标签： Cuba

On May 20, 2026, Cuba’s Revolutionary Government issued a forceful, uncompromising rejection of what it calls a despicable political accusation from the United States Department of Justice targeting Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, the iconic leader of the Cuban Revolution. The official statement, released in Havana in the centennial year of Fidel Castro Ruz, stresses that the U.S. government holds no legitimate jurisdiction over this matter, framing the allegation as a blatant act of bad-faith political provocation.

The U.S. accusation is rooted in the 1996 downing of two aircraft operated by Brothers to the Rescue, a Miami-based anti-Cuba militant group that regularly violated Cuban airspace for hostile activities at the time. Cuba’s government argues that the U.S. has deliberately distorted historical facts to manufacture its accusation. Between 1994 and 1996, the group carried out more than 25 deliberate, severe intrusions into Cuban airspace—actions that violated both international law and U.S. domestic aviation regulations. Cuban officials repeatedly submitted formal complaints about these breaches to the U.S. State Department, the Federal Aviation Administration, and the International Civil Aviation Organization, all of which are omitted from the U.S. narrative.

The statement also notes that U.S. authorities ignored clear, public official warnings from Cuba about the unacceptable nature of these airspace violations, including direct notifications sent to the sitting U.S. president outlining the grave risks and potential outcomes of continued inaction. Cuba emphasizes that its 1996 response to the intrusions was a legitimate exercise of self-defense, fully protected under the United Nations Charter, the 1944 Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation, and long-recognized principles of national air sovereignty and proportional response.

Cuba further points out the hypocrisy of the U.S. position: the United States has itself faced terrorist threats exploiting civil aviation, and has never tolerated hostile, provocative incursions into its territory by foreign aircraft. Multiple historical precedents show the U.S. would respond to such incursions with force, the statement argues.

Cuba’s government also highlights that the U.S. government’s failure to act on repeated Cuban warnings decades ago amounts to complicity in the violent, illegal, terrorist acts planned and launched from U.S. territory against Cuba’s government and people—a systematic pattern of aggression that has persisted from the 1959 Cuban Revolution to the present day.

The statement calls out the profound cynicism of the latest accusation, noting it comes from the same U.S. government that has carried out extrajudicial killings of nearly 200 people and destroyed 57 vessels in Caribbean and Pacific international waters far from U.S. territory, all over unproven claims of ties to drug trafficking. Under international law, these actions qualify as unlawful extrajudicial executions, and meet the definition of murder under U.S. domestic law itself.

Cuba frames this baseless accusation against Castro as the latest in a string of desperate efforts by anti-Cuban factions to prop up a false narrative. This manufactured narrative, the government says, is intended to justify harsh collective punishment of the Cuban people through expanded unilateral coercive measures, including what Cuba calls an unjust, genocidal energy blockade and repeated threats of armed aggression against the island nation.

In closing, Cuba reaffirms its longstanding commitment to global peace, while standing firm in its resolve to exercise its inalienable right to self-defense as enshrined in the United Nations Charter. The Cuban people, the statement concludes, reaffirm their unwavering dedication to defending their homeland and socialist revolution, and offer their full, unshakable support to Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, leader of the Cuban Revolution. The statement ends with Cuba’s iconic rallying cry: *Homeland or Death, We shall overcome.*

Ahead of the June 3 milestone, Cuba’s National Bureau of the Young Communists League (UJC) has launched a nationwide call to action inviting Cubans from all walks of life to join in a collective celebration honoring Army General Raúl Castro Ruz on his 95th birthday. The initiative, officially named “Raúl’s 95th Birthday,” was first announced via the organization’s official Facebook page, framing the event as a grassroots tribute to a leader whose life and career have been inextricably tied to Cuba’s national journey.

In the official statement, UJC organizers highlighted the core values that have defined Raúl’s decades of public service: unwavering loyalty to the Cuban people and the revolutionary project, a consistent commitment to social justice, and a lifelong advocacy for peace. The tribute specifically points to Raúl’s leadership through the process of updating Cuba’s economic model, a period of reform during which he never compromised on the country’s foundational commitments to equitable access to social services. It also notes his open, unashamed mourning of the passing of his lifelong partner Vilma Espín, framing this public display of grief as a reflection of his deeply rooted human compassion that has resonated across generations.

