An image captured this Sunday during a pro-government march in Mexico City sparked a reaction from Cuban journalist José Raúl Gallego, who highlighted the irony that a young participant was wearing a mask with the face of Raúl Castro without realizing that such a gesture could cost her freedom if she were to do it in Cuba.
The photograph, published on Facebook by the Mexican Movement of Solidarity with Cuba, shows the young woman wearing a mask and the slogan "I am Raúl echoes through the streets of Mexico City," surrounded by Cuban and Palestinian flags.
Gallego quickly responded with a public post in which he described the episode as "the result of a complete ignorance of the Cuban reality by those who march in Mexico for the dictatorship, believing that they are doing it for Cuba."
The journalist explained that the young woman was unknowingly representing "la China," one of Raúl Castro's historical nicknames, derived from his physical features. "There is the girl, with all the innocence in the world, giving a spectacular representation of la China, one of Raúl Castro's historical nicknames, and which would land her in jail in Cuba if she dared to come down with that act," he wrote.
The irony pointed out by Gallego has concrete legal backing. The Cuban Penal Code (Law 151/2022) classifies disrespect as a crime and punishes those who insult, slander, outrage, or offend a public official with deprivation of liberty for six months to one year. For high-ranking officials such as the president or members of the Council of State, the penalties are even more severe.
Amnesty International warned in December 2022 that this penal code "presents a terrifying outlook" and that its provisions are systematically used to repress dissent and penalize any public criticism of the government.
The march was called by the Mexican Movement of Solidarity with Cuba and the organization Va por Cuba to commemorate the 73rd anniversary of the assault on the Moncada and Carlos Manuel de Céspedes barracks, under the slogan "No to the war against Cuba!". The mobilization started from the Hemicycle to Juárez towards the former United States Embassy on Paseo de la Reforma.
The event was not without controversy: the demonstration ended with a group of participants vandalizing the Cuauhtémoc City Hall, a building protected as a historical heritage site.
Gallego, a journalist and researcher born in Camagüey in 1986, was expelled from the University of Camagüey in 2018 for publishing in independent media. He is a regular voice of critical analysis on Cuban reality from exile.
Raúl Castro governed Cuba from 2008 to 2018 and remains a central figure of the regime. In Cuba, regime supporters have gathered in Mexico on several occasions to express their support for the dictatorship, but few images have so clearly illustrated the gap between those who march and the reality faced by Cubans on the island.
The Cuban president Miguel Díaz-Canel publicly thanked the participants on X: "Thank you #Mexico. Once again at the forefront of the dignity of Our America. To all those who marched for #Cuba this July 26th, the grateful embrace of a people that has always found solidarity in the noble and generous Aztec land. #CubaIsNotAlone."
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