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Cuba: Diaz-Canel Appeals to the World for Help

While blaming the USA for the island’s crisis

The Cuban leader turned the July 26 commemoration into a lengthy harangue devoid of self-criticism, solutions, and still clinging to the rhetoric of the external enemy.

HAVANA TIMES – Miguel Díaz-Canel devoted nearly half an hour this Sunday to describing a country without electricity, without medicines, with hospitals unable to perform surgeries, paralyzed industries, and rising infant mortality. Yet at the main July 26 ceremony, held in Pinar del Río before sunrise, the Cuban leader absolved his government of any responsibility and once again portrayed the national disaster as an epic struggle and the government’s incompetence as a form of heroism.

The tone was set from the outset. Before delivering his own speech, Díaz-Canel read a message from Raul Castro, once again introducing him as “the leader of our revolution.” The scene underscored the symbolic weakness of a president who, even at the most important political ceremony on the official calendar, still needs the legitimacy of the retired—and absent—general, serving merely as the messenger of his words. Before him, the audience appeared listless, showing little enthusiasm and paying attention more out of ritual obligation than political conviction.

From there, the ruler resorted to the most worn-out repertoire of propaganda. He claimed that Cuba is fighting “a new Moncada” against a US policy designed to suffocate the country, comparing today’s hardships with the 1953 assault. The difference is that, despite its military failure, that action had a concrete objective, whereas Díaz-Canel’s “Moncada” lacks strategy, deadlines, or any possible........

© Havana Times