Cuba Marks May Day with Homage to Chavez

About half a million people across Cuba took part in May Day celebrations dedicated to the late Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, a close ally of the island's communist leaders.

President Raul Castro, 81, reviewed a parade in Havana of some 300,000 people bearing banners and flags, from stands erected in the Plaza of the Revolution alongside a giant portrait of Chavez.

Chavez was "the best friend the Cuban people had," said Salvador Valdes, a member of the Cuban politburo and the sole speaker of the day, expressing "deep affection and admiration for this giant."

Chavez, who received extensive cancer treatments in Havana, died of the disease March 5 in Caracas at age 58.

Under Chavez, oil-rich Venezuela became Cuba's most important political ally and trading partner, taking in an army of Cuban advisers and military personnel in exchange for cheap Venezuelan oil.

Union delegations from 73 countries took part in the Havana rally, which was held early in the morning to avoid the blazing heat at this time of year in Cuba.

Demonstrations were also organized in 15 provincial capitals, with the regime's number two, Miguel Diaz-Canel, presiding over the one in Santiago de Cuba, the island's second largest city.