The Cuban regime announced this Monday that the main event for May Day in Havana will not take place in the Plaza de la Revolución, but rather at the José Martí Anti-Imperialist Tribune, in front of the United States Embassy on the Havana waterfront.
Osnay Miguel Colina Rodríguez, a member of the Central Committee and president of the organizing committee for the XXII Congress of the Central Workers' Union of Cuba (CTC), confirmed the change in the press conference and justified it by appealing to "austerity" and the context of what he termed a "cruel energy blockade."
"For that reason, in Havana, May 1st will not be held at the José Martí Revolution Square. We will gather in different locations in the popular councils and from those points we will march towards the concentration areas," the official explained.
The official slogan of the event is The Homeland Defends Itself, in line with the confrontational rhetoric that the regime has intensified in recent months, which includes weekly military drills under the doctrine of the war of the entire people.
The relocation of the central event occurs in a context of deep energy crisis. Cuba faces a generation deficit exceeding 1,900 megawatts and ten out of 16 thermoelectric plants out of service, which makes it practically impossible to organize a large propaganda event with the logistical resources that the Plaza has historically required.
The authorities justified the change of venue as a measure of austerity, although critics argue that it is a strategy to mask the expected low participation, changing the patriotic setting to showcase an appropriate turnout given the current circumstances.
It is not the first time that the regime has changed the format of May Day. In 2023, Cuba canceled the May Day parade for the first time since 1959 in the Plaza de la Revolución, also citing economic difficulties.
In 2024, the event was resumed with official figures of over 600,000 participants in Havana, and in 2025 it was documented that the regime used state fuel to transport participants from various points in the capital.
That year, the event was also celebrated with official figures of over 600,000 participants in Havana, amidst blackouts and widespread shortages that contrasted with the images of mass mobilization disseminated by state media.
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