The recent appearance of the president of the National Defense Council Miguel Díaz-Canel in military uniform sparked mockery and questioning on social media, where users expressed doubt about the capabilities of the leadership and ridiculed the military preparedness of the regime.
The ruler visited the Defense Council of the Los Sitios Zone on Friday in Centro Habana, and shared a 57-second video on X, where he appears dressed in olive green and greets another official.
In the message that accompanied the images, Díaz-Canel defended the usefulness of these structures in times of peace, stating that they help to strengthen defense while also prioritizing social and economic issues within communities.
However, the comments diverged from the patriotic tone of the post and focused on questioning the preparedness of the participants and the credibility of the military exercises.
"We all know they are just a bunch of mediocres," wrote one user. Another mocked the age of the leaders and suggested they should go to a nursing home. A third comment summed up their disdain with a more offensive remark about the capabilities of the military.
Critics also highlighted the preparation for a potential conflict. "All those people don't even know how to shoot," stated another internet user, while an English-speaking user accused the leader of doing cosplay, a term used to describe the imitation of characters through costumes, and argued that he did not seem to be leading a serious government.
Other comments linked the military appearance to pressure from Washington on Havana. "You’re scared because you know you won't make it to the 31st," wrote one user, referring to the political tension between the two countries. "We continue to fight," quipped another, mocking the usual language of official propaganda.
The visit to Los Sitios occurred amid escalating statements between Washington and Havana. On Thursday, President Donald Trump stated during a rally in Fort Myers, Florida, that U.S. military ships "will pass by Cuba" when they return from Iran.
For his part, Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a call to Cubans to collaborate "discreetly with the CIA" and contribute to the change on the island.
Díaz-Canel responded to Trump on Facebook, where he accused Washington of having ambitions of domination over Cuba and upheld January 1, 1959, as the true independence of the country.
The appearance in Centro Habana is part of a military training campaign that the government has intensified during 2026, officially declared as the Year of Preparation for Defense. Díaz-Canel has led at least a dozen events of this kind in municipalities across the capital, with the olive green uniform as a recurring element.
These activities have sparked mockery on social media, partly due to the contrast between the rhetoric of national defense and the daily hardships faced by the population, which experiences power outages exceeding 20 hours a day in many areas.
Other military exercises have also been mocked for showcasing obsolete Soviet weaponry and the use of ox-drawn carts and mules to transport supplies, images that many Cubans compared to scenes from conflicts of a bygone era.
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