Álvaro López Miera

Cuban Military Officer, Hero of the Republic of Cuba

Son of Spanish Republican combatants, his father was an eminent scientist and his mother was a practicing physician who escaped the Spanish Civil War.

At seven years of age he moved to Santiago de Cuba. He lived in a revolutionary environment. In his home, combatants from the clandestine struggle and from the Sierra Maestra were hidden and treated.

In November 1958 Raúl Castro authorized him to take up arms without carrying any weapon. He was incorporated into the Education Department directed by Asela de los Santos Tamayo. He was teaching classes to peasant children until the revolutionary triumph. At the Tumba Siete school, he saw Raúl for the first time.

The first months of 1959 he spent in Santiago de Cuba in a revolutionary instruction school, a continuation of the one founded in Tumba Siete in the Second Eastern Front.

Later in Havana he completed a similar course that opened in Ciudad Libertad.

He returned to Santiago de Cuba to study high school. In 1960 he traveled with his father to Spain, France, Italy and finally to the Soviet Union with the objective of gathering experience for the opening of technical schools. Upon his return he remained in Havana, presenting himself in the Fifth District.

In September 1961 he completed a training course for artillery unit commanders, finishing with the rank of officer.

During the October Crisis he was responsible for the artillery pieces that defended the entrance and the east of Havana Bay, along Playa del Chivo to Havana del Este.

Since 1960 he was part of the first Artillery units, where he held positions as Chief of small units and units of this weapon. In his service record he accumulated the merit of having been part of the first forces that at the end of 1975 came to the aid of the government and people of Angola, participating in combat operations in Catofe, Morros del Tongo, Santa Comba, Altohama, Tchipipa, Nova Lisboa, Catata, Caconda, Sa da Bandeira and Cahama. Upon his return he was appointed Operations Chief of the Artillery Brigade of the high command reserve.

In 1977 he completed his second mission in the Republic of Ethiopia to face the Somali aggressor, participating in combats South of Harar Cherificale Fedis, North of Dire - Dawa Harewa - Melo, Harewa – Melo, Arabi - Lewinaje, Jijiga – South of the Ogaden.

During the years 1982 – 1984 he studied at the General Staff Academy of the Armed Forces of the USSR "Voroshilov" and upon completion he began to serve as General Troops Chief, as Infantry Division Chief, Tank Brigade.

In 1987 he returned to the People's Republic of Angola to complete his third internationalist mission, this time as General Troops Chief, Operations Section Chief in the military mission Chief of the Cuban Group in Cuito Cuanavale and Chief of the 30 Tank Brigade.

Upon returning to Cuba he was appointed Deputy Chief of Staff of the Eastern Army Chief until 1993 when he was promoted to Deputy Chief of General Staff, Chief of the Operations Directorate until October 1997, when he was appointed Deputy Minister of the FAR Chief of General Staff. In 2001 he was promoted to the rank of General of Army Corps and is currently First Vice Minister Chief of General Staff of the FAR.

He is a founder of the Communist Party of Cuba, serving as a delegate from the II Congress through the VII, member of the Central Committee of the PCC in 1980 and of the Political Bureau in 1997. He is a Deputy to the National Assembly of People's Power.

On November 8, 2011 he was appointed First Vice Minister of the FAR, maintaining the position of Chief of General Staff.

On April 15, 2021 he was appointed Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces.

Decorations Received

Hero of the Republic of Cuba
Order "Camilo Cienfuegos"
Order "Antonio Maceo"
Order "Ernesto Guevara" third degree
Medals:

"Combatant of the War of Liberation"
"Internationalist" First Class
"Ignacio Agramonte" first class
"For Exemplary Service in the FAR"
"Combatant of Production and Defense"
"For the defense of Cuito Cuanavale"
"Victory Cuba - PRA"
"Combat Fraternity"
Commemorative Medals:

"20th Anniversary of the FAR"
"30th Anniversary of the FAR"
"40th Anniversary of the FAR"
"50th Anniversary of the FAR"
"60th Anniversary of the FAR"
"XX Anniversary"
As well as other national and foreign decorations.