An Armed Cuba

[Mindtoaster]

Indeed, this "dictatorship" in Cuba is very strange, because everyone calls the president by his first name, like when they see him in the street, the highest government officials play baseball in their short sleeves with the rest of the people, the entire population is armed, everyone knows how to read, decisions are made by common consent, prostitutes are sent to school and taught another occupation, government officials meet with the workers to discuss salaries and production and the people interrupt the prime minister's speeches to criticize certain ministers or officials!


http://www.cubatruthproject.org/qanda.html

Is there any truth to the claim that the vast majority of Cuban citizens are armed, or are there any legitimate sources to back up this claim?

[Woland]

I dont know about Cuba, but my mom in the USSR was taught to disassemble and assemble a AK-47 in school as a kid, so yes, I'm pretty sure it would be a common practice there in Cuba too.

[redguard2009]

Hard to find info on it. A quick search reveals plenty of nutjob far-right websites claiming that Cuba has very strict gun control (they also claim that gun control + universal medicare are clear signs of totalitarianism in any state).

Would be nice to find a credible answer.

[Red October]

Indeed, this "dictatorship" in Cuba is very strange, because everyone calls the president by his first name, like when they see him in the street, the highest government officials play baseball in their short sleeves with the rest of the people, the entire population is armed, everyone knows how to read, decisions are made by common consent, prostitutes are sent to school and taught another occupation, government officials meet with the workers to discuss salaries and production and the people interrupt the prime minister's speeches to criticize certain ministers or officials!



And no one is unhappy, the rivers are made of chocolate, and everyone has a unicorn!

[Dóchas]

the majority of the cuban population is trained in using guns etc. but im not sure if they are in possesion of the weapons or would they be distributed whenever needs be

[Sand Castle]

"Each Cuban should learn how to use weapons and when to use them in his defense." - Che Guevara (from "Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life" by Jon Lee Anderson).

Cuba became highly militarized, and the civilian militias grew to over 50,000 in 1959. The source is also Jon Lee Anderson's book.

That is the best I can do.

[Red October]

From what I know, people in Cuba are trained with firearms, but the guns are kept in government armories. I don't think most people, or even very many, have guns in their homes or anything like that. But I don't really know.

[Dóchas]

i suppose it makes sense when you think about it whats the point in having a full time army when you have a population that is willing to fight when requested?

[ZeroNowhere]

prostitutes are sent to school and taught another occupation
School?
...
All is not well in the supposed workers' paradise.

[manic expression]

I don't have any numbers, but I'm quite certain that many Cubans do have training in weapons. Further, the question isn't whether or not Cubans have AK-47s in their homes, it's whether they have access to firearms, which they do.


School?
...
All is not well in the supposed workers' paradise.

The point is that women who have fallen to prostitution are provided an education so they can make something of their lives. If you have any objections to that, don't be afraid to voice them.

And the whole "workers' paradise" thing is mostly employed by anti-communist windbags.


And no one is unhappy, the rivers are made of chocolate, and everyone has a unicorn!

Do you have any substantial criticisms or just sarcasm?

[Invincible Summer]

From what I know, people in Cuba are trained with firearms, but the guns are kept in government armories. I don't think most people, or even very many, have guns in their homes or anything like that. But I don't really know.


If that is true, then it would show that the government doesn't trust its own people and would rather monopolize weapons - and therefore force - than have the populous armed and ready to defend

[Das war einmal]

It would be logic that not everyone in Cuba has guns, only those who are loyal to the revolution. You should not give a gun to just anyone, not everyone has the responsibility to handle a gun with care. You wouldn't give a gun to a contrarevolutionair or someone who is mentally unstable. That is asking for trouble

[manic expression]

If that is true, then it would show that the government doesn't trust its own people and would rather monopolize weapons - and therefore force - than have the populous armed and ready to defend

Really? You can't see the potential trouble of having every household equipped with assault rifles? Think about that rationally for a minute or two and it should come to you.

The point, again, is that Cubans do have full access to firearms. The reason the Bay of Pigs invasion failed was that the Cuban people WERE armed and WERE ready to defend the revolution from imperialist aggression.

[Invincible Summer]

It would be logic that not everyone in Cuba has guns, only those who are loyal to the revolution. You should not give a gun to just anyone, not everyone has the responsibility to handle a gun with care. You wouldn't give a gun to a contrarevolutionair or someone who is mentally unstable. That is asking for trouble

So how do you choose the "trusted" revolutionaries? How do you know that they won't "turn" one day? I do agree that there are potential counter-revolutionary problems, but then the question is how do you choose who to privilege with a firearm?


