THE LESSONS OF THE STASI/ GIVE ME LIBERTY BY DAVID HOFFMANN

 

THE LESSONS OF THE STASI

Fidel Castro’s intelligence services had long used subversion, deception, informers, and psychological pressure tactics. But Castro wanted to find new ways to suffocate any opposition in Cuba. He turned to the Stasi, the feared Ministry of State Security in East Germany. They had refined methods to detect opposition and nip it in the bud, including a type of psychological warfare known as Zeresertzung, or “decomposition.” The Stasi tutored Cuba’s state security in these methods, including wiretapping, which were later used against Oswaldo.

GIVE ME LIBERTY

By David Hoffmann 

https://www.davidehoffman.com/oswaldos-quest/

From Berlin to Havana

 

ESPIONAGE
E. Germans drew blueprint for Cuban spying (2007)

A once-jailed Cuban exile's research reveals how East Germany exported its repressive Stasi security system to Cuba, where it lives on

BY MICHAEL LEVITIN
Special to The Miami Herald

BERLIN 

https://havana-berlin-connection.blogspot.com/2011/05/east-germans-drew-blueprint-for-cuban.html

Cuban spies received secret messages by old-time short-wave

By Juan O. Tamayo

Every week, one short wave radio station in Cuba broadcasts 97 messages coded in fax-like tones. A computer program easily available to the public changes the tones into numbers, and the Cuban spies then decode the numbers into words.
A second Cuban spy station transmits 16 messages per week in the dots and dashes of the 175-year-old Morse code – secret messages to Havana spies who may be older or less technologically savvy.

Cuba’s most famous numbers station, known as “Atención” because of the opening line of the deadpan female voice in Spanish that started its transmissions, went off the air just late last year, Smolinski.

The lack of any accent in the voice of the Atención station was explained in December by Jorge García Vázquez, a Cuban in Berlin who has been researching the links between Havana and the STASI, the former East Germany’ intelligence service. A Jan. 10 1977 letter in the STASI archives shows Cuban intelligence Maj. Eddy Herrera had requested the equipment for a numbers station, preloaded with the Spanish words for one through zero, Attention, Goodbye and Final, Garcia Vázquez reported.

https://havana-berlin-connection.blogspot.com/2014/02/cuban-spies-received-secret-messages-by.html

The training of Cuban intelligence and counterintelligence officers in the techniques of the East German “counterintelligence state” was evident in many ways. The demise of the German Democratic Republic in 1990 and consequent access to Stasi files confirmed and expanded the understanding of the relationship. Regarding guerrilla CI, this relationship is important because Cuban trainers played substantial roles in passing on their knowledge to Latin American and other insurgent groups. Cuban researcher Jorge Luís Vázquez, 33 ..." 

http://www.slideshare.net/CIARO/jsou-guerrilla-counterintelligence

From Berlin to Havana: The Secret Stasi–DGI Axis

https://youtu.be/VT7YciPY_vw

The Kremlin Files: Russian Double Agents and Operational Games

 

THE KREMLIN FILES / COLUMN — There are similarities among intelligence agencies worldwide. All professional services rely on tradecraft to recruit and manage assets. They all operate within bureaucratic systems and ultimately answer to political leaders. At a basic level, espionage tradecraft is a common professional language. However, Russian intelligence services (RIS) differ significantly from their Western counterparts in several key aspects. First, their primary mission is not to serve the interests of the Russian people, nor to protect the country's constitution; instead, their loyalty is to the regime and Putin’s personal political survival. And secondly, in terms of tradecraft, they differ from the CIA and other Western services in their approach and tactics. One of the most important—and often misunderstood—aspects of Russian intelligence is their use of double agents, known in Russian intelligence doctrine as operational games (operativnye igry).

https://www.thecipherbrief.com/the-kremlin-files-russian-double-agents-and-operational-games

By Sean Wiswesser

Former CIA Senior Operations Officer

Sean Wiswesser is a former senior operations officer with the CIA. He served multiple overseas tours and held senior leadership positions such as Chief of Station and in joint-duty assignments across the intelligence community. Sean is the author of the forthcoming book Tradecraft, Tactics, and Dirty Tricks: Russian Intelligence and Putin’s Secret War (Spring 2026), which examines the evolution of Russia's intelligence services, their fight against the West, and their role in modern hybrid warfare.

United States consistently underestimates Cuban intelligence, sources say

 

March 18, 2024 by Ian Allen 5 Comments

AGENTS OF THE CUBAN government have “penetrated virtually every segment of the United States national security structure,” enabling Havana to share actionable intelligence with Russia and China, according to a new report. Citing former United States and Cuban intelligence officers, The Wall Street Journal said on Saturday that Washington’s counter- intelligence efforts are no match for Cuba and its intelligence service, the Dirección de Inteligencia (DI). The DI is “the best damn intelligence service in the world” for cultivating agents, according to Brian Latell, a retired CIA analyst who served as the U.S. Intelligence Community’s National Intelligence Officer for Latin America. Latell told The Wall Street Journal that the Dirección de Inteligencia bears the imprint of Fidel Castro himself, who took a personal interest in running the service during his reign.

