming that  in my  September 11, 2020 column titled “Nobel Peace Prize:  A case for the White Coat Army.” I joined the campaign that the Cuban internationalist  medical teams under the Henry Reeve International Medical Brigade, be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

    The second intervention the Cubans had engaged in, was sending 55,000 troops  over 9,000 kilometres  to fight  and conquer the seemingly invisible Apartheid South Africa military  that was invading various African countries and colonizing Namibia and South Africa. This led to the independence  of these two colonies in Africa.

    While we in Africa were grateful to the Cubans, the USA  and Great Britain, saw the Cuban action as terrorism. So, the USA    not only declared  Cuba, a state sponsor of terrorism, it also declared the liberation movements like the African National Congress, ANC as a terrorist organisation.

    While South Africa became independent in 1994,  it was not until May 5, 2008 that the USA parliament voted on “ Removing  the  African National Congress from Treatment as a terrorist organisation.” Also, the USA removed liberation fighters like Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu and Oliver Thambo from its list of ‘terrorists’.

    Cuba was first designated a so-called sponsor of terrorism in 1982 for backing liberation movements like the ANC and SWAPO and supporting revolutionary governments like the Sandinista in Nicaragua.

    On April 14,  2015, the USA under President Barack Obama reviewed this  classification of Cuba and admitted it was political and unhelpful. On that day, the White House  declared: “ While  President Obama  acknowledges  that Cuba and the United States  continue to have great  differences, these differences  do not  pertain to Cuba supporting terrorism.”  So Cuba was removed from the list.

    Events  outside the control of Cuba and, having no relation to terrorism, led to the re-listing of Cuba.  On January  23, 2019,  then American Secretary of State, Michael  Pompeo issued a statement  on the “Recognition of Juan Guaido as Venezuela’s Interim President.”  This was a failed coup by the USA to unseat Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro.  The Trump administration was livid that Cuba refused to recognise Guaido, so on January 12, 2021, eight days  before leaving office, President Donald Trump, relisted Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism  for its continued recognition of President Maduro.

    It was expected  that incoming President Joe Biden  who was Vice President to Obama when Cuba was delisted, would reverse the Trump decision more so as it had nothing to do with terrorism.  However, the Biden administration has simply continued to relist Cuba.

    In the analysis of the Cuban Government: “It is nothing but a totally unilateral and unfounded list, whose sole purpose is to smear sovereign States and serve as a pretext for imposing coercive economic sanctions on them, as those ruthlessly imposed on Cuba.”

    If anything, it is Cuba that has been the victim of USA terrorism.  The USA Justice Department in its 1976 Office of Justice Programmes Report confirmed  terrorist attacks against Cuba from the USA. It listed some of these as including airplane bombings, attacks on ships, assassinations and  bombings of  Cuba civilians.

    It is also ironic that the Apartheid  Netanyahu regime in Israel  which is carrying out genocide in the Palestine despite worldwide condemnation, is not designated terrorist. But a country like Cuba that carries out demonstrable humanitarian work, is not at war with anybody, has a hundred per-cent literacy, perhaps the best health system in our  universe and,  ranks high on  social indices, is routinely, and perhaps mindlessly, listed as a state sponsor of terrorism.

    The big American cock has for over six decades attempted to devour  tiny Cuba;    but the latter is a needle which the cock  might  be unable to bite, chew or swallow.

  • Cuba: Where dedication to humanity is like religion – By Owei Lakemfa

    Cuba: Where dedication to humanity is like religion – By Owei Lakemfa

    THE Israeli bombs that rained down on Gaza has killed over 200 health workers with 215 injured. In Havana, Cuba, 10,953 kilometres away, Palestinian youths being trained as medical doctors, gathered to mourn the human carnage in their country and vowed to take the next available flight back once they complete their studies to replace the murdered doctors.

