Cuba’s Parallel Reality
At least the president admitted to missteps in managing the economy—but according to him, those happened due to external pressures.
By Francisco Acevedo
HAVANA TIMES – The interview made public this week between Cuban president Miguel Díaz-Canel and Brazilian journalist Breno Altman once again demonstrates that the country’s top leadership lives in a parallel reality, very different from that of the rest of Cuba’s inhabitants.
The discourse blaming the United States’ economic and financial embargo remains unchanged, as does the claim that they suffer terrible media campaigns meant to distort the truth—when in fact, they are the ones constantly trying to mask it.
However, barely into the interview, he already put his foot in his mouth, stating that with or without an embargo, the socialist model would remain. So the problem isn’t the embargo—it’s stubbornness.
The first major lie, and perhaps the gravest, is denying the existence of political prisoners in Cuba. From Luis Manuel Otero to Maikel Osorbo, including Jose Daniel Ferrer, there are hundreds of Cuban citizens behind bars for publicly expressing their discontent with the regime.
Diaz Canel said: “There are people imprisoned for committing crimes, judged by the justice system, with due process, in accordance with our Constitution’s norms—no one is being convicted for not supporting the Revolution, but for the criminal and vandalistic acts they commit.”
Documented reports from various international organizations, testimonies from those involved, and even the sentencing records themselves—which inflate any hint of “illegality”—are all dismissed by the government.
Everyone else is a liar and part of a foreign-funded platform to destabilize the country. And yet, on the other hand, the regime constantly begs for money from citizens living abroad.
“Since they have no popular support, they often resort to criminal acts and promote vandalism, terrorism, assaults, attacks on national security, public safety, and against internal order,” Diaz-Canel claimed in the television segment aired on the now-traditional From the Presidency podcast.
At least those three individuals mentioned—without even going too far—did not engage in any vandalism, but are being criminalized for active dissent, hidden under draconian laws that stigmatize anything that opposes the current political system.
In a brutally revealing self-portrait, he accused the international and independent press, as well as social media, of constructing a “virtual Cuba that has nothing to do with the real Cuba,” while supposedly taking notes and making corrections in a notebook, without looking the interviewer in the eye, and speaking more about the United States than about Cuba itself.
The growing repression against activists, independent journalists, artists, and citizens expressing discontent with the regime doesn’t exist in his imagination, nor do the more than a thousand political prisoners on the island—many detained after the historic July 11, 2021 protests and during subsequent demonstrations.
Diaz-Canel says there is no popular discontent. Constant repression and intimidation are just external fabrications, and opposition figures are nothing more than common criminals.
In some way, the international community validates him, because certainly no protest of that scale has happened again. But one only needs to look at the images of beatings and especially the arrests and sentences that followed to understand why Cubans no longer demonstrate freely. It should be suspicious that in no other country in the world do protests of that scale suddenly stop without any changes to internal conditions.
At least the president admitted to missteps in managing the economy—but according to him, those happened due to external pressures. So, the failed Tarea Ordenamiento monetary reform, the country’s import-focused mindset, the lack of investment in strategic sectors like agriculture and renewable energy, and serious problems like corruption, administrative inefficiency, and the brain drain are all the US government’s fault too.
“We haven’t been efficient in managing the few resources available,” was as far as he went, but he insisted that the lack of spare parts and inability to invest are what have the outdated thermoelectric plants in crisis—so the embargo gets blamed for Cuba’s biggest current problem too.
“We haven’t made the necessary investments in agriculture and food production,” he added. But then, how are luxury hotels being built right in the face of the Cuban people? It’s not enough to admit it; it must be corrected. In that same moment, he should have said, “We’ve corrected course, and right now we’re investing in agriculture, medicine production, transportation, etc.” There is no shortage of more important sectors for investment in this country.
Instead, he returned to the same patriotic rhetoric of appealing to resistance (from others, because he and his relatives and loyalists don’t suffer any of these hardships), the unity of the people, and the ethical values of the Revolution—which are nothing more than proof of the total failure of a model that insists on blaming others while avoiding its own responsibilities.
He insisted that with a single political party there is more democracy than with many—something completely illogical, and which the global reality disproves thoroughly. In his view, there’s democracy without political alternation, when the president proposes and no one challenges him, and when there are no free elections.
In the end, it’s the same old monologue, the same justifications repeated for over 60 years. They’re not incompetent, they’re victims, when the real victims are those of us who must endure endless blackouts, poor nutrition, inadequate medical care, no freedom of movement or thought, and a long list of shortages of every kind, including digital connectivity thanks to Etecsa’s recent rate hike.
All that’s left for the population is resignation, without even the civic right to protest and demand improvements. Because anyone who complains on social media could spend a decade in prison, and anyone who takes to the streets, even longer.
That’s the parallel reality in which, unfortunately, most Cubans live.
I just saw this interview on YouTube! It’s so full of bulls#%t propaganda, it’s hard to watch. Even his “admissions” were qualified by the excuse of a lack of resources. So the follow up question is why are there a lack of resources? Especially for such basic needs as energy and food. Diaz-Canel sounds as if he is still interviewing for the job he already has. Is he afraid that Fidel will get up from the grave and fire him? But there was something noteworthy. Maybe he said it and I just didn’t hear it since he talks like he’s mumbling but I don’t remember anything about when the economy will turn around. There was nothing about “better days ahead”. The regime has been famous for its lofty prognostications of a better harvest next year. Or, an increase in tobacco or sugar production. Nada de improvements in tourism. Does the regime finally see the writing on the wall?