HAVANA – The designated ruler of Cuba Miguel Diaz-Canel sent a message for the new year to the Cuban in which he described 2022 as “one of the most challenging years” for the regime, warned that 2023 “could be even more difficult” and once again called on citizens to “creative resistance”.
“We have arrived in 2023 after winning together one of the most challenging years in the history of the Cuban Revolution. As we pushed open the door of 2023, we felt deep in the strength of the historical legacy that drives us without fear or doubt towards the New Year, always aware that things could get even more difficult,” he said in a short video address, copied by the official press, Diario de Cuba reported
“We are called by the certainty that the creativity of our people is infinite and that we did not get here by going backwards, but that we got here by going up. One and You can again,” he added in the audiovisual recording made in Plaza de la Revolución, with the José Martí monument in the background.
“At the gates of this most challenging year and therefore more attractive to anyone who feels revolutionary, I invite you to work with passion and the desire to continue to conquer the impossible,” said Díaz-Canel, repeating his statement last week in the last session of the Council of Ministers in 2022.
The message included a reference to the US embargo, to which the regime attributes all the problems Cubans are suffering.
“Let us advance across the blockade until it is impossible for its creators to impede our progress. We are all called. Let’s make a better country together. Let’s make our dreams come true here, where we learned to dream,” he added.
“Today we must guarantee the maintenance of just conquests with the Marti maxim that patriotism is a ‘sacred’ duty as we fight to transform the country into a state where people are happier living in it. Let this be our sacred obligation. I’m counting on every single one. Come hope,” he concluded.
Cubans have lost all hope for a better future in their country. The phenomenon that best illustrates this situation is the migratory flight she is suffering, the largest in history.
In fiscal year 2022 for the United States (October 1, 2021 to September 30, 2022), 224,607 Cubans arrived in the United States, an average of 615 per day. This number is almost six times the number of Cuban migrants received in 2021 (39,303) and 16 times that in 2020 (14,015). Between January 1 and November 30, 2022, 277,594 Cubans arrived in the United States, a daily average of 760.
FOUNTAIN: With information from Diario de Cuba