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Abel Prieto, president of the Casa de las Américas and one of the main cultural spokespersons for the Cuban regime, posted this Saturday on X a message supporting the official narrative following the March of May 1st, stating that "against the threats of the Empire, against the annexation chorus, against the siege, Cuba remains steadfast."
The tweet from Prieto arrived hours after Donald Trump signed a new executive order on Friday that expands sanctions against Cuba, targeting foreign financial entities and blocking assets in the energy, defense, mining, and financial services sectors.
The measure adds to the more than 240 sanctions imposed by the Trump administration since January 2026.
In his publication, Prieto directly quoted Miguel Díaz-Canel: "No aggressor, no matter how powerful, will find surrender in Cuba," and emphasized that more than six million Cubans signed the campaign "My Signature for the Homeland" before marching on May First.
The regime announced 6,230,973 signatures in that campaign, with Minister Bruno Rodríguez stating that they represent 81% of the population.
However, the opposition leader José Daniel Ferrer and other activists denounced mass coercion in workplaces, schools, and Defense Committees of the Revolution to collect signatures, describing the campaign as a "propaganda sham."
The May Day march was moved from the Plaza de la Revolución to the José Martí Anti-Imperialist Tribune, in front of the United States Embassy on the Havana Malecon, with the official argument of "austerity" in light of the "energy blockade."
Attendance was remarkably low compared to previous years, with a strong presence of security and pressure on workers and students to attend.
Raúl Castro, 94 years old and visibly deteriorated, presided over the political ceremony and symbolically received the two books with the collected signatures.
The context in which Prieto delivers his message is one of maximum tension. On Thursday, Trump threatened at a private dinner in West Palm Beach to deploy the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier just a hundred meters off the Cuban coast to force the regime's surrender, stating that the United States would "take Cuba almost immediately."
Prieto has been one of the most active spokespeople for the regime on social media for months. In March, during the protests in Morón, Ciego de Ávila, he called on X to "stay united with Díaz-Canel" and suggested that the Israeli Mossad was behind the unrest.
His publications have generated massive rejection among Cubans, who point out the contradiction between his rhetoric and the reality of blackouts lasting between 10 and 25 hours daily, collapsed hospitals, and widespread shortages. A user responded to him in April: "It is more humiliating to die of hunger and rely on the work of a family member in the U.S."
Cuba is facing an economic contraction forecast of 7.2% in 2026 and an accumulated decline of 23% in GDP since 2019, marking the worst economic crisis the Island has seen in decades.
The energy embargo imposed by Executive Order 14380, signed on January 29, has reduced Cuban oil imports by between 80% and 90%, with at least seven tankers intercepted, according to data available as of this date.
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