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The International Relations Commission of the National Assembly of People's Power of Cuba stated that more than six million Cubans signed in support of the "Socialist Revolution and the Revolutionary Government," a figure that the regime presents as 81% of the population aged 16 and older.
The statement, addressed to parliamentarians and interparliamentary organizations worldwide, is part of the campaign "My Signature for the Homeland," launched on April 19 by the Communist Party of Cuba, coinciding with the 65th anniversary of the Battle of Playa Girón.
What the regime overlooks is that the signatories were not merely supporting the Revolution: they were endorsing the Declaration of the Revolutionary Government "Girón is today and always," whose text explicitly includes the commitment to defend the Homeland with arms against what Havana describes as threats of U.S. military aggression.
The exact figure announced by the Presidency of Cuba is 6,230,973 signatures. With a population that does not exceed 11 million inhabitants —including children and the elderly—, this number would represent over 56% of all Cubans, which raises the need to clarify the population universe used by the regime and casts doubt on the validity of the percentage announced.
And reports of coercion have been plentiful since the beginning of the campaign. Executives from state-owned companies forced their employees to ensure at least 80% of signatures under the threat of dismissal, according to documented testimonies.
"The signature is mandatory in workplaces; if you don't sign, you know what happens—you’re out," summarized an anonymous testimony collected in Matanzas. The pressures extended to warehouses, schools, universities, and the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution.
The official narrative of spontaneous citizen initiative was further called into question by a revealing detail: the first visible signature in the books delivered on May 1st was that of Raúl Castro, followed by Díaz-Canel and other leaders of the regime.
Those books were symbolically handed over to Raúl Castro and Díaz-Canel during the May Day event, held in front of the United States Embassy on the Havana Malecón, and not in the Plaza de la Revolución, citing "austerity."
Díaz-Canel warned this past Saturday before delegates from 36 countries about "the imminence of a military aggression" from the United States and invoked the doctrine of the "War of the Whole People," stating that "every Cuban man and every Cuban woman has a rifle."
The maneuver has a direct precedent: in 2002, Fidel Castro launched a campaign to collect over eight million signatures to declare socialism "irrevocable" in the Constitution, in response to the Varela Project by opposition leader Oswaldo Payá, who had submitted more than 11,000 signatures to demand democratic reforms.
While the regime uses the alleged signatures as a propaganda shield, Cuba is experiencing one of the worst crises in its recent history: according to independent estimates, the GDP has contracted by about 23% since 2019, several thermoelectric units remain out of service, and blackouts last up to 25 hours in various provinces across the country.
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