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A report by Gobierno y Análisis Político AC (GAPAC) documents the Cuban regime’s deployment of a sustained international strategy of sharp power. The analysis identifies the repeated circulation of three narratives that span multilateral forums, official statements, and solidarity campaigns, ranging from an openly anti-imperialist message—focused on denouncing U.S. policies—to the construction of an image of Cuba as a supportive and morally legitimate actor on the international stage.
Cross-referencing with ProBox monitoring on the social network X shows that these same narratives are not only projected outward but are also reinforced from within the island through government online propaganda.
Through the systematic promotion of trends and hashtags, the regime constantly drives these lines of discourse, constructing a digital appearance of consensus that accompanies and amplifies its international offensive.
A narrative that is not spontaneous
The Global Monitoring of Cuban Sharp Power, prepared by GAPAC, identifies a persistent pattern of political, diplomatic, and social support for the Cuban regime between July and November 2025. The report warns that this is not a matter of isolated expressions of solidarity, but rather a coherent and synchronized multi-channel strategy that brings together governments, multilateral organizations, social movements, unions, universities, and cultural networks.
This international effort is organized around three dominant narratives:
- Coordinated condemnation of the U.S. embargo,
- The demand to remove Cuba from the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism (SST),
- The highlighting of Cuba’s cooperation in health, education, and science as proof of its “solidarity” role in the world.
The report shows how these narratives are amplified at strategic moments: UN votes, regional summits such as CELAC–EU, or humanitarian emergencies such as Hurricane Melissa.
The other front: manufacturing trends from within
Cross-referencing with Probox’s monitoring of trends on X reveals that these same narratives are not only pushed outward but are also reinforced from within the internal digital ecosystem through coordinated hashtag positioning campaigns.
Between March and December 2025, ProBox recorded 16 hashtags that were promoted as trends by the Cuban regime and that replicate almost verbatim the themes identified by GAPAC.
1. The blockade as the overarching explanation
The embargo narrative appears to be the most persistent and best synchronized. Hashtags such as #TumbaElBloqueo are activated repeatedly throughout the year, with significant spikes on politically sensitive dates.
In October 2025 alone (the month of the vote at the UN General Assembly), #TumbaElBloqueo reached over 28,500 mentions, becoming one of the largest digital mobilizations of the period. The hashtag reappears in April, May, September, and December, reinforcing the idea that this is a sustained campaign, not a temporary one.
🗣️ #Fidel | "No es embargo ni bloqueo: es guerra".
📌 Encuentro Mundial de Solidaridad con Cuba, 1994.#TumbaElBloqueo #100AñosConFidel pic.twitter.com/QffapV3FoP
— Cancillería de Cuba (@CubaMINREX) February 2, 2026
This digital narrative goes hand in hand with the intensive use of multilateral forums documented by GAPAC, where the blockade is presented as the main—and almost exclusive—cause of the island’s economic and social crisis, sidelining any discussion of internal responsibilities.
This narrative emerged in 2025 in multilateral and regional forums analyzed by GAPAC, such as the United Nations General Assembly, where a resolution against the blockade was once again adopted with broad international support; the CELAC–European Union Summit held in Colombia, which incorporated the demand into its joint declaration; and regional solidarity meetings, such as the 9th Continental Meeting of Solidarity with Cuba held in Mexico City, which strengthened political and communications coordination in support of Havana.
#TumbaElBloqueo 🇨🇺 pic.twitter.com/VJj3e6A3N7
— EmbaCuba_Guyana (@consulcu) August 16, 2025
2. Cuba as a Victim of the “Empire”
The second axis—victimization vis-à-vis the United States and its allies—has a direct and quantifiable counterpart in X, where the Cuban regime promotes campaigns of discursive confrontation that personalize the geopolitical conflict by targeting specific figures of U.S. power.
GAPAC’s monitoring identified that this narrative of confrontation relies on the systematic use of official speeches and multilateral forums to present the blockade as a deliberate act of aggression by the “empire” against Cuba.
In venues such as the UN General Assembly and regional summits, the Cuban regime insisted on characterizing the internal crisis as the result of a hostile policy sustained by the United States and its allies, shifting the focus from sanctions as an instrument to a narrative of political persecution and geopolitical punishment.