INTELNEWS

Electronic Warfare . Excerpts from the research report, "Havana-Berlin Connection": By Jorge L. García Vázquez

                   Electronic Warfare

Excerpts from the research report, "Havana-Berlin Connection"

By Jorge L. García Vázquez

"Dear Comrade Prieto,

Allow me to inform you that, thanks to the support of the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Cuba, the assembly and commissioning of a 10-meter parabolic antenna was successfully completed at the Special Radio Services of the Ministry of State Security of the GDR".

(Letter from General Manfred Männchen, head of the Stasi's Special Radio Services, to Colonel Abelardo Prieto Rodríguez, head of Directorate XI of the Ministry of the Interior, October 30, 1985).

The Radio Intelligence (RI) and Radio Counter-Intelligence (RCI) departments of the Ministry of the Interior and their East German counterparts in the Stasi engaged in intense and costly collaboration.

The development of "electronic warfare" in Cuba has a name: Ramiro Valdés. The Minister of the Interior of Cuba at the time dedicated special attention to this sector. During a meeting with high-ranking Stasi officers, Valdés proposed turning Cuba into an "Electronic Warfare laboratory" for the benefit of the socialist bloc.

An important collaboration agreement was signed on June 30, 1983, between the Special Radio Services of the Ministry of State Security (MfS) and the Cuban Directorate of Counterintelligence.

In 1975, a Stasi delegation visited Cuba. A report on the visit stated:

"The Ministry of the Interior (MININT) has requested the support of the MfS. Cuban counterintelligence has existed since 1961. Its main department is located in Santiago de las Vegas, 25 kilometers south of Havana and near the Rancho Boyeros Airport. Other centers are located in Havana and Santiago de Cuba. Four radio direction-finding stations are located in other parts of the country".

What did this collaboration entail, and what were its technical and operational objectives?

(a) Intercept and decrypt enemy Special Services' and agents' transmissions.

(b) Monitor radio communications in East Germany and Cuba and in the diplomatic missions accredited in both countries.

Stasi report on the transport of black money (10 million dollars) with the support of Cuban State Security

Stasi report on the transport of black money (10 million dollars) with the support of Cuban State Security

January 12, 202

By Jorge L. García Vázquez 

Berlin, May 16, 1988 / May 5, 1988 / Contact Person "Alpha" Reception, Mayor Hartung. Transcript of Recording 900151 Meeting: Time 5 pm to 9 pm 000154 AB BKK No. 465/138 / REPORT on the transfer of 10 million US dollars from Mexico via Cuba, GDR, Austria, and Switzerland. Immediately after the Leipzig Spring Fair in 1988, the company representative visited IHZ* and presented a proposal to company P, making several offers to import meat, coffee, and other products from Paraguay. He inquired about the possibility of transporting "black money"—US dollars from Mexico—as described in the title. The origin of the money in Mexico is supposedly unknown... Delta company was to receive a 15% commission. During the week of March 28, we consulted with Raúl O., First Secretary of the embassy in Cuba, in the presence of translator G. I asked him what the possibility was of carrying out this transport via Cuba. Raúl O. confirmed that he had done it several times in the past and listed details of how it could be organized: a group of Cubans would travel to Mexico with the corresponding diplomatic passports, purchase a car and several suitcases to avoid leaving a trace, transport the money to the Cuban embassy in Mexico, and subsequently fly it to Havana as diplomatic baggage. Raúl O. said he would have to travel to Havana to clarify this matter. I informed Haase* about the possibilities of this transport and about the matter in general. 

Source: Stasi Document Archive

STASI-UNTERLAGEN- ARCHIV

BA MfS AG BKK Nr. 465, page 154

*IHZ: International Trade Centre, East Berlin 

* More information about the Stasi-MININT business relationship :  https://www.radiotelevisionmarti.com/a/11013.html

File reviewed by Jorge L García Vázquez, independent researcher and author of the Havana-Berlin Connection Blog 

Popular posts from this blog

Austrian agent faces espionage charges

August 29, 2025

https://www.democrata.es/internacional/antiguo-agente-inteligencia-austria-enfrenta-cargos-espionaje-favor-rusia/amp/ Espionage for Russia: Former Austrian intelligence officer Egisto Ott is accused of passing information to Russia and the fugitive former Wirecard executive. He now faces up to five years in prison. https://www.spiegel.de/ausland/oesterreich-anklage-gegen-ex-verfassungsschuetzer-egisto-ott-wegen-spionage-a-76d96b9e-742f-462b-ac3a-7bd6b38c1e6f

READ MORE »

And what is the Villa Marista prison?

December 19, 2014

And what is Villa Marista prison? Adolfo Rivero Caro: Villa Marista is part of the Operations Department of the Counterintelligence Directorate of the Ministry of the Interior. It was created in 1963 and is the Cuban equivalent of Moscow's Lubyanka. KGB instructors, Stalinist veterans, transmitted their vast repressive experience to the Cubans. These instructors came to Cuba during the Khrushchev and Brezhnev eras, after the 20th Congress of the CPSU, when Stalin's crimes had been denounced by the communists themselves and the torture devices were still in use. The KGB's repressive methodology emphasized psychological, not physical, torture; it was about breaking the spirit, not the body. Furthermore, the torture of revolutionaries during the Batista dictatorship had provoked profound disgust among our people, and it wouldn't have been easy to systematically resort to such methods...

