
14ymedio, Manzanillo (Granma Province), 19 January 2025 — Before the official information was issued about the death of nine young people and four officers in the explosions of January 7 in the Melones military unit in Holguín, other parents, this time in Manzanillo, said goodbye to their children in a forced march towards the Army. From Monday the 13th and for a week, the headquarters of the Combatants Association in the Gulf City became a launch pad for more than a hundred boys who left to fulfill the controversial Active Military Service.
To Yanaisa, her son’s farewell reminds her of her father’s stories about the Army. “He was not an internationalist, but he was often mobilized when I was a child. He told my brother that the Army would make him a real man. Now, with everything that has happened, he hardly talks about it. He just says that he has to know how to take care of himself. I don’t want my son to become a ’man.’ I just want him to get out of there soon,” she explains to 14ymedio.
For 45 days, the young recruits are subjected to basic training and then transferred to the planned regular units, which vary according to the needs of the Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces. In Granma Province, after the initial stay in Jiguaní, they are transferred to units such as Managua, in the west, or Los Guineos, in the municipality of Guisa, in the same province. However, the greatest fear of families is not the distance.

“Being a soldier is not like having a scholarship. There are people who think it’s almost the same but it’s not like that. No one really knows what’s going on there. Now everyone is surprised by the explosions in the tunnels, but they happen everywhere in Cuba. In addition to the mistreatment by most officers, they also spend bad nights, there is hunger… If someone likes it and wants to dedicate themselves to the military then it’s not a problem, but they give the rest of us more work and to a large extent, at least for me, it was a waste of time,” recognizes Rody, who accompanied his family to say goodbye to his cousin.
The resistance of family members and young people themselves to joining the army despite the perks offered them is increasingly evident. “Now they are boarding the bus, but the bad side comes quickly. I try to encourage my sister… but it’s hell” says Rubén, 53, annoyed, to another man sitting next to him in the park while they wait for his nephew’s bus to leave.
“I myself know a guy who came out partly unhinged. It was in the early 90s. We were cleaning the rifles on one of those long tables and one fired a shot because no one had checked the chamber. We weren’t sitting face to face, but in zigzag, but the bullet buzzed near his head. It affected his hearing for a while, but especially his mind. He started thinking about what had happened and almost went crazy. Although it was almost time for them to discharge us, they didn’t discharge him, they just changed his position,” the man recalls.

In the past, one of the most attractive options for military service was to be selected as a firefighter. However, after the catastrophe at the Matanzas Supertanker Base and the fire shortly after in the local Fishing Combo, the dangers of that work were exposed.
Rebeca, who does not hide her anger, speaks in front of the group of parents and recruits waiting for the buses: “I don’t care what others say and I told them so. They can call him soft, criminal… What matters to me is that he take care of himself. This is mandatory, but if they send him to do something strange, don’t do it. He can sit on the floor and be imprisoned. I prefer him in prison and alive than in a little box. I don’t even want to think about that. Look at those mothers in Holguín, who have not even been able to bury their children. I’ll die if something like that happens to me!”
In 2022, one year after the 11J protests, the regime declared to the United Nations that “children are not recruited and will not be recruited in Cuba.” The words of the Foreign Ministry official echoed in the minds of many parents, who know that the affirmation and replacement of “Compulsory Military Service” by “General Military Service” or “Active Military Service” are just euphemisms. Under the acronyms hides the forced incorporation into a military entity that is increasingly rejected by the population.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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