The statement contextualizes the 2026 birthday celebration against the backdrop of the centenary of Raúl’s brother in struggle, Fidel Castro. UJC emphasizes that revolutionary greatness is not passed down through inheritance, but cultivated through daily example — a standard that Raúl has embodied through decades of hardship, fatigue, and unbroken resolve. Described as a steadfast patriot, Raúl has taught successive generations to defend Cuba’s revolutionary gains through both tenderness and resolve, intellectual preparation and strategic courage, dignity in international affairs, and solidarity with the Cuban people.

In line with the grassroots spirit of the celebration, the UJC is actively encouraging creative expression from children, adolescents, and young adults across the country. The call invites people from every sector of society — from local neighborhood associations to primary schools, from university campuses to frontline communities — to share messages, poems, songs, and personal stories that honor Raúl’s legacy. The goal is to amplify these tributes across the nation, turning the day into a collective demonstration of gratitude and respect.

“May June 3rd find us guided by Fidel’s memory and encouraged by Raúl’s presence; because the new generations are not here to repeat slogans, we are here to demonstrate that loyalty is action,” the statement reads. The UJC frames this action as three interconnected commitments: defending the progress Cuba has built over decades, transforming systems and structures that are not working as intended, and expanding the public affection for a leader who remains actively engaged in the country’s future, even at 95. The statement closes with a rallying cry echoing Raúl’s iconic resolve: “Come on, Cuba! May this 95th be a huge embrace for a dear friend and a leader beyond reproach. Raúl is Raúl!”

On a historically resonant day marking the 131st anniversary of José Martí’s death in combat, Cuban civil society delivered a powerful demonstration of national unity at Havana’s iconic José Martí Memorial Wednesday. Provincial delegates formally presented over 6.2 million signatures collected through the grassroots ‘My Signature for the Homeland’ movement to Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and President of the Republic.

The massive collection of signatures stands as a collective rebuke of long-standing foreign policy measures targeting Cuba: the decades-long economic blockade, the energy embargo, foreign political interference, and all threats of military aggression against the island nation. Framed by a deep, enduring love for Cuban national sovereignty, the movement also rejects what organizers describe as ongoing efforts at external domination and covert colonial influence over the country’s domestic affairs.

Top Cuban political leaders joined the ceremony, including Esteban Lazo Hernández, President of the National Assembly of People’s Power and the Council of State; Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz; Roberto Morales Ojeda, Organization Secretary of the Communist Party Central Committee; alongside senior representatives from the Young Communist League, mass organizations, and civil society groups across the country. Each territorial delegation brought its own set of signed forms as a documentary record of local participation in the movement.

After accepting the compiled signature collections, Díaz-Canel reaffirmed Cuba’s long-stated commitment to national dignity, noting that this core value ‘is not implored, it is exercised; it is not begged for, it is defended; it is not negotiated, it is lived.’

Ana María Mari Machado, Vice President of the National Assembly of People’s Power, emphasized that the more than 6 million signatures reflect the unified collective conscience of the Cuban people. She added that the vote of signatures opposes not only external intervention and illegal exclusion lists, but also ‘the attempt to govern us from abroad.’

The ceremony also included a tribute to José Martí, Cuba’s national apostle, ahead of the premiere of an eight-part docuseries titled *El Misterio de un Hombre* (The Mystery of a Man), directed by filmmaker Roly. An original allegorical poster for the new series was presented to Díaz-Canel and attending members of the Communist Party Political Bureau to mark the occasion.

On a casual, unplanned observation, author Jorge Enrique Jerez Belisario overheard a striking exchange that laid bare a growing ideological threat facing Cuba today. Two strangers discussing current economic and social hardships slipped into a dangerous revisionist claim: that life under capitalism before the 1959 Cuban Revolution was, at the very least, functional. A bystander quickly pushed back with a sharp, unanswerable truth: under that old order, Black Cubans were barred from sharing sidewalks with white Cubans. That moment of everyday dialogue, Jerez argues, reveals how insidious and effective the global campaign to rewrite Cuban history has become.

