New military rank for an army that languishes (i)

Since the summer of 2021, new officers have begun to appear with the military graduation of First Colonel. Thus, a new degree was incorporated into the group of first officers, becoming the one with the highest rank within that scale.

This degree is between the colonel and the Brigade General, the latter being the first step within the group of superior officers (general).

The National Defense Law of Cuba (No. 75), which dates back to February 1995, expresses in its article 78 that «the military degree is the expression of the military’s position on the hierarchical scale and of the authority given for the exercise of command.» In the next article he reaffirms that «the military degree of greater hierarchy in the Republic of Cuba is that of commander in chief» and for the FAR there is «the degree of general army.» In the category of early officers, only the degrees are recorded, in ascending order, of greater, Lieutenant Colonel and Colonel.

The fact that the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR) of Cuba have the rank of First Colonel is a case study, especially considering the reduced size of the Cuban army compared to great powers, even regional. In addition, this army faces serious limitations, such as low combative capacity, obsolete technology, logistics deficiencies in supply and practically null maneuverability.

The army in Cuba, the FAR troops, which once became a key piece in the Cold War, in the confrontation between the east and the west, cannon meat for the Soviet adventures in the Third World, today it is a bad cartoon of those troops.

The mobility of the troops, the displacement of officers and soldiers thousands of kilometers (Mozambique, Angola, Ethiopia, Syria and Vietnam) of its supply bases (Cuba), perennial training on the battlefield and interrelation (with and against) with other first -order actors in international ideological conflagration (USSR, Czechoslovakia, South Africa, RDA, Somalia, Israel, etc.) made the Cuban armed forces considered a trained and combative troop. That was history.

The appearance of this new range is the result of a combination of historical, political and structural factors. There are several reasons why the first colonel range was established in the FAR.

Soviet and socialist influence

The degrees system was invented by Fidel Castro himself in the Sierra Maestra for the rebel army troop. Personally, I was granting commander’s degrees and these in turn had the power to appoint captains or lieutenants. The first promotion to Commander, in July 1957, was for Ernesto Guevara, who served as Lieutenant, Health Chief of the rebels.

There were no longer older, lieutenant colonels and, much less, general. Even the red and black rhombus that was then seen only around the star of commander in chief, also used by other commanders or captains of the rebel troops. As the commanders Raúl Castro and Camilo Cienfuegos and Captain Antonio Núñez Jiménez did in their time.

Once the only military ranges that prevailed were the inherited from the rebel army, the first lieutenant, captain and commander. Fidel Castro held the degree of commander in chief of the Force of Air, Sea and Land of the Republic of Cuba, according to the appointment of the Official Revolutionary Official Gazette, which was published in Santiago de Cuba, then provisional capital of the island. The appointment was published on January 2, signed by the President of the Republic, Manuel Urrutia, who had replaced Judge Carlos M. Piedra at the head of the nation.

A not very extensive number of commanders arrived in Havana or were in charge of the most important squares in the country.

When the rebel army takes power on January and Castro enters the capital on January 8, the commanders came from both military force and the revolutionary directory or the second front of the villas.

The most renowned military with the rank of commander were: Raúl Castro, Camilo Cienfuegos, Ernesto Guevara (Argentine), Hubert Matos Benítez, Humberto Sorí Marín, William A. Morgan (American), Juan Almeida Forest, Félix Pena, Julio Camacho, Efigenio Almejeres, Andrés González Línez Línez Línez Línez Línez Línez Línez Línez. (Spanish), Juan Noury, Omar Fernández, Manuel Piñeiro, Faure Chomón, Guillermo García, Crescencio Pérez, Ramiro Valdez, Rolando Cubla, Delio Gómez, Juan Escalona, ​​Humberto Castelló, Augusto Martínez Sánchez, among others, were commanders on January 1, 1959. That year 1959 they were promoted to Comandante Pedro Díaz, Eduardo Bernabé Ordaz, Antonio Sánchez Díaz «Pinares».

As captains they served on January 1, Eduardo Suñol, Calixto Morales, Teobaldo Cuervo, Dionisio Suárez, Rogelio Acevedo, Luis Pérez Martínez, Senén Casas Regueir Then he would be the military chief of Brigade 2506, in 1959 he was the first lieutenant of the rebel army. The lieutenants of those years were Miguel A. Dow, José Aroche, David Concepción Pérez, Aquiles Chinea and many others.

The Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (MINFAR), created in October 1959, was one of the first regime structures to receive Soviet advisors, adopting the command system and the organization of the Soviet army. As early as in June 1960 and Raúl Castro visited Moscow, ciming the agency with the USSR in terms of defense.

The upper structure of the MINFAR for 1963 had five vice ministers, all with the same degree of commander. Juan Almeida Bosque was the first vice minister, Sergio del Valle Fungía as head of the General Staff, Efigenio Amejeiras and Belarmino Castilla more appeared as vice ministers of special affairs of the MINFAR, Joaquín Ordoquí at the head of the Directorate of Services. The same military graduation for the five.

In the General Staff, in 1962, the heads of addresses had the rank of captain, as was the case of Manuel Quiñones Clavelo (information), Fausto Rodríguez Sánchez (Communications), Flavio Bravo Pardo (Operations), Sidrococ Ramos Palacios (Instruction) and Osmany Cienfuegos Gorriarán (Services).

The more Cuba aligned with Moscow, the faster the Soviet military structures were adopted, including the command system and the work manuals. The Soviet advisors were in most military units, in educational centers.

The presence in Cuba was then highlighted as Soviet advisors of numerous Republican Spaniards, who had been living in the USSR, civil war veterans in the Peninsula for almost 30 years, of the Second War at the service of Stalin, and participating in repression against nationalists of Estonia, Lithuania, Ukraine and Lithuania. They were called Hispano-Soviet and many stayed to live in Cuba.

These Spanish Republicans, veterans of the NKVD of Stalin, repressors in the USSR, went to Cuba to fight against the rebels of the Escambray, advising and planning military operations. With such a dependency of Moscow, the creation of degrees similar to the Soviet within the FAR was motivated.

In September 1963, the Council of Ministers promulgated Law 1123 of the Revolutionary Government, which established a unique system of military degrees for land troops.

The hierarchy was formed as follows: Commander in Chief, Army Commander, Army Corps, Division Commander (Raúl Castro), Brigade Commander (Senen Casas Regueir José F. Quesada García), Captain (Jorge Risquet, Julián Rizo Álvarez), First Lieutenant, Lieutenant, Lieutenant, Sergeant (First, Second and Third), Cape and Soldier. The implementation was not carried out immediately.