On May 22, 2026, Cuban President and First Secretary of the Communist Party Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez issued a forceful rebuke of the United States Department of Justice’s unsubstantiated accusation against revolutionary leader Raúl Castro Ruz, using his social media platform to galvanize national unity in the face of what Cuban officials frame as renewed imperial aggression.
Díaz-Canel emphasized that this latest provocative action by Washington has only deepened solidarity across the island nation, strengthening the long-held sense of national honor, dignity, and anti-imperialist resolve that has defined Cuba’s position in global affairs for decades. “The General of the Army is Cuba, and Cuba must be respected,” he stated in his online address. “The heroes of the Homeland are not to be disrespected, nor are history and traditions to be offended without response. Not in Cuba.”
Per the Cuban president’s account, the unfounded prosecution attempt against the revolutionary leader in a U.S. court represents the most recent in a long line of provocations from what Cuban leaders describe as the nation’s historic adversaries. He noted that despite decades of systemic economic hardship and critical supply shortages driven largely by the U.S. trade embargo – which the Cuban government describes as a genocidal blockade – the Cuban people have stood firm in rejecting outside interference.
“Our people have fiercely risen above the daily hardships and shortages, caused primarily by the genocidal blockade, to respond to the latest infamy of the Cuban nation’s historical enemies: the attempt to prosecute the leader of the Revolution in a U.S. court,” Díaz-Canel wrote. He added that the new attack has “further united us and elevated the honor, dignity, and anti-imperialist sentiment of a people already recognized worldwide for their courageous resistance to any kind of subordination to the empire.”
To demonstrate collective support for Castro, Díaz-Canel echoed a call for a national gathering scheduled for Friday morning at Havana’s iconic Anti-Imperialist Tribune. The rally was organized through a joint initiative by the Young Communists League, a broad coalition of Cuban mass organizations, student groups, and youth movements, all mobilizing to stand with the revolutionary leader.
A separate official statement from the Revolutionary Government of Cuba clarified that the U.S. accusation relies entirely on deliberate, dishonest manipulation of a 1996 incident, in which Cuban air defense forces downed two Miami-based aircraft operated by Brothers to the Rescue, a U.S.-based organization classified by Cuba as a terrorist group. Cuban officials have long stressed that the aircraft repeatedly violated Cuban national airspace for open hostile activities, a fact that was well-documented and publicly known at the time and in subsequent decades.