Cuba Summons Troops, Citizen Soldiers
By ANITA SNOW
Associated Press Writer
December 1, 2006
HAVANA -- Communist Cuba's military is rolling out its olive green Soviet-era hardware this weekend, summoning 300,000 troops and citizen soldiers for a show of strength in times made uncertain by Fidel Castro's illness.
Anti-aircraft missiles, tanks and armored vehicles, MiG fighter jets and helicopter gunships have rehearsed in recent days for Saturday's parade in Havana's Plaza of the Revolution.
"These Arms Will Never Bow Down Before the Empire!" the red letters of an eight-story-high banner proclaimed Friday from the side of the National Library facing the plaza.
Loyalists across the capital have been exhorted to participate in the event, aimed at warning Cuba's enemies abroad and at home that the revolutionary government has the means and manpower to defend itself. Cuban officials have not said whether the ailing leader will attend.
"You're going to see plenty of armor, every aircraft they can put in the sky, plenty of guns -- self-propelled and towed," predicted Hal Klepak, an expert on Cuba's military who teaches history at the Royal Military College of Canada.
Cuba's military stockpiles have been diminished by years of disuse, lack of parts and tropical humidity. But experts believe the island still has more working tanks, missiles and other materiel than most Latin American nations.
The show of strength also underscores the role Cuba's Revolutionary Armed Forces will likely play in maintaining order and guiding the nation after Castro is gone. Cuba's aging leaders have long insisted the island's communist system will outlive them.
"In Latin America, when times are confused, the military traditionally forms the final bulwark," said Klepak. "That's also true in Cuba."
Saturday's military parade comes four months after Castro underwent emergency surgery for intestinal bleeding and temporarily ceded power to his 75-year-old brother, Defense Minister Raul Castro.
Many Cubans hope Castro will attend the parade, making his first public appearance since falling ill.
While authorities here insist Castro is recovering, U.S. officials have said they believe the man who ruled Cuba for 47 years has some kind of inoperable cancer and will not live through the end of 2007.
Even if Castro were in perfect health, the armed forces probably would have still held a parade to mark its 50th anniversary. "But it probably wouldn't have been this big, and it may not have even been in Havana," Klepak said.
The parade's most obvious purpose is to warn the United States against taking advantage of Castro's illness to attack the island.
The same warning was sent in early August after Castro fell ill, when as many as 200,000 regular and reserve troops were mobilized and placed on high alert.
In those first few weeks, newly activated reservists donned olive green uniforms and black combat boots to patrol the cobblestone streets of Old Havana while retired officers and decommissioned soldiers were ordered to check in daily at military posts.
Estimates of troop strength on this island of 11.2 million people vary between 39,000 to 55,000, depending on the source and which branches of the service are included.
"The Cuban Army remains one of the most formidable in Latin America" and "remains well-trained and professional in nature," according to the publication Jane's World Armies.
Cuba can also count on more than 1 million militia members, as well as paramilitary and civilian defense groups. Cuba's "War of All the People" military doctrine calls on all other able-bodied citizens to take up arms in the event of a foreign invasion.
Cuba's Revolutionary Armed Forces, which replaced the military that existed before the Cuban Revolution, traces its roots to Dec. 2, 1956, when 82 rebels landed on the island on a yacht -- the Granma -- that sailed from Mexico.
Fidel and Raul Castro were among the fewer than two dozen rebels who survived the landing to reach the mountains, where they launched a guerrilla war against then-President Fulgencio Batista.
After the revolution triumphed in 1959, the new government enjoyed its first major military victory at the Bay of Pigs in April 1961 when the island's nascent militia forces soundly defeated a CIA-led exile army that invaded the country.
Associated Press Writer
December 1, 2006
HAVANA -- Communist Cuba's military is rolling out its olive green Soviet-era hardware this weekend, summoning 300,000 troops and citizen soldiers for a show of strength in times made uncertain by Fidel Castro's illness.
Anti-aircraft missiles, tanks and armored vehicles, MiG fighter jets and helicopter gunships have rehearsed in recent days for Saturday's parade in Havana's Plaza of the Revolution.
"These Arms Will Never Bow Down Before the Empire!" the red letters of an eight-story-high banner proclaimed Friday from the side of the National Library facing the plaza.
Loyalists across the capital have been exhorted to participate in the event, aimed at warning Cuba's enemies abroad and at home that the revolutionary government has the means and manpower to defend itself. Cuban officials have not said whether the ailing leader will attend.
"You're going to see plenty of armor, every aircraft they can put in the sky, plenty of guns -- self-propelled and towed," predicted Hal Klepak, an expert on Cuba's military who teaches history at the Royal Military College of Canada.
Cuba's military stockpiles have been diminished by years of disuse, lack of parts and tropical humidity. But experts believe the island still has more working tanks, missiles and other materiel than most Latin American nations.
The show of strength also underscores the role Cuba's Revolutionary Armed Forces will likely play in maintaining order and guiding the nation after Castro is gone. Cuba's aging leaders have long insisted the island's communist system will outlive them.
"In Latin America, when times are confused, the military traditionally forms the final bulwark," said Klepak. "That's also true in Cuba."
Saturday's military parade comes four months after Castro underwent emergency surgery for intestinal bleeding and temporarily ceded power to his 75-year-old brother, Defense Minister Raul Castro.
Many Cubans hope Castro will attend the parade, making his first public appearance since falling ill.
While authorities here insist Castro is recovering, U.S. officials have said they believe the man who ruled Cuba for 47 years has some kind of inoperable cancer and will not live through the end of 2007.
Even if Castro were in perfect health, the armed forces probably would have still held a parade to mark its 50th anniversary. "But it probably wouldn't have been this big, and it may not have even been in Havana," Klepak said.
The parade's most obvious purpose is to warn the United States against taking advantage of Castro's illness to attack the island.
The same warning was sent in early August after Castro fell ill, when as many as 200,000 regular and reserve troops were mobilized and placed on high alert.
In those first few weeks, newly activated reservists donned olive green uniforms and black combat boots to patrol the cobblestone streets of Old Havana while retired officers and decommissioned soldiers were ordered to check in daily at military posts.
Estimates of troop strength on this island of 11.2 million people vary between 39,000 to 55,000, depending on the source and which branches of the service are included.
"The Cuban Army remains one of the most formidable in Latin America" and "remains well-trained and professional in nature," according to the publication Jane's World Armies.
Cuba can also count on more than 1 million militia members, as well as paramilitary and civilian defense groups. Cuba's "War of All the People" military doctrine calls on all other able-bodied citizens to take up arms in the event of a foreign invasion.
Cuba's Revolutionary Armed Forces, which replaced the military that existed before the Cuban Revolution, traces its roots to Dec. 2, 1956, when 82 rebels landed on the island on a yacht -- the Granma -- that sailed from Mexico.
Fidel and Raul Castro were among the fewer than two dozen rebels who survived the landing to reach the mountains, where they launched a guerrilla war against then-President Fulgencio Batista.
After the revolution triumphed in 1959, the new government enjoyed its first major military victory at the Bay of Pigs in April 1961 when the island's nascent militia forces soundly defeated a CIA-led exile army that invaded the country.
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