The battle for influence in the 21st century is not fought only on military battlefields or in trade negotiations. Today, the most critical front is collective memory. In this war of narratives, billions are invested in ideological manipulation, and nostalgia for the pre-revolutionary bourgeois republic has emerged as one of foreign powers’ most effective seductive weapons. Rather than presenting an accurate account of Cuba’s past, this campaign cherry-picks details to fit a pre-written narrative: it frames the 1902–1959 republic as an idyllic lost paradise, stolen from the Cuban people by the 1959 Revolution.

The mechanism of this propaganda is disarmingly simple. Operators take the basic factual truth — that a bourgeois republic existed before 1959 — strip away all its systemic contradictions, polish its superficial glamor, and present it as a sepia-toned mirage for Cubans to yearn for, even if they never lived through it. This is not history; it is carefully packaged propaganda. Scroll through any major social media platform, from Instagram to X to Facebook, and users are flooded with curated posts highlighting the neon-lit streets of mid-century Havana, sleek new cars cruising the Malecón, and grand well-preserved buildings, all packaged to sell the myth of a pre-revolutionary paradise.

What these posts deliberately omit is the dark underbelly of that old order. That superficial “glamor” was not available to all Cubans, nor was it achieved without exploitation. Pre-1959 Cuba was a de facto playground and testing ground for United States interests: it was dominated by organized crime, large exploitative landholdings, state-regulated prostitution, and a local ruling class that acted as willing collaborators with foreign imperial power. The bright neon signs of 1950s Havana only masked deep, systemic inequality, not widespread collective prosperity.

The end goal of this campaign is far more subtle than simply turning the public against the current government. Its quiet aim is to erode faith in the very necessity of the Cuban Revolution. By planting the seed of doubt — “What if the old republic wasn’t that bad?” — operatives open a crack for historical amnesia to seep in, ultimately demobilizing popular support for Cuba’s sovereign revolutionary project. The narrative pushes the false claim that the 1902 republic solved Cuba’s core problems, erasing the widespread unrest and systemic injustice that defined the 1930s and 1950s and made revolution inevitable.

The danger of this selective historical memory extends far beyond distorted accounts of the past. When a Cuban, whether living on the island or abroad, accepts the myth of the perfectible old republic, the manipulators win a decisive ideological victory. Suddenly, the national consensus built around a century-long fight for justice is shattered: the Revolution becomes redefined as an unnecessary mistake that interrupted a supposed golden age. From there, it is a small step to frame the decades-long U.S. blockade as a reasonable sanction, coercive foreign measures as deserved punishment, and national surrender as a pragmatic solution. This entire project is designed to drain over six decades of collective struggle for social justice of all meaning.

Selective memory does not only lie about history — it amputates a population’s ability to understand the challenges of the present. When people only see the glittering avenues and luxury cars of the old republic, they are conditioned to dismiss systemic inequality as a minor footnote, racial segregation as an unimportant detail, and the national sovereignty shackled by the Platt Amendment as an acceptable tradeoff for consumer goods and superficial order. This is the true poison of cognitive warfare: when collective memory is selectively curated, national historical consciousness atrophies. People stop questioning why the Revolution required mass sacrifice, come to see it as an unnecessary violent interruption of a bourgeois idyll, and become vulnerable to propaganda that frames foreign intervention as humanitarian aid and the blockade as a just penalty.

This manipulated memory also fractures intergenerational solidarity. Young Cubans who only ever see the curated postcard version of 1950s Cuba grow up without learning the history of popular struggle, never understanding that the old republic was also a system that left peasants landless, workers without basic rights, and Black Cubans systematically excluded. Without that full context, these young people will repeat claims of “lost freedom” without ever grasping what they are actually saying.

At its core, selective memory is not just deceptive — it is disarming. It robs Cubans of the tools to defend the gains their predecessors won over decades of resistance. It plants doubt in the legacy of national heroes, pushes people to view current hardships through the lens of an invented past, and convinces them to blame the Revolution itself for problems caused by decades of foreign aggression. That is the ultimate goal of this cognitive warfare campaign: to make the Cuban people blame their own shield for the wounds inflicted by an attacking sword.

