"The Cuban Yoruba Cultural Association presented the Letter of the Year 2026 during a ceremony held on Friday at its national headquarters in Havana. The annual religious forecast, one of the most closely followed events on Cuba’s Afro-Cuban calendar, carried a strong call for peace while warning of the dangers posed by the escalation of international conflicts involving major powers. Footage shows a ritual ceremony welcoming 2026, followed by senior members of the association outlining predictions linked to global tensions and warfare. “Wars are known by how they begin, but not by how they end. And this letter is predicting: 'From here there will be no winners'. Let us start there. The thing is that in no war is there a winner, because there are always people who have died, on both sides,” said Ramsell Montero, Executive Vice President of the Cuban Yoruba Cultural Association. Montero also referred to current geopolitical tensions, including the conflict between Russia and Ukraine and strains in relations between Venezuela and the United States, warning that local confrontations can quickly expand into wider, more dangerous scenarios. “There are very dangerous wars that, if they end up breaking out into greater escalations, put a large part of humanity at risk. It is true, all sides have their reasons to fight, but there are millions of reasons to convince [resolve conflicts] as well. And one of them is life,” he said. The association said the Letter of the Year 2026 is intended as a warning against armed confrontation and a call to prioritise dialogue, stressing that, according to Ifa, further escalation of global conflicts would place humanity itself at risk."