SAN LUIS POTOSÍ, Mexico.- A campaign by the Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (MINFAR) attempts to praise the “benefits” of Female Military Servicealluding to the supposed general and comprehensive culture that it provides to young people.
With several videos of Cuban women enrolled in the service, the regime is trying to attract new recruits and distort the image of strict military training inherent to that system, which has claimed the lives of many young people.
The video clips show smiling Cuban women explaining what they consider to be the advantages of the service: “It is a experience “It is worth living, it is not forgotten.” “It gives us a lot as women, it makes us brave,” one of those called to the campaign told the cameras.
According to the MINFAR Facebook site, the service increases comprehensive training, as it provides “a more general culture”: “knowing everything.”
Without detailing the military training they must undergo and without mentioning the dangers of forcing recruits to carry firearms at such a young age, the regime described the service as a “life experience.”
As if it were a pre-university course or a stage in any scholarship, they said that in military units: “the ties of friendship and camaraderie are valued to a greater extent”, the young women “live in a collective, learn to respect and value the criteria of those around them” and can overcome “obstacles and situations that they did not have to deal with before in their daily lives”.
Another girl, identified as Noelia, said that this stage prepares her “for life” because she acquires knowledge and habits.
“Here they teach you to make the bed super smooth, without a single crease, and when you get home, mom says, ‘What’s that?’” she said.
Promotion of the service
At the beginning of 2024, the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC) began to promote Military Service among young Cuban women, seeking to increase entry into the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR).
The mass organization pointed out in social networks that women who completed military service would receive many benefits.
“If you are a high school graduate, you can choose courses at higher education institutions of the FAR and the MININT. You can also enter higher education courses of a pedagogical nature without taking entrance exams,” stated a publication by the FMC management in the municipality of La Palma, province of Pinar del Río.
In addition, young women who obtain a degree in journalism must comply one year of mandatory Active Military Service (SMA) starting in the 2024-2025 academic year.
In November 2023, a source from the University of Camagüey on condition of anonymity had explained to CubaNet that the completion of a year of military service for young women studying journalism was something that “could happen” because there was an orientation so that “the students, in addition to completing college and passing the aptitude tests, complete a year of Military Service in order to be able to enter university.”
In 2022, First Colonel Ernesto Lázaro González Sosa, head of the MINFAR Directorate, had justified that young Cuban women over 18 years of age had a “growing interest” in enlisting in the Female Voluntary Military Service (SMVF).
“Nowadays, many women choose this option and are achieving positive results,” said the senior officer, who acknowledged that the “benefits” were key to attracting new recruits.
Benefits?
The words of praise for this stage ignore the dozens of deaths of young people that have occurred while complying with this regime requirement.
Every year, all Cubans of conscription age are forced to put their lives on hold and join spaces controlled mostly by the Army, where they are subjected to despotic structures and very strict living conditions.
Young people leave their homes to submit to double pressure. On the one hand, they are under the orders of the military, As has been reported in many cases, they are humiliated and mistreated. And on the other hand, they have to live with kids who tend to abuse the weakest.
