Last Sunday, Canal Caribe aired a report to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Yuri Gagarin Military Industrial Enterprise, presenting it as a bastion of technological innovation for the Revolutionary Air Force. However, the video had the opposite effect: it triggered an avalanche of mockery and sarcasm from the very Cubans it aimed to impress.
The report, produced by a film crew from the Revolutionary Armed Forces, highlighted as a "foundational milestone" the repair of a MiG-15 in 1966, a Soviet fighter jet designed in 1947 that was already considered obsolete by that time, and as a recent achievement the repair of a transport aircraft, the AN-26, another Soviet model from the sixties.
The official report stated that in six decades the company has "modernized and repaired more than 1,200 aircraft," a figure that commentators received with immediate skepticism.
"He meant to say that they have repaired the same plane 1,200 times," replied a user on Facebook with irony.
Another detail that did not go unnoticed was the self-certification, as the report itself noted that the company is "certified and accredited" by the Directorate of Aviation Engineering of Cuba, the very state agency that authorizes it to operate. "Approved and certified by the very agency that qualifies them to repair an airplane. This is not serious. Such things only happen in a communist country," wrote Enrique Boado.
The most striking contradiction, however, came from the report itself, which inadvertently acknowledged the energy crisis facing the island. "Keeping the industry alive is a great challenge, since with all the fuel shortages the country faces, with all the difficulties, we must reinvent ourselves from the perspective that when we don't have electricity, we need to look for alternative working hours," a company executive admitted on camera.
On the anniversary day, May 10th, which coincided with Mother's Day, several Cubans pointed out the irony. "Today is Mother's Day and we haven't even been lucky enough to have electricity. But nothing, keep celebrating your own achievements, which don't benefit us at all," wrote an internet user.
The military context further highlights the contrast. According to the analysis by lieutenant colonel and pilot Orestes Lorenzo Pérez, more than 60% of the FAR's radars are non-operational. The MiG-21s were retired from active service around 2020 due to inoperability, and the MiG-29s are out of service due to a lack of Russian spare parts.
The former officer Mario Riva Morales, a retired lieutenant colonel, was even more direct this January: "the Cuban army has no possibility whatsoever against the United States".
The Yuri Gagarin Company is linked to the military conglomerate GAESA, which controls between 40% and 70% of the Cuban economy. Just days before the report, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced new sanctions against GAESA and around 180 companies affiliated with the military conglomerate.
Content creator Osmani Pardo Guerra summarized the widespread reaction on Instagram : "While the rest of the world fights over autonomous drones and artificial intelligence, on the island they celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Yuri Gagarin company, proudly showcasing the repair of a MiG-15. An aircraft that was trending when the Beatles were just starting out."
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