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56-620: 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 , Jesús Bermúdez Cutiño . He was transferred from being the chief of the Army Intelligence (DIM) to the Ministry of Interior after the corruption trials and executions of Arnaldo Ochoa and José Abrantes Fernández in 1989. The current head of

112-561: A greater or lesser degree (for instance Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster or Lord Privy Seal ). The government is sometimes referred to by the metonym " Westminster " or " Whitehall ", as many of its offices are situated there. These metonyms are used especially by members of the Scottish Government , Welsh Government and Northern Ireland Executive to differentiate their government from His Majesty's Government. The United Kingdom

168-478: A member of either House of Parliament. In practice, however, the convention is that ministers must be members of either the House of Commons or the House of Lords to be accountable to Parliament. From time to time, prime ministers appoint non-parliamentarians as ministers. In recent years such ministers have been appointed to the House of Lords. The government is required by convention and for practical reasons to maintain

224-412: A new House of Commons, unless the prime minister advises the monarch to dissolve Parliament , in which case an election may be held sooner. After an election, the monarch selects as prime minister the leader of the party most likely to command the confidence of the House of Commons, usually by possessing a majority of MPs. Under the uncodified British constitution , executive authority lies with

280-636: A popular bloodless coup in Grenada , led by Maurice Bishop , the Cuban DI sent advisers to the island nation to assist the new government. The DI was also instrumental in persuading the Soviet Union to aid Grenada, aid that Grenadian general Hudson Austin called essential to the success of the Caribbean anti-imperialist movement. The DI coordinated 780 Cuban engineers and intelligence operatives. Beginning in 1967

336-620: A rapid expansion of the DI's "western" operations. By 1971, 70 percent of the Cuban diplomats in London were actually DI agents and proved invaluable to Moscow after the British government 's mass expulsion of Soviet intelligence officers. In 1962 the Soviet Union opened its largest foreign SIGINT site in Lourdes , Cuba, approximately 25 kilometres (16 mi) from Havana . The Intelligence Resource Program of

392-594: A substantial grant from the government, the Sovereign Support Grant , and Queen Elizabeth II's inheritance from her mother, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother , was exempt from inheritance tax . In addition to legislative powers, His Majesty's Government has substantial influence over local authorities and other bodies set up by it, through financial powers and grants. Many functions carried out by local authorities, such as paying out housing benefits and council tax benefits, are funded or substantially part-funded by

448-424: Is a constitutional monarchy in which the reigning monarch (that is, the king or queen who is the head of state at any given time) does not make any open political decisions. All political decisions are taken by the government and Parliament. This constitutional state of affairs is the result of a long history of constraining and reducing the political power of the monarch, beginning with Magna Carta in 1215. Since

504-596: Is not vital. A government is not required to resign even if it loses the confidence of the Lords and is defeated in key votes in that House. The House of Commons is thus the responsible house . The prime minister is held to account during Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs) which provides an opportunity for MPs from all parties to question the PM on any subject. There are also departmental questions when ministers answer questions relating to their specific departmental brief. Unlike PMQs, both

560-671: The Federation of American Scientists stated in 2001 that the Lourdes facility was reported to cover a 28 square-mile (73 km) 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 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. In 2001,

616-473: The Greater London Authority disputed. Similarly, the monarch is immune from criminal prosecution and may only be sued with his permission (this is known as sovereign immunity ). The sovereign, by law, is not required to pay income tax, but Queen Elizabeth II voluntarily paid it from 1993 until the end of her reign in 2022, and also paid local rates voluntarily. However, the monarchy also received

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672-730: The Middle East . There have also been allegations that Cuban DI agents interrogated U.S. POWs held at the Cu Loc POW camp in North Vietnam . Shortly after the election of Salvador Allende as president of Chile in November 1970, the DI worked extremely closely to strengthen Allende's increasingly precarious position. The Cuban DI station chief Luis Fernández Oña married Allende's daughter Beatriz , who later committed suicide in Cuba. Shortly after

728-574: The New Left with Cuba's perceived David and Goliath struggle against U.S. imperialism. However, in the early 1960s, Czechoslovak intelligence (StB) had more intensive contacts with emerging Cuban DI than KGB. Czechoslovaks provided Cubans with intelligence reports, spy equipment, and training. Manuel Piñeiro was in regular contact with the StB station chief in Cuba and appreciated the quality of Czechoslovak intelligence reports that were important for sustaining

