Unconventional warfare has evolved over time. In a work on strategic intelligence, written in 1948 by Sherman Kent, a professor at Yale University, it would be defined that from then on wars, influenced by the United States, would be unconventional.
Other theorists have also referred to this concept, according to Elio Perera Pena, a researcher at the Center for International Policy Research (CIPI).
Speaking at the Round Table, the expert pointed out that the United States conceptualized this type of war through the terminology dictionary of the Department of Defense, in 1990, a conceptualization that continued to develop until today.
“Unconventional warfare is when there is a condition of a resistance movement in a target country and a completely worn-out population.”
According to Perera Pena, this concept began to be located for analysis in US governing documents, including Training Directive 1801 of the US Special Operations Forces.
According to that text, for unconventional warfare to occur, there must be at least two essential conditions:
Convenience: The war will go ahead if the resistance movement is going to serve US interests.
Feasibility: When the resistance movement is really strong, has the power, and the population is worn out, dissatisfied and diverted from their attention.
Regarding hybrid warfare, the CIPI researcher clarified that it refers to when regular and non-regular methods are used.
The former include first generation wars (since ancient times, with the use of uniforms), second generation wars (for example, the one applied in the First World War, where there are battle fronts with trenches) and third generation wars. , used in World War II, where there are flank maneuvers, by the rear, light and heavy weapons, and a further increase in the maneuverability of aviation.
The latter include fourth and fifth generation warfare. In both, it is proposed that physical space, digital space and cyberspace will be used.
“The new computerization and communications technologies change the meaning of generations of wars, because what it is about are battles where apparently no shots are fired, although in governing documents of the United States it is said that there could be armed confrontations ”, commented Perera Pena.
However, he reiterated, the fundamental thing is the destabilizing message using the new information and communication technologies.
“It is said that in the fourth generation of war the frequency of destabilizing messages increases and in the fifth the intensity increases, causing irreversible neuronal damage.
“What it is about is working on the subconscious of the individual, achieving that in the cognitive process the objective that, from the think tanks and information centers, they try when they launch a war is fulfilled: influence, persuasion and conviction in the subconscious of the individual.
“They put this guy in a glass capsule, so he’s in one physical space but his mind is somewhere else,” she argued.
The researcher noted that they take advantage of real situations in a given country to launch this type of attack.
Pedro Etcheverry Vázquez, deputy director of the State Security Historical Research Center, referred to the doctrine of the so-called soft coup, recalling that it was conceived by US neoconservatives and exposed for the first time in July 1982 by President Ronald Reagan, before the European Parliament, through the so-called democracy programme.
In 1983, the Alberto Einstein Institution Foundation was created in Boston, with resources from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and directed by the anti-communist ideologue Gene Sharp.
Etcheverry Vázquez said that the soft coup doctrine was present in the events that occurred in the European socialist camp, in 1989, and in the Soviet Union, in 1991.
According to the deputy director of the State Security Historical Research Center, the book From dictatorship to democracy (1993), by Gene Sharp, founded hundreds of methods of internal destabilization, beginning with a first phase with the use of protest actions through symbolic acts, assemblies, rallies and marches, supported by extensive media coverage.
He added that later the organizers of the protests move on to other forms of civil disobedience and non-cooperation that are a little more advanced. Later they resort to the so-called non-violent intervention, which has to do with the obstruction of streets, the “peaceful” occupation of official offices and institutions, disrespecting the country’s authorities.
“Many of these street demonstrations are geared towards a higher degree of aggressiveness, while others protest peacefully. However, in other places there can be events involving common criminals who go beyond the limits, heating up the atmosphere, with the closure of large avenues, the burning of vehicles and violent acts against police forces.
Etcheverry Vázquez pointed out that without media support, all of this “would remain mute,” “without the possibility of confusing the masses.”
The film images where the repression is observed cause contradictory visions in sectors of the population, which gives rise to large media campaigns against violence and the alleged violation of human rights.
“These international media transform the images and put audio on them that confuse the viewer. And this situation, repeated many times, projects an image of chaos with the purpose of questioning even the governability of a country. The so-called failed state.
In 1996, Gene Sharp had contacts with anti-Cuban groups in Miami, gave lectures at Florida International University and gave interviews for Radio Martí.
“Shortly afterwards, terrorist organizations such as Brothers to the Rescue, Democracy Movement and the Cuban Democratic Directorate, which had nothing to do with democracy, are illegally introducing Sharp publications into Cuba as if they were sports or religious literature.”
“So there could be a person in a park reading a Cuba Socialista magazine while the text indicated how to carry out sabotage, or open a supply book in a public place when what was inside was instructions,” the manager added.
According to Etcheverry Vázquez, during 2001 and 2002 different sectors of the counterrevolution carried out provocative acts and acts of public disorder, as well as called for alleged hunger strikes, commemorative marches and conferences before the foreign press that provoked the repudiation of the people, because “It was known that there was a show behind it to earn money.”
On January 28, 2009, USAID produced a document entitled Support for Cuban Civil Society, another “pleasing” title for the ear. “This document constitutes irrefutable proof of the seditious and interfering nature of the projects designed against Cuba.”
In December of that year, when working for USAID as a contractor, the North American Allan Gross was alerted in Havana, who illegally introduced -what was demonstrated in the trial- means of infocommunications with which he supplied and trained independent internal networks to guarantee a future interaction between the small cells created and free satellite access to the Internet, in the same style as the espionage network of the 1960s.
“That is why we say that it is nothing new, but that it is changing as science introduces development in the different techniques.”
