Related videos:
The Cuban regime added Artemisa this Friday to its series of propaganda events in defense of Raúl Castro, with a rally held at the Mausoleum to the Martyrs of that province, where official speakers condemned the criminal charges filed by the U.S. Department of Justice against the former dictator.
The event, which began at 7:30 in the morning, took place in the same location where the young people who accompanied Castro in the assault on Moncada in 1953 rest, a setting filled with symbolism that the regime did not miss to wrap the day in revolutionary epic.
The meeting was presided over by Gladys Martínez Verdecia, a member of the Political Bureau and president of the Provincial Defense Council, along with Ricardo Concepción Rodríguez, her vice president, and other leaders of the Municipal Defense Council, reported the provincial newspaper el artemiseño.
The speakers followed the expected script: Bárbara Lucía Pérez González, representative of the local jurists, gave what the official press described as a speech of "legal and political condemnation of external interference"; Lisniel Rodríguez Morales, a Medical Sciences student, spoke on behalf of "the new generations"; and Yury Belén Ramírez emphasized "the resilience of the Cuban people." The event concluded with songs, improvised décimas, and a display of photographs of the Army General.
The final message, as reported by the local newspaper, was that "the people of Artemisa do not remain silent in the face of injustice, do not bow down to power or the unexpected actions of the Government of the United States. We will always remain loyal to our leaders."
Artemisa thus joins a chain of Anti-Imperialist Open Tribunes that the regime has deployed throughout the country since May 22, in response to the unclassified accusation made on May 20 by the acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche at the Freedom Tower in Miami. This accusation charges Castro and five co-defendants with conspiracy to assassinate American citizens and four counts of homicide for the downing, on February 24, 1996, of two planes from Hermanos al Rescate over the Florida Straits, which resulted in the deaths of Armando Alejandre Jr., Carlos Costa, Mario de la Peña, and Pablo Morales.
The accusation has, thus far, primarily symbolic significance — there is no extradition treaty between Cuba and the United States — but the regime has made it the centerpiece of a campaign that mobilized public transportation, military personnel, and state workers to fill the events, all amid a fuel crisis that leaves millions of Cubans without electricity for 20 to 25 hours a day.
The contrast with everyday reality is hard to ignore. The Electric Union reported deficits exceeding 2,000 MW in May; 33.9% of Cuban households had at least one member who went to bed hungry in 2025, according to the Food Monitor Program; and ECLAC projects a GDP contraction of -6.5% for 2026.
The regime also mobilized in Pinar del Río with the same script this Friday. In the audience of that province, while a health official described the American accusation as "an action lacking validity and morality, an undignified and vile provocation," she admitted that 1,630 patients —including 71 children and 365 cancer patients— have been unable to undergo surgery due to lack of resources.
All the machinery will culminate on June 3, the date on which Raúl Castro will turn 95 years old, turning the campaign into both a legal defense act and a nationwide birthday celebration, funded by the scarce resources of a country in freefall.
Filed under: