1 of 1 DíazCanel has a long political career in Cuba — Photo: Alejandro Ernesto/Pool/AFP DíazCanel has a long political career in Cuba — Photo: Alejandro Ernesto/Pool/AFP
With no room for surprises, the National Assembly of People’s Power (ANPP) on Wednesday (19th) reelected Miguel DíazCanel for a second and final term as President of Cuba.
The former university professor and electrical engineer, who celebrates his 63rd birthday this Thursday (20), has ruled the country since 2018 after becoming the first civilian to take power after the mandates of Fidel and Raúl Castro. He received 459 votes (97.66%) from the 462 MPs present in the legislature.
DíazCanel has been First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC, the only legal one in the country) since 2021 and led the only candidacy proposed for the presidency of the ANPP. Salvador Valdés Mesa was also reelected VicePresident with 93.4% of the vote (439 out of 462).
“Taking into account the results announced, I declare Miguel Mario DíazCanel Bermúdez Presidentelect of the Republic,” said Esteban Lazo, President of the Assembly, before the plenary session and in the presence of one of the main leaders of the Cuban Revolution, Raúl Castro, 91 years old.
Dressed in his traditional olive drab uniform, Castro shook hands with the President, who arrived at the meeting in a dark blue suit.
Immediately after his appointment, DíazCanel proposed to the ANPP Manuel Marrero Cruz as prime minister, who has held the post for five years.
Crisis in the first semester
The first term of DíazCanel and Valdés was marked by the severe crisis, the worst the country is going through in 30 years, due to the combination of the consequences of the pandemic, the tightening of American sanctions and failures in the economy and monetary policy. There is a shortage of food, medicine and fuel. At the same time, the president and his deputy managed to demonstrate that it was possible to maintain the socialist regime without the Castro presence.
This Wednesday, after the last parliamentary “elections”, the new Cuban parliament was also constituted. On March 26, the 470 candidates were elected to the ANPP. The vast majority are CCP members.
Upon taking office, DíazCanel urged his cabinet to “face obstacles and eliminate inefficiencies” to “increase the supply of goods and services and control inflation.”
His reelection comes after two years of soaring inflation of 39% in 2022 and 70% in 2021, unprecedented figures in the country since the revolution’s victory in 1959.
In his speech, DíazCanel criticized “bureaucratism, indifference or unacceptable corruption” slowing the country’s progress “amid profound difficulties.”
Since 2018, when the current crisis began, DíazCanel has accelerated an economic reform initiated by his political mentor, Raúl Castro.
currency reform
In early 2021, it implemented a currency reform that ended decades of artificial exchange rates of one dollar to one Cuban peso and caused major disruption in the national economy. It also encouraged selfemployment and gave the green light to the creation of small and mediumsized businesses, but these measures proved insufficient to stimulate the economy.
Political scientist Arturo LópezLevy points out that the DíazCanel government “has not made a complete and comprehensive transition to a mixed economy”.
“Some economic changes didn’t happen and others that did have left a lot of skepticism about their implementation,” he says.
The currency reform also caused a sharp devaluation of the Cuban currency, causing the cost of living to skyrocket. The peso went from 24 to 120 units per dollar at the official rate in two years, while trading at 185 pesos per coin on the black market.
One of his biggest failings was also handling the July 2021 protests, the largest on the island since 1959, which left one dead, dozens injured and more than 1,300 arrested, according to Miamibased human rights organization Cubalex. An unprecedented migration exodus ensued after the protests: more than 300,000 Cubans left the island in 2022 alone.
meteoric career
Miguel DíazCanel was elected President of Cuba by Parliament in April 2018 and took office because of his closeness to the people; for the impact left while serving as first party secretary in the Villa Clara region; and his active presence as Vice President at postcyclone disasters such as Matthew in 2016 and at major international events. Frequent public appearances were part of Raúl Castro’s strategy to establish him as the “ideal” candidate at the helm of the country, which for the first time in nearly six decades had a president without the Castro surname.
His athletic build and meticulously studied theatrics when he approaches people make many Cubans say he is “a nice guy”; who “is a loving husband with his wife”; who “drinks a few sips of rum even with the common people”; and until, in connection with the latest sports trends in Cuba, “he was the one who decided to broadcast football matches live on TV” and that he is a “fanatic fan” of Barcelona.
His closeness to Raúl Castro enabled him to have a stellar career that took him from second secretary of the Union of Young Communists in 1990 to first secretary of the party in the provinces of Villa Clara (1994) and Holguín (2003). From there he became Minister of Higher Education in 2009 and Vice President of Cuba in 2013.