Low participation in communist march in Santiago de Cuba

A sparse presence of regime supporters marked the communist march held this Tuesday to celebrate the Day of the Fallen in the eastern province of Santiago de Cuba.

According to independent journalist Yosmany Mayeta Labrada, “subservient workers threatened with the withdrawal of their daily salary if they did not participate were taken” to the political event.

On the social network Facebook, the activist stated that "the orders were given by Beatriz Johnson Urrutia, Secretary of the Party (Communist Party of Cuba) in the province, and Manuel Falcón Hernández, Governor of the city, who, under pressure and threats, summoned all workers from state companies in the city."

He also mentioned that many of the "participants showed up, but after signing in at their workplace, they slipped away through the streets to avoid making that long journey from the central Parque Céspedes to the Santa Ifigenia Cemetery where the remains of Frank País rest."

In the midst of the crisis that is affecting the entire country, the activist expressed that “the vast majority of those present, when they get home, have nothing to eat or drink after that long walk, because the precariousness and the deficit of all kinds is for the state workers, while the leaders have their pantries full of food.”

The previous Friday, the Cuban regime held an official event for July 26 in the early morning, amidst a dim atmosphere, to commemorate the 71st anniversary of the assault on the Moncada and Carlos Manuel de Céspedes barracks.

The Cuban vice president Salvador Valdés Mesa said that "the ideas for which Fidel Castro stormed the Moncada remain firm and unalterable among the people."

Unbeknownst to him, the politician acknowledged that the six decades of dictatorship have been of no use, because the country is in a situation similar to or much worse than that of 1953.

According to the official newspaper Granma, 5,000 people from Sancti Spíritus attended the event, but they did not provide details on where the fuel came from to carry out an activity of such magnitude, in the current context of the energy crisis in Cuba.