In June 2025, more than twenty graffiti messages on the same wall prompted a major police deployment
14ymedio, Miguel García, Holguín, October 10, 2026 — A new sign appeared this Saturday on the wall of the Mayabe cemetery in Holguín, this time with a message directed at the U.S. president: “Trump, military intervention now!”, written in large blue letters on the white wall bordering Avenida de los Internacionalistas, as 14ymedio observed at the scene. The graffiti is signed with the initials CLH, which stand for the Free Commandos of Holguín.
“The sign is brand-new because State Security hasn’t arrived yet,” a local resident said. A vehicle belonging to a state-owned company parked beside the wall, and one of its occupants tried to scrape off the paint but was unsuccessful.
A vehicle belonging to a state-owned company parked beside the wall, and one of its occupants tried to scrape off the phrase but was unsuccessful
It is not known what time the sign was painted, but this type of dissident graffiti is often produced at night or in the early morning hours, when darkness is greatest.
The group known as the Free Commandos of Holguín is a clandestine organization that, since at least September 2026, has been credited with several signs against the regime at different locations throughout the city, including Plaza de los Chinos, the area around Lenin Hospital, the provincial government building, and bus terminals.
This is not the first time that the wall has become the setting for a protest against the regime. On June 12, 2025, more than twenty anti-government signs appeared along approximately 200 meters of the wall. “Homeland and Life,” “Díaz-Canel, you motherfucker,” “Freedom for the People,” and “Down with the dictatorship” were among the slogans, which were painted in black at the time.
This is not the first time that the wall has become the setting for a protest against the regime.
The authorities’ response was much more dramatic then than what had been observed so far this Saturday. Agents from the Ministry of the Interior kept watch over the cemetery and its surroundings while the letters were scraped off, even using machetes. They also brought in a tanker truck loaded with lime to cover the messages. An electric tricycle driver who passed by the scene told 14ymedio at the time that he had been afraid of being arrested by the Police.
Last September, the façade of the theater at the Central University of Las Villas in Santa Clara awoke to an enormous “Down with Canel.” The authorities covered the graffiti with Cuban flags and flags of the July 26 Movement, while State Security tried to identify those responsible.
The repression of such actions has also reached the courts. University professor Ariel Manuel Martín Barroso was sentenced to ten years in prison in Sancti Spíritus for several pieces of graffiti against the regime, including “Down with Díaz-Canel” and “Homeland and Life.”
The Cuban Conflict Observatory recorded 42 pieces of graffiti against the regime in February 2026 and another 70 in March, appearing on walls, fences, and streets in different parts of Cuba.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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