The Cuban regime launched on Wednesday the Moncada 2026 Strategic Exercise, a two-day military drill that mobilizes the Revolutionary Armed Forces, militias, reservists, civilian structures, and sectors of the economy across the entire national territory, under the slogan of preparing for a potential external aggression.
Roberto Morales Ojeda, Secretary of Organization of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) and member of the Political Bureau, announced the start of the exercise on his X account with a message that summarizes the official stance: “Today we begin the Moncada Exercise. For our @PartidoPCC, preparation for defense is a priority and we give it our utmost attention. #CubaEstáFirme”.
The official poster for the operation, circulated from the province of Sancti Spíritus, carries the slogan "The War of the Entire People: Assurance of Victory" alongside the hashtag #PuebloUniformado. It features images of civilians armed with AK rifles running through wooded areas and military personnel reviewing tactical maps, all framed within the red-green propaganda aesthetic of the regime.
The exercise will run until Thursday and will culminate on Friday with the National Defense Day, scheduled for November 6th.
The maneuver corresponds to the doctrine of the "War of All the People", promoted by dictator Fidel Castro in the 1980s as an asymmetric resistance strategy against the overwhelming military superiority of the United States.
Its strategy does not aim for a conventional victory, but rather to raise the human and economic cost of a potential occupation through guerrilla warfare and total mobilization of society.
The gap between both armies is vast: Cuba does not have operational combat aviation, its naval fleet is outdated, and much of its ground weaponry hails from the Soviet era.
The regime declared 2026 as the "Year of Preparation for Defense" on January 12, when simultaneous exercises began in the Western, Central, and Eastern armies. Throughout the year, scenarios involving enemy landings, the placement of anti-tank mines, the use of drones, and the mobilization of reservists have been practiced.
In September, Díaz-Canel visited the Zone Defense Councils and presented military preparedness as a national priority, emphasizing that the risk of aggression still persisted.
The immediate context adds symbolic tension: a day before the start of Moncada 2026, the U.S. conducted the anti-drone exercise "No Fly Zone" at Guantanamo Naval Base, testing detection and neutralization systems.
In April, Washington had already deployed the FLEX2026 exercise in the Florida Keys, about ninety miles from the Island, using drones and unmanned maritime vehicles. However, there is no official confirmation from Washington regarding plans for military intervention against Cuba.
The regime's propaganda presents the mobilization as an expression of unanimous popular will, but it is actually a mobilization organized and directed by the PCC, which speaks on behalf of the entire population without the population having a voice in the decision.
In 2021, the U.S. government described the Moncada exercises of that year as an attempt to intimidate the Cuban population, coinciding with the opposition's calls for civil marches on November 15.
While the regime mobilizes civilians with rifles and slogans of sacrifice, Cuba is experiencing an unprecedented structural crisis: daily blackouts lasting more than twenty hours, widespread shortages of food and medicine, and a massive exodus that has emptied large regions of the country of its active population.
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