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USA. Hybrid war against the Cuban electrical system

Dec 10th, 2024
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  1. # USA. Hybrid war against the Cuban electrical system
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  3. By Magencio.
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  5. The attack on the electrical systems of countries that the United States considers its enemies, for example in the case of Venezuela (blackouts and sabotage against electrical installations) and Russia (sabotage against the NordStream II gas pipeline) is a priority of U.S. intelligence agencies. To give a topical example, in Bashar al-Assad's Syria, thanks to Western sanctions, blackouts had reached 20 hours a day.
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  7. The destruction of the Cuban electrical system, which U.S. strategists consider the main vulnerability of the Revolution, is a top priority for the CIA and for this purpose they have allocated substantial funds.
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  9. Thanks to the framework of U.S. blockade laws, tightened by Donald Trump in his previous term, and which were not reversed by the outgoing Biden administration, any kind of acquisition of spare parts and machinery for the island's electrical system is currently obstructed, not even having the money to pay for them.
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  11. ## Blockade and sabotage
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  13. It is highly cynical for the United States, in defense of Cuban accusations in this regard, to say that the criminal blockade laws establish “exemptions for the export of [certain] basic products to Cuba”.
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  15. The blockade is the main reason why maintenance is not carried out on time and blackouts occur.
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  17. To make matters worse, Cuba's energy is generated on the basis of oil, which in turn is the object of U.S. sanctions in spite of the great efforts made by friendly countries such as Iran and Venezuela to supply the island with fuel.
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  19. This is recognized even by the US-funded anti-Cuban sources in Miami, who while denying the existence of the U.S. blockade, say that these types of restrictions cost Cuba between 100 and 150 million dollars a month.
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  21. Any shipping or oil company that wants to send fuel to Cuba is subject to sanctions, pressures and blackmail of all kinds, among other things preventing it from docking or operating in U.S. territory.
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  23. Even if they have the fuel, and if the spare parts for the electric sector reach the island, they arrive three times slower and more expensive than expected because of the triangulations that must be made to circumvent the provisions of the blockade, and it is even the case that often such equipment arrives in Cuba with damage caused by sabotage actions carried out by the CIA in U.S. ports.
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  25. Expensive equipment for the distributed generation of energy from well-known companies such as Rolls-Royce and MTU acquired by Cuba arrives at U.S. ports in perfect condition but when it is unloaded on the island it suffers damage that could only have been caused intentionally.
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  27. It is suspected that destabilizing interests, beyond mere opportunism, could be behind cases of theft of oil from electrical transformers, which in addition to producing power outages, damages such equipment and causes serious damage to the population.
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  29. But this is not the only type of sabotage affecting the Cuban electricity sector. The United States is capable of going to absurd extremes to enforce the illegal blockade against Cuba. An example of this is the case of the purchase by the U.S. General Electric, an integral part of the U.S. military-industrial complex, of the French company Alstom, dedicated to the manufacture and repair of electrical generation equipment.
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  31. This purchase was made at a loss for General Electric under pressure from the United States with the sole purpose of preventing the supply of spare parts to Cuba - in other words, a purely political purchase with the objective of striking at the heart of the Cuban electrical system: the Antonio Guiteras Thermoelectric Power Plant, in the province of Matanzas.
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  33. All of Guiteras' generators come from that company, which, when it passes into the hands of General Electric, becomes subject to the blockade laws, which prevents it from selling spare parts to Cuba and from carrying out the scheduled maintenance of the equipment.
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  35. The Guiteras power plant, founded in 1988, is the one that provides the greatest stability to the Cuban electrical system since under normal conditions it can generate more than 280 mega watt-hours to the National Electro-energy System and it operates on the basis of national crude oil with high sulfur content, which lowers costs but shortens maintenance cycles and increases the deterioration of metals. This plant was semi-automated in 2002 and the maintenance agreements with Alstom date back to 2003, but thanks to the hostile takeover by the CIA/General Electric, they can no longer be carried out.
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  37. ## Changing the matrix
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  39. Obviously, a strategic move by Cuba in the energy arena must be to decrease dependence on imports and increase generation from renewable sources such as solar and wind power. And it is precisely there where the United States is trying to attack Cuba with more vigor.
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  41. According to engineer Lázaro Guerra Hernández, general director of Electricity of the Ministry of Energy and Mines (MINEM), the current generation strategy seeks to prioritize national sources with a “diversified generation matrix, which prioritizes its own sources, such as national crude oil, gas from Cuban oil extraction, and renewable energy sources”.
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  43. Currently, 83% of Cuba's investments in the energy sector correspond to new renewable sources, including biomass, wind and photovoltaic energy.The latter in particular is the fastest growing sector in Cuba today, followed by wind.
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  45. The CIA and U.S. planners are very busy gathering as much information as possible on such actions by Cuba, which are actually available from open sources.
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  47. Let us recall that Decree Law No. 345, “On the development of renewable sources and the efficient use of energy”, has been in force in Cuba since the end of 2019, outlining the path and establishing ways, objectives and regulations for the island to gradually reverse the generation matrix, moving from 95% dependence on oil to a majority of renewable sources.
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  49. As part of this strategy, since the beginning of 2024, a broad investment process has been carried out, consisting of two projects, the first of which will allow the installation of one thousand mega-watts over a period of two years. The second project, with the same amount of generation, should be ready in 2031.
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  51. “There are 26 photovoltaic solar parks that are currently in different phases of construction in all the provinces, which means an enormous constructive effort for the country”, informed Alfredo López Valdés, general director of Unión Eléctrica, last October.
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  53. This type of project is keeping the imperial planners awake at night, and by all means they are trying to sow doubts about its feasibility by stating that this type of project “is not viable”, considering that Cuba is a country characterized by its exposure to solar radiation, and especially taking into account that China is the world leader in this type of technology.
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  55. All this development is taking place in spite of the efforts and pressures of the United States. Meanwhile, groups in Washington's pay in Florida are redoubling their media and sabotage efforts to obstruct energy generation in Cuba, both traditional and new projects.
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  57. From Miami, the anti-Cuban groups openly call on the island's population to commit acts of sabotage against the electrical networks, knowing that such calls are rejected by the people and serve as a cover for the execution of terrorist activities against this essential service for society.
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  59. The Cuban government warns that one of the CIA's priorities for the coming months is to continue sabotaging the generation of electricity, both traditional and new technologies, as well as to intensify the financial persecution against all types of spare parts and equipment from Europe, Panama, etc., and sabotaging national oil production.
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  61. An avenue of attack against Cuba was recently closed to the CIA with the arrest of the former director of Petroleos de Venezuela, Pedro Tellechera, detained by Venezuelan authorities for ceding control of the national oil company to a company controlled by US intelligence.
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