Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0100/01005.txt

Text File | 1991-06-24 | 37KB | 598 lines

$Unique_ID{COW01005}
$Pretitle{352}
$Title{Cuba
Chapter 5A.   National Security}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{James D. Rudolf}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{military
forces
united
states
armed
cuban
army
spanish
independence
cuba}
$Date{1986}
$Log{Patriots*0100501.scf
}
Country:     Cuba
Book:        Cuba, A Country Study
Author:      James D. Rudolf
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1986

Chapter 5A.   National Security

[See Patriots: Patriots armed in defense of the Revolution]

     At the end of the first 26 years following the 1959 victory of the Cuban
Revolution, led by Fidel Castro Ruz, Cuban armed forces and national security
concerns played a major, if not decisive, role in the functioning of the
Cuban state. This pervasive influence was evident in the organization of both
the economy and the society.

     During the early 1980s, in response to what it perceived as mounting
strategic and economic challenges, the Cuban leadership placed renewed
emphasis on production, mobilization, and the defense preparedness of the
entire society. Labor, especially during sugar harvests, continued to be
organized in a military fashion; workers were divided into brigades and
assigned production quotas to fulfill. Plans were again laid, as during the
early years of the Revolution, for the continuation of the production process
in the event of a national crisis. In addition, a new civilian militia and
other civilian defense organizations were created in which nearly all Cubans,
both young and old, participated to help prepare for national defense in the
event of invasion.

     In terms of sheer military might, the Cuban armed forces in early 1985
represented the second or third most powerful military force after the United
States and, possibly, Brazil, in the Western Hemisphere. Cuba continued to
spend more money per capita on its armed forces than any other Latin American
nation. The country remained at the forefront of Latin America with respect to
military manpower; it had the largest standing army in proportion to its
population of any country in the hemisphere. The armed forces were equipped
with the most technologically sophisticated weapons that its superpower ally,
the Soviet Union, was willing to export, including MiG-23 supersonic fighters
and Mi-24 attack helicopters. By 1985 Cuban relations with the Soviet Union
were at the highest level of development in the history of the Revolution.

Background and Traditions of the Revolutionary Armed Forces

The Colonial Era

     Cuba's tradition of violent revolutionary activity long predates the
struggle that brought Castro to power in 1959. The earliest recorded guerrilla
warfare in the Western Hemisphere was carried out by native Taino Indians
resisting the Spanish colonial forces in Cuba in the early sixteenth century.
Under the leadership of an Indian cacique from the neighboring island of
Hispaniola, the Cuban natives resisted colonial domination. Repeated ambushes
and attacks on the 300 troops under the conquistador Diego Velasquez, followed
by the Indians' quick retreat to the security of the mountains, hindered the
speedy conquest of the island anticipated by the Spaniards. Instead, the
Spanish forces remained on the defensive at their fort in Baracoa, the first
permanent colonial settlement on the island, for nearly three months.

     Although the capture and execution of the Indian leader in early 1512
ended this first organized resistance, a second major movement based in the
island's eastern mountains, the Sierra Maestra, continued to challenge Spanish
dominion between 1529 and 1532. As in other territories conquered in the name
of the Spanish crown, the Cuban natives' superior numbers and their
familiarity with the terrain proved no match for the superiority of the
Spaniards' firepower. By the middle of the sixteenth century the native
population had been practically exterminated-through deaths in battle and
cruelties imposed by the Spaniards, as well as by disease. In 1557 only
approximately 2,000 Indians remained from a population estimated as high as
3 million before the conquest (see Discovery and Occupation; Encomienda and
Repartimiento, ch. 1).

     Throughout the Spanish colonial era, Cuba served as the operational base
for Spanish forces in their conquest and settlement of the New World (see
Economic Structures, ch. 1). Although Cuba's lack of mineral wealth made its
development less critical than that of regions rich in gold or silver, the
island's strategic location in the Caribbean Sea and the protection from
hurricanes and pirates offered by Havana's natural harbor contributed to its
growing importance. Assigned its own permanent garrison of Spanish troops,
Havana was developed as a military port and served as the temporary home port
for the 4,000 to 5,000 sailors of the Spanish grand fleet that waited to
escort returning ore-laden ships to Spain.

     As in other Spanish colonies in the Western Hemisphere, an independence
movement arose in Cuba during the early nineteenth century . Support for
Cuban independence was provided by sympathizers in Colombia and Mexico, who
viewed the elimination of Spanish rule throughout the hemisphere as
inextricably linked with their own independence. The concerns of the
Colombians and Mexicans were also based on Cuba's continued use as a Spanish
operational base during the independence era, this time for coordinating
Spain's efforts to suppress revolts and regain control of its colonies (see
The Dawn of Independence, ch. 1).

     The decade from 1820 to 1830 marked the beginning of efforts by
Cuban-born Spaniards, known as criollos, to achieve independence from Spain.
Of the many secret organizations and societies created in the early 1820s to
support the cause of Cuban independence, the most prominent was led by
Jose Francisco Lemus, a Havana native who attained the rank of colonel in the
Colombian Army of Independence before returning to liberate his homeland.

     The membership of Lemus' organization, the Suns and Rays of Bolivar
(named for South American independence leader Simon Bolivar), was composed
mainly of students and poorer creoles and was organized on a cell basis
throughout the country by Freemasons. Although each member was required to
carry a knife, only a few had pistols; none wore uniforms. Lemus believed
he could rely on the colonial militia for his forces' weapons. When the time
for insurrection came, he reasoned, group members who had infiltrated the
militia would distribute arms and ammunition to rebel supporters. Colombia
and Mexico were expected to provide supplies and materiel to the
revolutionaries as well. While Lemus prepared various proclamations declaring
the establishment of the Republic of Cubanacan, Spanish loyalist spies
infiltrated the group. Only days before the planned uprising in 1823, colonial
forces seized the organization's leaders, including Lemus, and sent them to
prison.

     By 1825 the continued activities of other pro-independence groups led to
the crown's decision to implement drastic measures to eliminate the
revolutionary movement on the island. Among the regulations, which established
martial law, were the suppression of civil liberties; the granting of
all-embracing authority to the Spanish captain general, who was the commander
of the island's colonial forces; and the establishment of the Permanent
Executive Military Commission, a military tribunal that superseded the court
system and was empowered to detain anyone even suspected of conspiracy. The
measures imposed, which were unparalleled in their harshness elsewhere in the
hemisphere, remained in effect for the next 50 years. An additional 40,000
colonial troops were sent to police the island.

     The years between 1830 and the mid-1860s were marked by agitation for
independence or, at the very least, reforms that included limiting the
dictatorial powers granted the captain general. Support for the abolition of
slavery broadened, yet the wealthy