Cenesex denounced the alternative parade as a"provocation" and several activists say they received threats either anonymously on social media or from state security in person not to attend it - not that it stopped them.
The government for example postponed the full implementation of a decree clamping down on the arts after an online campaign protesting the law, and stepped back on regulations governing the private sector after entrepreneurs and experts complained. The conga in Havana was an exception that became a regular occurrence, and a reminder that the government, which once sent gays to work camps in the early days of Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution, had made considerable advances in LGBTI rights in recent years.
Some LGBT activists say they felt the cancellation of the conga was a sign those rights are being eroded, possibly because a recent public consultation over a new constitution revealed that there was more opposition to the community than previously thought.