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José Luis Pérez Balart, a former member of Fidel Castro's personal bodyguard and an active combatant of the Ministry of the Interior (MININT), arrived this Thursday in Matanzas as part of a solitary walk of one hundred kilometers that traverses Cuba from east to west in tribute to the centenary of the dictator's birth.
The 64-year-old from Santiago set off on April 10th from Granjita Siboney and the Santa Ifigenia cemetery in Santiago de Cuba, following the route known as "Fidel's Route to Martí and Martí to Maceo," which evokes both the Caravan of Victory from January 1959 and the invasion from East to West led by Antonio Maceo and Máximo Gómez during the War of Independence.
The final destination is Mantua, in Pinar del Río, the place where that mambí campaign ended, with the complete route concluding at the lighthouse of Cabo de San Antonio, the westernmost point of the island.
During his stay in Matanzas, Pérez Balart visited the Firefighters' Museum, where he was welcomed by Reserve Major Mirtha Pardo Junco, president of the Association of Combatants of the Cuban Revolution in the municipality, as well as by fighters from the Army and MININT and reservists from the Defense.
Rosa Quintana Greck, the museum specialist, was in charge of leading the visit.
Pérez Balart's profile places him squarely within the Cuban state security apparatus: in addition to having been Fidel Castro's personal bodyguard, he undertook internationalist missions in Africa, worked in the security of the Gran Parque Turístico Baconao, and currently serves as a professor at the Academy of Higher Studies of MININT.
Although the journey is publicly presented as a personal challenge, its institutional backing is evident: it was reported by TV Santiago and Prensa Latina, state media, and thus it is part of a communication strategy, framed within the "Year of the Centenary of Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz", the official designation that the Cuban government has assigned to 2026.
The initiative is part of a wide-ranging propaganda campaign of the regime that includes the publication of 23 volumes of Selected Works of Castro, youth caravans, and the I International Colloquium "Fidel: Legacy and Future," scheduled from August 10 to 13 at the Convention Palace in Havana.
The regime also boasts of more than six million signatures in its campaign "My Signature for the Homeland," which activists have denounced as a result of coercion.
All of this is happening while the Cuban people face prolonged blackouts, shortages, rampant inflation, and an unprecedented mass exodus, realities that the regime ignores while mobilizing children and youth in acts of political indoctrination.
Díaz-Canel encapsulated the spirit of these celebrations during the X Plenary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba: "It's not about remembering it; it's about bringing it to this moment."
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