Cuba: a gloomy May Day in Havana at the time of the coronavirus

Text by: Domitille Piron

In the rain, deprived of outing and parade, it's a sad May 1st in Cuba. On the communist island since the start of the Revolution in 1959, Labor Day is a great popular demonstration and a real demonstration of strength and national unity. But this year, the coronavirus has forced Cubans to stay at home, and it's time for nostalgia.

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From our correspondent in Havana,

There is no one, there is silence and it is raining. We are far from the usual atmosphere of a Cuban May Day on the Place de la Révolution, which has been able to bring together more than a million workers in the past.

Reinaldo Martinez smokes a cigarette in front of his house, a stone's throw from the square, and spontaneously puts on his cloth mask to speak to us. "  It is not the same to parade as we always did on the Place de la Révolution that celebrating May 1st at home," he comments. For us it represents unity, the strength of the people, but even if we do not parade today, with this epidemic we see even more emerge this union.  "

But the coronavirus, which has killed 64 people in Cuba so far, seems to have got the better of Cuban patriotic fervor on May 1. And the national anthem that the government had called to sing at 8 a.m. this Friday morning was hardly heard in Havana.

# 1mayo very sad in #lahabana #cuba the place of # revolution is empty, silent, in the rain #matinchagrin # 1ermai #coronavirus # covid19 #micasaesmiplaza pic.twitter.com/DaoLjc7Hlb

Alone and nostalgic, Yoandry crosses the square: "  The people understood that there was this pandemic and that we could not come together, unlike the United States where there are many dead and they are already reopening the shopping centers. It's illogical, but it's because their cynical president only thinks about money. "

In a country completely stopped and already in great economic difficulties, the government would undoubtedly have needed a great demonstration of national union on May 1, 2020.

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