Those in front of him, in T-shirts commemorating Fidel and Raúl Castro’s 1953 attack on the Moncada military barracks, roared back and – as much as their age allowed – leapt to their feet. Houses beside the road on the way to Pinar’s Revolution Square appeared caught in one of the country’s endless blackouts. So, instead of a conventional military defence, Cuba insists that in the case of invasion, the entire population – most of whom received military training when they graduated – will rise up in defence of the nation. It is telling that more than 90% of Cuban Americans who fled the revolution in the 1960s identified as white. The sun had not yet risen when the president finished speaking and the crowd filtered away into the inky black.