A report from the National Television News (NTV) celebrated the addition of new recruits to the compulsory Military Service of the Cuban regime, despite the recent deaths of nine young soldiers and four officers in Holguín.
Oblivious to the pain of friends and family, without accountability or transparency in the investigation of the tragedy, the high command of the Cuban dictatorship ordered its state-controlled media to present a sugarcoated and propagandistic view of Military Service.
The cameras of NTV were dispatched to a unit of the Central Army to showcase an idyllic view of the military training that young Cubans over 18 receive, a mandatory program that is increasingly criticized by voices from civil society, and which has proven to be outdated and dangerous for the lives of the recruits.
“Before leaders, officials, and family members, the youth reaffirmed their commitment to defend the socialist homeland, fulfill all tasks directed by the command, and set an example both in the units and in society,” indicated the report from the state-run media, just under a month after the explosion of military warehouses in Melones.
Nine recruits lost their lives in this tragedy, which has not yet been explained by the Ministry of the Armed Forces (MINFAR), which was quick to conceal the initial official reports indicating that the soldiers were classifying "aged ammunition".
The authorities have also not addressed the unofficial information circulating on social media indicating that in the location chemical weapons were also stored, and that the established protocols for their preservation and handling were not being followed, tasks that should be carried out by trained military personnel, rather than young recruits.
This tragic event, which shocked public opinion and rekindled civil society's complaints against the mandatory Military Service, occurred almost two and a half years after the disaster at the Supertanker Base in Matanzas, that claimed the lives of four young recruits serving as firefighters.
Between both tragedies and prior to them, many young Cubans have lost their lives in maneuvers, accidents, violent incidents, or suicides that occurred while carrying out compulsory military service.
The steady stream of victims and the torrent of pain caused by the military service of the Cuban regime have once again driven conscientious objection among activists and members of Cuban civil society, which has recently become more visible thanks to campaigns like "No to Mandatory Military Service".
This initiative, promoted by activists and organizations such as the Republican Youth Impact movement, calls for the end of mandatory military service, which many consider an oppressive and dangerous system for Cuban youth. Following the reported explosions in Melones, many parents and young people joined this campaign on social media and in the streets of the island.
With its back to everyone, to society as a whole and to reality itself, the Cuban regime celebrated this Sunday the enlistment of 600 new recruits into its decaying and obsolete army, tightening the screws once more on its propaganda machinery, the last remaining resource alongside repression to perpetuate an order that is crumbling in outright decline.
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