The recently deceased Jorge Luis Guerrero Almaguer was part of the “cleansing” of the Escambray, of the literacy campaign, and of the war in Angola.
14ymedio, Havana, 19 September 2024 — The list of generals who died in the last month continues to add names. After he passed away on Tuesday, the major general of the reserve, Jorge Luis Guerrero Almaguer will become part of the pantheon of the Armed Forces (FAR) in the Colón cemetery in Havana. The military officer is the fourth of his rank to die this month and the third of the week.
On the Cuban Television newscast, the official press assured that the military will bid farewell, in their umpteenth visit to the Havana cemetery, to Guerrero Almaguer with full honors this Thursday. The soldier was cremated and his ashes will be deposited next to those of other “combatants” of the so-called historical generation.
According to the newscast, since joining the FAR in 1960, Guerrero Almaguer was part of key actions such as the Cleansing of the Escambray – as the hunt for “counterrevolutionary bandits” in the mountains of the center of the island is called – and the literacy campaign, and he even served as a major general in the war in Angola and participated in the battle of Cuito Cuanavale. A militant of the Communist Party, a member of the Central Committee and head of artillery in the Army, his military career is described as impeccable for the Revolution.
A militant of the Communist Party, a member of the Central Committee and head of artillery in the Army, his military career is described as impeccable for the Revolution.
A day before his death, Juan Antonio Hernández, former head of the Youth Army of Labor, died at the age of 91; his ashes were also buried in the FAR pantheon. A member of the Youth Labor Army of which he would later be in charge, head of transport and armaments in the Army of Camagüey, a militant of the Communist Party, a literacy teacher, and even a student in the defunct Union of Soviet Socialist Republics: the record of his life – also unquestionable, according to the obituary – shows his loyalty to the regime.
Curiously, Hernández was part of the internationalist contingent “to repair the damage caused by the war in the People’s Republic of Angola,” while Guerrero Almaguer also participated in that campaign.
Before Hernández’s death, the death of Juan Israel Cervantes Tablada was in the news, in which he is credited with “the modernization of war material” in the country and the creation of the Union of Military Industries. A minor figure in the history books of Castroism, Cervantes Tablada was buried in niche 47 of the Pantheon of the Armed Forces.
Weeks earlier, on September 1, a notorious Cuban repressor, General Romárico Vidal Sotomayor García, died.
Weeks earlier, on September 1, a notorious Cuban repressor, General Romárico Vidal Sotomayor García, died. A member of the Central Committee, a deputy in the National Assembly and a senior official in the FAR and the Ministry of the Interior for decades, he was one of those responsible for the violence unleashed during the demonstrations of July 11, 2021 (11J), for which he was sanctioned by the United States.
Despite the fact that their military careers are described as exceptional, none of the generals merited that Miguel Díaz-Canel or Raúl Castro Ruz – who limited themselves to sending floral arrangements – attend their funerals. Only the funeral of Cervantes Tablada had some figures from the top brass such as the prime minister, Manuel Marrero – who has a military background and is a retired colonel – or Álvaro López Miera.
Translated by: Hombre de Paz
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