784-630: The Batistas' Cuban Army. Subsequently, he was appointed Chief of Personnel and Inspection, a position that included responsibilities for the Intelligence Service and the recently created Policía Rebelde , which was a predecessor of Castro's Revolutionary Police. During the battle for Santiago de Cuba , he was promoted to Commander of the Cuban Revolution . After the triumph of the Revolution, he

840-503: The Crown, who may use them without having to obtain the consent of Parliament. The prime minister also has weekly meetings with the monarch. What is said in these meetings is strictly private; however, they generally involve government and political matters which the monarch has a "right and a duty" to comment on. Such comments are non-binding however and the King must ultimately abide by decisions of

896-531: The Cuban Revolution. Piñeiro died in a car accident on March 11, 1998. He was on his way home after receiving a tribute commemorating the creation of the Eastern Front. In March 1958, he was recognized for his merits and was personally chosen by Fidel Castro to be the officer tasked with integrating the recently created Eastern Front II "Frank País", under the command of Fidel's younger brother, Raúl . During that time, he held several meetings with members of

952-604: The Cuban revolution in its early years. Cubans wanted to rely on the StB in building DI and the Ministry of Interior. However the Soviets soon stopped such initiatives. Czechoslovak intelligence cooperated with DI on top secret Operation Manuel which lasted from 1962 to 1969, moving 1179 Latin American revolutionaries via Prague back to Latin America. Czechoslovak intelligence helped DI to falsify

1008-572: 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. Shortly after his release on bail he disappeared but

1064-597: The DI had begun to establish ties with various Nicaraguan revolutionary organizations. The Soviets were upset at what they saw as Cuba upstaging the KGB in Nicaragua. By 1970 the DI had managed to train hundreds of Sandinista guerrilla leaders and had vast influence over the organization. In 1969 the DI had financed and organized an operation to free the jailed Sandinistan leader Carlos Fonseca from his prison in Costa Rica . Fonseca

1120-486: The DI is Brig. Gen. Eduardo Delgado Rodríguez . The total number of people working for the DI is about 15,000. Given Cuba's small size, the DI is considered to be an especially effective agency which "punches above its weight" in espionage operations, according to The Economist . New recruits do research within the ministry, mostly on counterintelligence fields (which has its own five-year career academy) and also, over regular college students, who are recruited around

1176-568: The DI would play in the Cuban–Nicaraguan relationship a meeting in Havana on 27 July 1979, at which diplomatic ties between the two countries were re-established after over 25 years. Julián López Díaz , a prominent DI agent, was named ambassador to Nicaragua. Cuban military and DI advisers initially brought in during the Sandinistan insurgency, would swell to over 2,500 and operated at all levels of

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1232-744: The Eastern Sierra Maestra mountain range and join the guerrillas headed by Fidel Castro. After the Cuban Revolution, Piñiero was appointed Deputy Minister of the Interior and the head of the Technical Viceministerio , the body that would be later responsible for gathering intelligence and developing strategies to expand communism in Latin America . In 1997, Piñeiro announced his retirement, resigning from all active government positions. He began to write and edit books about his experience in

1288-651: The European Parliament are immune from prosecution in EU states under any circumstance. As a consequence, neither EU bodies nor diplomats have to pay taxes, since it would not be possible to prosecute them for tax evasion. When the UK was a member of the EU, this caused a dispute when the US ambassador to the UK claimed that London's congestion charge was a tax, and not a charge (despite the name), and therefore he did not have to pay it—a claim

1344-563: The FSLN on the botched assassination attempt of Turner B. Shelton , the U.S. ambassador in Managua and a close friend to the Somoza family . The FSLN managed to secure several hostages, exchanging them for safe passage to Cuba and a $ 1 million ransom. After the successful ousting of Anastasio Somoza , DI involvement in the new Sandinista government expanded rapidly. An early indication of the central role that

1400-538: The Russian President, Vladimir Putin , announced that the facility would be shut down. The Soviets also collaborated with the DI to assist Central Intelligence Agency defector Philip Agee in the publication of the Covert Action Information Bulletin . Throughout its 40-year history the DI has been actively involved in aiding leftist movements, primarily in Latin America , Africa , and

1456-454: The Soviets sought a more active role in shaping the DI. In 1970 a team of KGB advisers led by Gen. Viktor Semyonov was sent to the DI to purge it of officers and agents considered anti-Soviet by the KGB. 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

1512-566: The United Kingdom , officially His Majesty's Government , abbreviated to HM Government , is the central executive authority of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland . The government is led by the prime minister (currently Keir Starmer since 5 July 2024) who selects all the other ministers . The country has had a Labour government since 2024. The prime minister Keir Starmer and his most senior ministers belong to

