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The absurdity of the Cuban regime seems boundless, and common sense does not appear among its priorities: while millions of Cubans endure blackouts of up to 24 hours a day, the Carlos Manuel de Céspedes Thermoelectric Plant in Cienfuegos announced that it will march on May Day carrying a replica of its smokestack as a symbol of labor pride, which perhaps constitutes the most eloquent image of the disconnection between official propaganda and the reality faced by the country.
According to the Cuban News Agency (ACN), around 200 workers from the plant will participate this Thursday in the Plaza de Actos in Cienfuegos, leading the march of the Energy and Mines Union, while the rest of the staff will remain at the facility ensuring electricity generation and repairs.
The replica reproduces the original red and white tower with the initials CMC, which ACN describes as a symbol of "stability" for the residents of Cienfuegos: "They are filled with a sense of stability when they see the smoke from the chimney rising into the sky after the units' startups," the official text acknowledges, also recognizing that this smoke is not exactly a constant.
Maxlenin Rodríguez Jiménez, a communication specialist for the entity, stated that the team arrives at the parade "with the incentive" of having completed a major overhaul of units three and four, and with "the pride of keeping their blocks as the most stable and efficient in the National Electric System."
The irony is significant. As of April 29, 2026, unit four of that same plant is listed as in the startup process with an expected output of only 80 MW during peak hours, within a system that has a power generation deficit that exceeds 1,400 MW daily.
Unit three, for its part, has a history that contradicts any triumphalist narrative: it was reactivated in May 2025 after three months of repairs, but the Cienfuegos thermoelectric plant was removed from the electrical system just four days later due to a leak in the boiler, and was removed from the system again due to a condenser failure on September 12, 2025.
In this context, power outages in Cuba are surging again, with provinces such as Holguín, Granma, and Santiago de Cuba experiencing cuts of up to 24 hours daily in April 2026, and the country has suffered seven total collapses of the electrical system in just 18 months.
The parade was called by Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz under the slogan "The Homeland is Defended," within the framework of the "Year of Preparation for Defense" and the "War State" plans approved by Raúl Castro on March 27, 2026.
The war discourse by Marrero to mobilize May Day made it clear the propagandistic nature of the event, which is organized through unions, Defense Committees of the Revolution, and state transportation.
Rodríguez Jiménez stated that the group will bring "joy and color with the Cuban flag, the labor achievement flag, and the red, blue, and white banners and patriotic posters," and that among those participating in the parade there will be "outstanding and innovative young people who have maintained the creativity needed to keep the plant operating," a phrase that inadvertently summarizes decades of forced improvisation due to a lack of spare parts and investment.
Parading with the image of a chimney that, in the daily lives of millions of Cubans, represents more absence than presence — when it’s not smoking, there’s no light — while the country undergoes one of the worst energy crises in its history, precisely encapsulates the gap between the regime's propaganda and the reality faced by the Cuban people.
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