Title X. Defense and National Security
Chapter I. General Provisions
Article 217
The Cuban State bases its policy of Defense and National Security on the defense of independence, territorial integrity, sovereignty, and peace through the prevention and consistent engagement with the risks, threats, and aggressions that affect their interests.
Its strategic conception of defense is based on the War of All the People.
Chapter II. The National Defense Council
Article 218
The National Defense Council is the superior organ of the State whose primary mission is 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 extraordinary situations or disaster, it directs the country and assumes the duties that correspond to the organs of the State, with the exception of constituent power.
Article 219
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 220
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 221
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. Extraordinary Situations and Disaster
Article 222
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, extraordinary situations—the State of War, 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 national territory.
The law regulates the form in which situations of exception are declared, their effects, and their termination.
Article 223
In the case of a disaster of any kind 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 Situations of Disaster.
Article 224
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 225
The National Defense Council, upon reestablishing normalcy within the country, reports to the National Assembly of People’s Power regarding its decisions and management during this period.
