Title X. Defense and National Security
Chapter I. General Provisions
Article 212
The Cuban State bases its policy of Defense and National Security on the defense of the sovereignty and independence of the nation through the prevention and consistent engagement with the risks, threats, and aggressions that affect their interests.
Its strategic conception of defense is sustained in the doctrine of the War of All the People.
Chapter II. The National Defense Council
Article 213
The National Defense Council is the superior organ of the State that has as its primary mission to organize, direct, and prepare the country during times of peace to defend itself and to ensure compliance with the norms in force related to the defense and security of the nation.
During exceptional situations or disaster, it directs the country and assumes the duties that correspond to the organs of the State, with the exception of the constituent power.
Article 214
The National Defense Council is composed of the President of the Republic, who presides over it and, in turn, designates a Vice President and the other members determined by the law.
The law regulates the organization and operation of the National Defense Council and its structures at its various levels.
Chapter III. The Armed Forces of the State
Article 215
The military institutions of the State are the Revolutionary Armed Forces and the armed formations of the Ministry of the Interior that, in order to achieve their functions, rely on the participation of military and civilian personnel.
The law regulates the organization and operation of these institutions as well as the military service that citizens must perform.
Article 216
The military institutions’ essential mission is to ensure and maintain the independence and sovereignty of the State, its territorial integrity, its security, and peace.
Chapter IV. Situations of Exception and Disaster
Article 217
In the interest of guaranteeing national defense and security in the case of foreign military aggression, the imminent threat of such aggression, or other circumstances that affect the nation’s security and defense, the situations of exception—the State of War or War, General Mobilization, or the State of Emergency—may be temporarily decreed throughout the entire country. The State of Emergency may also be decreed within a part of the territory. The law regulates the form in which situations of exception are declared, their effects as well as their termination.
Article 218
In the case of a natural, technological, and sanitation disaster or any disaster of other origin that affects the population or the economic or social infrastructure and that exceeds the capacity or the normal response and recovery of the country or of the territory affected, a Situation of Disaster may be decreed.
The law regulates the establishment, effects, and termination of the Situations of Disaster.
Article 219
While situations of exception and disaster are in force, the law determines the rights and duties recognized by the Constitution, whose exercise must be regulated in a different manner.
Article 220
The National Defense Council, upon reestablishing normality within the country, reports to the National Assembly of People’s Power regarding its decisions and management during this period.
