Symbology, hierarchy and control in the FAR (II)

Many of the officers who joined the rebel forces in the Sierra and had reached 1959 as captains, were promoted to the new rank of first captain. One of those first captains who made headlines in 1964 was Jorge Enrique Mendozawho worked in the Directorate of Revolutionary Instruction of the MINFAR (subsequently turned into the political direction), and which, as a commissioner, supervised the national propaganda meetings.

It should be noted that, at that time of the sixties and the beginning of the seventies of the 20th century, the olive tree for the degrees of the upper officers was not used, not even for the commander in chief. Already closer to the “institutionalization” process of the Armed Forces in Cuba – which responded to the concept of Sovietization of the Army -, the first degrees with olive branches for the superior officers and multiple stars for the categories of first officers and subordinates appeared.

As established in Law No. 1257, which entered into force on December 2, 1973, the military degrees of the FAR were modified, being formed as follows: Commander in Chief, Army Commander, Body Commander, Division Commander and Brigade Commander. Among the first class officers, the ranges of First Commander (Raúl Díaz Arguelles), Commander and older; And among subaltern officers: Captain, first lieutenant, lieutenant and sub-tenant. That 1973 law recognized the range of commander in chief as the highest step within the armed forces in Cuba, adding a branch of olive tree to the red and black rhombus with the star in the charretera, which did not exist so far.

This system kept some proportion with the military hierarchy of the USSR and Eastern Europe, which had almost ten ranks: Lieutenant, Lieutenant, First Lieutenant, Captain, Major, Lieutenant Colonel, Colonel, Major General, General Lieutenant, Colonel General and General of the Army. In addition, the USSR had Marshal’s degree, which represented the upper step within its hierarchical military structure.

The degrees in the Cuban way were confused for the Soviet, Czechoslovacos or RDA advisors, since the term «commander» could be applied to both an equivalent of general and one of the colonel. In the information about the Granma maneuver carried out by the FAR in December 1974, it was reported that it was directed by the First Deputy Minister, Chief of the General Staff, Commander of Brigade Senén Casas Regueir «The first Commander Leopoldo Cintra Frías.» That year of 1974, the Cuban press reported activities of the Brigade Commanders Senén Casas Regueiro in Assemblies of the Communist Youth, and also Brigade Commander Fernando Vecino Alegre, who visited Bulgaria as Vice Minister of the FAR.

Raúl Castro Ruz, Minister of the FAR since the creation of the Ministry in October 1959, was the driver, organizer and implementation of the Sovietization of the Cuban army, including military grades, plate caps, rows of rows, ties and stars – both small as large. Unlike his brother, who never left the olive green uniform or the invented badges of commander in chief, Raúl did not stop showing off his military uniform of Soviet design. As a curious fact, during the conversion process of the Cuban military degrees, the Minister of the FAR was not immediately promoted to the maximum degree (general army) among the superior officers, and had to spend long months with two stars in the shoulder pads. In that range he received in Havana, along with Fidel Castro, Leonid Ilich Brezhnev, when he visited Cuba in January 1974.

The then Minister of the FAR was Commander of Division from December 1973 until December 2, 1976, when, with the implementation of the new degrees system, he was promoted to Army General. To date, and while alive, no one else in Cuba will hold that military degree.

After Raúl Castro left the position of Minister of the FAR, the army direction was assumed by three officers: Julio Casas Regueiro (for 3 years and about 6 and a half months), Leopoldo Cintra Frías (for 9 years and 5 months) and Álvaro López Miera (almost four years in April 2025). All reached the top of military promotions with the degree of general body general, the same one that the Chief of the General Staff and the heads of the three armies of the country.

Having the minister with two stars was a punishment of his brother, the connoisseurs of the Interiorities of the MINFAR affirm, because for a few weeks he was tempted to include in the Cuban army the rank of marshal, asking for a model to the tailories of the Ministry of Defense in Moscow. In the Soviet tailor shop they made a suit with the Mariscal golden star on the Cuban shield, a copy of the Marshal version of the Soviet Union. The idea was not implemented after the question of a Soviet advisor to Fidel Castro about whether the Marshal of Cuba was a military range superior to the commander in chief. That «naive» question of the Soviet frustrated forever the plans to have a marshal in the armed forces of Cuba.

