Cuba stages May Day rallies as tensions mount with US

By Alien Fernandez

Hundreds of thousands of Cubans gathered in Havana's Revolution Square for the traditional May Day march on Thursday, amid a grueling economic crisis and as tensions ratchet up with U.S. President Donald Trump's administration.

Raul Castro, 93, dressed in a military uniform and referred to as the leader of the revolution begun by his brother Fidel Castro in 1959, and President Miguel Diaz-Canel presided over the march.

Diaz-Canel, in a message earlier this week, had called on residents to turn out despite the hard times in a show of unity in the face of increased U.S. pressure.

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The first Trump administration imposed new sanctions on the communist-run country on top of the decades-old trade embargo. The government says that action was the main cause of the current crisis, which has seen the economy shrink more than 15% over the last five years.

"Everyone knew that they had to come because it is a moment of revolutionary reaffirmation in these convulsive and difficult times, and especially with imperialism intensifying its policies against Cuba," Diego Fernandez, 42, said as he marched in the Cuban capital.

Other national leaders fanned out across the country to similar events, where large numbers of residents braved blackouts, poor transportation and a scarcity of basic goods to march.

"This celebration of Labor Day in Cuba is a new demonstration of the respect of the Cuban People for their revolution," Ulises Guilarte de Nacimiento, president of the Cuban Federation of Workers, said as he opened the Havana event.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has promised to "get tough" with Cuba, his parents' homeland. Mauricio Claver-Carone, the U.S. special envoy for Latin America, recently stated that new sanctions were being prepared and he believed a change of government in Cuba could be imminent.

Cuba's foreign ministry this week blasted U.S. Chief of Mission Mike Hammer for using his office to foster "subversion" and arrested high-profile dissident Jose Daniel Ferrer, one of a number of government opponents the U.S. diplomat has visited recently.