Trump and NYT Say There’s a Russian Spy Base in Cuba. Turns Out, It’s a School.This abandoned watchtower is one of the few structures left from the Lourdes spy base in Cuba. Photo: Reed Lindsay.This…

Trump and NYT Say There’s a Russian Spy Base in Cuba. Turns Out, It’s a School. (substackcdn.com)This abandoned watchtower is one of the few structures left from the Lourdes spy base in Cuba. Photo: Reed Lindsay.This story was written in collaboration with Belly of the Beast (bellyofthebeastcuba.com), an independent media outlet that covers Cuba and U.S.-Cuba relations. You can support their work on Patreon (patreon.com › BellyoftheBeastCuba).Since U.S. President Donald Trump imposed an executive order in January threatening tariffs on any country that ships fuel to Cuba, major media outlets have descended on the island to report on the resulting prolonged blackouts (facebook.com › watch), collapsing hospitals (nbcnews.com), and piles of uncollected trash (theguardian.com).Far less attention has been paid to the rationale the administration offered for imposing the blockade in the first place.The executive order (whitehouse.gov) states that Cuba represents a “national emergency” and poses an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to the United States, stringing together a kitchen-sink list of familiar allegations, including accusations that Cuba sponsors terrorism and aligns itself with “dangerous adversaries” of the United States, such as Iran, Hamas, Russia, and China.More specifically, the order claims that “Cuba hosts Russia’s largest overseas signals intelligence facility, which tries to steal sensitive national security information of the United States.”For two months, the allegation that Cuba was hosting a major Russian spy base was largely ignored by U.S. media outlets. Then, on March 24, The New York Times published an article (nytimes.com › cuba russia china) by Michael Crowley claiming not only that the Russian spy base exists, but that it “bristles with antennas and other eavesdropping equipment” capable of spying on the U.S. Central Command, the satellite launchpads of Cape Canaveral, and Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence.Crowley pinpointed (nytimes.com › cia director visits cuba) the location: a former Soviet base on the outskirts of Havana called Lourdes that was “temporarily shut” by Vladimir Putin in 2001 but was reopened in 2014, according to the Times.There is just one problem with this story: the base isn’t there.The State Department did not respond to a request for comment. Belly of the Beast also sent requests to The New York Times and to Michael Crowley but received no response.Today, Lourdes (also known as Torrens) is home to Cuba’s University of Computer Sciences (UCI). The reporting team at Belly of the Beast (bellyofthebeastcuba.com › this russian base in cuba is spying on you) spent the better part of two days walking the campus, searching the grounds, and speaking with students, faculty, and workers. We found no evidence of an active Russian intelligence base, much less the sort of extensive equipment described by the Times.“Do I look like a Russian spy?” laughed Malcolm Jarrozai, a 40-year-old art professor who has been teaching at UCI and living at a residence on campus since 2006. “It’s truly laughable that these kinds of claims are being made and that major outlets like The New York Times give them a platform and allow them to be used to justify policies against Cuba.” (substackcdn.com › https://subst