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This Saturday, Santiago de Cuba became the stage for an anti-imperialist rally in defense of Raúl Castro, the first provincial response to the central event held on Friday in Havana following the criminal charges filed by the U.S. Department of Justice against the former leader.
Local official media TV Santiago and CMKW Radio Mambí shared on their networks images of citizens dressed in red, carrying Cuban flags and portraits of Castro, gathered in front of the Anti-Imperialist Tribune of the city, adorned with the emblem of the July 26 Movement.
"Today Santiago de Cuba wakes up dressed in the colors of the homeland. At the Antimperialist Tribune, the new falsehood of the US government aimed at tarnishing the Cuban leader Raúl Castro Ruz is denounced," reported TV Santiago under the hashtag #RaúlEsRaúl.
For its part, CMKW Radio Mambí proclaimed: "Santiago de Cuba is on the front lines! In front of the Anti-Imperialist Tribune, our people from Santiago are already gathering with their hearts and history held high. Ready to support Army General Raúl Castro Ruz in defense of the Revolution and the dignity of Cuba."
The Santiago event is the first provincial replica of the central event on Friday in Havana, held in front of the U.S. Embassy on the Malecón under the slogan "The Homeland is defended," to which Miguel Díaz-Canel attended dressed in olive green combat uniform without delivering a speech.
The only leader who spoke at that Havana event was Gerardo Hernández, national coordinator of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, who read a message attributed to Raúl Castro himself, who did not attend the event organized in his name.
The regime mobilized buses, military personnel, police, and state workers to fill the gathering in Havana, a classic mechanism of the so-called “open tribunes,” historically used to project popular unity in the face of external pressures.
The trigger for the entire mobilization is the criminal charges against Raúl Castro declassified on May 20 by acting Attorney General Todd Blanche at the Freedom Tower in Miami, approved by a federal grand jury in the Southern District of Florida on April 23.
The charges include conspiracy to assassinate American citizens, two counts of destruction of aircraft, and four counts of homicide for the deaths of Carlos Costa, Armando Alejandre Jr., Mario de la Peña, and Pablo Morales, the four members of Brothers to the Rescue who were shot down on February 24, 1996, over international waters of the Florida Strait by MiG-29 jets of the Cuban Revolutionary Air Force.
As key evidence, the prosecution cites an audio recording from June 1996 in which Castro allegedly ordered the downing of the aircraft.
The Council of State and the National Assembly of Cuba defended Raúl, describing the accusation as "infamous, immoral, and illegitimate," while Canal Caribe stated that the mobilizations aim to "condemn the despicable and infamous act of the United States Department of Justice against the leader of the Cuban Revolution."
All of this is happening while Cuba is experiencing a record electricity deficit that exceeded 2,000 MW in mid-May, with power outages lasting more than 20 hours a day and widespread shortages of food and fuel.
The regime formally called for open forums across the country amid an internal crisis from this Saturday until June 3, 2026, the date when Raúl Castro will turn 95 years old.
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