Old Photos of May Day Event Falsely Shared as Cuba Protest Images

Cubans took to the streets on 11 July to protest against the President Miguel Diaz-Canel-led Communist government.

The claim says that the images relate to Cubans protesting against the Communist government. 

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

A set of images is being circulated on social media to claim that the pictures are from the ongoing protest in Cuba which are being held against deteriorating living conditions, lack of services and calling for an end to the communist regime in the country.

However, we found that the the two images are not related to the protests in Cuba. While one image is from 2018, the other was captured in 2013 and both the images are of May Day celebrations in the island nation.

May Day or the 1st of May is celebrated as International Workers' Day also known as Labour Day to commemorate the historic labour movement.

CLAIM

The photo has been shared by Matt Couch, a supporter of former US President Donald Trump who has often been called out for spreading disinformation. The photo posted on 16 July has over 13,000 likes at the time of writing this article.

An archived version of the tweet can be found here.

The photo has also been shared in the context of COVID-19 as well and an archived tweet can be found here.

Another image is being circulated along with the same claim.

An archived version of the post can be found here.

Several social media users have also shared the photos and the archived versions can be accessed here, here, and here.

WHAT WE FOUND

The Quint's WebQoof team found that both the images relate to celebrations of May Day in Havana, the capital of Cuba. Let's have a look at both the images one by one.

IMAGE 1

Upon a reverse image search on Tineye, we found the image in a slideshow on the web portal of NBC News, an American broadcasting channel. The story was published in May 2018.

The caption of the image read, "The May Day parade in Cuba's capital drew hundreds of thousands of people, many of whom carried posters with the face of former President Fidel Castro."

The photo was courtesy of Alejandro Ernesto/Pool via Reuters.

The photo is of May Day celebrations in Havana in 2018.

We also found the image on Getty Images and the caption of the image read, "People march to Revolution Square in Havana to celebrate May Day, on May 1, 2018."

People marched to Revolution Square in Havana in 2018.

We also compared both the images and found that the now viral image is from the 2018.

Viral Image (L), 2018 photo (R)

IMAGE 2

We found the image upon a reverse image search on Tineye on the archives of a Spanish news website called 'Indy media Argentina'. The story was published on 1 May 2013.

The caption in the image written in Spanish translated to 1 May parade in Havana and the photo courtesy was given to Ismael Francisco/ Cubadebate.

Next, we looked up for the original image clicked by the photographer and found the image on the article of Spanish website 'Cubadebate', published on 1 May 2013 when President Raul Castro had led the celebrations.

Photo by Ismael Francisco/ Cubadebate

It must be recalled that thousands of Cubans took to the streets on Sunday, 11 July, to protest against the President Miguel Diaz-Canel-led Communist government, amid increasing inflation, food shortages, restraints on civil liberties, and a spiralling COVID-19 outbreak in the country.

This has been touted as the largest anti-government demonstration that the Caribbean islandic country has witnessed in decades.

However, these two images are not from the ongoing protests.

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