    In a show of the famous Cuban sense of humanism, President Miguel Diaz-Canel on November 17, 2023 met with the Palestinian students to express the solidarity of the Cuban people. Then on November 23, draped in the black-and-white Palestinian keffiyeh, he led the Palestinian students and a huge mass of Cubans in a solidarity march across Havana passing in front of the United States, US,Embassy, demanding a ceasefire in the Israeli-Palestinian War. Also participating in the march, were the Cuban Prime Minister Manuel Marrero, Foreign Minister, Bruno Rodriguez and the President’s wife, Lis Cuesta.

    The solidarity the Cubans are engaged in on the Palestinian issue, is no fluke. They showed Africans a thousand times more solidarity when we were in our most vulnerable state. That was in the 1980s when Apartheid South Africa, supported by the US, Britain, Israel and their allies, held us in the jugular. Apartheid held down Namibia and enslaved the Blacks in South Africa with liberation icons like Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki and Nelson Mandela held in prison as terrorists. Additionally, the Apartheid regime with a mighty military equipped by its Western allies, invaded African countries like Zambia, Swaziland, Lesotho, Botswana, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Angola at will.

    Africa seemed helpless. Most countries merely made declarations. So, with the support of the Apartheid regime by some world leaders like President Ronald Reagan and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, the situation appeared hopeless. However, Cuba took action. It sent a total 55,000 troops over 9,000 kilometres from Havana to Africa to fight Apartheid and liberate the African continent.

    Thousands of heroic Cuban youths lost their lives fighting for Africa. In the historic Battle of Cuito Cuanavale, Angola, the Cubans roundly defeated the Apartheid forces, chasing them into colonised Namibia where the enemies of humanity begged for a ceasefire. Cuba’s basic demands on the Apartheid regime were independence for Namibia leading to independence for South Africa. Two years later, Namibia became independent on March 21, 1990 and South Africa, on April 16, 1994.

    Cuba which has been under US sanctions for six decades, went before the United Nations General Assembly, UNGA, on November 2, 2023 asking it to vote against the US economic and trade embargo against it. A total of 187 countries voted against the US embargo with only the US and Israel voting for the embargo and Ukraine abstaining. It was the 31st time the UNGA was voting against America on the issue, but the Americans have never shown any respect for the UN resolutions.

    Cuba, a small island nation had as at 2021, lost over $1,098,008,000,000 to the unilateral American restrictions which includes embargo on spare parts, medicine, transportation and food.

    It has also survived attacks by some 300 terrorist groups which bombed private and commercial places. Cuban aircraft have also been hijacked, taken to the US and destroyed. The most serious of these terrorist attacks was the October 1976 hijack of a Cuban Airline with 76 persons on board. It was flown over the sea and blown up.

    The Cuba-US fight is like that between the Biblical David and Goliath. The US has a total area of 3,119,885 kilometres compared to Cuba’s 109,884 kilometres. In other words, the US is over 28 times the size of Cuba. In terms of population, while the US is 331.9 million, Cuba is 11.26 million. So the US population is over 29 times that of Cuba. Yet in over six decades of skirmishes, sabotage and sanctions, the US has been unable to subdue Cuba.

    The man who symbolised Cuba’s resistance and unparalleled sense of dedication to humanity, is Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz. Fidel as he was affectionately called, flew away on November 25, 2016. Exactly on the seventh year of his passing, I joined guests at the Cuban Embassy in Abuja to plant a royal palm tree commemorating his passing.

    Cuban Ambassador Miriam Morales Palmero who personally worked with Fidel, explained the choice of tree: “The royal palm was chosen as the national tree in Cuba for being the most numerous of its trees, for being the most notable species in its landscapes, resistant and durable, for its beauty, for its usefulness and for being represented in the national coat of arms.”

    She recalled that Fidel told Cubans that they have the ‘duty of compensation’ to “Africa by virtue of the crucial role played by Africans and their descendants in the independence and revolutionary wars (In South America and the Caribbean) in their contribution to the construction of the Cuban nation and in the creation of wealth that successive generations of all races have enjoyed.”

