Cuban Leaders Celebrated July 26th Without Blackouts

But also without ideas to overcome the crisis

Prime Minister Manuel Marrero called, for “translating the people’s efforts into tangible results,” without specifying how,

By 14ymedio

HAVANA TIMES – The July 26 commemoration is the closest thing the regime has to Holy Week, complete with its own 94-year-old pope—Raúl Castro—accompanied by high-ranking officials acting as altar boys, and costly processions to Ciego de Ávila, this year’s “holy see,” for what was intended to be, despite the country’s disastrous situation, a kind of Holy Saturday celebration.

Cuban Television covered all the usual fanfare, broadcasting the event that began at 5:15 a.m. this morning—reserving time as always to make any necessary edits—marked by tearful tributes to the failed 1953 assaults on the Moncada and Carlos Manuel de Cespedes barracks in eastern Cuba. That attack also took place in the early morning, five and a half years before the victorious Cuban Revolution.

The usual funeral images of Fidel Castro were not missing, nor was the shiny skin of Miguel Díaz-Canel, or the dramatics—both on and off stage—meant to satisfy the few remaining “historic” figures of the Revolution. Ramiro Valdes, 93, and José Ramón Machado, 94, were among the old guard present at an event that this year felt lackluster and required people to be bused in from neighboring provinces.

At 94 years old, Raúl Castro prefers to leave his comfortable retirement only for special occasions, taking the opportunity to pat Diaz-Canel on the back, applaud his performance, and pretend the country isn’t falling apart. The Ciego de Ávila event was no exception.

The usual laments over the US embargo were present, but there were also self-criticisms during the show led by Prime Minister Manuel Marrero—last year it was Salvador Valdes Mesa’s turn—since the president, as of 2023, prefers not to take center stage.

According to Marrero, the country is facing “enormous challenges” like never before, yet he claimed to be convinced that the same old formula will now yield different results: “Yes, we can, thanks to the determination, industriousness, intelligence, and commitment of the Cuban people.” He acknowledged the “annoying blackouts” affecting the public, though not a single outage occurred during the event at Maximo Gomez Baez plaza.

He also mentioned other shortages, including problems with food supply, drinking water, transportation, medicine, and rampant inflation, stressing the urgency to “remove obstacles, correct deficiencies, and turn the people’s efforts into tangible results.”

As for the “imperialist enemy,” Marrero asserted that it “does not rest in its efforts to destroy the Cuban Revolution” and seeks to “exploit any internal difficulty to sow discouragement, create division, and provoke social unrest to justify intervention.” He also called for defeating any attempt at subversion through “historical experience, unity, political awareness, and morality.”

Nonetheless, the crisis was quickly buried beneath the grand “efforts” the government poured into Ciego de Ávila this year, which in practice meant a coat of paint and tar to cover potholes: seven solar parks built in nine months; achievements in sports and tourism; renovation of a hospital, 22 health centers; 16 schools; the theater; a home for children without parental care; the farmers’ market; 702 electrified farming areas; and 25 new water pumping services.

Last year, it was Sancti Spíritus that experienced this makeover, what usually happens in the province designated to host the July 26^th event.  However, now it looks as though not a single gallon of paint or sack of cement has touched its streets since.

As for Díaz-Canel, in his brief speech he met expectations with the usual rhetoric full of clichés and militaristic tones, with phrases like “Turning setbacks into victories,” “We live under a hegemonic imperialism that fosters wars,” and “It is through solidarity that we have withstood imperialist attacks.”

The commemoration ended with applause for Cuba’s friends—the same 500 foreigners who march every May 1 or attend political events—who traveled to support the revolution. The early morning closed with leaders dancing to the salsa of Arnaldo and his Talismán, and Raul Castro and his entourage waving paper Cuban flags at full speed as they exited the stage to the sound of the March of July 26.

First published in Spanish by 14ymedio and translated and posted in English by Havana Times.

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