A reflection on the 54 year alliance between the Assad and Castro regimes.
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From the highest levels of power in Havana, a secret operation was orchestrated to send military support to Syria. A tank brigade, helicopter pilots, communications agents, and intelligence and counterintelligence officers were meticulously selected for this mission. It was imperative that these men did not arouse suspicion and that they were perfectly prepared for the task entrusted to them.
The Military Brigade of Senén Casas Regueiro was mobilized, and under the command of General Leopoldo Cintra Frías, a recognized name in military circles, this surreptitious plan was put into action. In a carefully planned diversionary maneuver, the soldiers left Cuba dressed in civilian clothes, with forged passports that identified them as university students. They traveled on separate flights to East Germany, where they made a technical stopover, before reaching their final destination: Syria.
Once on Syrian territory, Soviet military equipment, including modern T-62 tanks and SAM rocket artillery, was ready for operation. Figures vary, but it is estimated that between 1,800 and 4,000 Cubans were present in Syria during the 1973 confrontation.
The surprise of this operation resulted in a series of significant losses for Israel, both in human lives and military equipment. Some civilian areas were also hit during the clash.
On March 31, 1974, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Dayan announced on US television that 3,000 Cuban troops had been dispatched to support Syria during the Yom Kippur War. The Economist published two articles in its Foreign Report in 1978 that highlighted Cuba's role in Syria beginning shortly after the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. Cuban tank crews fought with Syrian troops. According to Foreign Report, 180 Cubans were killed and 250 were injured.
Cuban combat troops remained in Syria until 1975.
Havana remained quiet when Assad invaded Lebanon in 1976, and occupied the country for the next 30 years. In 1979, Hafez Al Assad traveled to Cuba and met Fidel Castro. Castro, and other Cuban officials made no mention of the then ongoing Syrian occupation.
The bodies of hundreds of victims of the 1982 massacre that Hafez al-Assad ordered against Palestinians and Lebanese in the Tel al-Zaatar Palestinian refugee camp, northeast of Beirut, Lebanon are still interred in unidentified graves. Between 1,500 and 2,000 people, primarily civilians, are thought to have been killed, although some estimate that the total number of victims during the siege may exceed 4,000.
No criticism was made by Havana regarding the massacre of these Palestinians by Assad. On the contrary the relationship between Havana and Damascus remained strong.
Since 1975, 17,000 Lebanese have been disappeared by the Assad regime, according to Romy Haber, of the Catholic News Agency.
In the July 1986 issue of Commentary magazine, professor and commentator Daniel Pipes wrote an article with a title that asked a provocative question: "Syria: The Cuba of the Middle East?" and offered the following data point on relations between the two regimes.
"An August 1985 cable from Assad to Fidel Castro on the 20th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Syria and Cuba praised the two countries' friendship as beneficial 'for the two peoples in their joint struggle against world imperialism and its allies.' A telegram from the Syrian foreign minister on the same occasion expressed 'Syria's admiration for the fraternal Cuban people's great achievements and their firm stands against imperialist aggression on the Latin American people.'”
Syria continued its dominance over Lebanon after 1990 with the assistance of Iran and their terrorist proxy Hezbollah. Bashar al-Assad's succession to power in July 2000 was met, less than a year later, by a visit by Fidel Castro to Damascus in May 2001 where the Cuban dictator met with his Syrian counterpart.
Lebanese nationalists rose up nonviolently against the Syrian occupation beginning in 2000, and by 2005 had forced the withdrawal of the Syrian army in what became known as the Cedar Revolution, but it was not conclusive.
On June 28, 2010 Bashar al-Assad visited Cuba for two days, and met with Raul Castro.
In 2011, a nonviolent movement against the Assad regime emerged, which was met with extreme brutality, and resulted in a civil war. When the international community, belatedly, demanded an accounting for the rights violations committed by the Assad regime in Syria, the regime in Havana was one of a handful of governments that voted against investigating the crimes of the dynastic dictatorship in Damascus.
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It appears that the Assad dynasty that ruled Syria over two generations of incredible levels of brutality and terror has come to an end. Let us pray that what comes next after so many decades of depravity and repression is an improvement. Assad's decision to engage in the mass murder of the Syrian nonviolent opposition in 2011 sparked a civil war that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives. Now is the time to make an assessment of the governments who backed the Assad regime, and call them out as we learn of the crimes of this dynastic dictatorship. This includes the dictatorships in Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua. All supported Assad, and legitimized his rule.
"It appears that the Assad dynasty that ruled Syria over two generations of incredible levels of brutality and terror has come to an end. Let us pray that what comes next after so many decades of depravity and repression is an improvement." https://t.co/5dO3DpvHFn
— John Suarez ن (@johnjsuarez) December 8, 2024
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