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CUBA BANKS ON TOTALLY INTEGRATED DEFENSE.

Article Excerpt
A week after an ailing Cuban President Fidel Castro delegated powers within the Cuban state (see NotiCen, 2006-08-03), the Bush administration has done little to clarify its intentions with regard to "transition," (see NotiCen, 2006-07-20) other than to caution members of the Cuban-exile communities to tone down cries for a return to the island to press their property claims. The administration has said these claims would have to wait, as would the exiles' exercise of economic power to buy, or invest in, everything in sight on the island. Cuba, however, appears to have no need for Washington's clarifications. The country has been planning for US intervention for many years.

Cuba's development strategies are so thoroughly integrated that it is difficult to separate defense from ecology, environmentalism from economics. As a result of almost two decades of strategic preparation, the region is now a stronghold ready to deal with invasion. The country's Plan Turquino, in effect and ongoing since 1987, is illustrative of this point. The purpose of the plan was to develop the mountainous regions of the country to achieve, said the Agencia de Medio Ambiente, "a substantial increase in the quality of life of the people who inhabit these territories and their...

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