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The Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (MINFAR) published a message on its official Facebook account this Monday featuring a militaristic slogan that quotes the late dictator Fidel Castro.
"The war can only conclude with victory or death, and for Cuba there can be no other alternative than victory, no matter the cost", accompanied by the image of a soldier aiming with an AK-47 rifle on a rock in a rural setting of the island.
The publication also includes a text on a red background that states: "War should not be provoked, but we will carry it out if the enemy imposes it," with the words "no" and "provoke" highlighted in yellow.
“No matter the cost, our people will prevail!” is one of the phrases spoken by Fidel Castro at the closing ceremony of the first Revolutionary Congress of the National Federation of Barbers and Hairdressers, held at the CTC theater on June 7, 1960.
The message comes at a time of heightened tension between Cuba and the United States in decades. On Saturday, Trump declared in The Villages, Florida, that the U.S. "will take Cuba almost immediately" and threatened to send the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln to within 100 yards of Cuban shores to force the regime's surrender.
On Sunday, Díaz-Canel warned delegates from 36 countries about "the imminence of a military aggression" from the U.S. and invoked the doctrine of the "War of All the People," stating that "every Cuban has a rifle" and an assigned position for defense.
The MINFAR's social media account has been intensifying its propaganda efforts for months since the regime declared 2026 as the "Year of Preparation for Defense."
In January, it was reported that “no enemy will be safe in Cuba” and warned of a supposed “genocide” if socialism falls, stirring fear with warlike rhetoric while the Cuban economy was collapsing.
In March, the MINFAR criticized on social media the "soft positions towards the adversary" and the regime showcased university students in military training, including rifle shooting with AKs and assembling anti-tank and anti-personnel mines.
On May 1, Trump signed an executive order that dramatically expands sanctions against the regime, affecting the energy, defense, mining, and financial services sectors with immediate effect.
The phrase cited by the MINFAR refers to the rhetorical legacy of Fidel Castro, whose slogan "Homeland or Death" was first pronounced on March 5, 1960 during the funeral honors for the victims of the sabotage of the La Coubre steamer, and that encapsulates the doctrine of total resistance against external threats that the regime has been instrumentalizing for decades.
Díaz-Canel closed his speech on Sunday with a warning that encapsulates the tone of the entire propaganda campaign: "We do not fear war, and there will be neither surprise nor defeat here."
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