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The Cuban regime showcased a display of military strength this Saturday in Morón, a municipality in Ciego de Ávila, as part of the National Defense Day, featuring combat drills, live-fire exercises with military-grade rifles, and evacuation exercises for the population in response to a hypothetical enemy air attack.
"This was today in Morón. Day of Defense. Taking to the streets with long weapons the ones tasked with repressing those who peacefully demand their rights. These are the same individuals who fled in shoe boxes from Venezuela when faced with those trained and armed to confront them, because their specialty is to strike at the defenseless and unarmed people. There is no fuel for ambulances, but there has been no shortage for repression," wrote journalist José Raúl Gallego on Facebook.
Gallego shared images circulated by state media showing a squad of black berets with long weapons during an exercise
The choice of Morón as the setting for this military exhibition is not coincidental. Just three months ago, on March 13, that same city was the scene of one of the most significant protests in Cuba in recent years: dozens of citizens took to the streets with pots and pans and cries of "Freedom!" against the blackouts, food shortages, and economic crisis.
That night, the protesters reached the headquarters of the Communist Party, which was set on fire. A 16-year-old, Kevin Samuel Echeverría Rodríguez, was shot in the thigh, allegedly by a police officer. The regime denied the shooting and claimed that the adolescent was injured while falling in a state of intoxication while trying to remove a poster from the PCC.
The protests in March also resulted in five arrests, and security forces used dogs and fired shots into the air to disperse the crowd, according to journalist José Raúl Gallego.
Analysts and opposition figures interpret the display of strength this Saturday in Morón as an intimidating message directed at the local population, which experienced months of intensified control following that crackdown.
The exercise is part of the framework of the «Year of Preparation for Defense 2026», declared by the regime, which has established National Defense Days as weekly military exercises under the doctrine of «War of All the People». The National Defense Council approved plans in January of that year for the «transition to a State of War».
A previous exercise in the same area of Turiguanó, held on June 13, was presided over by Army Corps General Joaquín Quintas Solá, Deputy Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, alongside the president of the Provincial Defense Council, Julio Heriberto Gómez Casanova.
On that same day, Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz took part in a similar event in Havana and stated that “Cuba wants peace and is preparing to defend its sovereignty”.
The context in which these exercises are taking place is one of deep crisis: power outages of up to 20 hours a day, shortages of food, fuel, and medicine. According to data from monitoring organizations, Cuba recorded more than 1,300 protests in May 2026, which is 42% more than in April, while the regime responds with increased militarization and a discourse of external threat.
In March 2026, 31 incidents of de facto militarization were documented across the island, representing a 240% increase compared to February, with 61% involving direct repression against the population.
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