On the centenary of the birth of Fidel Castro, the Cuban regime celebrated a political and cultural event this Thursday at the Karl Marx Theater in Havana, where President Miguel Díaz-Canel promised to uphold social justice and reaffirmed that Cuba "does not give up," while millions of Cubans endure power outages of up to 25 hours a day and a severe shortage of food and medicine.
"Let's defend social justice" of Cuba, said the unpopular leader at the event, which was broadcast by the state channel Canal Caribe and was attended by Raúl Castro.
The official celebrations concluded with the closing of the I International Colloquium "Fidel: Legacy and Future," held from August 10 to 13 at the Palacio de Convenciones in Havana, with over 1,500 delegates from 63 countries.
In his speech, Díaz-Canel invoked the legacy of the founder of the Cuban dictatorship to justify the continuity of the system and attributed the crisis to the U.S. embargo, which he described—using the regime's customary language—as "genocide" against the Cuban people.
"From Fidel, we learned that we must always uphold three non-negotiable principles: the independence of the country, the revolution, and the values and achievements that socialism represents," the leader stated, quoting Castro verbatim.
Under this premise, he announced that Cuba is undertaking "a challenging process of economic and social transformations with a priority on the well-being of the people and the social justice that he so ardently defended."
The speech repeated a recurring pattern in 2026: using the centenary of Fidel Castro as an ideological axis to legitimize the regime while the population faces one of the worst crises since the Special Period of the 1990s.
ECLAC projects a decline in Cuba's GDP of 6.5% for this year, and independent estimates raise that contraction to 7.2%.
The official year-on-year inflation reached 15.89% in May 2026, although independent estimates place it near 70% in the informal market. Power outages last between 20 and 25 hours a day in some areas of the country, with a generation deficit of between 1,800 and 1,955 megawatts.
Díaz-Canel also expressed gratitude for the presence of foreign delegates at the international colloquium and introduced them as a symbol of support for the regime.
"The presence of so many people in besieged, blocked, harassed, and accused Cuba by the empire to prevent its example from influencing peoples everywhere is the best monument we can raise in memory of Fidel Castro Ruz on his first centenary," he stated.
The appearance of Raúl Castro at the Karl Marx was particularly significant due to his gradual withdrawal from public life. His most recent documented reappearance was on May 1, at the Labor Day event in Havana, where he was described as visibly deteriorated.
The regime declared 2026 as the "Year of the Centennial of Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz" in December 2025 and organized an extensive agenda of commemorative events —youth caravans, tree planting, museum restorations— while the economic and energy crisis continues to deepen with no signs of real recovery.
Reuters confirmed that Cuba commemorated this Thursday the centenary of Fidel Castro's birth amid a deepening economic crisis, with official events failing to provide concrete answers to the situation faced by the population.
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