Leopoldo Cintra Frías

Leopoldo Cintra is a Cuban military officer and politician. General of the Army. Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Cuba. Founder of the Communist Party of Cuba. Member of the Political Bureau since the IV Congress of the PCC and deputy to the National Assembly of People's Power since 1976 reelected in the IX Legislature for the municipality of San Cristóbal, province of Artemisa. He holds the Honorary Title of Hero of the Republic of Cuba. Member of the Council of State until October 10, 2019, and of Ministers of the Republic of Cuba since April 19, 2018.

Native of Yara, current province of Granma. His childhood took place on a farm owned by his father who was a peasant that owned a farm, a bar-store and a bakery. Polo was active in the Youth Group Hope of Fraternity, which was the youth apparatus of freemasonry, where he began to conspire against the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista.

He joined the struggle against the tyranny of Fulgencio Batista, selling bonds and carrying in a truck, in which he distributed bread, to the rebels for the Sierra Maestra, Polo rose up in November 1957 at only sixteen years of age to fight in the ranks of the Rebel Army. He joined the troop of Crescencio Pérez, where he only stayed three months.

After the second combat of Pino del Agua he passed to Column 1 under the orders of Pepín Quiala, who had been sent by Frank País as reinforcement to the Sierra Maestra. Subsequently he passed to the Command of Column 1 José Martí, directly under the orders of Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro, where he remained until the end of the war.

He was part of the fighters of the Rebel Army that accompanied Fidel in his journey from Oriente to Havana, known as the Caravan of Freedom.

At the end of the war he held the rank of lieutenant, subsequently he was promoted to Captain by Fidel.

After the revolutionary triumph, he was sent to Czechoslovakia in 1960 to study artillery and tank operations. Upon his return to Cuba he was appointed head of the Artillery Brigade 1900, in Caimito. The following year he was head of the Infantry Division 1270 and later was in charge of Artillery.

In 1964 he concluded his studies at the Upper Basic School and five years later completed the Advanced Academic Course from the military point of view and in 1982 he graduated in command and general staff at the operational-strategic level from the General Staff Academy of the Soviet Union.

Polo commanded a large unit of Cuban tanks in Angola and Ethiopia (1978). He was in Angola on three occasions, the last in 1989, where he commanded the southern front, and directed Cuban forces in the field during the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale and subsequent actions. He participated in the subsequent multilateral peace talks, with the USA as "mediator", and whose result was: the independence of Namibia, the South African withdrawal from Angola, the return home of Cuban troops and the acceleration in practice of the end of Apartheid. Cintra Frías was part of the Cuban delegation in said talks. His role in this stage of the war was praised by Cuban president Fidel Castro.

He was from 1990 Chief of the Cuban Western Army, one of the three regional commands, in charge of defense of the area where the city of Havana is located.

In 2001 he was promoted to the rank of General of the Army.
Since October 2008 he held the position of First Vice Minister of the Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces. Following the death of Minister Julio Casas Regueiro he was named new head of the ministry on November 9, 2011.

He was elected member of the Political Bureau since the IV Congress of the PCC and deputy to the National Assembly of People's Power since 1976.

In the Constitutive Session of the IX Legislature on April 19, 2018, Parliament members elected him as member of the Council of State and of Ministers of the Republic of Cuba, a position he held until October 10, 2019.

He was ratified as a member of the Council of Ministers in the First Ordinary Session Period of the IX Legislature of the National Assembly.

Positions Held
Chief of Land Artillery Brigade.
Chief of Motorized Infantry Division.
Chief of the Artillery Department of the General Staff.
Chief of Tank Division.
Chief of the Western Army.
First Vice Minister of the FAR.
On November 8, 2011 he was appointed Minister of the FAR.

Internationalist Missions
He fulfilled internationalist mission in the People's Republic of Angola as:
Chief of the Southern Front of the Southern Troop Grouping during the confrontation with the invasion of the South African Army in 1975 - 1976.
Chief of the Southern Troop Grouping.
Chief of the Cuban Military Mission on two occasions.
He directed the decisive combat actions of the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale and the offensive of the Southwestern front in Angola. In the Republic of Ethiopia, he served as head of the Third Tank Brigade.

Decorations
He holds numerous decorations and the honorary title of Hero of the Republic of Cuba