The Cuban content creator Dean Pablo Hernández Torres posted on Instagram a video with sharp irony in which he suggests that the government should provide an AKM rifle to every family unit, linked to the rationing booklet, the same mechanism that has rationed basic food since 1962.
The clip is a direct response to the episode featuring the singer-songwriter Silvio Rodríguez, who wrote on his blog "Segunda Cita": "I demand my AKM, in case they launch (attacks from the United States). And I want to be clear that I am very serious about this."
Two days later, the MINFAR presented the musician with the weapon during an official event, attended by Miguel Díaz-Canel and General Álvaro López Miera, in line with the doctrine of the "War of All the People."
Hernández Torres pretends to align himself with the official discourse only to subvert it with a simple question: "If the government fears an invasion and asks citizens to defend themselves, why doesn’t it give weapons to the people? What reason do they have for not doing so? They could do it through the supply booklet. Yes, the one that has solved all of Cuba's problems," he says in the video.
And he finishes with sarcasm: "If our president says there are 10 million on the island, then give those 10 million revolutionaries weapons so they can solve the problem we have. The very next day, the problem will run away."
The video adds to a wave of critical reactions sparked by the episode of the AKM delivered to Silvio Rodríguez at an official event.
The comedian Ulises Toirac stated on March 21: "I don’t want an AKM, I want a country." Social media saw a proliferation of memes contrasting the rifle with scarcity and extreme poverty on the island.
In 2024, Hernández Torres began his journey on social media when he left Cuba and started living in Chile. He had to give up soccer, which was his passion, and started trying out other jobs while he studies.
At that moment, he expressed his dissatisfaction with the situation on the island and stated that leaving the country is, for many people of his generation, the only way to have a prosperous future and achieve their dreams.
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