A Model Servant

Abstract

For over 50 years, Cuba’s Revolutionary Armed Forces (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias, or FAR) have been the direct servants of the country’s foreign policy as required by a nation and political system under siege by the United States, the most powerful country in the world. This argument in no way denies FAR’s exceptional missions related to natural disaster relief, management of key industries and programs of the revolutionary government in a variety of economic fields, involvement in support of social projects as varied as hospitals and education, and much more. However, its missions of deterring foreign attack and supporting the government’s other international objectives have been even more central not only to its structure and way of going about business, but to its members’ being and way of seeing themselves.