14ymedio, Havana, 16 August 2021 — The Reserve Brigadier General, Arnoldo Ferrer Martínez, died in Cuba at the age of 81, as reported on Monday by the Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR) in a note broadcast on national television. With the death of Ferrer Martínez, there are eight high-ranking military personnel who have died on the island in less than a month without the cause of death being specified in any of the cases.
Ferrer Martínez was a combatant in column number 1 under the command of Fidel Castro in the Sierra Maestra and, together with his brother Harold Ferrer Martínez, participated in various actions of the Rebel Army. He was also a member of the Doctor Mario Muñoz Third Front under the orders of Juan Almeida Bosque until 1959.
After that year, he held responsibilities within the FAR as tank company chief, battalion chief and infantry division chief, and head of the Territorial Troop Militia preparation center.
Ferrer Martínez, who was a member of the Communist Party of Cuba, was in command of the General Staff of the province of Havana and Pinar del Río and was sent to fight in Angola. According to the State newspaper Granma, he was also the second chief of staff of the Western Army.
“His body was cremated and his ashes deposited in the veterans’ pantheon of the Colón Necropolis where they will remain until their subsequent transfer to the Mario Muñoz Third Front mausoleum in the province of Santiago de Cuba,” the statement details.
When Almeida Bosque died, Ferrer Martínez said that it was a pride to fight alongside a man who had the confidence of Fidel and all the rebels. “He was exceptional, brave, inspired respect and admiration.” He met him in September 1957, when he was just 17 years old, according to what he told the official press.
The most recent death of high-ranking military personnel was last week, when the death of 82-year-old reserve colonel Santiago Lorenzo Hernández Cáceres in Havana became known.
Last July, five generals who were part of the Cuban military leadership also died: Agustín Peña, Marcelo Verdecia Perdomo, Rubén Martínez Puente, Manuel Eduardo Lastres Pacheco and Armando Choy Rodríguez, in addition to the commander of the Rebel Army Gilberto Antonio Cardero Sánchez.
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