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Leticia Martínez Hernández, head of press at the Palace and digital communication advisor to President Miguel Díaz-Canel, posted yesterday on her public Facebook profile a series of photographs of Raúl Castro that appear to be edited with Photoshop, under the title «Raúl with our signatures», during the central event of International Workers' Day held at the José Martí Anti-Imperialist Tribune in Havana.
The exiled Cuban journalist Mario J. Pentón denounced the photo retouching by posting the original image alongside the edited one and writing: "Someone tell Leticia to ease up on the Photoshop, it's ruining everything. The image below is the real one," accompanied by the hashtag #ridiculous.
The alleged alteration takes on special significance because the appearance on May 1st was the first public appearance of Raúl Castro in five months, since December 2, 2025, when he was described as frail and having difficulty walking during the final session of the National Assembly.
Multiple sources described the former leader, aged 94 years, as "visibly deteriorated and physically weakened" during the event yesterday, where he presided alongside Díaz-Canel over the gathering in front of the United States Embassy on the Havana Malecon.
Díaz-Canel himself had acknowledged in April, in an interview with Telesur, that Raúl is "alive but retired for health reasons" and "fragile due to his advanced age."
In that context, the alleged retouching of the photographs by his press advisor would aim to soften the evident physical deterioration of the historical leader in the eyes of the public, at a time when the regime seeks to project an image of vitality and combativeness.
The event's central element was the presentation to Raúl Castro of two books containing over 6.2 million signatures from the campaign "My Signature for the Homeland," launched on April 19 in commemoration of the 65th anniversary of the Battle of Playa Girón.
Opposition sources reported low turnout at the march and denounced pressure on state workers and students to attend, with testimonies stating that "signing in is mandatory at workplaces; if you don’t sign, you know what will happen—you'll be out on the street."
The event was moved from the Plaza de la Revolución to the Anti-Imperialist Tribune —which has a smaller capacity— in a context of austerity and energy crisis, although the Cuban official press insisted on presenting it as a massive demonstration of popular support.
Leticia Martínez Hernández is no stranger to controversy: in December 2024, she had a confrontation with the host Michel Torres Corona of the program "Con Filo" on Cuban Television, highlighting internal tensions within the regime's communication apparatus.
Raúl Castro did not attend the 9th Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba held in March 2026, where Díaz-Canel was reaffirmed as first secretary, which fueled speculation about his health status.
The manipulation of images adds to a documented pattern of informational manipulation by the Cuban state-run media in a country that ranks 165 out of 180 in the 2025 World Press Freedom Index.
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