Chronicle on Cuba - March
2007
Security
March 7: A top level delegation of China´s Popular Liberation Army began a visit to Cuba, aimed at increasing bilateral relations. The mission, led by Colonel General Zhu Wenquan, will develop a busy agenda including tours of military units and places of historic and cultural interest, according to a note by Cuba’s Revolutionary Armed Forces Ministry published in the official daily Granma. The last visit of a Chinese military delegation to Cuba took place last December, headed by Colonel General Zhao Keming, Political Commissioner of China’s National Defense University, and included meetings with Raúl Castro. (Prensa Latina, AFP, 7/3/07)
March 8: A high level delegation from the People’s Liberation Army of China, led by Colonel General Zhu Wenquan, was received by the Deputy-Minister of the Armed Forces and Chief of the General Staff, Army Corps General, Álvaro López Miera. (Granma, 8/3/07)
March 12: Cuban Defense Minister Raul Castro warned against an invasion of his country, saying the price paid by invaders would be high. "If anyone attacks us, we're ready to pay any price necessary, but the price paid by the invaders of our country would be much higher," said the 75 year-old during a speech to troops participating in military exercises in the western Pinar del Rio province. Raul, who has been the Caribbean country's defence minister since 1959, called the Cuban revolution "unbeatable." The exercises are to help the country improve the preparedness of its armed forces, he said, adding that Cuba is training its military for the presence of an enemy politically committed to the destruction of the revolution. This year’s war games are being billed as the largest mobilization of reservists and active members of the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces since the 1961 Bay of Pigs and the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. Soldiers are engaged in artillery and missile launches, combat practice and naval and air drills. Civilians of all ages dressed in blue militia uniforms carried government-issued rifles and handguns for drills to defend their towns against surprise invaders, while civil defense units put out staged fires and evacuate residents from their homes. Cuba’s state-owned TV picked up the patriotic beat, running old news reels of past military exercises and speeches to rally the nation. (People’s Daily, NBC News, 11/3/07)
March 30: Interim Cuban leader Raúl Castro confirmed that a massive mobilization of security forces was ordered after his brother Fidel underwent surgery eight months ago. ''This popular mobilization, in silence, without the least boasting, guaranteed the preservation of the revolution from any attempted military aggression,'' he was quoted as saying by the Communist Party's Granma newspaper. Addressing senior military leaders Friday, Raúl Castro said ''Operación Caguairán'' -- named after a hard Cuban tree also called ''ax breaker'' -- was ordered because he could not rule out that, in the face of his brother's ailment, someone in Washington could ``turn crazy.'' Cuba did not publicly reveal the mobilization when it was ordered, just hours after it was announced on July 31 that Fidel Castro was ''temporarily'' surrendering power because of the surgery. He remains largely absent from public view eight months later, but is reported to be recovering. The mobilization covered 200,000 Cubans. Raúl Castro said the mobilizations were carried out successfully. Large numbers of uniformed but unarmed soldiers and extra police were visible in the streets of Havana immediately after the July 31 announcement. Granma earlier reported that mobilized soldiers had been practicing combat tactics, firing antiaircraft rockets, using computer simulators and sniping, but gave no numbers. ''Never before, except in the times of the Bay of Pigs [1961] and the Missile Crisis [1962] had Cuba undertaken in its national territory such a mobilization of its troops in such a scale,'' the newspaper said. (EFE, Granma, The Miami Herald, 31/3/07) |
