A video recorded from an aerial perspective of the Havanese Malecón during the May 1st parade of 2026 has become the image that the Cuban regime would prefer no one to see. The recording, published on Facebook by Alexander Jesús Figueredo Izaguirre under the title "What is Left Behind", has garnered over 28,000 views and starkly reveals a turnout much lower than what the official press claimed.
While the secretary of the Union of Young Communists, Meyvis Estévez, stated that "more than half a million people" participated in Havana, aerial images show scattered groups of individuals in olive green military uniforms, dressed in white and with red clothing in organized formations, but with a density that flatly contradicts that figure. The number has not been independently verified by any media outlet.
The regime moved the event this year from the traditional Plaza de la Revolución to the José Martí Anti-Imperialist Tribune, in front of the United States Embassy, under the excuse of "austerity" and the so-called "energy blockade." Analysts pointed out, however, that the real objective was to mask the expected low turnout in a more compact and symbolically confrontational space.
The context could not be more adverse for the regime: Cuba is facing power outages of up to twenty hours a day and a projected economic contraction of 7.2% for 2026. Nonetheless, the official press—Granma, Cubadebate, and the Cuban News Agency—covered the event as a day of "unity and efficiency," deliberately omitting any images that would reveal the scant actual attendance.
The event was presided over by Raúl Castro, aged 94, in his first public appearance since December 2025, looking visibly unwell and dressed in military uniform with decorations. Marching alongside him were Miguel Díaz-Canel and his wife Lis Cuesta, whose attire sparked outrage on social media.
Díaz-Canel paraded wearing Adidas sneakers valued at approximately 1,449 dollars before a crowd whose average salary hovers around 15 dollars per month. Cubans responded with sarcasm: "It's better to parade in Adidas," circulated as a comment on social media. Lis Cuesta, for her part, showcased a Hublot watch valued at 6,700 dollars during the event.
Preventive repression was also part of the scenario. The independent journalist Ángel Cuza Alfonso was arrested on April 30 by State Security agents in front of his young daughter, during a physical struggle. At least 18 reporters, activists, and opponents experienced internet cuts or were besieged in their homes to prevent any independent coverage of the event.
It was also reported that children were taken out of their schools in San Miguel del Padrón and Santiago de Cuba to participate in marches leading up to May 1st, a practice that the regime repeats year after year to inflate attendance figures.
The coordinator of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, Gerardo Hernández, posted on X videos of Cubans dancing with the message "This is the people that some in the U.S. want to suffocate and bombard!" He received over 1,300 sarcastic comments from Cubans on social media who responded with mockery to the official propaganda.
The video by Figueredo Izaguirre, with its 274 comments and over 700 reactions, summarizes in one minute and 41 seconds what the regime's press will not publish: "What remains" of a system that, year after year, requires more coercion to fill—or give the appearance of filling—its own plazas.
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