1568-440: The cabinet ministers for the department and junior ministers within the department may answer on behalf of the government, depending on the topic of the question. During debates on legislation proposed by the government, ministers—usually with departmental responsibility for the bill —will lead the debate for the government and respond to points made by MPs or Lords. Committees of both the House of Commons and House of Lords hold

1624-411: The charity commissions) are legally more or less independent of the government, and government powers are legally limited to those retained by the Crown under common law or granted and limited by act of Parliament. Both substantive and procedural limitations are enforceable in the courts by judicial review . Nevertheless, magistrates and mayors can still be arrested and put on trial for corruption, and

1680-436: The confidence of the House of Commons. It requires the support of the House of Commons for the maintenance of supply (by voting through the government's budgets) and to pass primary legislation . By convention, if a government loses the confidence of the House of Commons it must either resign or a general election is held. The support of the Lords, while useful to the government in getting its legislation passed without delay,

1736-409: The exchequer to be a member of the House of Lords was Lord Denman , who served for one month in 1834. The British monarch is the head of state and the sovereign , but not the head of government . The monarch takes little direct part in governing the country and remains neutral in political affairs. However, the authority of the state that is vested in the sovereign, known as the Crown , remains

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1792-525: The government has powers to insert commissioners into a local authority to oversee its work, and to issue directives that must be obeyed by the local authority if the local authority is not abiding by its statutory obligations. By contrast, as in European Union (EU) member states, EU officials cannot be prosecuted for any actions carried out in pursuit of their official duties, and foreign country diplomats (though not their employees) and foreign members of

1848-755: The government on the statement. When the government instead chooses to make announcements first outside Parliament, it is often the subject of significant criticism from MPs and the speaker of the House of Commons . The prime minister is based at 10 Downing Street in Westminster , London. Cabinet meetings also take place here. Most government departments have their headquarters nearby in Whitehall . The government's powers include general executive and statutory powers , delegated legislation , and numerous powers of appointment and patronage. However, some powerful officials and bodies, (e.g. HM judges, local authorities , and

1904-477: The government to account, scrutinise its work and examine in detail proposals for legislation. Ministers appear before committees to give evidence and answer questions. Government ministers are also required by convention and the Ministerial Code , when Parliament is sitting, to make major statements regarding government policy or issues of national importance to Parliament. This allows MPs or Lords to question

1960-514: The government. Royal prerogative powers include, but are not limited to, the following: While no formal documents set out the prerogatives, the government published the above list in October 2003 to increase transparency, as some of the powers exercised in the name of the monarch are part of the royal prerogative . However, the complete extent of the royal prerogative powers has never been fully set out, as many of them originated in ancient custom and

2016-608: 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

2072-921: The island. In early 1975, Piñeiro was head of the "Américas Department" of the Cuban Communist Party's Central Committee. In 1997, he resigned all his active government positions and started to write and edit books dedicated to a retrospective analysis of the Cuban Revolution . British government King Charles III [REDACTED] William, Prince of Wales [REDACTED] Charles III ( King-in-Council ) [REDACTED] Starmer ministry ( L ) Keir Starmer ( L ) Angela Rayner ( L ) ( King-in-Parliament ) [REDACTED] Charles III [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] The Lord Reed The Lord Hodge Andrew Bailey Monetary Policy Committee The government of

2128-400: The need to return to Cuba. He returned in 1955 and became a founder of the 26th of July Movement . Soon after returning to Cuba, Piñiero was arrested by Batista's security agencies because of his underground political activities. After his release, he continued his clandestine activities in Havana. He discovered that he was under police surveillance, and decided that it was better to leave for

2184-476: The new Castro regime. During the Bay of Pigs Invasion , Piñeiro was deputy to Ramiro Valdés Menéndez , head of G-2 (Seguridad del Estado, or state security). On June 6, 1961, he was appointed Deputy Minister of the Interior and head of the so-called Technical Viceministerio, the body that would be later responsible for gathering intelligence and developing strategies to expand communism in Latin America . In 1965, he

2240-463: The new Nicaraguan government. Sandinista defector Álvaro Baldizón confirmed that Cuban influence in Nicaragua's Interior Ministry (MINT) was more extensive than was widely believed at the time, and Cuban "advice" and "observations" were treated as though they were orders. The DI sought to aid the growing Puerto Rican separatist movement. Dr. Daniel James testified before a U.S. Senate subcommittee that

2296-592: 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

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2352-614: The passports of Latin Americans who trained in Cuba to become guerrillas. 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 (1966–67) as well as by a perceived growing independence from Moscow,

