Cuba Shouldn’t Have an Army

Cuba Shouldn't Have an Army
October 10, 2012
Alfredo Fernandez


HAVANA TIMES — Cuba shouldn't have an army. From my point of view, that
would be the most important step we Cubans would take if we wanted to
build a nation with a future, a country with opportunities.

A brief review of our national past would show us that we are by no
means a peaceful people. Our achievements as a nation, in all cases,
came at the hands of war, with the War of 1895 being perhaps the most
notable example. It was a war that wound up bringing us neo-colonial
rule ("the Republic"), though Jose Marti saw it as necessary since it
proved impossible to talk with a despotic and monarchic Spain.

In Marti's judgment, the conflict would have to be short and effective
to prevent victims and to minimize the nation's grief, factors inherent
in war.

Then, in another war, that of the 1959 Revolution, the Batista
dictatorship was overthrown to establish a government that has known
only four presidents in 53 years.

Achieving the status of a US-backed "republic," by way of the
combination of tenacity and courage of Marti's ideas, made it impossible
for nascent Cuban civil society to rid itself of the excessive military
presence of the military leaders of the War of '95 in the nascent
government of the nation.

On the contrary, they and the academic bureaucracy made up what novelist
Carlos Loveira later referred to as "the Republic of Generals and Doctors."

How much of this has prevented our military destiny from us recognizing
ourselves as a nation? The climax was reached in 1975, and until 1990,
when Cuba's military was officially involved in separate wars in Angola
and Ethiopia. This left the country unprotected due to the excessive
presence of Cuban troops in both conflicts.

This was when the White House was occupied by no other than the
warmongering Ronald Reagan. Therefore the argument that the military
exists to protect the nation is becoming untenable because of the
circumstances outlined above. What would have happened if military
aggression by the US against Cuba had occurred in the 1980s?

Last year, when I saw three obsolete MiG-23 aircraft fly over my house
en route to a military parade for the 50th anniversary of the victory of
the Bay of Pigs invasion by US-sponsored exiles, I could only feel sorry
for the Cuban army. As an army with a Cold War era infrastructure, it
would have very few options in a military confrontation with any similar
contemporary fighting force.

The truth is that when you look at the history of countries like
Switzerland and Costa Rica, which have no armies, the observer will note
that no one has attacked them. Hitler didn't even think of bothering the
former. As for Costa Rica, when the Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza
had the intention to attack it, this generated solidarity between the
countries of the region as never before. In virtually hours, they put
together an army that was ready to invade the bold dictator had he
attempted his planned assault on Costa Rica.

Finally, the fact that disturbs me most about war was seeing an incident
that occurred back in January 1993. This was when my police officer
uncle, who had died two days earlier in a traffic accident, was buried
in the pantheon of the armed forces of the city of Palma Soriano. This
was when I saw how heartbroken an elderly neighbor was left when the
vault was opened and he again saw, after several years, the crypt of his
son who died in Angola a few years earlier.

The Revolutionary Armed Forces represents an unsustainable expense for
an island nation that is inexorably aging every day. Its disappearance
would add numerous direct advantages to the country's productive
capacity, which could greatly help the national economy.

Personally I would leave only a strong police force in the cities and a
coast guard to monitor the sea against intrusions into the country by
drug cartels.

In a recent letter by some Cuban professionals, of which I'm also a
signatory, I found its most dubious aspect in the section that asked the
government to make available "The army to participate in international
conflicts only at the request of the United Nations."

After analyzing it, I am going further and asking the nation to rid
itself, for once and for all, of the heavy burden of our expensive and
ineffective army, thus placing all citizens of the country under equal
conditions that can only be brought about by a civilian status.

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