Every social media account posting decontextualized “old Havana” content is part of a calculated operation. Every article idealizing the bourgeois republic that ignores its deep structural flaws is backed by significant foreign funding. Every person who repeats the claim “we were better off before” despite having never lived in that era marks a small victory for foreign cognitive warfare. Jerez closes with a call to collective vigilance: Cubans must not allow this induced nostalgia to rob them of their historical clarity, nor let selective memory erase the full truth of the past. Cuba was never built on a lost paradise; it was built on a people’s decision to stop being a colony and claim national dignity. That is the decision these campaigns aim to undermine — and it remains the foundation that keeps Cuba standing today. To build a just future, Cubans must first understand the full truth of their past.

On the anniversary of José Martí’s historic struggle for Cuban sovereignty, writer Enrique Ubieta Gómez revisits the founding father’s timeless ideological legacy, framing it as a living call to resistance amid ongoing geopolitical tensions in the Americas. Published on May 19, 2026, the reflection opens with a vivid evocation of Martí, the iconic independence leader: galloping across history on his white steed, revolver in hand toward the sun, his words already etched forever into Cuba’s collective identity through letters, speeches, and poetry.

Martí’s core vision tied Cuban independence not just to national self-determination, but to the broader freedom of all Latin American peoples and even global geopolitical balance. In his final letters before falling in battle, he laid out his existential mission clearly: he risked his life to prevent the United States from expanding its power across the Antilles, a foothold that would let it extend imperial control over all of Our America. “To prevent the opening in Cuba, through annexation to the imperialists there and the Spanish, of the path that must be blocked, and which we are blocking with our blood, of the annexation of the peoples of Our America to the turbulent and brutal North that despises them,” he wrote. He further argued that a free Antilles would preserve the independence of the Americas, protect the standing of independent nations across the region, and help stabilize global power dynamics. This framing reflected a core truth that defined his legacy: a nation that oppresses another can never itself be free.

More than a century after Martí’s death, Gómez argues that the cycle of imperial expansion Martí predicted has not concluded. What historians call the century of imperialism, born with the 1898 Cuban War, remains in its unstable death throes in the 21st century, its core contradiction— the clash between exploited and exploiting nations, as identified by Che Guevara—still unresolved. Due to its unique geographic position, centuries-long tradition of anti-colonial resistance, and almost 70 years of sustained independent sovereignty after its revolution, Cuba stands at the center of this long historical struggle. Strategically located at the gateway to the Americas, Cuba is often described as a key to the region; Gómez expands this metaphor, noting the island also acts as a pivot that can open or close paths forward for all humanity.

For Martí, the concept of “homeland” was far more than geographic territory. As early as 16, in his dramatic poem *Abdala*, he rejected the idea of homeland as trivial attachment to soil: “it is not the ridiculous love for the land / Nor for the grass our feet tread.” Instead, he defined it as “the invincible hatred for those who oppress it, / It is the eternal resentment toward those who attack it,” rooted in the idea that homeland is the space where human dignity takes root. This commitment led him to declare as a young man: “I would prefer (…) that the first law of our republic be the Cuban people’s devotion to the full dignity of humankind.” When he returned to Cuba in 1878, he rejected a compromised peace treaty that abandoned independence, declaring: “They think I am returning to my homeland! My homeland lies in so many open graves, in so much lost glory, in so much honor lost and sold! I no longer have a homeland —until I conquer it.”

Martí’s vision of homeland extended beyond national borders, rooted in a universal commitment to human dignity. “Conscience is the citizenship of the universe,” he declared while living in Mexico in 1876, asserting that justice anywhere is the concern of all people. For Martí, a homeland is not merely a piece of land: it is the collective space where a community builds a shared project of dignity and equality for all. As he wrote, “Homeland is humanity, it is that portion of humanity that we see most closely and in which we were born; and it should not be allowed that with the deception of the holy name useless monarchies, bloated religions or shameless and starving politics be defended.”

Historically, the fight for Cuban independence emerged alongside the rise of U.S. imperialism—two competing projects, sharing geography and timeline, but rooted in opposing values. Gómez notes that Martí warned early on against Latin American leaders and populations dazzled by North American material prosperity. As far back as 1871, he wrote in his notebook: “American laws have given the North a high degree of prosperity, and have also raised it to the highest degree of corruption. They have turned it into a commodity to make it prosperous. Cursed be prosperity at such a cost!” Over time, his rejection of U.S. imperial ambition only deepened.

