Havana, June 12 (EFE).- Cuba on Monday called the statements by the United States government about the presence of a Chinese spy center on the island a “falsehood” and “a new disinformation operation.”
“The affirmations of the Secretary of State of the US (Antony Blinken) about the presence of a Chinese spy base in Cuba constitute a falsehood,” Cuban Foreign Minister, Bruno Rodriguez said in a statement released on his Twitter account and official media.
He said “Cuba’s position on this issue is clear and categorical,” adding that Blinken’s statements “lack foundation.”
“Cuba is not a threat to the US, nor to any country. The US applies a policy that threatens and punishes the Cuban population as a whole daily,” the Cuban foreign minister said.
He also said Washington’s accusations have the purpose of “serving as a pretext to maintain the economic blockade against Cuba and the maximum pressure measures that have reinforced it in recent years.”
Blinken said Monday during a press conference that US President Joe Biden’s government has “a strategy” to counter Chinese espionage in Cuba and other countries that is yielding results.
On Saturday, the US government declassified information from its intelligence services that says China has had “intelligence collection facilities” since 2019, or even earlier, a term that can include everything from centers with dozens of spies to a simple listening post equipped with an antenna.
According to those reports, when Joe Biden arrived at the White House in January 2021, he received information that China was trying to expand its intelligence services around the world by creating spy centers in Latin America, the Middle East, Asia and Africa.
Blinken made these statements days after The Wall Street Journal said China and Cuba had agreed to build a large spy center on the island, information that the Havana government categorically denied and that the White House initially called ” inaccurate.”
Cuban Foreign Affairs Vice Minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio said that what was published by the American newspaper was “unfounded information,” “slander” and “fallacies” to justify the US sanctions against Cuba and destabilize the island.
The Chinese government accused the US of “spreading rumors and slander.”
White House Spokesman John Kirby told EFE on Monday that “we have made our concerns clear” when asked if there had been any communication with Cuba on this issue. EFE
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