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A journalist connected to Cuban state media published this week on Facebook that Trump "is putting the lives of hundreds of thousands of citizens in the State of Florida at risk if he decides to attack Cuba," and users' responses came quickly: mockery, laughter, and the label of "the best meme."
The author of the post that sparked laughter on social media is Roberto A. Paneque Fonseca, a journalist with a background in Radio Cubana, TV Cubana, Prensa Latina, and Granma, and a former Military Intelligence officer of the Cuban army from 1975 to 1980.
The publication came hours after Trump threatened to send the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier to 100 yards off the Cuban coast to force the regime's surrender, making the action contingent on first concluding military operations in Iran.
The irony of Paneque's argument did not go unnoticed: the Cuban-American community in Florida —which he claims is "at risk"— is precisely the one that supports that intervention the most.
A survey revealed that 79% of Cubans in South Florida support some form of military action by the United States in Cuba, according to a poll by Bendixen & Amandi International published in April.
The comments on Paneque's post reflected that reality with humor: "That's true, the Cubans in Florida are going to have a really big party," wrote a user among laughing emojis.
Another comment was even more direct: "This is the funniest thing I've read today, the best meme, you're going to go viral now. Just wait and see."
A third person summed up the general feeling in four words: "That's what's called a brainwashed mind."
The context that motivated Paneque's post was the threat from Trump during a private dinner at the Forum Club in West Palm Beach, in front of an audience that included figures from the Cuban exile community.
Trump described the scenario in detail: "On the way back from Iran, we will have one of our greats, perhaps the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, the largest in the world, coming in, stopping about 100 yards off the coast, and they will say: Thank you very much, we surrender."
On the same day, Trump signed an executive order expanding sanctions against Cuba in the sectors of energy, defense, mining, and finance, with secondary sanctions on foreign banks that operate with the island.
The United States Senate rejected last Tuesday, by 51 votes to 47, a democratic resolution to limit Trump's authority to take military action against Cuba without the approval of Congress.
Meanwhile, the Cuban regime attempted to respond firmly. Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla declared that "Cubans do not allow ourselves to be intimidated," and Miguel Díaz-Canel stated that "no aggressor" will subdue the island.
The sociologist Guillermo Grenier, director of the FIU Cuba Poll, described the sentiment of Cuban Americans regarding the situation as "wildly optimistic and wildly fearful," a tension that Paneque's post, rather than capturing, inadvertently turned into humorous material for thousands of users.
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