    The Ambassador said, Fidel’s speech in Havana on March 21, 1962 on war, remains relevant today as it was 61 years ago. In it, he had said: “In no other minute of human history is peace so necessary, because in no other minute of human history does war mean so much destruction and so much death. At no other minute in human history is the idea of war as terrible as at this moment.”

    Dr . Onuche Audu, an Obstetrician and Gynaecologist who studied in Cuba, graduated 48 hours before Fidel passed. He told the audience that Fidel had not died, but had merely “multiplied”. Audu, seeing himself as a representative of Cuba said: “A Cuban doctor prides himself in saving a life even when no money is paid.”

    Comrade Abiodun Aremu, the Secretary of the Nigeria Movement for Solidarity with Cuba recalled that there were over 600 assassination attempts on Fidel, especially by the US,but that they all failed because he was what Yorubas call ‘Akanda’, a specially created human being.

    He also noted that Cuba has survived over 60 years of blockade by its powerful neighbour, US, but that the country remains standing and viable.

    Aremu said that although Fidel was produced by Cuba, he was a gift to humanity. Therefore: “When we solidarise with Cuba, we solidarise with ourselves.” He wondered why Cuba cannot open a bank account in Nigeria, indicating that Nigeria might, vicariously, be carrying out part of the American sanctions against Cuba.

    The ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, in a solidarity message delivered by Mr. Ini Akpan Morgan, the Head of its International Department, praised Fidel for the redistribution of the national wealth to the Cuban populace.

    Cuba remains a country where dedication to humanity is like religion.

  • Nigeria to deepen strategic relations with Cuba – Shettima

    Nigeria to deepen strategic relations with Cuba – Shettima

    Vice President Kashim Shettima on Thursday expressed the desire of President Bola Tinubu’s administration to deepen existing bilateral relations with the Republic of Cuba.

    The Director of Information, Office of the Vice President, Mr. Olusola Abiola, in a statement, said Shettima stated this during a courtesy visit to the Vice President of Cuba, Salvador Valdez Mesa at the Palace De Revolution, Havana.

    Shettima is currently in Cuba to represent Tinubu at the G77+China Leaders’ Summit in Havana, Cuba, holding from Sept. 15 to 17.

    Shettima during the visit traced the history of relations between Nigeria, Africa and Cuba, especially its support for Southern Africa.

    “We hold Cuba in high esteem, especially your commitment to us in Africa,” he affirmed.

    While commending the existing relationship between the two countries, Shettima reiterated the need for the two countries to re-commit to future relations.

    “Our relationship has been very excellent over the years and this relations needs to be strengthened and upscaled.

    “This is why I came with Ministers of Agriculture and that of Science, Technology, and Innovation to explore future areas of partnership.”

    The Vice President also stressed the need to explore opportunities in Science, Technology, and Innovation as well as the agriculture sector.

    Shettima, while delivering a special message to the President of Cuba, Miguel Diaz-Canel from President Tinubu, assured the commitment of Nigerian government towards deepening their mutual relations.

    In his remarks, the Vice President of Cuba, praised Nigeria’s leadership role in Africa and the world.

    He said Cuba takes its relations with Nigeria very seriously, noting that the support to Africa in past decades was due to the fact that Cuba considers itself as an African State.

    He, therefore, expressed Cuba readiness to explore new areas of collaboration with Nigeria in such sectors such as health, biodiversity and agriculture.

    He also thanked Nigeria for its participation at the upcoming Summit saying, “we attach great importance to your presence here.”

  • The return of heroic Ana Montes – By Owei Lakemfa

    The return of heroic Ana Montes – By Owei Lakemfa

    Ana Belen Montes returned. Captured spies are usually killed, imprisoned for life without the possibility of parole, or used in prisoner exchanges. But the 65-year- old American super spy who, based on her principles, worked  free for Cuba, has returned to resettle within American society.

    But this was not owing to the generosity of the American establishment, which wanted the death penalty, but rather to Montes’ incredible negotiation skills, as she, despite her arrest, did not panic and correctly read the situation.