Today, as the imperial cycle that Martí identified enters its final, most dangerous phase, Gómez reaffirms Cuba’s enduring commitment to his vision: “We have conquered the Homeland, imperfect but luminous, ours, and we will know how to defend it. As yesterday, it is Homeland or Death.” Closing with the same vivid imagery that opened the reflection, Gómez evokes Martí’s eternal presence: he returns, galloping on his white steed, revolver in hand toward the sun, the fervent young revolutionary forever, repeating the defiant verses of *Abdala* that still ring true for a people defending their sovereignty:

Neither laurel nor crowns are needed
He who breathes courage. For they threaten
Free Nubia, and a tyrant wants
To subdue her as a vile slave to his dominion.
Let us rush to the fight, and let our blood
Prove to the conqueror that it is shed
By breasts that are altars of Nubia,
By arms that are her forts and walls!

Cuba has officially launched its fifth nationwide exercise focused on the prevention and counteraction of transnational and domestic societal threats, including organized crime, systemic corruption, illicit drug trafficking, unauthorized activities, and widespread social indiscipline. The nationwide initiative comes with an explicit core mandate: to ramp up coordinated action against harmful behaviors that directly undermine the island nation’s most critical strategic priorities.

This year’s exercise unfolds against an extraordinarily complex geopolitical and economic backdrop, shaped by decades of escalating pressure from the United States government. A decades-long economic, commercial, and financial blockade has been tightened in recent years, compounded by a strict oil embargo, expanding unilateral sanctions, sustained diplomatic hostility, coordinated psychological warfare campaigns, and persistent threats of direct military action against the Cuban government and people.

2026 marks the centennial celebration of Fidel Castro Ruz, the historic Commander-in-Chief of the Cuban Revolution, and this year’s exercise is rooted firmly in Castro’s enduring ideological and practical legacy. It aligns directly with his longstanding guidance that “special attention must be paid to upholding internal order, because resource scarcity can create conditions for a rise in criminal activity, particularly actions targeting the national economy. This task must be understood as a shared responsibility of all public institutions, and every political and administrative leader.”

Organizers frame the initiative as a collective battle that demands elevated, coordinated action from all sectors of Cuban society to eliminate any space for impunity for harmful actors. Stakeholders emphasize the urgent need to recognize the full scale of current threats, both internal and external, and the non-negotiable responsibility to protect citizen security — a core, cherished achievement of the Cuban Revolution. These challenges have been further exacerbated by widespread, persistent power outages that disrupt daily family life, erode public well-being, and strain access to essential resources for the population.

Under the initiative, priority efforts will be directed at strengthening security and protective measures for Cuba’s national energy grid and national fuel supply chains, alongside the country’s critical food production and distribution systems. Simultaneously, preventing and combating illicit drug activity, public sector corruption, predatory price gouging, and open market speculation top the exercise’s priority list.

In the current heightened political climate, resolute action against vandalism and social indiscipline carries particular strategic importance. Cuban authorities note that these disruptive acts are frequently instigated by foreign actors as part of deliberate subversive efforts to destabilize the government. Beyond the direct material damage these acts cause, they are often connected to violent actions that threaten the lives and physical safety of ordinary citizens, all with the end goal of fostering public discontent and widespread social unrest. This context requires strict adherence to national law, widespread public support for law enforcement and regulatory authorities carrying out their official duties, and collective action to protect the nation’s critical strategic assets.

As Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and President of the Republic, noted during the previous iteration of the national exercise, these coordinated initiatives represent a critical opportunity to strengthen collective defensive capacity and guarantee public calm, respect for internal order, national stability, and social discipline — all while advancing broad public participation in the country’s core national priorities. This is especially critical amid the complex challenges the nation currently faces.

Cuba’s revolutionary leadership has made clear that this collective campaign for public order, social discipline, and national tranquility is built on the unified strength of revolutionary forces led by the Communist Party, with active coordinated participation from state organs, national government bodies, the Union of Young Communists, and a wide network of mass and grassroots social organizations.