Really? You can't see the potential trouble of having every household equipped with assault rifles? Think about that rationally for a minute or two and it should come to you.

The point, again, is that Cubans do have full access to firearms. The reason the Bay of Pigs invasion failed was that the Cuban people WERE armed and WERE ready to defend the revolution from imperialist aggression.

So you're saying that there are counter-revolutionary problems involved with individual gun ownership, yet the reason why Cuba defended itself from an American counter-revolution was because they had guns? Isn't that contradictory?

[PRC-UTE]

So you're saying that there are counter-revolutionary problems involved with individual gun ownership, yet the reason why Cuba defended itself from an American counter-revolution was because they had guns? Isn't that contradictory?

No, what he said was clear: they have access to firearms when they need them to defend the Revolution, but don't keep them in their home. Not that confusing, really.

Just speculative, but I'd imagine some quantities of arms are kept by the CDR's, the block committees. These are used to mobilise Cuban's for hurricanes or campaigns, so it's a possibility. Cuba's strategy since the late eighties has been to shift its military funding from the standing army to the workers militias.

[PRC-UTE]

School?
...
All is not well in the supposed workers' paradise.

I'd like to hear what's wrong with sending prostitutes to school. :confused:

I've done a bit of work in my community to help them, and I can tell you from experience how important it is. I'm really at a loss for why you'd look down on it.

[manic expression]

So you're saying that there are counter-revolutionary problems involved with individual gun ownership, yet the reason why Cuba defended itself from an American counter-revolution was because they had guns? Isn't that contradictory?

PRC-UTE already covered it but I might as well add something.

The problem with every household having an assault rifle is that it astronomically raises the chances of accidents (accidental discharges, kids playing with them, a house catching fire with caches of ammunition inside...all problems that US communities deal with), not to mention the fact that when people get into heated arguments it's not a good idea to have military-grade guns lying around. Many countries around the world have figured this out, and they reduce needless deaths every year as a result. And again, as PRC-UTE said, in spite of the fact that Cubans don't have such weapons in their homes, they still have access to them through various avenues, Cuba's militias being the most notable IMO. Honestly, this shouldn't be that hard to figure out.

[Red October]

If I was a Cuban and I wanted to keep a gun (of any sort) in a secure, locked gun safe in my home, would I be allowed to? And who controls access to the sites where weapons are kept?

[Invincible Summer]

PRC-UTE already covered it but I might as well add something.

The problem with every household having an assault rifle is that it astronomically raises the chances of accidents (accidental discharges, kids playing with them, a house catching fire with caches of ammunition inside...all problems that US communities deal with), not to mention the fact that when people get into heated arguments it's not a good idea to have military-grade guns lying around. Many countries around the world have figured this out, and they reduce needless deaths every year as a result.

True enough.


And again, as PRC-UTE said, in spite of the fact that Cubans don't have such weapons in their homes, they still have access to them through various avenues, Cuba's militias being the most notable IMO. Honestly, this shouldn't be that hard to figure out.I'm only really beginning to learn about Cuba, so this is new information to me.

I don't actually believe that every man, woman and child should own weapons and ammunition - of course, there are lots of problems with that. Just to avoid any flaming, I was playing Devil's Advocate

[manic expression]

I'm only really beginning to learn about Cuba, so this is new information to me.

I don't actually believe that every man, woman and child should own weapons and ammunition - of course, there are lots of problems with that. Just to avoid any flaming, I was playing Devil's Advocate

Understood.


If I was a Cuban and I wanted to keep a gun (of any sort) in a secure, locked gun safe in my home, would I be allowed to? And who controls access to the sites where weapons are kept?

Good question. However, I think one of the factors here is that not being able to keep weapons in your home does not equal a lack of access to firearms. According to the "Cuban Armed Services Review" (on the internet), the territorial militias comprise about 1,000,000 people; the Civil Defence Force 50,000. If these stats are correct, that's 1.05 million people throughout Cuba who, while not being part of the regular military, are presumably proficient with military firearms and have access to them on at least a somewhat regular basis. I think that's a good indicator of how the Cuban working class is not kept at arm's length from weapons, and in fact the socialist government, as PRC-UTE said, is beginning more and more to count on these militias for the defense of the revolution.

On the specific question on who exactly controls the caches, I really can't tell you that, and I'm at a loss on where someone would find that info on the internet to be perfectly honest.

However, the biggest point here, to me, is that over a million Cubans who are not full-time soldiers are equipped and trained to, in the words of the Defense Intelligence Agency in 1998, "make an enemy invasion costly". This is not a nation deprived of arms.