Between September and December 2025, ProBox’s monitoring identified a pattern of transnational and synchronized amplification of hashtags between the Cuban and Venezuelan governments, indicating a sustained narrative alignment against a common adversary. During that period, trends in Spanish and English targeting Donald Trump—such as #Trumpliestheworld (6,351 tweets), #ElMundoRepudiaATrump (5,316), and #ImperioCharlero (1,933)—and targeting Senator Marco Rubio —#MarcoFakeRubio (3,247), #ElNarcoEsRubio (6,118) and #FueraNarcoRubioDelCaribe (6,418)— in a context marked by the deployment of Trump administration ships in the Caribbean and allegations of drug trafficking against Nicolás Maduro’s regime, which culminated in his capture on January 3, 2026.
La unidad latinoamericana es nuestra mayor fortaleza. Juntos, le decimos al #ImperioCharlero que sus amenazas no nos intimidan. #UnleashDracarys🔥🐉 pic.twitter.com/eFSvdx6Kp0
— Avanzada Comunista 🇻🇪 (@ComunicadorCH) September 9, 2025
El sol no se puede tapar con un dedo, y Marco Rubio lleva en la sangre lo m@fi○s○ y N@rc○, un negocio familiar de toda su vida… #ElNarcoEsRubio pic.twitter.com/3ClTG27HzI
— 🌻👑💛إليان💛👑🌻 (@kibou1807) September 26, 2025
And although Cuba’s inclusion on the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism (one of the dominant narratives identified by GAPAC) is not always explicitly mentioned in these hashtags, the narrative framing is consistent with official statements and multilateral resolutions: Cuba does not appear as a state sanctioned for specific conduct, but rather as a victim of political and financial persecution, attributed to unilateral decisions by Washington and to individual actors presented as directly responsible for the international “punishment.”
3. Health, education, and culture: reputational shielding
The third pillar—the framing of Cuban cooperation as moral capital (especially in the areas of health)—is consistently deployed in the digital ecosystem, where the regime promotes hashtags that associate Cuba with humanitarian, scientific, educational, and cultural values.
ProBox monitoring records recurring use of hashtags such as #LaHabanaEsSalud (1,000 tweets, September 25), #HeroesDeLaSalud (1,000 tweets, March 27), #CubaEduca (2,698 tweets on September 1; 1,000 on October 5; 4,507 on December 22) and #CubaEsCultura (1,312 tweets on October 18; 1,326 on December 21), which demonstrates a sustained rather than sporadic positioning strategy.
The case of #CubaPorLaVida is one of the clearest examples of this reputational shielding. The hashtag reached over 13,800 mentions on March 29, 2025, driven by messages highlighting historical milestones of Cuban medical cooperation, such as the care provided to more than 20,000 children affected by the Chernobyl disaster.
In this context, GAPAC also detected a mobilization of solidarity toward Cuba, used as a narrative resource in the face of internal crises. The impact of Hurricane Melissa catalyzed a broad campaign of international support—especially from Europe and allied countries—which was amplified digitally as evidence of external backing for the regime.
Donations from Spanish organizations such as the National Movement of Solidarity with Cuba (MESC), MediCuba Spain, and Sodepaz, as well as Vietnam’s energy cooperation under the South–South framework, were integrated into the official discourse to reinforce Cuba’s reputational shield in a context of internal vulnerability.
This type of narrative not only reinforces the symbolic legitimacy of the Revolution but also serves as a narrative resource to neutralize contemporary criticisms related to human rights, working conditions of medical missions, or the political instrumentalization of health aid.
The Same Narrative, in Different Contexts
The intersection between the GAPAC report and ProBox’s monitoring reveals a pattern of sustained narrative coherence: the same themes that the Cuban regime systematically promotes on the international stage reappear, repeatedly, in the local and regional digital ecosystem.
Annual UN votes, statements issued at regional summits such as the CELAC–European Union summit, continental solidarity gatherings held in countries like Mexico, and humanitarian crises linked to natural disasters are part of a consistent repertoire of arguments that this government employs in digital campaigns designed to continuously reinforce these discursive frameworks.
Trends such as #TumbaElBloqueo, #SiempreAntimperialista, or #CubaNoEstaSola are activated at different times and in different contexts, but are always aligned with the same narratives identified by GAPAC in multilateral forums and international solidarity campaigns. Taken together, the Cuban case reveals a form of sharp power that operates in two ways: international legitimization through symbolic diplomacy and political alliances, and internal shielding through the sustained fabrication of apparent consensus (or propaganda, rather) on social media regarding the causes of the crisis on the island.
This narrative machinery does not operate in a vacuum; the coordinated amplification of these discursive frameworks coexists with a system of information repression that constantly limits the circulation of critical voices, blocks independent media, criminalizes online dissent, and uses digital surveillance as a mechanism of social discipline. The “coherence” of the official narrative, therefore, is sustained not only by its repetition and international alignment, but also by the active suppression of alternative narratives both on and off the island.
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