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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 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 books with the signatures were formally delivered to Miguel Díaz-Canel during the central event of May Day, held this year at the José Martí Anti-Imperialist Tribunal, in front of the United States Embassy on the Havana Malecon, and not in the traditional Plaza de la Revolución, citing "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 portrayed 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, stating that "the Cuban Revolution will never negotiate its principles."
However, the campaign was marked from the beginning by reports of systematic coercion.
Independent media have reported testimonies documenting that managers of state-owned companies were forced to ensure at least 80% participation among their employees, with threats of dismissal for those who refused.
An anonymous testimony summed it up bluntly: "Signing is mandatory in workplaces; if you don't sign, you know what happens—you'll be out on the street."
Pressure was 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 take part in a situation that went viral.
Despite the regime's insistence on the spontaneous nature of the initiative, the Union of Young Communists 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 Battle of Playa Girón, and the XXII Congress of the Central Workers' Union of Cuba. Díaz-Canel marched at the front 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 "machete charge" and praised the workers who "refuse to be defeated."
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 out of the 16 thermoelectric plants are out of service, and blackouts reach up to 24 hours a day.
The maneuver has a direct precedent: in 2002, Fidel Castro's regime organized a collection of eight million signatures to declare socialism "irrevocable" in the Constitution, in response to the Varela Project by the opposition figure Oswaldo Payá, who had gathered more than 11,000 signatures to demand democratic reforms. The National Assembly unanimously approved that reform on June 25, 2002.
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