Fourth Cuban general dies in 8 days. The Ministry of Armed Forces of the Cuban regime (MINFAR) announced on Monday the death of reserve general Manuel Eduardo Lastres Pacheco - making him the fourth high-ranking officer to die in recent days on the island.
According to the communiqué read live on Cuban state television's "Noticiero de Mediodía", Lastres' body was cremated, however, the note sent by MINFAR did not give details of the cause of death or the age of the military officer.
The regime pointed out that Lastres joined Fidel Castro's guerrilla in 1957 and was under the orders of Ernesto "Che" Guevara.
This new announcement comes days after the regime reported the death of Major General Ruben Martinez Puente. As in the case of Lastres, the dictatorship did not report the causes of his death and said that his body would be cremated.
Previously, the death of the first high-ranking official Agustín Peña Torres, head of the regime's Eastern Army, had been announced on July 18. Cuban communist leader Miguel Díaz-Canel confirmed the news by sending condolences to his relatives via Twitter. The state press also did not confirm the causes of his death.
And on July 20, the death of Brigadier General Marcelo Verdecia Perdomo was announced. The causes of his death are also unknown.
The deaths of the three high-ranking leaders of the Cuban regime's army occurred in the context of the repression committed by the communist regime led by Díaz-Canel against the peaceful protests initiated by the Cuban people on July 11, when thousands of Cubans took to the streets in different provinces of the island.
For Cuban political scientist Julio M. Shiling, it is no coincidence that these four important figures of the Castro armed forces died suddenly.
"There is no doubt in my mind that all four, in some capacity, demonstrated a certain discontent with what has been happening," Shiling told The Epoch Times.
"The success of a totalitarian regime is Lenin's concept of democratic centralism-there must be a monolithic understanding within the power structure. And when there are factions and dissent within the institution they care most about-the Armed Forces-they immediately annihilate them," she added.
Shiling pointed out that the officers probably expressed a concept that for the regime "is unacceptable" or perhaps they coordinated a conspiracy against the dictatorship; and that the cremation of the bodies could mean that they do not want any sign of torture to be evidenced.
According to the analyst, there could currently be factions within the regime that are demonstrating "fissures" within the power structure.
"It is very difficult for a regime, to remain totally united when you are seeing the mass crimes against humanity being carried out, and the legitimate and popular demand in the dimension that we have seen in these weeks, especially because more than 90 percent of those who came out to protest are young people and people who do not belong to any opposition group," he said.
"This is evidence of the worst nightmare of a totalitarian regime: a Palace revolution," he added.
Author: Patricia Valencia, reporter for @EpochTimesEs. Follow Pachi on Twitter: @pachivalencia. With information from The Epoch Times reporter Alicia Márquez.
