More than 500,000 Cubans gathered this May 1st at the José Martí Anti-Imperialist Tribune to celebrate International Workers’ Day, in an event led by Army General Raúl Castro Ruz and the First Secretary of the Communist Party Central Committee and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, as part of the centennial of Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro Ruz’s birth.
During the ceremony, Yolaidis Hernández Valdés, a specialist from the Chemical Industry Business Group, spoke on behalf of sector workers to denounce the “intensified economic, commercial, financial, and energy blockade” imposed by the United States government, further aggravated by the executive order issued in January 2026. “We will not stop. We have the responsibility to reinvent ourselves in order to grow,” she stated.
The event was attended by Commander of the Rebel Army José Ramón Machado Ventura, as well as Political Bureau members Roberto Morales Ojeda, Secretary of Organization of the Central Committee; Major General José Amado Ricardo Guerra, Secretary of the Council of Ministers; and Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, Minister of Foreign Affairs, along with leaders of mass organizations, the Young Communist League, the Association of Combatants of the Cuban Revolution, the Revolutionary Armed Forces, and the Ministry of the Interior.
Hernández Valdés emphasized that, despite daily hardships caused by the blockade, Cuban industry continues to advance through innovative projects, financial self-management, and import substitution. “When we turn challenges into opportunities, we build the homeland, we build the revolution,” she said.
She paid tribute to the legacy of the Commander-in-Chief on his centennial: “Fidel continues to call on us to resist and to win. In the most difficult circumstances, no task has ever been, nor will ever be, impossible.”
She also rejected any characterization of Cuba as a threat: “Is Cuba an unusual and extraordinary threat to anyone? No, and a thousand times no. This is a solidary, internationalist, anti-imperialist, and peaceful people.”
During the gathering at the Anti-Imperialist Tribune, two books containing the signatures of 6,230,973 Cubans over the age of 16 who supported the campaign “My Signature for the Homeland” were symbolically presented to Army General Raúl Castro Ruz and President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez.
Osnay Miguel Colina Rodríguez, president of the Organizing Committee of the 22nd Congress of the Cuban Workers’ Federation (CTC), addressed the crowd at the Tribune, highlighting the steadfastness of the Cuban people in the face of external aggression.
“Our enemies have tried and tested everything. They expected to see us discouraged, defeated, and here we are, committed and firm, with our feet in the stirrup and fighting,” he said.
The trade union leader described the massive gathering of more than half a million people as “Fidel’s May Day in the year of his centennial.”
The event also brought together more than 827 friends of Cuba from 38 countries and 152 trade union and solidarity organizations worldwide, along with labor heroes, founders of the Cuban Workers’ Federation, and members of the diplomatic corps accredited in the country.
In parallel, thousands of Cubans marched across the country, joining the nationwide mobilization.