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Miguel Díaz-Canel presided over the eleventh National Defense Day of 2026 in the Antonio Guiteras Defense Zone, located in the municipality of Habana del Este, where he urged for the guarantee of materials for cooking, from charcoal to firewood.
While millions of Cubans are surviving without electricity or gas to cook, the ruler himself acknowledges, during a military exercise, that the population must resort to firewood for sustenance.
The statement, collected by the official site of the Cuban Presidency, starkly summarizes the level of collapse the country has reached under 67 years of communist dictatorship.
In the exercise, nearly 1,900 residents and workers participated, organized into more than 60 Production and Defense Brigades, alongside Army Corps Generals Álvaro López Miera and Lázaro Alberto Álvarez Casas, ministers of the Revolutionary Armed Forces and the Ministry of the Interior, respectively.
The trainings included assembly and disassembly of rifles, shooting, handling of mines and explosives, and evacuation drills. Díaz-Canel emphasized that "every week, every National Defense Day is an opportunity to continue perfecting our plans."
On the same day, the regime held the University Student Bastion Exercise 2026 in all higher education institutions across the country, featuring shooting practice with AK rifles and mine handling.
The contradiction is undeniable. Cuba registers in March 2026 a deficit in electricity generation of up to 2,025 MW during peak hours, with only 1,145 MW available against a demand of 3,000 MW, leaving 64% of the country without electricity for hours.
The immediate trigger of the collapse was the capturing of Nicolás Maduro by U.S. forces on January 3rd of 2026, an operation during which 32 Cuban soldiers from his personal escort were killed.
That event cut the Venezuelan supply by between 25,000 and 35,000 barrels per day of crude oil, while Cuba needs between 90,000 and 100,000 barrels per day for its basic functioning.
Meanwhile, Mexico suspended its shipments on January 9 under U.S. pressure, leaving the island with reserves for barely 15 to twenty days.
In 2024, 76% of Cuba's electricity generation relied on petroleum-derived fuels, with more than half being imported.
It was precisely to address that geopolitical scenario that the regime declared 2026 as the "Year of Preparation for Defense."
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