Cuba cancels Santiago de Cuba’s San Juan congas for second year

Authorities barred Santiago de Cuba’s San Juan congas for a second straight year, telling group leaders the parade route for Saint John’s Day was not authorized because of the province’s political-ideological situation. The internal message said performances should stay inside venues, a hard stop for one of the city’s most visible street traditions.

In Santiago, that is not a minor scheduling change. The Conga de Los Hoyos has long been one of the city’s signature public rituals, starting at Paseo Martí and running along Avenida de los Libertadores, and it is built to draw big crowds, often thousands strong. In a city already shaken by weeks of protests and demonstrations, that kind of mass street gathering is exactly what authorities have been trying to keep under control.

The concern was not abstract. In 2025, the Los Hoyos conga was heavily policed and monitored, with special forces and patrol cars present along the route. The year before that, Paso Franco’s conga veered into protest-like territory when people chanted a slogan that spread online and turned the celebration into a collective expression of discontent. By December 27, 2025, the Conga de Los Hoyos also failed to take place on its traditional date, with no official announcement, public notice or institutional explanation.

That pattern unfolded against a louder June in Santiago de Cuba. Residents banged pots and pans in Sueño, Santa Bárbara, Antonio Maceo, Veguita de Galo, Mármol and Altamira, while neighbors near the José Martí Urban Center protested for electricity, food and freedom. A grassroots conga, La Conga de Porrones, surfaced in Reparto Flores, but a police car arrived and broke it up before it could grow into anything larger.

The ban turned a festival decision into another test of state control over Santiago’s streets. When officials say the route is closed because of the province’s political-ideological situation, they are not just canceling a parade. They are admitting that, in Santiago de Cuba, drums and bodies in the street now look a lot like politics.