Cuban authorities announced yesterday Sunday the postponement of today’s May Day celebrations due to a wave of bad weather hitting the country, after they had already limited them due to fuel shortages.

“Due to the erratic weather that brings heavy rainfall in various areas, and due to the [μετεωρολογικών] forecasts for the next few hours, it has been decided to postpone the events for Labor Day across the country,” the official Granma newspaper reported in its digital edition.

The celebrations have been postponed until Friday, May 5, when “a public holiday will be declared,” the newspaper explained.

Last Tuesday, authorities announced that the traditional large gathering in Havana’s Revolution Square would not take place this year, due to fuel shortages on the island for several weeks.

Every year, tens of thousands of people are bussed from all over the city to the iconic square in central Havana and participate in a rally and march.

This year, downtown residents were invited to walk the Malecón Avenue, while others participated in events organized in their neighborhoods.

The communist-ruled island is experiencing its worst economic crisis in three decades, attributed to the combined impact of the novel coronavirus pandemic, the tightening of the US embargo and the ineffectiveness of reforms. The crisis is marked by shortages of food, medicine and fuel, a situation exacerbated by skyrocketing inflation.