Cubans defy Trump over Maduro support in May Day parade

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Millions of Cubans took to the streets on Wednesday in protest over new sanctions imposed on the Caribbean island by the Trump administration and U.S. efforts to topple the government of socialist ally Venezuela.

In the capital Havana, hundreds of thousands turned out, many of them gathering on Revolution Square from before dawn under the still-illuminated giant mural of Che Guevara.

The 87-year-old Communist Party chief Raul Castro and President Miguel Diaz-Canel presided in the reviewing, along with the visiting Russian Communist Party vice president, Ivan Melnikov.

Words of defiance

Different from the previous years, the rally did not begin with statements by local union leaders or major political figures, but with a recording of Fidel Castro's May 1, 2000 speech outlining his revolutionary ideals.

Late Cuban President Fidel Castro's recorded speech on May 1, 2000 is played on a screen during a May Day rally in Havana, Cuba May 1, 2019. /Reuters Photo

But President Diaz-Canel did set the tone for the parade with a tweet responding to Trump's latest threats.

"We will give a strong, firm and revolutionary response to the statements loaded with threats, provocations, lies and slander of the Yankee empire," Diaz-Canel said.

"Cuba confirms that we are free, sovereign, independent and socialist," he tweeted.

U.S. threats

On Tuesday, Trump threatened a "full and complete embargo" and more sanctions if Cuban troops continued to prop up the Venezuelan government.

People carry a banner depicting Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro during a May Day rally in Havana, Cuba May 1, 2019. /Reuters Photo

Those remarks came after Bolton said there were more than 20,000 Cuban troops in Venezuela and that potential high-level defectors feared Cuba's wrath.

Cuba has repeatedly denied it had military personnel on the ground.

"Bolton is a pathological liar who misinforms President Trump. There are no Cuban troops in Venezuela or Cubans participating in military or security operations," Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez tweeted on Tuesday.

While the government organized the marches throughout Cuba, there is little doubt Cubans are in shock and anger over the rapid deterioration of relations with the U.S. in recent months.

The U.S. has imposed a series of new sanctions against Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua which resulted in shortages of basic goods on the island.

People carry a banner reading "Union, commitment and victory" during a May Day rally in Havana, Cuba May 1, 2019. /Reuters Photo

The Trump administration's decision this month to fully implement the Helms-Burton Act as of Thursday, a 1996 law, marks a significant strengthening of sanctions on Cuba, according to experts.

Title I and II of the Act codify all previous sanctions into law and set conditions for Congress to lift them.

But previous presidents, both Republican and Democratic, suspended Title III, which allows U.S. citizens, including Cuban-Americans, to sue anyone profiting from their nationalized or confiscated properties.

(Cover: Cuba's First Secretary of the Communist Party and former President Raul Castro and Cuba's President Miguel Diaz-Canel watch the May Day rally in Havana, Cuba, May 1, 2019. /Reuters Photo)

(Within input from Reuters, AFP and Xinhua)