    She knew the case against her was circumstantial and that the government may not be able to secure a conviction or a long jail term without her cooperation. So she entered a plea bargain in which the death penalty was off the table, and she got not more than a 25-year sentence despite her quite devastating 17 years of snooping for the Cubans while the American government picked up her bills.

    Despite being imprisoned with those considered the  worst  female prisoners in a special 20-room prison in which the inmates are given the impression they need mental assistance, Montes kept her cool and worked towards release for good behaviour after 20 years.

    I had read about Montes in a book I bought in Uyo on October 4, 2012. It is titled: Enemies: How America’s foes steal our vital secrets—and how we let it happen. by Bill Gertz. She was considered such an efficient and useful spy that the Americans gave her ten special awards. Montes was so crafty that the American government in 1993 paid for her visit to Cuba, where she met her Cuban handlers.

    As her due release date of January 8, 2023 drew near, I dedicated my December 16, 2022 column to her in a piece titled: “Ana Montes: An American Super Spy Who Worked for Cuba.” I did not expect the avalanche of responses that followed, with many,  including Americans, expressing surprise that such a super spy exists.

    Perhaps the most surprising response was a message I received on January 2, 2023, from an American radio programme “Voices With Vision”. broadcasting in Washington on Tuesday mornings. I featured on the programme the next morning  to speak on Montes, during  which I made a case for her to be released as scheduled and for arrangements to be made not just to receive her, but also to ensure she has accommodation and some upkeep to ease her reintegration into society.

    As it turned out, perhaps to prevent welcoming crowds at the facility, the prison officials released her two days early. Montes flew to her native Puerto Rico, a territory that has been forcibly occupied by America since July 25, 1898, 124 years ago. She will be the second-highest-ranking Puerto Rican political dissident returning home.

    The first was a 79-year-old liberation fighter, Oscar Lopez Rivera, who had been imprisoned for 38 years before his May 2017 release. I had written about him on December 3, 2021, in my column titled: “Rivera: Thirty eight years in US prison for freedom.” Later that year, I was privileged to have an electronic discussion with Rivera from his Puerto Rican home, during which he accepted my invitation to visit Nigeria.

    When Montes arrived in Puerto Rico, she released a statement partly saying: “After two rather grueling decades and in need of earning a living again, I would like to pursue a quiet and private existence. Therefore, I will not participate in any media activities. I encourage those who wish to focus on me to instead focus on important issues, such as the serious problems facing the Puerto Rican people or the US economic embargo on Cuba… The pressing need for global cooperation to halt and reverse our destruction of our environment also deserves attention. I as a person, am irrelevant. I don’t have any importance…”

    Spies intrigue me. Being embedded in places, cases, or situations, or pretending to be someone you are not, can be difficult, if not terrifying. Every spy is potentially a hero or villain, depending on the analyst.

    Humans find spies attractive. This could explain why Ian Fleming’s fictional character, James Bond 007, a secret service intelligence officer, has been featured in over 25 films.

    One of the most intriguing spies is  a 12th Century African woman, Moremi Ajasoro from Offa, Kwara State. She lived in ancient Ile-Ife at a time when the city was continually invaded by strange figures, the Ugbo. The Ifes assumed the invaders, who were covered from head to toe with raffia leaves, were spirits, fled before the invaders, who captured prisoners and looted.

    Moremi decided to infiltrate the invading army by allowing herself to be captured. The  Ugbo ruler, who could not resist her beauty, married  Moremi. She seemed a model wife, and nobody suspected she was gathering intelligence. She discovered that the invaders were humans and could easily be defeated if the Ifes used fire torches to set them ablaze.She later escaped, revealed the secret of the invaders, who were defeated when they next invaded Ife.

    Biblically, one of the oldest professions is spying. In Numbers 13, the Lord ordered Moses to send out men to spy on the land of Canaan. A dozen spies were sent, and two, Joshua and Caleb, returned with positive reports that: “it flows with milk and honey”,  that its security can be breached, and that  with God’s help, the Israelites could conquer and possess it.

