The national coordinator of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR) Gerardo Hernández Nordelo posted a photograph on X this Friday of Cubans dancing in the street during the gathering before the May Day parade, accompanied by the message: "This is the people that some in #USA want to suffocate and bomb!"
The image, taken early Friday morning at the intersection of Carlos III, Ayestarán, and Infanta avenues in the Cuban capital, shows a gathering where several people are dancing to the rhythm of a song, and it was used by Hernández as a propagandistic argument in defense of the regime.
At one point in the video, the former spy and member of the group known as the Cuban Five says, "Obligaos, obligaos," while letting out a mocking laugh, referring to those who claim that such gatherings organized by the Communist Party involve reprimands, penalties, and even expulsions from workplaces for those who do not participate.
The tweet comes in the context of the May Day march 2026, which the regime moved from the historic Plaza de la Revolución to the José Martí Anti-Imperialist Tribuna, in front of the United States Embassy on the Malecón in Havana, under the pretext of "austerity" and the "cruel energy blockade."
The attendance at the event was significantly lower than in previous years, according to observers and critics.
Commentator Magdiel Jorge Castro summarized the situation with irony: "They went from filling plazas with parades and endless speeches to timid marches at dawn to avoid getting burned by the sun."
The image of Cubans dancing that Hernández uses as propaganda contrasts sharply with the actual scene of the event, featuring expressionless faces of marchers captured in UJC videos that sparked widespread ridicule on social media, with comments like "You can see the joy on people's faces; they look like zombies."
Another internet user noted that "those faces display a parade out of inertia, out of obligation, but we all know the meaning of the word obligation in Cuba."
The image of forced participation was complemented by another interesting note. The ruler Miguel Díaz-Canel paraded in Adidas Retropy F2 sneakers valued at over a thousand dollars, while Cubans survive on monthly salaries of around 15 dollars.
The journalist Mario J. Pentón highlighted on Facebook that "just with the cost of Díaz-Canel's and (the chancellor) Bruno Rodríguez's shoes, a Cuban family could live for six months."
In the days leading up to the event, independent journalist Ángel Cuza was arrested in front of his daughter by State Security agents, and children were taken out of schools in San Miguel del Padrón and Santiago de Cuba to participate in marches ahead of May Day.
This is not the first time Hernández has resorted to this type of publication. In April 2022, the former spy tweeted with a "cederista conga" that triggered massive criticism, with responses such as "You all are dancing while the people are escaping... that's how we are doing."
The national event for the date this Friday was led by Díaz-Canel alongside Lis Cuesta, Bruno Rodríguez, and Raúl Castro, who presided over the political event under the slogan "The Homeland is Defended", dedicated to the centenary of the birth of the dictator Fidel Castro (1926-2016).
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