An official propaganda billboard featuring the image of Fidel Castro was found smeared with red paint this Sunday in Cayo Mambí, Frank País municipality, in the province of Holguín, according to independent journalist Yosmany Mayeta Labrada on his Facebook account.
According to Mayeta Labrada's report, the paint was thrown directly on Castro's face, "visibly altering the poster installed in the area." The journalist specified that at the time of publication, it had not been publicly disclosed who carried out the action, "nor if the authorities have initiated any investigation to identify those responsible."
The circulated photograph shows the poster—placed on poles in a vegetated area—with abundant red paint spilled over the head and upper body of the depicted figure, who appears with the right arm raised and fist clenched, a typical gesture of patriotic compulsiveness from the Cuban political leadership that has amplified propaganda.
The color used has generated diverse interpretations among those who witnessed the event. According to Mayeta Labrada, some associate it "symbolically with the victims and the human cost attributed to decades of Castro's government," although the journalist clarified that "it is not known if that was truly the intention of those who intervened with the banner."
The incident occurs just days after the anniversary of Fidel Castro's birth—commemorated on August 13 with a flurry of official events across the island—a week of intense propaganda activity surrounding his figure. That one of his billboards appears defaced in this context underscores the symbolic weight of the act.
The event is not isolated. In March of this year, a billboard featuring Castro's face was defaced with paint in Yara, Granma, in an action documented by the opposition figure José Daniel Ferrer. In Santiago de Cuba, also in March, posters with phrases such as "Down with communism" and "Down with the dictatorship" appeared on public billboards; in one of those instances, the regime chose to remove the entire billboard rather than allow the intervention to remain visible.
At the beginning of this year, the opposition figure José Daniel Ferrer and the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU) launched the campaign "Paint Your Graffiti", which encouraged citizens to modify government posters and document their actions on social media. The initiative coincided with a sustained increase in expressions of discontent in public spaces throughout the year.
At the beginning of this week, new posters bearing the message "We want food, electricity, and freedom" appeared in various areas of Santiago de Cuba, amid the ongoing economic and energy crisis that the population is enduring.
The Cuban regime maintains an extensive network of banners, posters, and monuments featuring images of Castro and other historical leaders in public spaces across the island as part of its political propaganda strategy.
Mayeta Labrada concluded her report with a statement that encapsulates the moment: "What happened in Cayo Mambí leaves a difficult image to ignore: Fidel Castro's face did not wake up intact in the official propaganda this time; and the population's discontent is increasingly encroaching on areas that were once 'strongholds' of communism."
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