Intelligence Directorate

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The Intelligence Directorate (Spanish: Dirección de Inteligencia, or DI, also known as G2 and formerly known as Dirección General de Inteligencia or DGI) is the main state intelligence agency of the government of Cuba. The DI was founded in late 1961 by Cuba's Ministry of the Interior shortly after the Cuban Revolution. The DI is responsible for all foreign intelligence collection and comprises six divisions divided into two categories, which are the Operational Divisions and the Support Divisions. Manuel "Redbeard" Piñeiro was the first director of the DI in 1961 and his term lasted until 1964. Another top leader who directed the famous office, located on Linea and A, Vedado, was the now retired Div. General, Jesus Bermudez Cutiño. He was transferred from being the Chief of the Army Intelligence (DIM) to the Ministry of Interior, because of the big shake-up due to the Ochoa-Abrantes affair in 1989. The current head of the DI is Brig. General Eduardo Delgado Rodriguez. The total number of people working for the DI is about 15,000.[1][2]

KGB relationship[edit]

The Soviet Union's KGB and the Cuban DI had a complex relationship, marked by times of extremely close cooperation and by periods of extreme competition. The Soviet Union saw the new revolutionary government in Cuba as an excellent proxy agent in areas of the world where Soviet involvement lacked popular local-level support. Nikolai Leonov, the KGB Chief in Mexico City, one of the first Soviet officials to recognize Fidel Castro's potential as a revolutionary, urged the Soviet administration to strengthen ties with the new Cuban leader. Moscow saw Cuba as having far more appeal with new revolutionary movements, western intellectuals, and members of the New Left with Cuba's perceived David and Goliath struggle against US imperialism. Shortly after the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, Moscow invited 1,500 DI agents, including Che Guevara, to the KGB's Moscow Center for intensive training in intelligence operations.

Dismayed by Cuban debâcles in Zaire (1977 and 1978) and in Bolivia (1966-1967) as well as by a perceived growing independence from Moscow, the Soviets sought a more active role in shaping the DI. Manuel Piñeiro, becoming increasingly upset at the co-option of the DI by the Soviets, was removed during the 1970 purge and replaced with the pro-Soviet José Méndez Cominches as head of the DI. Semyonov also took this opportunity to oversee a rapid expansion of the DI's "western" operations. By 1971, 70% of the Cuban diplomats in London were actually DI agents and proved invaluable to Moscow after the British government's mass expulsion[when?] of Soviet intelligence officers.

In 1962, the Soviet Union opened its largest foreign SIGINT site in Lourdes, Cuba, approximately 30 miles (50 km) from Havana. The Lourdes facility is reported[by whom?] to cover a 28 square-mile (73 km2) area, with 1,000 to 1,500 Soviet and later solely Russian engineers, technicians, and military personnel working at the base. Those familiar with the Lourdes facility have confirmed that the base has multiple groups of tracking-dishes and its own satellite system, with some groups used to intercept telephone calls, faxes, and computer communications in general, and with other groups used to cover targeted telephones and devices.[3]

Operations abroad[edit]

Throughout its 40-year history the DI has been actively involved in aiding leftist movements, primarily in Latin America, Africa and the Middle East. There have also been allegations that Cuban DI agents interrogated US POWs[citation needed] held at the Cu Loc POW camp in North Vietnam.

Puerto Rico[edit]

The DI sought to aid the growing Puerto Rican separatist movement. Dr. Daniel James testified before a U.S. Senate Subcommittee that the DGI, working through Filiberto Ojeda Ríos, organized and trained the Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional Puertorriqueña (FALN) in 1974. In October 1974, Ojeda was arrested and charged with terrorist acts against American hotels in Puerto Rico. Authorities found a substantial amount of Cuban government documents and secret codes in his possession.

According to the former chief investigator of the U.S. Senate, Alfonso Tarabochia, the DGI began directing criminal activities in Puerto Rico and the eastern and midwestern United States as early as 1974. That June, the secretary general of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party, Juan Marí Bras, met in Havana with Fidel Castro to consolidate party solidarity.

Beginning in September 1974, the incidence of bombings by Puerto Rican extremists, particularly the FALN, escalated sharply. Targets included U.S. companies and public places. The FALN was responsible for a bombing that killed four and wounded dozens at the historic Fraunces Tavern in lower Manhattan on January 25, 1975. Later that year, Fidel Castro sponsored the First World Solidarity Conference for the Independence of Puerto Rico in Havana.

Ríos was killed by the FBI on Friday, September 23, 2005 in a rural village in the town of Hormigueros, Puerto Rico.

Camp Mantanzas[edit]

Camp Mantanzas is a training facility operated by the DI and is located outside Havana since early 1962. It has hosted the likes of Carlos the Jackal.[4]


  1. ^ Chris Hippner, "A Study Into the Size of the World’s Intelligence Industry" (Master's Thesis, December 2009), 90,
  2. ^ Edward González and Kevin McCarthy, “Cuba After Castro: Legacies, Challenges, and Impediments,” RAND (Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 2004), 44,
  3. ^ [1]
  4. ^ Ovid Demaris (7 November 1977), "Carlos: The Most Dangerous Man In The World", New York Magazine: 35 

External links[edit]

Coordinates: 23°08′18″N 82°23′55″W﻿ / ﻿23.1384°N 82.3986°W﻿ / 23.1384; -82.3986