The head of the only legal workers’ union in Cuba announced on Tuesday that the communist regime had canceled its most prestigious annual event, the May Day parade in Havana, due to “limitations with securing fuel.”
Communists around the world typically mark May Day, or International Workers’ Day, on May 1, with parades, riots, and other acts of violence. Communism is a totalitarian ideology that has resulted in at least 110 million killings — not counting the 400 million victims of China’s “One-Child Policy” — in the last century. Communists have ruled Cuba since the 1959 coup by late dictator Fidel Castro and typically force the population to partake in May Day celebrations across the country every year.
The cancellation of the Havana May Day parade comes as an embarrassing blow to the communist regime, which had issued a call to arms to the general population as recently as this first day of April to participate in May Day activities. The Communist Party had also launched a campaign to attract “solidarity tourism” by international communists and boasted on Monday that 300 “comrades” had traveled to the country to observe May 1.
Cuban people who do not belong to the communist elite have, for decades, faced extreme shortages of basic goods, such as fuel, food, cleaning supplies, and other items. Under the gross mismanagement of current figurehead “president” Miguel Díaz-Canel, the country has seen a dramatic collapse of its power grid — nationwide blackouts becoming a norm in the past year — and a gasoline and diesel shortage damaging the country’s ability to function. A massive fire at one of the nation’s largest oil depots in northeastern Matanzas last year left Cuba with significantly less storage capacity for fuel, a situation the government has not visibly done anything to resolve.
Related Story: Biden Sending U.S. Officials to Cuba for Negotiations, Raising Questions About State Sponsor of Terrorism Designation