    To me, the most successful spy in contemporary history, was Harold Adrian Russell “Kim” Philby, leader of the Cambridge Five, a spy ring that included Sir Anthony Frederick Blunt, the Art Curator of Queen Elizabeth II.

    Philby was a senior British intelligence officer and a double agent for the Soviet Union who was appointed an officer of the Order of the British Empire, OBE  in 1946. He was so confident, believable and successful that four years after two of his fellow spies, Donald Maclean and Guy Burgess, had been unmasked and fled to Moscow, and Philby had been publicly accused in parliament of being a double agent, the British government publicly exonerated him. It was not until January 1961, he defected to Moscow, and it became known that he was a Colonel in the KGB.

    Back in the 1930s, Philby, then a Soviet agent working as a journalist, was so successful in penetrating the fascist regime of Spanish General Francisco Franco that the latter personally awarded him the Red Cross of Military Merit on March 2, 1938. Three years later, he joined the British M16 intelligence agency. With Montes, I now ask myself: who, between her and Kim Philby, is the greatest of all time, and the most successful spy in history?

  • Ana Montes: American super spy who worked for Cuba – By Owei Lakemfa

    Ana Montes: American super spy who worked for Cuba – By Owei Lakemfa

    THE United States, had during the Banana War, occupied Nicaragua in 1912. This gave rise to the Somoza political family, which ruled the country from that period until its overthrow by Nicaraguan youths under the banner of the Sandinista Movement in 1979. The popular Nicaraguan Revolution threw many youths across the world into a frenzy.

    One of them was a 22-year-old American, Ana Belen Montes. Additionally, Montes, whose Puerto Rico homeland has been occupied by the US since 1894, also felt that the tiny island state of Cuba, whose youths had, in 1959, overthrown the Batista dictatorship, should have the right to self-governance without interference from the US, its giant neighbour which had already seized its Guantánamo Bay.

    The US also orchestrated the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in April 1961, imposed an embargo on Cuba in February 1962 that is still in effect today, and carried out hundreds of assassination attempts on the then Cuban leader, Fidel Castro. Montes, out of conviction, decided to work for free for Cuba’s survival while America picked up the bills.

    In 1984 while working as a clerk in the Department of Justice, she applied for a job in the Defence Intelligence Agency, DIA. The agency is responsible for foreign military intelligence, briefing the Secretary of Defence, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and providing military intelligence to war fighters and overall national intelligence.

    The DIA employed her in 1985, and she soon became one of its stars. She became a specialist on Latin American military affairs, was the principal analyst for El Salvador and Nicaragua, and later, the top political and military analyst for Cuba. She became known in American intelligence circles as the ‘Queen of Cuba’.

    On February 23, 1996, the Cuban Ministry of Defence asked visiting American Rear Admiral Eugene Carroll to warn off American private aircraft that planned to violate Cuban airspace. Obviously, the mission had been compromised. Carroll  immediately informed the State Department. Instead of being stopped, two “Brothers to the Rescue” planes were shot down over Cuba the next day. Who else would America turn to examine the case and draw lessons, but Montes?

    A small matter arose: was Carroll’s meeting at the Cuban Defence Ministry carefully planned to enable the Cubans to warn off the aircraft, or was it a mere coincidence? The official who arranged the meeting was Montes, and her explanation that the date was chosen because it was a free date on the Admiral’s schedule, was accepted. Montes work and contributions to US intelligence were so valued that she had ten special recognitions, including a Certificate of Distinction, the third highest national-level intelligence award. This was presented to her in 1997 by the Central Intelligence Agency, CIA, Director George Tenet.

    However, in 1999, the National Security Agency, intercepted a Cuban communication. It revealed a spy, high in the hierarchy, who was associated with the DIA’s SAFE computer system. It meant the spy was, likely, a staff of the DIA. The suspect had also travelled to Guantánamo Bay in July 1996.

    Coincidentally, Montes worked in the DIA and had officially travelled to the Bay. The spy was using a Toshiba laptop. The product was common, but a decision was taken to broke into her flat to see if she had one and possibly copy the hard drive.

