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Leticia Martínez Hernández, head of Communication at the Palace of the Revolution and the most prominent figure in Miguel Díaz-Canel's propaganda team, posted on Facebook this Friday a message defending the Cuban leader, just hours after Washington imposed personal sanctions on him for the first time.
"His moral stature, his decency, his commitment to Cuba and to the fate of his people—so much so, as he has stated, that he is willing to even give his life for it—undermine any fascist attempt to denigrate him," wrote Martínez Hernández under the hashtag #EstamosContigoPresidente.
In the same text, the official lashed out at Secretary of State Marco Rubio: "If it weren't so serious, it would be laughable. The Secretary of State, like any scoundrel, thinks everyone else is like him."
The publication came a day after the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the U.S. Department of the Treasury added Díaz-Canel to the list of Specially Designated Nationals, marking the first time the Cuban head of state is directly listed in that record.
Alongside Díaz-Canel, his wife Lis Cuesta Peraza, his stepson Manuel Anido Cuesta, Alejandro Castro Espín, Raúl Alejandro Castro Calis, the Ministry of Revolutionary Armed Forces, the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples, Amistur Cuba S.A., and Minera La Victoria S.A. were appointed.
The measures represent the third wave of sanctions under Executive Order 14404 signed by Donald Trump on May 1, 2026, which expanded restrictions on the energy, defense, mining, and finance sectors, and introduced secondary sanctions against foreign companies engaging with designated Cuban entities.
Rubio justified the sanctions by stating that they target "the broad and violent network of radical action of the Cuban regime and the actors who implement and finance it," and accused Havana of serving as a base of operations for the "global irregular war against U.S. interests."
Díaz-Canel responded on X calling the measures "illegitimate" and ending with the hashtag #LaPatriaSeDefiende, while Jorge Legañoa, president of Prensa Latina, defended them this Thursday on the Mesa Redonda with a phrase that summarizes the official stance: "It is a medal for not bending the arm".
Martínez Hernández's reaction fits into a documented pattern of coordinated defenses of the ruling party by the regime's propaganda apparatus. In April 2026, official journalists launched a campaign using hashtags like #IContinueWithMyPresident, and Martínez Hernández herself had already come to the defense of official figures in January and February of this year.
The three waves of sanctions in less than a month —on May 7, May 18, and June 4— represent an unprecedented escalation in Washington's maximum pressure policy towards Havana, which Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned could "tighten or loosen depending on the behavior of the Cuban government."
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