On the occasion of the International Children's Day, the Ministry of Revolutionary Armed Forces (Minfar) organized a performance by the Military Band of the General Staff of the FAR at the William Soler University Pediatric Hospital in the Boyeros municipality, Havana.
According to the official Minfar post on Facebook, "patients, staff, and students at the William Soler University Pediatric Hospital enjoyed a performance by the Military Band of the General Staff of the FAR."
The musicians wore formal uniforms consisting of a white shirt with red and gold details, red epaulettes, crossed gold cords across the chest, and olive green trousers with a red side stripe.
They played golden trumpets and a silver tuba or euphonium in front of the hospitalized children, their families, and the center's staff.
The Minfar presented the activity as part of the "patriotic work" of the Armed Forces and as a contribution to the emotional well-being of the children in care.
The spectacle stands in striking contrast to the real situation faced by William Soler, a pediatric reference center in the country and the leader of the National Program for the Care of Cardiac Children.
In October 2025, relatives of patients described the hospital as “completely overwhelmed”, with staff shortages, lack of supplies, poor hygiene conditions, and long waiting times.
During that same period, two childhood deaths from hemorrhagic dengue were reported in the central region, amid a health crisis that Cuban authorities have avoided acknowledging publicly.
Months earlier, in September 2025, a doctor from William Soler went viral for giving balloons to hospitalized children amid shortages, a gesture that moved many on social media and highlighted the everyday struggles of the Cuban healthcare system.
The hospital performs between 300 and 400 surgeries and around 300 interventional catheterizations annually, making it a high-complexity center whose crisis has direct consequences on the lives of the most vulnerable children in the country.
The presentation of the military band from Minfar, in their formal uniforms and with their wind instruments, presents an image of institutional normalcy that contrasts sharply with the documented complaints regarding the actual conditions at William Soler, a hospital that has been lacking basic resources to care for its patients for months.
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