Miguel Díaz-Canel was largely re-elected with 97.66% of the votes of the 470 deputies in the National Assembly.
By Le Figaro with AFP
Published 4/19/2023 at 10:22 PM, updated 4/19/2023 at 10:52 PM
This content is not accessible to all.
Miguel Diaz-Castel is the first civilian to lead Cuba after the Castro brothers. FEDERICO PARRA v AFP
Miguel Diaz-Canel, the only candidate from the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC), was unsurprisingly re-elected on Wednesday to a second and final term as president of Cuba, where opposition is illegal, said National Assembly Speaker Esteban Lazo.
As the first civilian to take over the reins of the country in 2018 after the presidencies of the brothers Fidel (1926-2016) and Raul Castro, 92, who had been in power since the victory of the Cuban Revolution in 1959, his candidacy received 97.66% of the votes Agree the 470 deputies of the National Assembly. “In view of the results announced, I proclaim Miguel Mario Diaz-Canel Bermudez President of the Republic,” declared Esteban Lazo, President of the National Assembly, in the presence of Raul Castro, 92 years old.
This content is not accessible to all.
The economic crisis cannot be stopped
He was tasked with accelerating the slow economic reform initiated by his predecessor and political mentor Raul Castro (2008-2018). But he has failed to contain the crisis Cuba has been going through since 2018. It’s the worst in three decades, with food, medicine and fuel shortages due to the tightening of America’s embargo, in place since 1962, and the fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic, which the government has combated with nationally designed and developed vaccines.
In early 2021, it implemented a sweeping currency reform that ended decades of one dollar to Cuban pesos, but it caused significant distortions in the national economy. It also encouraged self-employment and approved SMEs, but these measures proved insufficient to improve the economic situation. “It has not made a full and comprehensive transition to a mixed economy,” said Cuban international relations expert Arturo Lopez-Levy, who lives in the United States. “Some (planned) economic changes did not materialize, others left a lot of skepticism about their implementation.”
The currency reform triggered an inflationary spiral and a strong devaluation of the peso, which led to strong dissatisfaction among the population. The Cuban currency went from 24 to 120 pesos per dollar at the official rate in two years, while it is quoted at 185 pesos per dollar on the black market.
“Rare Success”
Miguel Diaz-Canel said he was “dissatisfied” that he could not promote “a more effective package of measures to solve these” economic problems during a recent Havana interview with Lebanese TV channel al-Mayadeen, which is considered to be close to Syria. For opponent Manuel Cuesta, the “proof” of his “re-election” comes “in the midst of a double economic crisis: that of the model and that of the state political forces responsible for finding appropriate solutions”.
” READ ALSO – Cuba: The Bitter Memory of the “Black Spring”
One of Miguel Díaz-Canel’s “rare achievements” was “the transition to a regime led by a new generation born after 1959 that does not bear the Castro name,” says Jorge Duany of the International University of Florida. However, he stresses that his “biggest failure was the mismanagement of the July 2021 demonstrations,” the largest on the island since 1959. They left one dead and dozens injured. More than 1,300 people have also been arrested and nearly 500 have been sentenced to up to 25 years in prison, according to Miami-based human rights organization Cubalex.
This content is not accessible to all.
The crisis has led to an unprecedented exodus of more than 300,000 Cubans in 2022 alone. Levy, he was caught up in his own slogan that he represents “continuity” when “what the country demands (…) more permanent change is”.