Miguel Díaz-Canel urged the Cuban youth this Friday to take advantage of the crisis the country is facing to train in the defense of the regime, during a visit to the Defense Zone "Calvario Fraternidad," in the Havana municipality of Arroyo Naranjo, as part of the tenth National Defense Day of 2026.
The event is part of the "Year of Preparation for Defense 2026," officially declared in January, during which the regime has conducted military and civil defense exercises almost every week in various provinces.
Before senior leaders of the Communist Party, the Revolutionary Armed Forces, and the Ministry of the Interior, Díaz-Canel was direct: “Young people must take advantage of living in a situation like this to prepare for the defense of the Revolution in the future.”
In the event this Friday, Díaz-Canel defined the preparation for defense as "the primary priority, which is the most global" and invoked the concept of the War of All the People to demand that "every Cuban man and woman have a mission, have a place to defend, and have a rifle."
The leader also emphasized the role of the Defense Zones as structures of territorial control and community leadership, and praised the president of the visited zone, Víctor Manuel Mir Lorenzo, for his detailed knowledge of his area: "You know where the wells are, down that street, the characteristics of such a population. I am convinced that in other times you did not have the same level of awareness, detail, and control over all the situations."
In parallel to the militaristic speech, the leader referred to a package of economic reforms: "We already have 120 transformations that we can implement," he stated, although later official documents raise that figure to 176 measures, approved in an extraordinary session on June 18 and evaluated by the National Assembly on July 29 and 30.
However, Díaz-Canel himself acknowledged the limits of those reforms: "Transformations, if there is no popular participation, will not be implemented," he stated, in a sentence that the regime presents as a democratic call but which contrasts with the authoritarian nature of the system.
The call is not isolated. Throughout 2026, the leader has directed a series of similar messages to the youth: in March, he urged them to "combat" and uphold the Revolution; in April, he urged them to defend the regime on social media as an "obligation"; and recently, he once again asked them to stay in Cuba and participate in production and official organizations.
On July 17, a slide accidentally shown by Canal Caribe during another visit by Díaz-Canel to Defense Councils in Havana revealed that the mobilization also aims to prevent a "social outburst" — a fact that the regime has never publicly acknowledged.
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