The Cuban regime announced this Friday, in the context of May Day, that it has collected 6,230,973 signatures in the campaign "My Signature for the Homeland," presented as a popular support for national sovereignty and a rejection of the U.S. embargo.
The figure was proclaimed by the Presidency of Cuba with the message "Over 6 million Cubans signed for the Homeland!"
The signed books were formally presented to Miguel Díaz-Canel during the central event of May Day, held this year at the José Martí Anti-Imperialist Tribune, in front of the United States Embassy on the Havana Malecón, and not in the traditional Plaza de la Revolución, under the reasoning of "austerity" in light of the energy crisis.
The campaign was launched on April 19 by the Communist Party of Cuba, coinciding with the 65th anniversary of the Battle of Playa Girón, although the regime presented it as a spontaneous initiative from civil society.
Díaz-Canel was the first to sign on April 20 at the Ciénaga de Zapata Memorial Museum in Matanzas, declaring that "the Cuban Revolution will never negotiate its principles."
However, the campaign was marked from the start by reports of systematic coercion.
Testimonials collected by independent media document that executives of state-owned companies were forced to ensure at least 80% signatures among their workers, with threats of dismissal for those who refused.
An anonymous testimony summed it up straightforwardly: "Signing is mandatory at workplaces; if you don't sign, you know what happens—you’re out."
Pressures were also reported in warehouses, schools, universities, and through the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution.
A Cuban who publicly refused to participate on April 24 described it as "a new circus of the government," stating, "My dignity cannot be signed away." Days later, another Cuban stood up to his CDR and refused to participate in a case that went viral.
Despite the regime's insistence on the spontaneous nature of the initiative, the Youth Communist Union actively promoted it on social media, contradicting that narrative.
The May Day event was dedicated to the centenary of Fidel Castro's birth, the 65th anniversary of the Bay of Pigs invasion, and the XXII Congress of the Central Workers' Union of Cuba. Díaz-Canel marched at the forefront alongside his wife Lis Cuesta, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez, Roberto Morales Ojeda, General Raúl Castro, and representatives of the Political Bureau. Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz called for the "charge with machetes" and praised the workers who "do not back down."
The campaign is launched at the worst economic moment in Cuba in decades: the GDP has contracted by 23% since 2019, the electricity generation deficit exceeds 1,900 MW, ten of the 16 thermoelectric plants are out of service, and blackouts reach up to 24 hours daily.
The maneuver has a direct precedent: in 2002, the regime of Fidel Castro organized a collection of eight million signatures to declare socialism “irrevocable” in the Constitution, in response to the Varela Project led by the opposition figure Oswaldo Payá, who had gathered over 11,000 signatures to demand democratic reforms. The National Assembly unanimously approved that reform on June 25, 2002.
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