Lucía Céspedes Ocampo, a Cuban residing abroad who had previously sparked controversy with her expressions of support for the Cuban regime in Spain, appeared this week on the National News of Cuban Television (NTV) during a visit by Miguel Díaz-Canel to the neighborhood of La Timba, where she expressed her support for the regime and thanked the leader on camera.
The report shared by Canal Caribe on Facebook, authored by journalist Wilmer Rodríguez Fernández, features a woman in the dining area of the Family Attention System (SAF) in the neighborhood during the presidential tour. Although the news segment only refers to her as "a young Cuban living abroad," without disclosing her identity, she is actually Céspedes Ocampo, known for her previous public statements supporting the government of what is referred to as "continuity."
In her passionate statements before the camera, the woman asserted: «We are from El Cerro, but we are also going to support this SAF, because every Cuban today must stand with the people of Cuba, and we will all prevail. Thank you for what you are doing. I live in France, in Guadeloupe».
Díaz-Canel's visit was part of the "My Neighborhood for the Homeland" movement, an initiative of the National Assembly of People's Power that works in partnership with youth, political, and mass organizations, which the regime presents as a tool for community transformation. La Timba is a popular neighborhood in the Plaza de la Revolución municipality with around 5,000 residents.
The emergence of the Cuban residing abroad follows a documented pattern of the regime: incorporating members of the diaspora who express support for the government in official media coverage, with the aim of projecting a transnational popular backing that contrasts with the narrative of a predominantly oppositional exile.
Lucía Céspedes Ocampo had already been involved in several similar incidents in 2026. The regime supporter went viral in April for shouting "Long live my president Díaz-Canel" and calling the Cuban exile community "traitors, sniveling worms, bomb throwers, and American bootlickers."
Weeks later, Céspedes Ocampo called for signing the official campaign "My signature for the Fatherland" and in June, defended the 176 economic transformation measures approved by the regime, all while in Spain.
The contradiction pointed out by critics is evident: these individuals advocate for Cuban socialism while living in capitalist countries and, in some cases, use money earned abroad to cover shortages that the state itself cannot meet.
This propagandistic use of Cubans abroad occurs while the Island is experiencing one of its worst economic crises in decades. According to a survey by the Food Monitor Program, nearly one in three Cuban households reported in May that a member went to bed hungry at least once in the previous 30 days.
More than 700,000 Cubans emigrated between 2021 and 2025, a figure that undermines the image of popular support that the regime tries to construct with appearances like this week's in La Timba.
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