Gross was charged in 2010 and convicted in 2011 of acts against the integrity and independence of the Cuban state.
The manager also referred to the ZunZuneo operation, which ran from 2009 to 2011, masked in a social messaging network. “Behind all this is the actions of US intelligence officers.”
“They have been doing everything for 60 years and everything has failed due to the action of the people,” he stressed.
Constructive chaos theory and the concept of failed state
The CIPI investigator added that these strategies have been “duly organized.” He added that one of the United States Security advisers compiled all the materials related to the so-called soft coup, giving rise to what would later be called Constructive Chaos Theory to overthrow governments under the color revolution formula.
“The first of these paradigms is the soft blow. This is based on the economic, political, military and all kinds of blockade; location of that attacked country on blacklists; the obstruction of economic and commercial relations, as well as the wear and tear of the population through all possible tactics”.
He added that the second paradigm of the Constructive Chaos Theory is carrying out a discrediting campaign, especially on issues such as human rights, freedom of the press and freedom of expression.
“The third paradigm is street demonstrations that would start out as peaceful but whose goal of destabilization is for them to become violent. For these demonstrations, they would use psychological tactics such as placing women and children in the first positions and then, through the media, show that the police were the ones who attacked the people and not the provocative core of the protests”, he maintained.
The expert explained that the next step is to request the resignation of the president and the fall of the government has passed.
Referring to the conceptualization of the so-called failed state, Perera Pena commented that a precedent is what happened in the National Assembly of Venezuela in 2015, where an attempt was made to overthrow Nicolás Maduro based on the judicialization of politics through the state decree failed.
“We have seen these types of elements later in Bolivia, in Ecuador, in Brazil, Argentina. What it is about is that from the previous study of the judicial system of those countries a supposed internal movement is generated to propitiate a coup d’état since the president is not the one who agrees”.
He also explained that the concept of a failed state has already been used by the United States on other occasions throughout history to sacrifice “a partner”, such as in Panama, Argentina, Colombia.
Apply more pressure to the boiler
Cuban police cars that were overturned by protesters on a street in Havana. Photo: AFP
For his part, Pedro Etcheverry Vázquez elaborated that what happened on July 11, 2021 revealed that the design of the subversive program of the United States government and its intelligence services attempts to cover up the inability of the US government to destroy the Revolution.
“The propaganda influence against a society overwhelmed by the scarcity of basic products, inflation, the lack of public transportation and blackouts will continue to be used to motivate new destabilization attempts against Cuba.”
He added that both the CIA and the NED continue with a strong campaign to generate tensions “to put more pressure on the cauldron.”
“Influence programs on disaffected and dissatisfied groups and on youth sectors constitute a wear that worsens the internal situation in Cuba, trying to escalate to more shocking situations of provocation such as those denounced by our government.”
He warned that after a year of the riots of July 11, the enemies have not ceased to encourage acts of vandalism against the country, “because we are in the presence of an operation directed by the intelligence services of the United States with millionaire budgets of the USAID and the NED and the complicity of the Cuban American right”.
He also said that digital media has long promoted media terrorism, which instigates acts of vandalism by fringe groups with the aim of provoking a police response and putting on a media show. “False news was spread with the aim of promoting an opinion matrix about the apparent ungovernability in Cuba.”
The United States, social networks and double standards “à la carte”
Illustrative image.
Later, commenting on the use of digital social networks in the strategy of subversion, Elío Perera Pena, CIPI researcher, said that the United States handles them with double standards. “The United States is the main instigator, not ruling out other European powers that we know of.”
He also referred to how Agnotology is intended to be implemented, which is the study of deliberate acts to sow confusion and deception in the American educational system. “Those who went to Afghanistan were gallant soldiers in defense of the nation.”
As part of this double standard, said the expert, in 24 American states what can be said on social networks is regulated, and for some of these publications, citizens are taken to court.
He also said that Europe also has regulatory laws on networks.
Attorney General’s Office: “One of the purposes of the State is to protect national sovereignty”
Speaking at the Round Table this Tuesday, the chief prosecutor of the Directorate of Information and Analysis of the Attorney General’s Office, Ana Hernández Mur, pointed out that Cuba, like all States, has the right to defend itself in the framework of established regulatory systems.
Cuba is a State of law and social justice, she stressed and added that within this framework the country and the people have the purpose of defending the nation. She stressed that one of the purposes of the State is to protect national sovereignty.
“The Attorney General of the Republic’s fundamental mission is to exercise control over criminal investigations and the exercise of public criminal action before the courts on behalf of the State, in addition to the general control of legality,” he recalled, citing the Constitution of the Republic.
On the other hand, Hernández Mur pointed out that facts that constitute a crime are investigated, such as setting fire to facilities. “As a result of the investigations, decisions are made and, where appropriate, people are brought before the courts.”
Other facts that are being investigated are related to obstructing public roads, impeding vehicular traffic:
“There have been acts of aggression against the authorities, and we are not only talking about law enforcement, but also officials who were in those places.”
The prosecutor referred to the use of minors in situations of this type. In this sense, she stressed that families have a duty to protect minors. “Are we then going to reach danger or some situation with our minors?”
On this, she said that the Penal Code has answers for, once the investigation is concluded, make decisions and take the authors to court in this case.
“The Prosecutor’s Office will continue to defend the State and the interests of all citizens of our country,” she concluded.
(By: Randy Alonso Falcón, Oscar Figueredo Reinaldo, Edilberto Carmona Tamayo, Lissett Izquierdo Ferrer, Andy Jorge Blanco/ Cubadebate)