837.00/1797
The Minister in Cuba (Long) to the Secretary of State
[Received October 14.]
Sir: I have the honor to make this report on special representatives of the Secretary of Government commonly referred to as Military Supervisors:—
The so-called Military Supervisors, officially termed Delegates of the Secretary of Government, are agents of the Department of the Interior or of the President acting through this Department. Although Army officers by profession, these supervisors are detached from the ordinary organization of the army so that they function in a civil capacity. In this manner they are protected from the orders of their military superiors. Indeed, they are given power to call upon the forces of “Orden Publico” (commonly known as the Rural Guards) when the Municipal police are not considered adequate.
Essentially the appointment of a Military Supervisor to a municipality means an intervention by the National Government into municipal affairs. Ordinarily the Alcalde (Mayor) controls the police force of a city through the Chief of Police. A Military Supervisor takes over the powers of the Chief of Police with the important difference that he is not responsible to the Mayor of the [Page 26] city in question, but instead to the Secretary of Government. It will readily be seen that in a municipality under a Liberal Mayor the appointment of a Military Supervisor responsible to a Conservative National Government might have important political effects. The Mayor is left without powers to enforce his orders.
The appointment of a Military Supervisor is by Presidential Decree. In such decrees reference is made to the constitutional powers by virtue of which the President acts. The Supervisor is then named and his duties defined “In the character of Delegate of the Ministry of Government he shall take charge of the maintenance of public order in the municipality of …,39 being authorized to adopt whatever means he may esteem conducive to the attainment of that end, and that he shall assume the direction and government of the Municipal Police”.
The power of the President to intervene in the affairs of a municipality is, of course, based on an actual condition of lawlessness, or on grave danger of a rebellion, and is not intended to be exercised for a purely political advantage. But many factors enter into the determination of what is or is not a proper occasion for Presidential interference. At the present time a large proportion of the Cuban public are bearing small arms, with or without license, and the high political feeling in some quarters causes uncertainty as to the security of public order. Therefore it is not unlikely that some appointments of Military Supervisors may be well considered for the good of the public. The Liberals are not objecting so much to the principle according to which Military Supervisors are appointed as they are to the personnel and to the localities chosen. For these localities are mostly those now under a Liberal Mayor or are considered Liberal strongholds, and the appointees are men in the confidence of a Conservative Administration.
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There is no doubt but that the use of many so-called Military Supervisors will have a marked effect upon the common trend of thought. The Liberals by threats of rebellion and destruction of property have been exercising the strongest kind of moral intimidation and any show of force by the Government that will lessen the chances of such a rebellion may affect voting. Most property holders are praying that this trying time may pass without burnings of cane and other violence.
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I have [etc.]
- Omission indicated in the original.↩