An apathetic Torch March without Raúl Castro in response to the imminent fall of the regime

Havana/“Thousands of Cubans, led by young people, march tonight with torches through the streets of Havana honoring José Martí and, with him, his firm and unwavering anti-imperialist position.” That was the response of the Cuban Foreign Minister, Bruno Rodríguez, to the President of the United States, Donald Trump, hours after the American once again predicted the fall of the regime due to the lack of oil on a day in which the doubt about shipments of Mexican crude oil remained intact.

The reality was much less epic. Yesterday’s march brought together much fewer people than last year and although some young people made an effort shouting – already hoarse – slogans on the corners, indifference was general. “The majority leave in the first blocks and others throw away the torch at the first moment,” says Alejandro, a Havana native who came closer out of curiosity rather than revolutionary fervor. “It seems that the security cordons, more than to protect, are there so that people do not leave en masse for the buses, parked on Carlos III Avenue,” he ironized.

Lots of police, blocked traffic and a public very focused on making the steps look full, because the park, which other years was packed, this time was empty. “While they were giving the inaugural speech, people were doing their thing, not paying attention,” says the Havana native. The presence of workers, sports schools and cadets has been more significant this year, but the students were much fewer than usual. The comments were almost monothematic: blackouts, Trump and Mexico were on the lips of the majority, and it was not surprising.

“Cuba is about to fall. Cuba is a nation that is very close to collapse,” Trump had just told the press before starting a rally in Iowa. The president reiterated – as he did on January 9 – that Havana “got its money from Venezuela, it got its oil from Venezuela, but they no longer have it.” Not another word about the Island, although he did continue with praise for “the largest oil reserves in the world” – in reference to the Venezuelan ones – and the “excellent work” that Delcy Rodríguez is doing. “We have a very good relationship with the leaders of Venezuela and we are going to keep it that way,” he said.

The words did not sit well in Havana, right on one of the biggest propaganda days of the year, this time for the 173rd anniversary of Martí’s birth. But there is no silver lining and the issue served to inflame the discourse that had so little success. “This is not an act of nostalgia, it is a call to action,” said Litza Elena González Desdín, national president of the University Student Federation (FEU), which organizes the march each year, with the support of the Communist Party’s propaganda apparatus.

“We have to defend sovereignty, build more social justice, and raise the flag of Latin American unity and anti-imperialism,” he continued until the epic, saying that the youth “does not accept new or old chains and does not give up or sell out.”

The event, which, by the way, was not attended by Raúl Castro – for the first time in at least ten years – nor by Ramiro Valdés, who had health problems – was attended by the Government’s senior staff, who evoked Fidel Castro – whose birth will be celebrated one hundred years ago in 2026 – and tried, with little success, to turn it into a demonstration of revolutionary reaffirmation in the face of the unprecedented crisis that the country is experiencing.