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In recent days, Cubans have seen an image that leaves no room for doubt. In official meetings led by Miguel Díaz-Canel, the person announcing "measures" is not only the appointed ruler but also a figure with no clear public responsibility before the nation: Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, “El Cangrejo”.
Their repeated presence on official television does not seem coincidental. It reinforces the idea that real power in Cuba does not operate within the institutions that the regime presents, but rather within a family core that has conditioned the control of the FAR, GAESA, and consequently, what remains of the country for years.
That power has a name and surname. And it does not respond to the Cuban people.
The question that officials, colonels, and generals of the FAR must ask themselves today is as simple as it is uncomfortable: Will they risk the lives of their men and bring armed conflict to our nation, to our own people, to defend a family?
Not to defend Cuba.
Not to defend the people.
Not to defend national sovereignty.
To defend a power structure that has treated the country as if it were an inherited property.
That is the central point. Because, in the face of any scenario of military escalation, the FAR would not be entering a war against equals. They would be forced into a confrontation with the most powerful army in the world, vastly superior in numbers, technology, logistics, budget, and operational capacity. It would not be a realistic defense of the homeland. It would be a futile sacrifice to protect an elite.
And even worse: to protect an elite whose most visible face at this moment is a grandson of the power, elevated by surname and blood, not by a known military career that justifies such a level of influence. While thousands of officers have devoted their entire lives to military service, enduring the deterioration of their salaries, living conditions, and the future of their families, that privileged circle has lived amidst luxury, excess, and opacity.
There is no moral or patriotic justification for asking a Cuban officer to sacrifice his men for that.
The true loyalty of the FAR should not be to a family. It should be to the nation.
Therefore, the exit does not have to be an absurd war or blind obedience. The exit can be an act of historical responsibility: peaceful, coordinated, and national disobedience to any order that places the FAR against the Cuban people or in exclusive service to the survival of the Castro family.
That step could open, without firing a single shot, the path towards an orderly transition, an urgent humanitarian intervention, and a national reboot.
Cuba needs a change. And that change does not begin with an order, but with a decision.
The decision not to use weapons against the people and not to sacrifice the country for a family.
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Opinion article: Las declaraciones y opiniones expresadas en este artículo son de exclusiva responsabilidad de su autor y no representan necesariamente el punto de vista de CiberCuba.