This is the first cancellation of the event due to economic concerns since Havana’s 1959 Revolution.
The communist government of Cuba has canceled the annual May Day parade that was scheduled to take place on Monday to commemorate International Workers’ Day due to severe fuel shortages that have seriously disrupted Havana’s economic stability.
The socialist workers’ holiday, which honors the nation’s labor movement, is celebrated every year with activities that typically draw hundreds of thousands of Cubans to Revolution Square in the capital. Only twice, in 2020 and 2021, during the Covid-19 pandemic, was it ever postponed.
This year, the island nation has experienced acute fuel shortages, with some drivers alleging in recent weeks that they have spent the night in their cars while waiting in gas station queues that can continue for days simply to receive gasoline.
President Miguel Diaz-Canel reportedly commented, “We still don’t have a clear idea of how we are going to get out of this,” in April in reference to depleting fuel supplies, as reported by the New York Times. Cuba requires between 500 and 600 tons of petroleum per day, but the amount that can now be delivered is only about 400 tons per day.
Additional difficulties have been brought about by a weak economy, including a decreased ability to import diluents for the refining of low-quality crude oil.
Since 2000, Cuba and Venezuela have had a barter deal in which Havana imports crude oil in exchange for educated physicians, teachers, and government employees. However, as Caracas battles to handle its own fuel shortages, the relationship has grown strained in recent years. Venezuelan oil exports to Cuba fell to 55,000 barrels per day this year alone from around 80,000 bpd in 2020.
According to Jorge Pinon, director of the University of Texas’ energy and environment program, Venezuela has been losing money for the past 20 years by not selling its oil on the world market. “I believe they’ve just reached a point where they can’t give the Cubans oil for free any longer,”
The Trump administration’s and Joe Biden’s sanctions against Cuba were put in place to put “maximum pressure” on the country in the midst of Washington’s protracted trade embargo. The Cuban government has cited the pandemic and US sanctions as having a debilitating effect on tourism, which is the country’s main source of income.
Yosvel Sosa Vargas, a driver for tourists, told the New York Times last month that “there is little work, as there is little tourism, and you can’t work much as you have to save fuel.”