    All these were based on gut feelings and circumstantial evidence. A lot of work needed to be done to gather hard facts. However, the 9/11 attacks occurred, and the US decided to invade Afghanistan. The problem was that Montes with a direct link to the White House, by virtue of her high position, had to be informed.

    If she turned out to be a Cuban spy, as the case being put together was suggesting, then Cuba would be informed about the secret invasion plan. A decision was, therefore, taken to arrest and confront her. This was done on September 21, 2001.

    I deciphered ten reasons why Montes was not detected over the years. First, she worked for Cuba for free, collecting no money except a few reimbursements. So there were never any unexplained sums of money in her accounts, which could have raised a red flag.

    Secondly, she avoided romantic entanglements that might have compromised her. Thirdly, she hardly engaged in social activities. So, the possibility of slips or unguarded remarks was virtually eliminated. Fourthly, many spies arouse suspicion from the people they meet, such as embassy staff or suspected foreign intelligence agents. She met only Cubans who were thought to be Cuban students, academics, and businessmen not connected to the Cuban government.

    Fifth, many spies met their handlers in remote or isolated places; Montes met her handlers in public places like restaurants. Sixth, some spies are busted in the process of receiving messages and directives from their handlers. Montes received hers via short wave radio as coded messages during normal broadcast. Seventh, many spies are caught passing information by using the “dead drop” or “dead letter box” method of passing information. She sent information mainly using encrypted disks, which she passed on in public places or during lunch, and using only public telephones for her spy work. She also used dissolvable paper.

    Eighth, she was so disciplined and careful that when her office was searched, the only thing that was not official, was a quote by Henry V pinned on the wall. Even her home revealed nothing extraordinary beyond a short wave radio and laptop, which were not illegal. Also a code was discovered in her purse which she could explain off  in court.

    Ninth, she made two secret trips to Cuba going through Europe, then decided to make official trips that were paid for by the US, ostensibly to study the situation in the country and meet assets.

    The tenth and most important reason was that unlike almost all spies who need to remove documents, duplicate or store them in some device, she had a photographic brain. Sometimes, she simply sat in her office, memorised documents and went home to reproduce them.

    The evidence against her was mainly circumstantial, and it was unlikely the state could get a conviction without her cooperation. She cut a deal that saw her sentenced to 25 years of imprisonment rather than the death penalty or life.

    She wrote a teenage nephew from prison explaining her principles: “I owe allegiance to principles and not to any one country, government, or person. I don’t owe allegiance to the US or to Cuba or to Obama or to the Castro brothers or even to God.”

    Ana Montes is imprisoned in a special 20-mate prison in Texas. Her scheduled date of release is January 8, 2023. She has been one of the most successful spies in history.

  • Cuba to present resolution to lift U.S. trade embargo

    Cuba to present resolution to lift U.S. trade embargo

    Cuba will again submit a resolution against the U.S. trade embargo at this year’s United Nations General Assembly in November, Foreign Affairs Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla said.

    The minister said that this would be the 30th time to present the resolution after more than 60 years of siege.

    He said the resolution calling for an end to the embargo had consistently won the overwhelming support of UN members.

    However, the United States “persists in ignoring the demands of the international community and has intensified the blockade to unprecedented levels,’’ Rodriguez said.

    The minister said it failed to subvert the constitutional order in Cuba, but caused unjustifiable shortages, pain and suffering for Cuban families by limiting basic necessities.

    Official data show in the first 14 months of U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration alone, the embargo has caused Cuba economic losses of about 6.3 billion U.S. dollars.

    First imposed in 1962, the embargo was tightened by Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump, who imposed more than 240 sanctions against the island.

    In 2021, a total of 184 countries voted in favour of the resolution for the 29th year in a row, with only the U.S. and Israel voting against.

  • CUBA FLIGHTS: U.S. reverses Trump admin restrictions

    CUBA FLIGHTS: U.S. reverses Trump admin restrictions

    The U.S. Government has announced a historic shift in its policy toward Cuba Monday night, saying that for the first time in six decades it will sign off on an American company investing in a private Cuba-based and Cuban-owned business.

