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Miguel Díaz-Canel used social media this Thursday to promote the campaign #MySignatureForTheFatherland with a grandiloquent message in which he described Cuba as a free, sovereign nation and the sole owner of its destiny and called to continue collecting signatures in support of the regime's official declaration.
The Cuban leader published the message on his X account (@DiazCanelB) and asserted that each signature is "a call to the world's conscience", while denouncing an "attempt to suffocate" due to the U.S. embargo, which he referred to as a "genocidal blockade."
"#MySignatureForTheHomeland is more than a signature. It is a united action in defense of national sovereignty, against imperial harassment and threats," wrote Díaz-Canel in the post.
The campaign was launched on April 19 by the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) to collect signatures in support of the Revolutionary Government's Declaration titled "Girón is today and always," issued on the occasion of the 65th anniversary of the Cuban victory at Playa Girón.
Díaz-Canel himself was the first to sign on April 20 at the Ciénaga de Zapata Memorial Museum in Matanzas, where he stated: "We affirm the unequivocal declaration that the Cuban Revolution will never negotiate its principles."
Roberto Morales Ojeda, Secretary of Organization of the PCC presented the initiative as stemming from mass organizations and civil society, although the signature books were opened in an organized manner in communities, workplaces, and educational centers across the country. The stated goal is to collect millions of signatures before May first.
Independent analysts evaluate the campaign as a "smoke screen" to divert attention from the internal economic crisis: fuel shortages, prolonged blackouts, and lack of water and food.
The opposition's response came swiftly. José Daniel Ferrer, from the Cuban Patriotic Union (UNPACU), urged people not to sign and described the campaign as support for the oppressors.
The activist Lara Crofs promoted the slogan "No signatures in support of tyranny". Social media was filled with mockery containing phrases such as "those who sign for the Homeland are fugitives from folic acid".
There was also a viral poem titled "I Do Not Sign", attributed to José Martínez, that circulated on digital platforms this week.
The analyst Manuel Cuesta Morúa questioned from the outset the potential success of the call, pointing out the regime's high unpopularity and the coercive pressures faced by those who refuse to participate.
The statement supported by the signatures asserts that "Cuba will never be a trophy, nor another star" in the American constellation, using rhetoric that the regime systematically employs to portray external sanctions as the sole cause of the Island's problems, sidestepping the responsibility of 67 years of dictatorial governance.
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