It is not common to find regulations from the Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (Minfar) published in the Official Gazette of the Republic. Much less if they contain orders that establish internal security measures for military units. Information related to business groups under the control of Minfar is even considered secret in most cases.
Added to the preferential treatment is the fact that the Official Gazette of the Republic does not publish all the legal regulations issued in the country, but rather those that the Ministry of Justice (Minjus) considers to be of “general interest.” The regulations issued by Minfar are almost never classified as being of general interest.
For this reason, the publication of Resolution 9/24 of the Minfar in the ordinary edition number 46 of the Official Gazette of the Republic of June 3, 2024 is striking. Especially because the regulations order the use of weapons to increase the “security and physical protection of agricultural production areas, construction and assembly investments, and other urban and rural areas of interest for defense, which are part of the state heritage administered” by the Minfar. Among the weapons ordered to be used are shotguns or weapons with pellet ammunition of different calibers.
The publication of a rule of this type in the Official Gazette, rather than complying with legal procedures that are not essential for its entry into force and uncommon in the case of Minfar, seems to have the objective of contributing to the campaign that the propaganda media has played for weeks. A campaign that insists on the existence of a plan orchestrated from the United States to promote terrorist actions in Cuba that are the prelude to a new social outbreak on July 11, 2024.
The first element that draws attention in this sense is that the resolution was signed by Minister Álvaro López Miera almost four months ago, on February 12, 2024. However, it was only published in the Official Gazette on June 3, when the The propaganda media had well established the line of messages that the Minfar used to justify its decision.
Resolution 9/2024 describes as “indispensable” the measure to increase the security and protection of the areas of interest of the Minfar and justifies it under the argument that the “enemy exiled in the United States of America” is carrying out “coordination actions with disaffections, former members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces and others, with the aim of carrying out actions against military objectives, agricultural production entities, constructive and assembly investment zones, and other urban and rural areas of interest” of the Minfar.
Likewise, it provides that the heads and directors of entities that are not declared military zones have 30 days to declare them, delimit them and mark them with signs in Spanish and English with the inscription “DO NOT PASS, MILITARY ZONE.”
The indications from Minfar in the Cuban context raise additional concerns. By declaring the entities and premises of interest to the Minfar (including investment sites or economic entities that may be in populated urban areas and susceptible to involuntary or non-risky access) as “military zones”, the security measures that can be used by the custodians for the “defense” of the establishments. The elevation reaches extreme levels when the use of potentially lethal weapons is directed.
The classification of any establishment controlled by the Minfar as a military zone, the carrying of firearms by custody personnel and the current law may be “incentives” for the guards of the “new military zones” to use first-class lethal force. protection measure and regrettable acts result that go unpunished.
In this sense, it must be remembered that the Military Penal Code (applicable in the prosecution of criminal acts that occur in “military zones”) establishes that criminal liability cannot be demanded from anyone who “makes rational and regulatory use of firearms.” , on the occasion of performing [de] sentry, patrol or in the performance of other guard services, to repel an obvious attack against oneself, the people or objectives that one protects or guards; or when, in compliance with these services, their established preventive orders or voices are not obeyed and a risk situation is generated for the purposes of the service provided or for their person.
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