     

    The deal is pending approval by the Cuban government but could open the door for additional American dollars flowing to entrepreneurs in the island nation.

     

    Additionally, the Biden administration said it would authorize flights to Cuba beyond Havana, reinstate the Cuban Family Reunification Parole Program, which allows Cubans to join family members in the U.S. on a temporary basis with the potential for obtaining permanent status, and lift the $1,000 per quarter limit on remittances per sender-receiver pair and allow for donative (non-family) remittances.

     

    A senior administration official said these changes have been in the works for a long time and will be “implemented in the coming weeks,” but “some will take place faster than others.”

     

    The administration characterizes these moves as “measures to further support the Cuban people, providing them additional tools to pursue a life free from Cuban government oppression and to seek greater economic opportunities.”

     

    Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez said that in the wake of the 2021 pro-democracy uprising, the announcement risks sending “the wrong message to the wrong people, at the wrong time for all the wrong reasons.”

     

    “For years, the United States foolishly eased travel restrictions arguing millions of American dollars would bring about freedom and nothing changed,” he said in a statement Monday.

     

    “The regime in #Cuba threatened Biden with mass migration and have sympathizers inside the administration and the result is today we see the first steps back to the failed Obama policies on Cuba,” Florida Sen. Marco Rubio tweeted.

     

    The administration will also “encourage commercial opportunities outside of the state sector” by authorizing access to expanded cloud technology, and e-commerce platforms, as well as explore options to “expand support of additional payment options for Internet-based activities, electronic payments, and business with independent Cuban entrepreneurs,” officials said.

     

    Biden’s admin says it will not alter the Cuba Restricted List, entities with which the U.S. government generally prohibits direct financial reactions, “because they would disproportionately benefit the Cuban military, intelligence and security services or personnel at the expense of the Cuban people or private enterprise in Cuba,” as defined by the State Department, according to senior administration officials.

  • Carlota Lukumi: Nigerian woman who led mass uprising in Cuba – By Owei Lakemfa

    Carlota Lukumi: Nigerian woman who led mass uprising in Cuba – By Owei Lakemfa

    Carlota Lukumi, a Yoruba from Nigeria was about ten when slave raiders abducted her about two hundred years ago. She was one of the approximately 12.5 Africans abducted. She survived the dehumanizing Atlantic Ocean passage into slavery in which at least 2.5 million people died. She was sold into slavery to work in the sugar and cotton plantations in the Cuban Province of Matanzas.

    As in almost all cases, her original names are lost as she was fitted with a new name, Carlota. Her surname, Lukumi came from the habit of Yoruba slaves, in realisation of their kinship, calling themselves ‘Olukumi’ meaning my close friend. This is very much like the international Argentine doctor, Ernesto Guevera, refering to himself as ‘Che’ (Buddy) and that becoming part of his name.

    Over 600, 000 slaves were brought to Cuba in the 19th Century and put to inhuman, back- breaking work in the fields. The Spanish colonialists treated the slaves as beasts of burden. Their living conditions were quite harsh and some of the slaves thought the best option was the overthrow of the slave masters who were also the Spanish colonialists. Uprisings such as these are quite bloody and brutal and in almost all cases, associated with masculinity. But Carlota and and another woman of African descent, Fermnina, decided to lead a revolution to overthrow the system. They formed a triumvirate with another African slave, Evaristo and began mobilization in July and August, 1843.

    With the Triunvirato and Acana mills as base, they employed the use of talking drums which a number of slaves had taught themselves. The slave-owners assumed the talking drums were means of the slaves reminding themselves of their ancestors, whereas they were war drums.

    Unfortunately, part of the plan leaked and Fermina was exposed as a rebel planning insurgency. On August 2, she was arrested, tortured and detained. But the slave masters did not realise this was just the tip of the iceberg and that the insurgency, co-ordinated by Carlota was rumbling below like a volcano.

    Three months later, on November 3, the insurgents led by Carlota moved from their Triunvirato Mill base to Acana Mill where they liberated Fermina and freed the slaves.