READ MORE »

Following the trail of the red spies: Mauro Casagrandi

January 22, 2021

  Jorge L. García Vázquez Berlin "Berlin, June 8, 1989 Year 31 of the Revolution To: Major General Willi Damm Chief of International Relations MSE GDR From: Colonel Rafael Lemourt Arceo, Representative of the Cuban Ministry of the Interior in GDR On Friday, June 27, Major Reynaldo Villa de Armas, Aide to Colonel Ángel Fuentes Lavín, Second Chief of the Counterintelligence Directorate, will arrive in Berlin on flight LO-171 from Warsaw, with the objective of coordinating the vacation of former agent Mauro Casagrandi, his wife, and their three children. We need colleagues from GDR to support us in organizing a tourist trip and providing personal security for the agent and his family. This was coordinated last year with Comrade Damm, but they were unable to support us. Expenses will be covered by us. Damm explains that Mauro was an agent within the CIA and that the agency sent a message stating he has been sentenced to death. Major Reynaldo Villa will return from Berlin to Havana on Tuesday, June 20..."

READ MORE »

Archive

Report abuse

 Powered ECTION

   By Jorge L. García Vazquez 

    Havana-Berlin  Connection 

General José Abrantes' visit to Berlin in 1987 was influenced by the situation in the USSR following Gorbachev's reformist policies, the war in Angola and the situation in Panama. These three political and economic factors had a significant impact on Cuba.

At the end of 1989, the Cuban regime lost not only its allies in Eastern Europe but also a important commercial and operationally very strategic partner: Panama. In 1989, General Abrantes was dismissed and subsequently sentenced to prison, where he died.

https://www.nytimes.com/1991/01/23/obituaries/jose-abrantes-is-dead-jailed-cuban-official.html

During the well-known trial of Case No. 1/89, General Arnaldo Ochoa, Colonel Antonio de La Guardia and two other officers were shot.

https://youtu.be/ZIFuJDypC7A?feature=shared

                  (General José Abrantes)

The following are excerpts from the interview between the Minister of State Security of the former GDR, General Erich Mielke, and General José Abrantes.

Mielke: Warm greetings from Erich Honecker. I told him there are a lot of questions, the answers to which we need to hear from the Minister. Thank you for the support you've provided to our comrades stationed in Cuba...

Abrantes: First of all, I'm very happy to be visiting your country. I'm very happy every time I can visit you. That's why you see me here so often. Special greetings from Comrade Raúl Castro. He always remembers you with great affection. Although he told me that sometimes there were minor disputes, these were fraternal and constructive disputes. On November 3rd, I left Cuba. On November 4th, I had a transit stay in Berlin and we had a Berlin lunch. After two hours, we flew to Moscow for the 70th anniversary of the October Revolution. Fidel Castro continued his journey to Havana. I informed him of my intention to visit several countries, including the GDR. In Moscow, I had talks with Comrade  Chebrikov and Comrade Kriuchkov. We exchanged views on the international situation. We talked about Perestroika and Glasnost, about the development of society in the Soviet Union. Later, I visited Poland and spoke with Comrade Kiszcak and other comrades. I then visited Hungary and met with Comrade Kamara and other comrades."

(Undoubtedly, Abrantes is conducting a thorough analysis of the situation in two countries that were already turning their backs on the communist experiment in Eastern Europe. How did this information influence the Cuban General? Did he realize in 1987 that Real Socialism was in its final stages?.

It's difficult to answer these questions without access to other sources. In his memoirs "Tal como fue", a former Cuban intelligence officer Juan Antonio Rodríguez Menier mentions this quote from Abrantes: "I'm going to send you to the Intelligence Center in Budapest. When you're out there, if you can explain our position to any Yankee who understands and wants to talk to me secretly, I have no problem." Remember the danger I run" ("As It Was," Bloomington, IN USA). Rodríguez Menier was stationed as a MININT officer in the former GDR and deserted in 1987.

Abrantes: During my stay in Hungary, I made a short trip to Austria (Vienna). The Minister of the Interior showed interest in meeting me. He promised to visit Cuba next year. I had a very interesting conversation with him. He's very popular. I've obtained some information. He was a leading figure in the "Algerian Liberation Movement." He asked me how we can help them. I think this question has a double meaning. From an operational point of view, so we can send our comrades there to gain experience. On the other hand, your Ministry provides aid to Third World countries. I told you that we want to develop tourism. He also offered me help in this regard.

"Panama is a country with which we have relations. General Noriega has a...

https://stasi-minint.blogspot.com/2013/08/colaboracion-stasi-minint-1987-el.html?m=1

translated by Google

Sources: Bundesarchiv ( Stasi- Archiv)

MfS Abt X