According to a new document from a Washington study firm, Cuba is building a new spy center close to Santiago de Cuba, which will be able to track U.S. air and sea military actions thousands of miles away.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington claimed to have discovered the construction of the new facility, which is intended to collect signs knowledge close to El Salao, south of Santiago de Cuba, the island’s second-largest capital, in an examination of satellite pictures. Guantanamo Bay, which is about 50 kilometers east of the city, is home to the United States.
The Center claimed in a statement released on Tuesday that it had analyzed satellite information and that the site had been under construction since 2021. The report claims that the site is one of four Cuban transmission intelligence facilities that” could be the most plausible locations supporting China’s efforts to spie on the United States.”
A circularly disposed antenna array ( CDA ), which appears to be a large number of antennas, is what the structure looks like, allowing analysts to determine the origin and direction of incoming high-frequency signals. During the Cold War, they were frequently used to detective.
” When functional, this CDAA will serve as a potent tool for enhancing air and sea site recognition in the region, where the U. S. defense and its international partners operate regularly”, the statement said.
China’s intelligence in Cuba “would opened a considerable intelligence window unreachable from within Taiwanese territory,” given Cuba’s proximity to the US.
The Center, a nonpartisan think tank affiliated with Georgetown University, even studied satellite pictures of different previously known or suspected Cuban intelligence getting services in Bejucal, Watao and Calabazar, all near the capital. Even though Cuba does n’t have its own satellites or space program, it noted the expansion of space-monitoring equipment at Bejucal and Calabazar, which suggests these bases are likely monitoring U.S. satellites.
The new statement does not provide convincing, good classified evidence linking the spy camps to Chinese espionage, but it comes in response to a report from the Wall Street Journal and the  that Cuban and Taiwanese officials were discussing building a spy base and a military training facility on the island and offering billions of dollars in exchange.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence did not respond to a request for comment on the new site under construction and its potential connections to China’s espionage activities in the area.
In recent years, China has expanded its presence in the Western Hemisphere and participated in the construction of a number of infrastructure projects, including ports and airports in Caribbean nations, that some experts fear will be used for intelligence and military purposes.
Cuba has denied that China has a presence on the island. However, Chinese spy organizations have been operating in Cuba for a while, at least in one of the facilities described in the report, which is located 45 minutes away from Havana.
Former head of the Western Hemisphere counterintelligence research unit at the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency Chris Simmons reported to the Herald that China has been running the base in partnership with Cuban intelligence services since 1992. It took U. S. spy agencies nine years, until 2001, to learn of the arrangement, he said.
The select committee on China, Armed Services, and Homeland Security, which includes Miami Republican representative Carlos Gimenez, said he anticipated more Chinese and Russian presence in Cuba as a result of President Joe Biden’s “lack of leadership in the Western Hemisphere.”
Last month, a Russian flotilla including a nuclear- powered submarine , arrived in Havana , closely tracked by U. S. warships.
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