Cuba’s increased
defense capacity
Fidel Rendón
Matienzo
WHILE
the Bastión 2009 strategic exercise improved the
military readiness of the country’s leadership and
command bodies, National Defense Day, given its mass
nature, raised Cuba’s defensive capacity even more.
On
Sunday, four million Cuban men and women in
conjunction with the armed forces took firing ranges,
parks, factories, universities, mountains, and
shelters "by storm" to preserve the peace and
sovereignty of their Revolution by training train
for any kind of imperialist aggression.
In Territorial Troop Militias, Production and
Defense Brigades, and Special Formations, early in
the morning men and woman participated in planned
actions in their areas of defense, many of which
were related to protecting the population and the
economy.
Food production, the cultivation of sugar cane
and other crops was not neglected, nor was work
relating to hygiene and sanitation as part of the
fight against vectors, where necessary. Recovery
tasks continued in the provinces affected by last
year’s Hurricanes Ike and Paloma.
National Defense Day included the active
participation of chiefs, officers and soldiers in
the Revolutionary Armed Forces, civilian workers and
the Ministry of the Interior in the realization of
illustrative firearms training classes throughout
the country.
In a meeting to review Bastión 2009 on Saturday,
President Raúl Castro congratulated all the
participants in this strategic exercise and affirmed
that all the planned objectives had been fulfilled.
Raúl stated that a preliminary assessment
indicated that there were substantial advances in
the results in comparison to 2004.
But he insisted that "everything we do can be
improved, an essential attitude in the face of a
highly complex phenomenon like war which, moreover,
evolves constantly and rapidly."
