From our Bureau of Socialist Rewards with some assistance from our Bureau of Socialist Humor
Wow. How generous. Two days off with pay! Oh, wait a minute, one of those days is a Saturday, during which most Cubans don’t work. Aaaah, yes, only very few Cubans will get two days off with pay. Those who normally don’t work on Saturday are not included in this deal.
So, anyway, for all of your suffering and deprivation, here you go: take a day off. It’s the least we at Castro, Inc. can do for all of the hellish suffering we have put you through in 2024. And enjoy that day off, because 2025 will be much, much worse. Count on it. It’s the only promise we can keep.
Abridged and loosely translated from Diaro de Cuba
The Cuban regime declared Friday, January 3, and Saturday, January 4, 2025, as public holidays to reward the endurance shown by the population throughout 2024, a year marked by shortages, daily blackouts, and the precarization of life, compounded by the impact of three natural disasters.
According to Deputy José Amado Ricardo Guerra, speaking on the final day of the fourth ordinary session of the National Assembly of People’s Power (ANPP), this is a gesture of recognition “for the effort made by the people in this challenging 2024.”
Ricardo Correa stated that the decision was made in acknowledgment of the “dedication” with which the people have faced “adverse situations,” demonstrating “their resilience by carrying out tasks with extraordinary dedication and effort.”
He announced that Prime Minister Manuel Marrero signed Decree-Law 118 on December 19, formalizing the paid holiday break for Friday, January 3, and Saturday, January 4, 2025. These days will be added to the existing public holidays on January 1 and 2, resulting in a total of four non-working days.
During Friday’s closing session of the National Assembly, Miguel Díaz-Canel dedicated most of his speech to blaming the U.S. embargo for the economic challenges exacerbated under his administration, while absolving himself of responsibility.
“As in every difficult year, I come to give an account, to explain the enormous efforts and still insufficient results of presidential management, in the face of obstacles imposed upon us and the prevailing injustice in international economic relations, which have turned the world into a betting market with few options for nations like Cuba, who refuse to accept the law of the strongest,” he said.
“My greatest dream is to one day come to this Assembly and announce that the blockade, the 243 additional measures, have been lifted, and that we are no longer on the illegitimate list of state sponsors of terrorism, where we never belonged,” he reiterated.
According to Díaz-Canel, overcoming the embargo “depends on what we are capable of doing and driving forward, with the heroism, intelligence, and creativity that distinguish us as a people.” However, he added, “the reality is the opposite of that dream. The blockade and its barriers have no expiration date. It is the nature of empires to impose punishments and extend them indefinitely.”
Hours later, during a march in front of the U.S. Embassy “to demand an end to the blockade and to celebrate, free and sovereign, another year of communist rule,” Díaz-Canel once again criticized Joe Biden’s administration. He accused it of “cruelly and obediently adhering to the policies approved by Trump during his term,” according to the official newspaper Granma.