Messages with the slogans "Down with Canel" and "Down with Canel and the PCC" reportedly appeared on the facade of the University Theater of the Central University "Marta Abreu" of Las Villas (UCLV) in Santa Clara, during the night of Sunday, September 13, or in the early hours of Monday, September 14, coinciding with the start of the school year for incoming students.
The images circulated on social media via the Instagram account "Guapo y Fajao", which claimed to have received them directly from an anonymous source on-site.
The choice of venue carries a symbolic weight that is hard to overlook: UCLV is the alma mater of Miguel Díaz-Canel, who studied electronic engineering there and graduated in 1982. The institution itself also awarded him a Doctorate in Technical Sciences in May 2021.
The graffiti appeared, according to sources, precisely to "sabotage the opening of the school year," an event of significant political symbolism for the regime.
Carlos Alejandro Rodríguez Martínez, who identifies as an alumnus of UCLV, shared a nighttime photo of the building with graffiti on , describing it as a "verified photo" and specifying that the full text read "Down with Canel and the PCC," noting that two figures obscured the initials of the Communist Party of Cuba in the image. "My university, where I vowed never to set foot again until political discrimination ends," he wrote.
According to testimony received by "Guapo y Fajao" —which the account itself notes has not been independently verified— the authorities quickly covered the messages with Cuban flags and posters of July 26, and later repainted the facade to erase any trace.
The same source claims that an operation was launched involving agents from the DTI (Technical Investigation Department) and canine units, which would have prevented closer photographs from being taken, and that a permanent police presence has been maintained at the entrance of the facility since the beginning of the term.
The symbolic connection with UCLV does not end with Díaz-Canel. At that university, María del Carmen Hernández Carús serves as a professor, and she is the mother of Leticia Martínez Hernández, head of Communication for the Cuban presidency and the main spokesperson for the government.
The mother has played a leading role on more than one occasion in episodes that contrast with her daughter's propagandistic role: she publicly protested against the power outages in December 2024 and sparked controversy again in July 2026.
Martínez Hernández, for his part, criticized in October 2022 the residents of Havana who were protesting due to shortages of electricity, water, food, and freedom, labeling them as selfish.
The graffiti fits into a documented trend of clandestine protest. The Cuban Observatory of Conflicts recorded a record of 41 anti-government graffiti in June 2026, the highest number since it began counting them in September 2020.
In March of that same year, 70 graffiti and the distribution of flyers were recorded as part of the so-called "actions of defiance against the police state." In Havana and Bayamo, similar posters with similar messages appeared that month.
"The regime can cover a phrase with flags and repaint a wall, but it cannot hide the growing discontent that exists within Cuba," concluded "Guapo y Fajao" in his post.
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