    The uprising fully started on Sunday, November 5. 1943 at 8pm when Carlota burned down the places used for torture and detention, the home and the mill of the slave master. With sharpened machetes, she and her followers attacked the overseers and their assistants, slaying them. Some witnesses said Carlota, personally seized and slew her overseer’s daughter. Within hours, the insurgents had toppled the Mayor of Matanzas, Julian Luis Alfonso Sole who was also the owner of the local sugar mill. They also overran five plantations.

    It was a very brutal uprising with both sides taking no prisoners. When Carlota was captured, she was quickly put to death on November 6, 1843. It is not clear how she was executed, but a popular claim by witnesses was that: “The repressive forces tied her to horses sent to run in opposite directions in order to destroy her body completely so that she would be unrecognizable forever.”

    Carlota’s early capture and execution, rather than dampen the spirits of the insurgents, galvanized them into greater action. While she led the full insurgency for just one day, the revolt went on for one year; the largest against slave owners in Cuba.

    Fermina and seven others were shot in March 1844. That year became known as the ‘Year of the Lashes’ because the angry slave owners and the Spanish armed forces massacred many Cubans of African ancestry irrespective of gender and status; slaves and freed men and women.

    The uprising resonated internationally. Some days into the rebellion, an American warship, a Navy corvette, the Vandalia, docked in Havana. Its commander, Rear-Admiral Chauncey brought a solidarity letter to Leopold O’Donnell, the Captain General of Cuba offering American aid to crush the “Afro-Cuban” rebellion. Mr. Campbell, the U.S. Consul in Havana accompanied Rear-Admiral Chauncey to the official ceremony where the letter was presented. This reveals that as far back as the 1880s before the 1844-45 Berlin Conference where Africa was portioned into colonies, the Western Europeans and Americans had being working together to dominate the world. This was also evident in their support of Apartheid South Africa in Angola, Namibia and South Africa. It is still being played out today in the Russo-Ukrainian War.

    The Carlota Uprising coming after the August 22, 1791 –January 1, 1804 Haitian Revolution in which slaves took on the colonialists plus the British and French armies, snatched victory, freed all slaves and declared independence, led to the unravelling of slave and colonial systems in the 19th century.

    She became not just a symbol of the strength of the Cuban woman, but also one of resistance and resilience.

    When Apartheid South Africa, backed by the West, invaded Angola in 1974, President Agostinho Neto on November 3, sent an SOS message to Cuba. The positive response came two days later: “The Communist Party of Cuba reached its decision without wavering.” The Cubans choice of November 5 to respond to the Angolan request, was symbolic as it reminded them of the November 5, 1883 day Carlota began her revolt. For them, it was time for Cuba to show its gratitude for the fundamental roles Cubans of African ancestry like Carlota and General Antonio Maceo, played in their liberation. Maceo, famously known as “The Bronz Titan” on account of his skin and valour in war, was the second-in-command of the Cuban army of liberation from colonial rule.

    As Cuba poured tens of thousands of soldiers into Africa to stop the march of Apartheid in the continent including its invasion of various African states, its then leader, Fidel Castro, named it ‘Operación Carlota’ (Operation Carlota) in honour of Carlota Lukumi. The Cubans decisive military victory over the Apartheid Armed Forces not only forced the racists out of Angola, but also led to the independence of Namibia and South Africa.

    With Operation Carlota, the Cubans linked not just their ancestral past with Africa, but also the ideals of the Cuban Revolution with the total liberation of Africa.

    In 1991 as part of the UNESCO Slave Route Project, a memorial in honour of Carlota and the heroic slaves who fought for freedom, was erected at the site of the Triunvirato plantation where the revolt started.

    In 2015, the memorial site was venue of the 40th Commemoration of ‘Operation Carlota.’ Carlota Lukumi seemed to have lived through the last three centuries; as leader of the 19th Century Slave uprising, in the UNESCO slave memorial of the last century and in the 40th Commemoration of Operation Carlota in the 21st Century.