Chronicle on Cuba - August 2006

Security

August 1: The Cuban military has begun to call up reservists. Cuba's military committees, which serve the same function as US draft boards, began mobilizing registered young men after the announcement of Fidel Castro's transfer of power to his brother Raúl. Registration is mandatory and lasts until the age of 45. (The Miami Herald, 2/8/06)

August 5: Former revolutionaries promised to keep fighting for Cuba as the island beefed up security, saying it fears a US attack during Fidel Castro's health crisis. Cuban army reservists took to the streets of Havana. The government, under the control of Castro's brother, Defence Minister Raul Castro, has mobilized citizen militias and asked military reservists to check in daily. The White House has insisted no such threat exists, with press secretary Tony Snow dismissing the suggestion that the United States would attack the island as "absurd." The Communist Party daily newspaper Granma issued a statement by the Association of Combatants of the Cuban Revolution on its front page. "We will continue working with the same revolutionary fervour that you taught us," the veterans' group assured Castro. It also expressed confidence that Castro would be back on his feet soon. Cubans interviewed on state-run media also said they would fight to the death against any invaders from the north, while the official Granma wrote: "We Cubans are prepared for the defence" of the island. (Canadian Press, 5/8/06)

August 8: The authorities in the province of Santiago de Cuba are in a state of high alert for fear of a massive exodus towards the US Naval Base at Guantánamo. The southern coastline is constantly patrolled and all highways running the length of it in that province have been placed under military control. On the Siboney beach highway, near the US Naval Base, checkpoints have been set up to control traffic through the area. (Cubanet, 8/8/06)

August 15: Cuba's armed forces, a one-time guerrilla outfit that became the communist country's most efficient and business-savvy institution, will play a crucial role whatever happens after Fidel Castro, experts on Cuba said. With their commander, Defense Minister Raul Castro, now taking over at least temporarily from his brother Fidel Castro as president, the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR) are virtually running the country, they said.  "We have the head of the armed forces as the head of state," said Hal Klepak, a professor of history at the Royal Military College of Canada and author of a book on the FAR. "The message is very clear -- there will not be disorder because it won't be permitted." (Reuters, 15/8/06)

August 16: From the start of Fidel Castro's health crisis at the end of July, the Cuban public has been starved of hard facts about his condition - officially classed as a state secret. The Cuban government justifies this news blackout by stating that the country faces a clear and imminent threat from the United States. Cuban National Assembly speaker Ricardo Alarcon said that following "concrete threats" from the US, "the information that we give about this whole situation has to be careful, limited to only what is essential". The conduits through which Cubans can get independent news are very limited: foreign press is not widely available, the internet is strictly controlled, broadcasts beamed to the island from the US are jammed and permits to install satellite receiving equipment are almost impossible to obtain. It is estimated that there are up to 30,000 illegal satellite television receiving dishes throughout the island, although it is unclear how many are used for viewing serious news and current affairs programmes and how many are used just to enjoy a wider variety of entertainment.  The Cuban government's daily newspaper Granma, published an editorial on 9 August pointing out that pirating television programmes "not only violates national and international regulations, but it is the breeding ground for those who want to execute the Bush administration's plans to defeat the Cuban Revolution" and that the practice was a form of "illicit enrichment". (BBC, 16/8/06)

August 16: Cuba began demobilizing thousands of reserve troops on alert since Fidel Castro temporarily handed power to his brother Raul Castro for health reasons, Communist Party sources said. The alert for civilian rapid-response brigades in case of domestic unrest was also winding down, the sources said. Dressed in olive green fatigues, reserve troops were seen patrolling the streets of Havana. (Globe and Mail, Reuters, 17/8/06)

August 18: Raul Castro, in his first public comments since temporarily taking over power in Cuba from his ailing brother, said in an interview that he had mobilized the country's armed forces in the hours after Fidel Castro's illness was announced, to fend off any invasion that might have been planned by Washington. ''We could not rule out the risk of somebody going crazy, or even crazier, within the US government,'' Raul Castro, the country's defense minister, said in an interview with the editor of Granma, the Communist Party newspaper.  Mr. Castro, speaking from his office at the Defense Ministry, said Cubans stood ready to repel any attacks with ''rifle in hand.''  ''So far the attacks have only been rhetorical, with the exception of the substantial increase in subversive radio and television broadcasts against Cuba,'' he said in an article with the headline ''No Enemy Can Defeat Us.'' (The New York Times, 18/8/06)