Cuban Scholar Criticizes May Day Celebrations, Highlights Silenced Voices

As the Cuban regime orchestrated its customary International Workers' Day parade this Friday under the slogan "Defend the Homeland," Cuban jurist and former university professor René Fidel González García delivered a powerful message on Facebook from Santiago de Cuba, exposing the political hypocrisy of the event: "It's not about the people who parade, but those who can't speak out."

González García, a Doctor in Legal Sciences and former full professor at the University of Oriente, was dismissed and professionally blacklisted in November 2016 due to his critical articles about the regime, an action marked by significant irregularities. Since then, he has continuously expressed his critical views through social media.

Political Rights and Equality

In his post, the professor argued that "recognizing and guaranteeing constitutional political rights is never about granting them to some while denying them to others. A privilege is not, and can never be, a right."

For the academic, allowing some to march while suppressing those who wish to express themselves freely "means nullifying political equality and excluding part of the citizenry from exercising their rights."

This exclusion, the jurist acknowledges, may persist over time but cannot gain legitimacy: "It can be done for a while, even hidden for a long time, but it cannot be justified ethically or legally for what it essentially is: political exclusion."

Repression Accompanying the Parade

The repression accompanying the parade underscores the very issues being protested. On the eve of May 1st, journalist Ángel Cuza Alfonso was detained in front of his young daughter in Havana by State Security agents. At least 18 journalists, activists, and dissidents experienced internet blackouts the day before, and dozens were besieged or arrested.

Adding to this scenario was another institutionalized practice: children were taken out of their schools in San Miguel del Padrón and Santiago de Cuba to participate in pre-parade marches, a tradition the regime has maintained since the 1960s.

Economic Hardships and Irony of the Parade

The main event was not held at the Plaza de la Revolución but at the José Martí Anti-Imperialist Tribune, opposite the U.S. Embassy on Havana's Malecón. Miguel Díaz-Canel led the march with his wife Lis Cuesta and Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez, surrounded by a heavy security presence, while the nonagenarian Raúl Castro presided over the central political act.

The irony of the parade becomes more pronounced when considering the real situation of the marching workers. The average salary in Cuba was a mere 6,930 CUP per month in 2025—approximately 15 dollars—while a couple needs over 45,000 CUP monthly to meet basic needs. These impoverished workers find themselves pressured to parade in celebration of a system that condemns them to poverty.

Militaristic Undertones Amidst Crisis

The parade took on an openly militaristic tone, framed within the "Year of Preparation for Defense," in response to the climate of increasing tensions with the administration of President Donald Trump. Amidst the crisis, the regime called for May 1st with a warlike tone, mobilizing official unions from dawn.

This is not the first time González García has issued such a warning: in April, he had already pointed out that the Cuban crisis is worse than in 1953 under Batista, urging a new generation to take action. This Friday, he concluded his message with a vision for the future: "In the territories of the future, what will truly surpass today's exclusion will be the effective respect and full guarantee of the right to political equality for all. But even more superior will be our memory and the solid, lucid, and irrefutable reasons that sustain our 'never again' today and then."