A senior Cuban official on Thursday issued a strong denial of a Wall Street Journal report alleging that Cuba and China had reached an agreement to set up a spying facility on the island.
Cuba’s deputy foreign minister, Carlos Fernández de Cossío, issued a strong statement, calling the newspaper’s information “totally false and unfounded.”
“They are all fallacies promoted with the perfidious intention of justifying the unprecedented intensification of the blockade, destabilization and aggression in Cuba and to deceive public opinion in the United States and the world,” said Fernández de Cossío.
According to the Journal, US officials with access to “highly classified intelligence” said China would pay Cuba “several billions of dollars” to set up the base roughly 100 miles south of Florida.
The base would be used to intercept electronic communications throughout the southeastern United States and to monitor vessel traffic, according to the report.
The US government he is also denying the story, with Pentagon Press Secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder calls it “inaccurate.”
“We certainly know that China and Cuba have some kind of relationship, but when it comes to the specific activities described in the press reports, based on the information we have, that’s not accurate,” Ryder said. “We are not aware of China and Cuba developing any kind of spy station.”
Fernández de Cossío in his statement blamed US officials for making up the story, pointing to other issues that have increased tensions in the Florida Straits.
“Lies of this type have been frequently fabricated by US officials, who are apparently familiar with the intelligence, such as those concerning alleged sonic attacks against US diplomatic personnel, the falsehood about the non-existent military presence Cuban in Venezuela and the lie about the imaginary existence of biological weapons laboratories”, said Fernández de Cossío.
—Updated at 4:58 p.m
