Summoned by the Government, “in support of socialism and the revolution”, hundreds of thousands of Cubans paraded today through the main cities and squares of the countryin what meant the return to massive mobilizations on the island after two years of the pandemic.
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The march in Havana, the largest of all, was led by former Cuban president Raúl Castro, who will turn 91 in June and has been away from the political front line since 2021, and the president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, who in the days prior to the meeting asked the Cubans to demonstrate in terms of resistance.
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Castro’s last public appearance was after the protests of July 11 last year, in an “act of revolutionary reaffirmation.” Yesterday he expressed his “joy” and “hope” in Díaz-Canel and, dressed in the olive green uniform of an army general, said that he “is working very well” and “sometimes more than necessary.” “I have a heart, already 91 years old, which I will turn on June 3, full of joy,” Castro sentenced to close his statement.
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Since he retired from power, his public appearances have been reduced to meetings of the PCC, the National Assembly (unicameral Parliament) and other specific events, such as yesterday’s parade.
Ulises Guilarte, general secretary of the Cuban Workers Central and the only speaker of the day, assured that “Cuba does not stop” to despite a “complex and challenging” international context where “hostility is growing and the US embargo is intensifying”.
Last week, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez accused the US administration of Democrat Joe Biden of wanting to exclude the island from the Summit of the Americas, to be held in June in Los Angeles, California.
State television broadcast live scenes of the parade in provincial capitals. The mobilization of the machinery of the ruling Communist Party occurs after a peak year in which the historic demonstrations of July 11, 2021 were recorded, shouting “Freedom” and “We are hungry”, which left one dead, dozens injured and 1,395 detainees, of which 728 are still imprisoned, according to the latest count by the NGO Cubalex, based in Miami.
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The NGO denounced this week that independent journalists and activists were warned not to leave their homes on May 1. “We denounce the harassment of several Cuban activists and journalists in recent days. State security has threatened them not to go out on the streets on May 1. This is how the island lives on workers’ day with previous days of repression,” the organization said on Twitter.
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