The Cuban journalist and activist Magdiel Jorge Castro described an official caravan held on the Malecón in Havana featuring electric tricycles, motorcycles, bicycles, and scooters as an absolute degradation of a system that is falling apart, as reported by official accounts of the regime.
"Pocas veces he visto un ridículo mayor que este… el castrismo pasó de llenar plazas con discursos interminables de Fidel Castro, a caravanas de triciclos eléctricos por el malecón," wrote Magdiel on his X account (@MagJorgeCastro).
The images, published by the official account @PresidenciaCuba, displayed electric tricycles made in China with inscriptions in Chinese characters, scooters with signs saying "Down with the BLOCKADE," and Cuban flags traveling along the Havana Malecón.
The official account presented the event in a triumphant manner: "The motorcycles, tricycles, bicycles, and even the scooters that our youth have brought today are not just simple vehicles: they are the demonstration on wheels that we will remain steadfast."
Another official publication described "a long line of vehicles" heading towards La Punta, where "hundreds of pioneers and young people awaited the caravaners," and characterized the day as a fair "with a joy that even the darkest wickedness cannot extinguish."
Mag's critique directly highlights the contrast between the present and the past of the regime: during the era of Fidel Castro, events like the First Declaration of Havana gathered over a million people in the Plaza de la Revolución.
The event occurs in the context of the worst transportation crisis that Cuba has experienced in decades. The urban transportation system in Havana collapsed since February 6, 2026, with all bus routes halted due to a lack of fuel.
Venezuela stopped sending oil to Cuba since December 2025, which accounted for approximately a third of the island's energy needs, and the interprovincial transportation fell by 93% between January and September of 2025.
As a temporary solution, the regime has deployed Chinese-made electric tricycles: Havana has only 106 units on 13 urban routes. The irony pointed out by Mag is that the regime showcases as a "demonstration of strength" the same emergency vehicles that highlight the collapse of the transportation system.
It is not the first time the regime organizes events involving vehicles amid the crisis. On January 2, 2025, the government organized a Caravan of Freedom that traveled over 1,000 kilometers from Santiago de Cuba while in Havana there were lines lasting up to three days at gas stations.
Magdiel Jorge Castro, a biologist by training and a Cuban activist residing in Spain after being expelled from Bolivia in 2022 by the government of Luis Arce, summarized his observations: "It is the absolute degradation of a system that is falling apart."
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