The independent journalist Yosmany Mayeta Labrada documented this Thursday how students from the municipality of San Miguel del Padrón, in Havana, were taken out of their schools to participate in a symbolic march leading up to May 1st.
The images show children and young people in school uniforms—white shirts, red pants or skirts, and red scarves of the Pioneers—parading through the streets of the municipality, accompanied by adults who lead the procession.
In 2026, the main event for May Day in Havana will not take place this Friday at the Plaza de la Revolución but at the Anti-Imperialist Tribune, in front of the United States embassy.
The remaining municipalities of Havana, including San Miguel del Padrón, had to organize their own activities within their territories, which explains the community march documented by Mayeta.
The mobilization of students and pioneers for the May 1st events is an institutionalized practice in Cuba since the 1960s, framed by the regime as "ideological training" and "revolutionary will."
Children organized in the José Martí Pioneer Organization participate in these parades with a de facto mandatory nature: attendance is recorded and can impact grades and academic records, according to independent sources.
In 2025, independent media reported buses transporting students from rural schools to concentration points, with allegations of coercion by school principals.
In that same year, the official newspaper Granma reported "more than one million workers and students" mobilized across the country for May 1st.
In Santiago de Cuba, the pioneer parades began even earlier: on April 25, a march took place on Victoriano Garzón Avenue to Plaza de Marte, led by officials from the Ministry of Education and the Central Union of Cuban Workers (CTC).
The use of minors in political acts by the regime has generated repeated criticisms from Cuban parents, who denounce the pressure their children receive to attend mobilizations that have nothing to do with their academic formation.
In 2022, Raúl Castro placed the pioneer scarf on Díaz-Canel's grandson at a school event, just days before the May 1st parade that resumed after the pandemic suspension since 2019.
Ulises Guilarte, the general secretary of the CTC, celebrated this Thursday "millions of Cubans in combative mobilizations" during the May Day events of 2026, while images from San Miguel del Padrón show that a significant portion of that figure consists of children taken from their classrooms.
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