Those who want to kiss and make up with Cuba might want to remember that the island nation just 90 miles from Florida is still a communist country. And Monday night Panamanian officials reminded us of that stark reality.
They deserve our thanks.
The Panamanians, suspecting a drug-smuggling operation in progress, stopped a ship flying a North Korean flag as it steamed toward home.
But it wasn't drugs the North Koreans were carrying. Hidden in sugar containers was something suspected to be sophisticated missile equipment.
Cargo their friends in Cuba stowed away for them.
Speaking to Radio Panama, President Ricardo Martinelli of Panamasaid the captain of the ship tried to kill himself after officials began searching the sugar consignment.
Identified by Lloyd's List Intelligence as the Chong Chon Gang, the ship was then taken to the port of Manzanillo to be searched.
Martinelli posted a picture of the weapons on Twitter "so that the world knows that you cant transfer nondeclared, warlike material through the Panama Canal.
The Panama Canal is a canal of peace, not of war, he said.
Panamanian officials apparently know their stuff. Defense experts already have said the arms in Martinell's picture appear to be radar-controlled, surface-to-air missiles.
Some 35 crew members have been detained, Reuters reports.
Staff at U.K.-based IHS Janes Defence Weekly magazine say the picture released by Panama shows an RSN-75 Fan Song fire-control radar system for a surface-to-air missile system in the SA-2 family."
The violent reaction of the crew and the way the equipment was buried in sugar is a fairly strong indication that this was a concealed shipment.
IHS offers two possibilities:
-- Cuba could be sending the system to North Korea for an upgrade. In which case, it would be returned to Cuba and the sugar cargo is payment.
-- The fire-control radar equipment could have been en route to North Korea to beef up Pyongyangs existing air defense network. IHS says even though North Koreas air defense network is one of the densest in the world, it's based on obsolete weapons, missiles and radars -- "ineffective in a modern electronic warfare environment.
The ship's destination was listed as Havana, Cuba when it passed through the Panama Canal June 1.
Mexican newspaper El Universal is reporting that the crew and captain were taken to Fort Sherman, a former American military base now controlled by Panama. According to Minister of Security Jose Raul Mulino, if this is confirmed as a case of weapons smuggling, Panama "would consult with the United Nations to establish whether the crew should be handed over to an international body."
Last October North Korea claimed that the U.S. mainland was within the scope of its missiles.
What just happened in Panama doesn't do a thing to allay our fears that Pyongyang is trying to build a missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead to the mainland United States.
This is major league. It's the mother and father of all national security issues for the United States of America. And where is Cuba? Perhaps -- maybe more than perhaps -- up to its eyeballs in helping the people who would destroy us. Something never to forget.
Reach Nancy Smith at nsmith@sunshinestatenews.com or at 228-282-2423.