In this national effort, achieving high levels of grassroots popular participation and community oversight is a core requirement. It stands as a tangible expression of the Cuban people’s political maturity and ideological commitment to defending the socialist project the nation has built over decades. Ultimately, upholding internal order is framed as a non-negotiable strategic objective for Cuba in an era of persistent external threat.

In a rare high-level engagement that marks a notable moment in the long-strained relations between the United States and Cuba, the Cuban Revolutionary Government has granted approval for a visit to Havana by a US delegation led by CIA Director John Ratcliffe. The in-person meeting between Ratcliffe’s delegation and Cuban officials from the Ministry of the Interior took place on Thursday, May 14, 2026, unfolding against a backdrop of long-standing complexity and friction in bilateral ties between the two neighboring nations.

According to official Cuban confirmation, the dialogue was structured to advance constructive political exchange between the two governments, forming part of broader ongoing efforts to address the most pressing points of tension in the current bilateral relationship. During the discussions, Cuban authorities presented clear, categorical evidence and engaged in detailed exchanges that unequivocally refute long-standing US claims that Cuba poses a threat to American national security. The Cuban delegation also firmly established that there is no legitimate justification for Cuba’s continued inclusion on the US government’s list of state sponsors of terrorism.

The meeting also served as a platform to reaffirm the consistent, unwavering stance that Cuba has maintained for decades: the Cuban government and its relevant national agencies unequivocally condemn and actively counter terrorism in every form and manifestation it takes. Cuban officials restated the country’s long-held position that the island nation does not host, support, finance, or tolerate the operation of any terrorist or extremist organizations within its borders. Furthermore, there are no foreign military or intelligence installations operating on Cuban territory, and Cuba has never backed any hostile activity targeting the United States, nor will it ever permit actions against any other sovereign nation to be planned or launched from its soil.

Beyond addressing long-standing points of contention, the talks also highlighted a shared interest from both sides in expanding practical bilateral cooperation between their respective law enforcement and security agencies. Both delegations agreed that deeper collaboration in this area would deliver tangible benefits not only for the national security of the United States and Cuba but also for broader regional and global stability. The high-profile visit opens a new channel of direct dialogue between the two nations at a time when bilateral relations remain deeply divided, offering a potential opening for incremental progress on shared security priorities.

On Wednesday, civil society delegates from multiple Cuban provinces presented formal documentation confirming broad popular backing for the ‘My Signature for the Homeland’ initiative to top Communist Party and government leaders across regional jurisdictions. This mass signature-gathering effort stands as a powerful collective demonstration of Cuban unity in opposition to the escalating U.S. economic blockade and global aggression, cementing the island nation’s commitment to forging an independent future in peace.

The formal handover of bound signature volumes followed brief political-cultural ceremonies in each participating province, with regional authorities accepting the documents that reflect the overwhelming will of the Cuban public. In Sancti Spíritus, young art instructor Yadira Bernal Nazco, speaking for local civil society groups, called on citizens to reject what she framed as relentless, extraterritorial aggression from a global power that seeks to break the Cuban people through economic deprivation and manufactured despair. She emphasized that defending national historical memory, distinct Cuban cultural identity, and full national sovereignty remains a non-negotiable priority for all residents of the island.

In the eastern province of Guantánamo, local representative Yairis Fernández Castellanos highlighted that more than 290,000 Guantanamo residents across all age groups, religious backgrounds and civil society sectors had added their names to the initiative. Fernández called the mass participation a deliberate act of moral conscience, noting that every signature carries the Cuban people’s shared commitment to justice, unshakable commitment to independence, and deep understanding that all critical national battles are won through popular unity.

Speaking for a cross-sector coalition of workers, smallholder farmers, intellectuals, athletes, students and faith-based organizations in Las Tunas province, Gustavo López Ramírez reaffirmed that Cubans will always stand ready to defend the hard-won independence secured by generations of national heroes and martyrs.

Across the entire island, final counts confirm that more than 6.2 million Cubans have added their signatures to the ‘My Signature for the Homeland’ movement. Organizers and authorities frame this unprecedented level of popular participation as a clear, unequivocal message to the international community: the Cuban people remain united in rejecting the escalating economic pressure imposed by the U.S. government that aims to choke the island’s economy and force political change.