Jane’s World Armies: Cuba
Assessment
The collapse of the Soviet Union has deprived the Cuban Army of its major economic and logistic support, and has had a significant impact on equipment numbers and serviceability. The army remains well trained and professional in nature, and is likely to have adopted previous doctrine to take into account the current shortcomings in the quality and quantity of equipment held. While the lack of replacement parts for its existing equipment and the current severe shortage of fuel have increasingly affected its operational capability and may continue to do so on some scale, Cuba remains able to offer considerable resistance to any regional power, including the United States. The international political environment, the country’s economic plight and Castro’s own conclusions about his Cold War interventions abroad, have limited Cuba’s efforts to export Marxist revolution. A new relationship with oil rich Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has translated into a recent boost in operational readiness, mainly due to oil credits and donations. So far this has not translated into a formal re-surge in Cuban military prowess, but Cuban instructors and doctrine is bound to penetrate the new ALBA member’s armed forces (Venezuela, Nicaragua and Bolivia). However, most of Cuba’s foreign serving personnel are doctors. As in other Latin American countries, the army is the dominant service even though the FAR suffers from less interservice rivalry than most armed services in the region. There are three major geographical commands: Cuantos, Comandos, and Geográficos. Each command is designed to be a self-sufficient entity for operational.
Deployments, tasks and operations
The defined role of the FAR is to defend the Revolution from internal and external enemies and this has in the past included giving material assistance to friendly governments in the furtherance of Marxist-Leninist ideals. Today, the only realistic objective of the FAR is the defence of Cuban territory.
Source: Jane’s World Armies
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Tags: army, Army Corps General Álvaro López Miera, Army Corps General Ramón Espinosa Martín, Bastión 2008, counter-intelligence, Cuban armed forces, Cuban intelligence, Cuban military, Cuban security forces, Eastern Army, Ejército Occidental, Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias, General Ramon Espinosa, General Staff, Government, Julio Casas Regueiro, Leopoldo Cintra Frías, Military, Military Counter-Intelligence, Military Industries Union, military officers, MINFAR, MININT, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, MTT, Navy, Raul Castro, Revolutionary War Navy, Special Troops, War of All the People, Western Army
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