The Western Army of Cuba published a "combat readiness" video on its official Facebook page that quickly became a target of mass ridicule, showcasing soldiers operating Soviet T-54/T-55 tanks, World War II-era anti-aircraft artillery, and makeshift camouflage nets, under the slogan "The Homeland is defended."
The clip, published with the tags #FARCuba and #LaPatriaSeDefiende, garnered dozens of comments, most of which were ironic or openly critical of the regime. The official text of the post claimed that "the units of the Western Army remain steadfast in their commitment to the defense of the Homeland, conducting intensive training that strengthens discipline, cohesion, and responsiveness."
The public's response was decisive. "That's what war was like when my grandfather was a child. Keep playing house in the times of Nintendo Switch, Meta Quest, and PlayStation," wrote one user. Another noted, "It looks like World War I." A third summed up the general sentiment: "Isn't modern war fought with drones?"
The images also highlighted the physical condition of the recruits. "Thin, malnourished, their uniforms hang off them like from coat racks, they can't even walk 10K straight," noted another comment. Several users connected military spending with the crisis faced by the population: "It's a shame they spend so much money on that while the people are dying of hunger."
The video is set within the framework of the "Year of Preparation for Defense 2026", declared by the regime on January 12 in direct response to the capture of Nicolás Maduro by the U.S. Delta Force on January 3. Since then, the Revolutionary Armed Forces have intensified weekly exercises every Saturday, designated as National Defense Day.
Miguel Díaz-Canel personally supervised military maneuvers in San José de Las Lajas, one of the main access points to Havana, and in January he witnessed exercises with the Great Tank Unit "Rescate de Sanguily". On that occasion, he stated that "the best way to prevent an aggression is for imperialism to have to calculate what the cost of attacking our country would be."
It is not the first time that the military propaganda of the regime has generated this effect. In January, exercises conducted by the Ministry of the Armed Forces with old motorcycles unleashed a similar wave of mockery, and in March, the so-called "Student Bastion", where students trained with AK-47 rifles and anti-tank mines, provoked identical reactions.
The obsolescence of equipment is real: the Revolutionary Armed Forces primarily operate with T-55 tanks, a model that was originally introduced to Soviet service in 1958. They face severe limitations in operational combat aviation, and their standard light weaponry is the Soviet AKMS rifle, which was designed in the 1950s. “At least use artificial intelligence; stop showing videos from the 80s, how pathetic,” summarized one user, while another warned young recruits: “Young people in Mandatory Service, the shield of the dictatorship.”
On May 7th, a viral video compared Cuban soldiers to Delta Force, generating a new wave of sarcasm that suggests the regime's propaganda campaign will continue to have the opposite effect intended.
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