Havana/Dressed in olive green and flanked by the military leadership, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez appeared again this Saturday in a tactical exercise in the Havana municipality of Diez de Octubre, as part of National Defense Day. The scene, with missiles in the background and slogans of resistance, summarizes the regime’s commitment to displaying some war muscle and a certain political cohesion while daily life falls apart.
The president, in his capacity as president of the National Defense Council and first secretary of the Communist Party, supervised maneuvers in the Tamarindo defense zone. He was accompanied by generals Álvaro López Miera and Lázaro Alberto Álvarez Casas, ministers of the Armed Forces and the Interior, respectively. In parallel, in all the defense zones of the municipality, activities were carried out that included health training and conditioning of “theaters of operations.”
The authorities have multiplied defense exercises throughout the country as part of “combat preparation” in the event of “possible aggression by the United States.” On social networks, leaders of the Communist Party insisted that the “war of all the people” is the strategic doctrine and that terms such as “surrender” and “defeat” are erased from the official vocabulary.
From the Isle of Youth, Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz also reinforced this Saturday the narrative of permanent threat
For four consecutive Saturdays, since the capture of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela, Díaz-Canel and other senior military officials have led training that includes ambush drills, mine installation, territorial defense and military health. Two weeks ago, the National Defense Council approved “plans and measures” to move towards an eventual “State of War”without offering details.
Havana continues to raise the volume of its verbal confrontation with Washington, although they also intersperse messages of peace and dialogue. At the tribute events to the eliminated soldiers in Caracas, Díaz-Canel stated that “there is no surrender or surrender possible,” a phrase that is repeated like a mantra in each appearance.
From the Isle of Youth, Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz also reinforced this Saturday the narrative of permanent threat. “The will and firmness of the Cuban people is indisputable, but we cannot trust ourselves,” he said, pointing out that the “main enemy” is trust. His statements occurred in the midst of shooting practices, defense drills and political and ideological actions, supervised by senior leaders of the National Defense Council.
In the official narrative, war involves the entire society. Díaz-Canel recalled one of the transversal concepts of the doctrine: that “each Cuban has a way, a place and a means in defense.” In practice, this conception implies the incorporation of civilians into production and defense brigades, the participation of minors in neighborhood mobilizations and the assimilation of a permanent threat scenario as part of daily life.
