BY LUIS JESÚS GONZÁLEZ
On December 5, the first national congress of the Association
of Combatants of the Cuban Revolution will take place in
Havana. The association, whose president is Commander of the
Revolution Juan Almeida, was founded in 1993. The following
interview with Brig. Gen. Gustavo Chui Beltrán, vice president
and executive secretary of the organization, appeared in the
November 8 Juventud Rebelde (Rebel Youth), the weekly newspaper
of the Union of Young Communists of Cuba. A coming issue of the
Militant will feature a more extensive interview with Gen. Chui
Beltrán and Brig. Gen. Sergio Pérez Lezcano, deputy executive
secretary of the association. Translation and footnotes are by
the Militant.
Despite its youth, the organization has become a big part of the daily life of the neighborhoods, carrying out the principal mission of defense as much as the work of keeping history alive for the new generations. On the eve of its first national conference, scheduled for December 5, the Association of Combatants of the Cuban Revolution [ACRC] is reviewing its work over five years of existence.
Brig. Gen. Gustavo Chui Beltrán, vice president and executive secretary of the national leadership of the ACRC, spoke with Juventud Rebelde.
Question. Despite being the newest social organization in Cuba, its activities have allowed it to gain a foothold in the community. Will the ACRC replace the role historically fulfilled by other organizations?
Answer. The Association doesn't substitute for the tasks of any mass organization. We follow a concrete course of action, and our work on the local level is one of supporting the other organizations, and this is true for all the existing structures. Our purpose is the unconditional defense of the revolution, the bringing together of all combatants into a single unit, and involving all of them into preparations for the War of the Entire People.(1)
Q. Similar organizations around the world are made up of former combatants, who live more on their past glories than on their current work. In what way does the ACRC differ from them?
A. We don't have any veterans here, because veterans are those who fought in the past and later devoted themselves to cultivate past glories. The ACRC includes three generations of Cubans who are still fighting. Our history is still being written.(2)
This is not an organization of old people. The majority of our members are 27-50 years old. A minority of them are a little older. Almost 60 percent of them are internationalists, because 10 years ago there were still many youth working in Angola and Ethiopia.(3) They play an important role, and we have done some intelligent work in this regard, which I wouldn't say has fully materialized but which has advanced. It's true, though, there are still some compañeros, especially those who give more weight to one phase of the struggle than to others, who reject the young members.
In any case, the youth have asserted themselves in their own right, and we already see them heading up the Association in many municipalities. We remain young because young members of the FAR [Revolutionary Armed Forces] and the Interior Ministry forces, after 15 years of service, keep joining us every year. We are currently studying the idea of reducing the period of service required to join. In addition, we are adding to our political and ideological work the children of combatants - the continuators - as well as the rest of the family and community.
Q. It seems a paradox that an organization of 300,000 people, from such a broad social spectrum, has such a recent life. Do you think the ACRC had a belated birth?
A. Many people thought it should have been founded earlier, but it arose at a decisive moment in our history, when some people in other countries were abandoning socialism and U.S. imperialism was intensifying its unceasing aggression against the Cuban revolution. The birth of our organization helped fill a need and organize into a single force all Cubans who have been involved in revolutionary struggles - from the Spanish Civil War to actions of solidarity with other peoples of the world.
Q. The presence of active-duty generals and officers within a social organization gives the Association a special character. Does the ACRC have a chain of command as in any military structure?
A. No, we're not a military organization. The Association would seem incomplete if it didn't include combatants who remain on active duty in the FAR and interior ministry, but the bulk of the 300,000 members are not on active military duty. We are legally a nongovernmental organization and our leadership structures are similar to other social organizations.
As a matter of fact, we have broad participation by women in all categories, the highest numbers of which are among the internationalists. Many women already shoulder leadership responsibilities at the head of provincial and municipal executive bodies.
Q. Five years since its founding, what do you consider the most important successes of the ACRC?
A. Over the course of these five years, the Association has been able to establish a real space within Cuban society and become part of the social and political life of the nation. We carry out an important series of patriotic tasks under the guidance of the [Cuban Communist] Party, with the help of the government and the political and mass organizations.
Since its founding, the ACRC has linked together combatants from all categories, organizing itself within the community. Above all, the organization has consolidated its role in strengthening the political and ideological work in the neighborhoods, especially through patriotic events and commemorations of historical dates. It also carries out support work in different areas of the economy. But its basic role has been its fighting spirit, the spreading of its example.
We are involved in the effort both to recover the country's history as well as protect our values. All the schools are linked to the ACRC. We go there to relate our experiences in combat. The great events and most outstanding figures are often publicized, but there are actions and martyrs on the local level that are virtually unknown. We have carried out a wide range of work along these lines, although that doesn't mean we've accomplished everything.
We still have a lot to do, but no one can deny we've made progress. You hear combatants speak in the community, and the schools request our participation, to the point where the ministry of education asks for our support, whether for mass target practice by students or to stimulate their connection with history - from elementary school to the universities.
It has been much harder in the universities, of course. Many of our compañeros are somewhat afraid because of the level of knowledge among the university students. But we're gradually becoming involved in that area.
1. War of the Entire People is the strategy adopted by the Cuba's revolutionary leadership to mobilize virtually the entire population in face of threats of imperialist military attack.
2. In an accompanying note, Juventud Rebelde explains that the association includes revolutionary combatants who fought in the Rebel Army or the urban underground movement during the revolutionary struggle that overthrew the Batista dictatorship in 1959, in the defeat of the U.S.-orchestrated mercenary invasion at the Bay of Pigs in 1961, and in the struggle against armed counterrevolutionary bands that operated in the Escambray mountains in the early 1960s. It also includes active- duty or retired members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces or the interior ministry forces with 15 or more years of service; parents of those who died defending the revolution; those receiving medals for courage and heroism from the Council of State; members of the Border Battalion; and others designated by the national ACRC leadership.
3. About 300,000 Cuban volunteer combatants served in Angola between 1975 and 1991, responding to the request of the Angolan government to help it repel invading South African apartheid troops and attacks by imperialist-backed UNITA forces. In 1977, Cuba sent thousands of volunteer troops to Ethiopia in response to an appeal by the Ethiopian government for aid in defeating a U.S.-backed invasion by the regime in neighboring Somalia. Washington planned to use a Somalian victory as a springboard to help turn back land redistribution and other measures taken in Ethiopia following the overthrow of landlord-based monarchy of Haile Selassie in 1974.