Cuban generals in line.

Mexico’s La Journada has an article on the ascent of Cuban military generals who honed their careers with the triumph of the revolution and have made their way into the echelons of power in Cuba under Raul Castro’s government.

The designation of Army Corps General Leopoldo Cintra Frías as the new number two of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR), consolidates the ascension of the first line of command in Cuba under an experienced military generation of sexagenarians, maturing as young recruits in the revolution at the end of the 1950’s, active in domestic defense in the 1960’s, alumnus of the Soviets in the 1970’s, and victorious chiefs in Central and Southern Africa in the 1980’s.

[H/T: Penultimos Dias]

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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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Cuba’s armed forces have influenced Venezuela’s military affairs through its training and military advisors found in the FAN.

The Financial Times reports on the current relations between Hugo Chavez and “his” military:

President Hugo Chávez caused a stir earlier this year when he ordered members of Venezuela’s armed forces to salute their superiors with the words “Fatherland, Socialism or Death!”

It fuelled debate in the military over its involvement in politics and civil society – long a sensitive issue in Venezuela, not least since the failed coup five years ago against Mr Chávez, in which factions of the military played key roles both in deposing him and reinstating him.

[...]

Although Mr Chávez owes his continued success in elections to widespread support among the poorer sectors of the population, in governing the country he has consistently fallen back on the army’s support.

Over a quarter of the ministers that served in his government up to 2004 were military officers, while over a third of state governors have a military background. This has led to concerns of a militarisation of politics, although Mr Chávez says he lacks qualified civilians who back his project.

But the military is divided between a more conservative wing, seen by some to be represented by Mr Baduel, which wants to maintain a professional, independent force, and those promoting an ever-closer “civil-military union”. Mr Chávez has struggled to satisfy both.

The idea of a civil-military union is one of the principles behind Mr Chávez’s so-called “Bolivarian revolution”. It is argued that Venezuela can only succeed against a US invasion – however unlikely – through “asymmetrical warfare”, such as in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Mr Müller Rojas has argued that Venezuela’s arms build-up – which includes the purchase of 100,000 Kalashnikov rifles, 53 helicopters and 24 Sukhoi fighter jets as part of a $3bn contract with Russia – contradicts the theory of “asymmetrical warfare”, while Mr Baduel’s removal as minister of defence was seen to favour moves towards a civil-military union.

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