222 THE POLITICS OF INTERVENTIONTo understand the twisted path that led to the creation of
the Permanent Army, it is necessary to examine the structure,
function, and political orientation of the Rural Guard, to
explore its role in the August Revolution, and to follow its
regeneration during the Second Intervention.The Rural Guard: The Politics of Military Efficiency
In the social and economic wreckage of 1898, the American
military governors formed provincial and municipal constab
ularies, largely recruited from former insurgents, to keep the
peace. By 1902 fifteen separate forces existed, and while their
jurisdictions were tangled, their function (police) and loyalty
(to the Americans) were clear. In Santiago, Leonard Wood,
on the advice of a Cuban veteran and over popular protest,
consciously modeled his Rural Guard on Mexican President
Porfirio Diaz' Guardia Rurale.^1 During his service as Military
Governor, Wood completed the nationalization of Cuba's
Rural Guard. It was an apolitical national constabulary to
enforce the laws of the central government and the decisions
of the national courts. Its jurisdiction extended to all areas
where there was no urban or municipal police.^2 Officers and
men were selected and appointed by the Military Governor,
and it can be assumed that while basic soldierly qualities
were a prime consideration, Wood also sought men who were
"professional," or apolitical in American military usage. In
1905 the Rural Guard manned 244 posts throughout the
island, each post averaging around twelve men. Because the
Rural Guard devoted its efforts to police work, it lacked the
training to carry out even company-sized military operations.
After the departure of its American advisers, the Rural Guard's
discipline and efficiency deteriorated.^3 Only in the sense that
it was armed was the Rural Guard an army.
In 1904 the Cuban government enlarged its Artillery Corps
to six hundred men. Ostensibly, the artillerymen were to
replace the American garrison of Havana's forts. One Cuban