Miguel Díaz-Canel visited several locations in Pinar del Río this Saturday as part of an official visit related to the preparations for the 73rd anniversary of the assaults on the Moncada and Carlos Manuel de Céspedes barracks. The moment most publicized by the regime's propaganda machinery was his appearance alongside a group of children during the inauguration of a childcare center.
The official Presidency of Cuba account on Facebook presented the event titled "Pinar del Río at the Center of the Presidential Agenda: A Journey through Development and Social Sensitivity," featuring images of the leader cutting a red ribbon alongside children dressed in white sweaters bearing the slogan "My Moncada is the Fatherland."
The newly opened home is named “Hermanos Saíz” and, according to the authorities, it will provide protection to 25 children at risk who lack parental responsibility.
The photographs show Díaz-Canel smiling among the children, in a staged setting that the regime described as proof of its "commitment to childhood" and the "social priorities of the country," without any official publication mentioning the serious humanitarian crisis facing Cuban children.
This crisis has specific figures: according to the World Food Programme (WFP), 48.5% of Cuban schoolchildren aged six to eleven do not receive a meal or a snack at their schools. Meanwhile, UNICEF estimates that 9% of children under five in Cuba suffer from severe food insecurity.
Infant mortality closed 2025 at 9.9 per 1,000 live births, the highest level in over two decades, and the Cuban Conflict Observatory recorded 71 reports of child labor and begging in 2025.
The use of images of children in political events reflects a documented pattern of the regime, especially on commemorative dates. Díaz-Canel has resorted to this formula on multiple occasions, from meetings with pioneers at the Palace of the Revolution to publications on Children's Day, always with an ideological backdrop.
Beyond the inauguration of the home, the president's agenda included a visit to the "Santiago Miguel Cabañas Perojo" photovoltaic solar park, which has a capacity of 21 megawatts, located in the municipality of Consolación del Sur. This brings the total number of operational parks in the province to twelve. Additionally, there was a tour of the farm owned by the tobacco grower Isabel Cristina Barbosa Díaz, who has transformed land previously covered in marabú into productive areas with solar irrigation and achieves 70% of export-quality tobacco.
The contrast between this solar investment and the electrical reality of the province is striking: Pinar del Río was completely left in the dark on March 12, 2026, due to a fault in the transmission line from Mariel. In recent months, the electricity generation deficit in Cuba has frequently exceeded 2,000 MW, despite the 133 solar parks installed nationwide.
Díaz-Canel also paid tribute to the martyrs Luis and Sergio Saíz Montes de Oca at the monument at the entrance of the university in Pinar del Río, where he handed out membership cards for the Union of Young Communists and the Communist Party of Cuba to young people and workers in the area.
Pinar del Río was designated as the venue for the national central event on July 26 by the Political Bureau of the PCC on June 27, 2026, marking the fourth time the province has hosted this ceremony since 1959. The Pinar Revolution Square was renovated with lighting, barriers, and technical setup dedicated to Fidel and Raúl Castro, while on social media, Cubans questioned the propagandistic use of children in the context of an unprecedented humanitarian crisis.
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