2408-433: The period of absolute monarchy , or were modified by later constitutional practice. As of 2019, there are around 120 government ministers supported by 560,000 civil servants and other staff working in the 24 ministerial departments and their executive agencies . There are also an additional 20 non-ministerial departments with a range of further responsibilities. In theory, a government minister does not have to be

2464-458: The second year on their programs. Those students mostly study languages , history , communications , and sociology . Once they get their diplomas, they undergo several months of official intelligence training, and a year or so after, they receive the rank of lieutenant . 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

2520-433: The source of executive power exercised by the government. In addition to explicit statutory authority , the Crown also possesses a body of powers in certain matters collectively known as the royal prerogative . These powers range from the authority to issue or withdraw passports to declarations of war. By long-standing convention, most of these powers are delegated from the sovereign to various ministers or other officers of

2576-642: The sovereign, although this authority is exercised only after receiving the advice of the Privy Council . The prime minister, the House of Lords, the Leader of the Opposition, and the police and military high command serve as members and advisers of the monarch on the Privy Council. In most cases the cabinet exercise power directly as leaders of the government departments , though some Cabinet positions are sinecures to

2632-400: The start of Edward VII 's reign in 1901, by convention, the prime minister has been an elected member of Parliament (MP) and thus answerable to the House of Commons, although there were two weeks in 1963 when Alec Douglas-Home was first a member of the House of Lords and then of neither house. A similar convention applies to the position of chancellor of the exchequer . The last chancellor of

2688-520: The student protests against the 10 March 1952 coup d'état which brought dictator Fulgencio Batista to power, Piñeiro's family sent him to study business management at Columbia University in New York . There, he met his first wife, Lorna Burdsall , whom he married in 1955. While studying in the United States, Piñeiro began to oppose the social, racial, and political discrimination he saw there and felt

2744-572: The supreme decision-making committee, known as the Cabinet . Ministers of the Crown are responsible to the House in which they sit; they make statements in that House and take questions from members of that House. For most senior ministers this is usually the elected House of Commons rather than the House of Lords . The government is dependent on Parliament to make primary legislation , and general elections are held every five years (at most) to elect

2800-522: Was a Cuban political and military figure, a leader of the Cuban Revolution , and, between 1961 and 1964, the first head of the Dirección General de Inteligencia of Cuba. Under Piñeiro, the DGI supported armed struggles in Latin America , helping radical leftist guerrilla groups in the region. Between 1964 and 1968, Piñeiro acted as the Deputy Minister of the Interior of Cuba, during this time he

2856-532: Was appointed "Chief of the Military Plaza" in Santiago de Cuba, the second largest city in the country. It is at this time that his face is caught by photographic cameras for the first time, showing his red beard and revealing the reason of the nickname given to him by the rebel troops. He was then transferred to Havana , where he served various functions in the creation of the intelligence agencies and security of

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2912-756: Was appointed to the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party , a post he held until 1997. That same year in Havana , he received the visit of Markus Wolf , director of the East German secret police (the Stasi ). Wolf, whose real identity would only be known to the Western intelligence services in 1979, had gone to Cuba to advise the socialist government how to set up the new General Intelligence Directorate on

2968-581: Was captured shortly after the jail break, but after a plane carrying executives from the United Fruit Company was hijacked by the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), he was freed and allowed to travel to Cuba. DI chief Manuel Piñeiro commented that "of all the countries in Latin America , the most active work being carried out by us is in Nicaragua." The DI, with Fidel Castro's personal blessing, also collaborated with

3024-539: Was credited with the 1979 unification of Puerto Rico's five principal terrorist groups into the Cuban-directed National Revolutionary Command (CRN). 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,

3080-431: Was in charge of the state security apparatus. A Soviet reorganization of the DGI forced Piñeiro out of his position, and he was placed in charge of the DGI's Latin American affairs division. Manuel Piñeiro Losada was born on 14 March 1933 in Matanzas , Cuba . His family, who had immigrated to Cuba from the Spanish region of Galicia , was relatively prosperous—his father was a Bacardi executive. After participating in

3136-505: Was killed by the FBI on Friday, September 23, 2005, in the town of Hormigueros, Puerto Rico. Camp Matanzas 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 . 23°08′18″N 82°23′55″W  /  23.1384°N 82.3986°W  / 23.1384; -82.3986 Manuel Pi%C3%B1eiro Manuel Piñeiro Losada (14 March 1933 - 11 March 1998), also known as Commander Barbarroja ( es: "red beard" )

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