Related videos:
Miguel Díaz-Canel posted on Facebook, from Playa Girón, that he will never negotiate his principles, during the central event for the 65th anniversary of the Victory at Girón held at the Zapata Swamp Memorial Museum, in the province of Matanzas.
The leader described waking up on "sacred ground that was watered with the generous blood of our grandparents and parents" and having placed white flowers in tribute to the fighters of 1961, before signing the regime's declaration titled "Girón is today and always," issued on April 17.
The post was accompanied by the hashtag #MySignatureForTheHomeland, the name of the national signature collection campaign launched by the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) to support this declaration, which states that Cuba will never be another trophy or a star in the American constellation, in direct reference to the Trump administration.
The key remarks of the event were delivered by Roberto Morales Ojeda, Secretary of Organization of the Central Committee of the PCC, who stated that "the Revolution will not collapse and will never collapse."
The triumphalist rhetoric brutally contrasts with Díaz-Canel's own words just three days earlier: on April 16, he publicly admitted that Cuba absolutely lacks fuel for almost everything.
Power outages exceed 20 hours daily in multiple provinces, and the electricity generation deficit reached peaks of 1,945 megawatts in April.
The Cuban economy has declined by 23% since 2019, and The Economist Intelligence Unit projects an additional contraction of GDP of 7.2% for this year.
Around two million Cubans have left the island since 2021, and in 2024 there were only 71,374 births compared to 130,645 deaths, which exacerbates the demographic collapse.
Díaz-Canel's post triggered a flood of comments from Cubans who responded with indignation, mockery, and accumulated fatigue.
"How long is this man going to keep saying the same thing?" wrote a user.
Among the most critical reactions to the post are comments questioning the contrast between the official narrative and the daily reality of the country. Several users point out that while slogans about Girón are emphasized, “the people are dead while still living,” dealing with blackouts, water shortages, hunger, deteriorating hospitals, and inadequate salaries. Others mockingly state that the event was “bread and circus, but without the bread,” and wonder what “principles” are being discussed when, according to these comments, the population continues to endure misery, shortages, and collapsed services.
There were also many responses that rejected the historical narrative of the message, labeling it as repeated propaganda. Some comments argue that at Girón, "imperialism" was not defeated, but rather Cubans opposed to Castroism, and that continuing to reference this episode only demonstrates that the government has no new solutions for today’s problems. In that same vein, several reactions called for free elections, criticized the signature collection for not allowing space for different opinions, and expressed a sense of weariness with phrases like "no one believes them anymore," "it's the same nonsense every year," and that the country needs food, medicine, and real change, not more symbolic acts.
The reaction on social media aligns with that which was triggered by his phrase "we will always prevail", spoken on Saturday in front of veterans of the Association of Cuban Revolution Combatants at the Palace of the Revolution.
Opponents, activists, and intellectuals such as José Daniel Ferrer García, Lara Crofs (Yamilka Lafita Cancio), and Miryorly García publicly rejected the signature campaign, describing it as support for "tyranny" and urging people not to participate.
The campaign "My Signature for the Homeland" is not new: in September 2025, the regime carried out an identical initiative to support Nicolás Maduro, in which the Ministry of Education mobilized students and demanded signatures from minors under the threat of being labeled as "counter-revolutionaries."
Alina Fernández, daughter of Fidel Castro, summed up the feelings of many with a straightforward phrase: Decades living in misery due to an ideological madness.
Filed under: