Havana/In the midst of the prolonged social and energy crisis that the country is going through, aggravated by the possible loss of Venezuelan oil, after the arrest of Nicolás Maduro, the Cuban Movement of Military Conscientious Objectors (MOC) released a statement this Monday in which it called on the Cuban military not to repress the civilian population in the event of a possible protest. In addition, ask other foreign armies to protect citizens.
In the document, published by the organization Cuba 21st Centurythe MOC maintains that the military swore to defend national sovereignty and not the interests of an economic elite. In this context, he accuses the military conglomerate Gaesa of having usurped said sovereignty and proposes that the Armed Forces should not act against the civilian population in defense of what he describes as “oligarchic interests foreign to the nation.”
The statement explicitly introduces the possibility of international intervention. In one of its central passages, the MOC states that if “the United States or other countries decide to protect popular protests from the brute force of the mafia state with their military force,” they would have its support. The text draws a historical parallel with the war of independence by remembering the cooperation between the Cuban mambises and Theodore Roosevelt’s Rough Riders in 1898, an episode that – according to the document – contributed to ending the humanitarian crisis caused by the Spanish general Valeriano Weyler.
This is not the first time that these former officers have made calls of this type to the Armed Forces on the Island.
It’s not the first time that these former officers, led by retired General Rafael del Pino, make calls of this type to the Armed Forces on the Island. Already in 2021, the same group released a manifesto in which They rejected any order to repress social protestsdenounced Gaesa’s control over the economy and encouraged active military personnel to request their discharge or retirement before attacking the civilian population. The current statement occurs in a scenario of greater uncertainty for the Cuban Government, if possible, after the fall of its main regional ally, which has called into question the regime’s ability to sustain energy supplies and contain social deterioration.
Rafael del Pino He was a brigadier general of the Cuban Air Force and held high-level positions within the military structure after the triumph of the Revolution. He actively participated in the army during the 1962 missile crisis and served as deputy chief of the country’s Air Force and Air Defense. In 1987 he publicly broke with the regime and went into exile, along with his family, piloting the plane himself. Since then he has denounced the role of the Armed Forces in internal repression and has published several books on Cuba’s military history.
The statement concludes with a direct warning to the armed forces: “We will consider traitors to the country, its sovereignty and independence, those soldiers who disgrace their uniform by attacking the people as vulgar mercenaries at the service of the Gaesa oligarchy,” and firmly emphasizes that “the time for definitions” has arrived.