In Moscow they failed to understand the equivalence of Cuban ranges, and by November 1976 Raúl Castro was promoted to Army, while several Cuban military were promoted to general division and brigade generals. A rain of stars and olive branches fell on the Cuban military.

The military adventures in Angola were in their peak. The Cuban military served as advisors as a conflict appeared in Africa: from Guinea-Bisáu to Ethiopia, passing through Angola, Namibia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Yemen del Sur, Somalia (before the conflict with Ethiopia), etc. The military Raúl Díaz-Argüelles, who died during the Cuban intervention in Angola in December 1975, was the head of the Cuban troops and held the degree of first commander. Arnaldo Ochoa, who was purged in the summer of 1989 during the Cause 1/89 Against a group of military from the FAR and the Minint, he obtained in Africa the grades of General of Division and the Hero Medal of the Republic of Cuba. In these processes the Brigade General were accused Patricio de la Guardia and his brother, the colonel Antonio de la Guardiaboth of the minint. With those purges and executions in the FAR and the MINT, the dictator erased any connection trace with the Colombian drug posters and the links with Pablo Escobar.

In November 1976, with the proclamation of Law No. 1315, a new reform was introduced that established a different military ranges scheme, more aligned and comparable with that used in socialist countries. The categories were the following: Army General, Army Corps General, General of Division, Brigade General, Colonel, Lieutenant Colonel, Major, Captain, First Lieutenant, Lieutenant, Lieutenant, Petty Officer, Sergeant First, Sergeant of Second, Third and Soldier of First and soldier.

For the Navy, the graduations were distributed as follows: Almirante, Vice Admiral, Counter -Admiral, Captain of the Frigate, Captain of Corvette, Ship Lieutenant, Frigate Lieutenant, Lieutenant Corvette, Ensign, Petty Officer, First Sergeant, Sergeant of Second, Third Sergeant, Sardin Sailor.

The new Army and the Cuba Marina Charetera began to be manufactured in Moscow military tailor. There are military degrees that have never been granted in the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR), such as Admiral. The highest range in the Revolutionary Navy (MGR) has been Vice Admiral. Such was the case of Aldo Santamaría Squarewho directed this force, first as commander and then as Vice Admiral, until 1984. After his death, it was happened by José Cuza Téllez de Girón, who previously served as director of the Naval Academy and was captain of the rebel army, holding the degree of counter -limit. All bosses of the naval force in Cuba (Pedro M. Pérez Betancourt, Carlos Alfonso Duque Ramosetc.) have had this military graduation, including the current one, Jorge Luis Reyes López. The degree of counterattack was also an Interior Minister, Julio César Gandarilla Bermejo, who was for 16 years head of military counterintelligence in the MINFAR.

A unique degree in Cuba is the commander of the Revolution, who have only held three military: Ramiro Valdés Menéndez, Juan Almeida Bosque and Guillermo García Frías. With a unique symbology – money on the olive branch and a golden star on the elevations.

According to the military regulation, except the commander in chief and the army general, all had to pay military greeting to the passage of the three «commanders», who were members of the political bureau and vice presidents of the State and Ministers Councils. Even today, Valdés is VicePrimer Minister, despite his almost 92 years of age.

The Commander of the Rebel Army Commander differs from that of the Commander of the Revolution, both in military hierarchy and in numerical proportion. As commanders of the rebel army they used their badges José Ramón Machado Ventura, Delio Gómez, Pedro Miret, Julio Camacho Aguileraand other officials who, although militarized in the hosts of the Sierra Maestra, dedicated themselves to political-partisan work before or during the process of copying the Soviet system of military degrees.

Since 1989, after the two cases of the Military Prosecutor’s Office (Cause 1/89 and Causa 2/1989), the officers very loyal to Raúl Castro del Mordar took possession of all the Directorates of the Minint, assuming the total control of what was an exclusive fief, first of Ramiro Valdés and after José Abrantes. From that year, the crossing of officers became a constant practice, and seniors of the Minint were seen with graduate badges of the School of Infantry or Engineering of the FAR, and vice versa: a graduate of the higher institutes of the Minint in a tank unit.

From the appointment of Abelardo Colomé Ibarra As Interior Minister (Minint) in 1989 to date, all the heads of that field have come from the FAR, especially from military counterintelligence: Carlos Fernández Gondín, Julio César Gandarilla Bermejo and Lázaro Alberto Álvarez Casas.