April 30 (UPI) — Cuba has postponed its annual International Workers’ Day parade for the third time within the final 4 years as gas shortages hamstring the nation.

The Workers Central Union of Cuba, which organizes the occasion as the one government-sanctioned commerce union, announced the choice on Sunday. President Miguel Díaz-Canel stated rain will stop celebrations on Monday, suspending it for 5 days.

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“The rain in a good part of the country will prevent us from going out to celebrate #1Mayo,” he tweeted. “We do not cancel the celebration, we postpone it for the next day 5.”

The western area of the island is in a extreme thunderstorm warning on Sunday. The system passing over Cuba has the potential to trigger flash flooding, the Cuban authorities stated in a post on Facebook.

Diaz-Canel has stated Cuba is receiving about two-thirds of the fuel it wants, as a result of suppliers in different international locations not fulfilling their contractual obligations. Venezuela, Cuba’s largest provider of high-grade crude oil, is reportedly delivering about half as a lot because it usually does. Cuba additionally can not course of the crude oil it receives from the United States.

As a outcome, Cuba has been rationing its gas for greater than per week, limiting the quantity of gas being bought per automobile, based on Bloomberg.

The parade as soon as drew thousands and thousands of individuals to Revolution Square within the capital metropolis of Havana. BBC experiences that tons of of 1000’s of persons are often delivered to the sq. by bus for the parade.

Aside from 2020 and 2021 when the parade was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the final time the parade was canceled was in 1959 throughout the Cuban Revolution. The revolution noticed Fidel Castro rise to energy, supplanting Fulgencio Batista as president.