While 80% of Cubans live in food insecurity and agricultural production is collapsing, the National Association of Small Farmers (ANAP) recently organized a "singing against the blockade" at a cooperative in Havana to gather support for the official campaign #MySignatureForTheFatherland.
The event was held at the Cooperativa de Créditos y Servicios (CCS) Arides Estévez Sánchez, in the Playa municipality of Havana, as a demonstration of the alleged support from the farming community for the revolution, reported the official Canal Caribe.
The improvisers Edward Rodríguez, Felipe Pérez Alvarado, Argelio Torres, and Rodolfo Ortega created décimas praising the "steadfastness" of the peasantry alongside the revolution and condemning the U.S. embargo, accompanied by the music of Joaquín Santos and Roberto Bermúdez.
"Today the farmer signs for this, for Sabino (Pupo), because each farmer signs and reaffirms for peace," were some of the phrases heard at the event.
The event was attended by Félix Duarte Ortega, president of the ANAP, member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and the Council of State, which illustrates the merger between the peasant organization and the regime's power structure.
Ramón Aguilar Betancourt, president of the Agro-Food Commission of the National Assembly of People's Power, and Víctor Dreke, who was second in command to Che Guevara during the Congo guerrilla in 1965, also participated, a figure used to lend revolutionary legitimacy to the event.
The campaign #MySignatureForTheFatherland is presented by the regime as a "spontaneous" initiative from civil society, but it was organized by the structures of the Communist Party through workplaces, universities, and mass organizations.
The leader Miguel Díaz-Canel inaugurated it on April 20 at the Ciénaga de Zapata Memorial Museum in Matanzas, stating that "the Cuban Revolution will never negotiate its principles." The goal is to collect millions of signatures before May 1.
The contrast between the speech of the event and the documented reality is stark. The agricultural crisis in Cuba shows declines of 81% in rice production, 61% in eggs, 44% in root vegetables, and 37.6% in milk, according to official data.
96.4% of agricultural micro, small, and medium enterprises are facing severe restrictions due to a lack of fuel, while the Cuban GDP has experienced a contraction of 23% since 2019.
Far from showing genuine support, the campaign has generated massive rejection. Cubans on social media demand free elections and denounce hunger and misery in response to official calls to sign.
Residents of Cárdenas collectively resisted signing despite direct pressures, and the writer Wendy Guerra Torres warned international media about threats of job loss, scholarship cancellations, and revocation of licenses for those who refuse to participate.
Independent analysts rate the campaign as a smokescreen to divert attention from the worst economic crisis that Cuba has faced since the Special Period.
It is not the first time the regime has resorted to this mechanism. In September 2025, it carried out a similar signature campaign to support the then-president Nicolás Maduro, even mobilizing minors under the threat of being labeled as "counter-revolutionaries."
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