José Daniel Ferrer García, leader of the Cuban Patriotic Union (UNPACU), responded this Monday to the bellicose message from the Ministry of Revolutionary Armed Forces (MINFAR) with a video posted on Facebook in which he compared the rhetoric of the Cuban regime to that of dictators and leaders who have already fallen or been overthrown.
The MINFAR published today the phrase attributed to Fidel Castro: “The war can only end in victory or death, and for Cuba, there can be no other alternative than victory, no matter the cost”, accompanied by an image of a soldier aiming with an AK-47 rifle and the text “War should not be provoked, but we will engage if the enemy imposes it.”
Ferrer responded with a video lasting one minute and 23 seconds in which he listed, one by one, the leaders who made similar statements before their downfall.
"This is also what Nicolás Maduro used to say, and we know where he is now. This is also what Diosdado Cabello would say, and we know what is happening in Venezuela, who is in charge, who sets the line, the path, the way forward," stated the opposition leader from Miami.
The argument made by Ferrer has a direct resonance in the recent geopolitical context: Maduro was captured by U.S. special forces on January 3, 2026 in Caracas, during an operation in which 32 Cuban bodyguards died.
Ferrer also mentioned Vladimir Padrino López, the former Venezuelan Defense Minister who was dismissed on March 18, 2026, and Ayatollah Khamenei, who was killed in U.S. and Israeli airstrikes on February 28, 2026.
"This has been said by many. Noriega said it, Gaddafi said it, Milošević said it, Saddam Hussein said it, and Ayatollah Khamenei said it. Many have spoken these words, and we know where some are and where others are," Ferrer pointed out.
The video is produced in the context of the greatest escalation of tension between Cuba and the United States in decades. Last Friday, Trump signed an executive order that expands sanctions against Cuba, impacting the energy, defense, mining, and financial services sectors.
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 a hundred meters off the coast of Cuba.
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 the Entire People," declaring that "every Cuban man and woman has a rifle."
Ferrer, who was forcibly exiled from Cuba on October 13, 2025 and arrived in Miami where he was welcomed by Cuban-American congress members and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, had already warned on Saturday to the regime's oppressors and "informants" that “they will have no escape”.
In his video this Monday, the opposition leader issued a direct ultimatum to the regime's leadership: "The only solution for Cuba is the end of tyranny, and if they don't leave voluntarily, they will be forced out. It would be in their best interest to leave peacefully. They know this; they are sure that it is better for them to leave voluntarily."
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