The Cuban leader repeated that most Cubans support their country, when in reality he’s referring to his Communist Party government.
By Francisco Acevedo
HAVANA TIMES – In September, we had the Group of 77 plus China (G77+China) Summit in Havana, and there have been others since, such as the one that took place this week in Dubai – the UN Climate Change Conference (COP28). Our beloved Miguel Diaz-Canel was in attendance, and he used this international political platform to disseminate once again his government’s propaganda.
In front of cameras and microphones that reproduced his message, the Cuban leader repeated that most Cubans support their country, when in reality he’s referring to his Communist Party government.
This sentence in itself is reason enough for discussion, because we’d have to go to the polls to see if it is really true. When he’s talking about the majority and not putting himself as the island’s leader or the Cuban Communist Party (PCC) who he represents, then we’re already disagreeing.
I can’t imagine a Brazilian who doesn’t support Brazil, or a Mexican who doesn’t support Mexico. Ah, but if we’re talking about Luis Inacio Lula da Silva or Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, their support isn’t unanimous. In fact, even if it isn’t total support, they still won the majority’s support outside their national borders, because emigres from these countries had the right to vote in their respective presidential elections; which is not the case for Cubans.
For starters, we Cubans living on the island don’t even have the right to choose our president, much less those who are now residing abroad permanently.
Every Cuban election, including those for the Constitution and Family Act, only allowed residents on the island to participate, as well as delegation members abroad: read here, embassies and official missions (health, sports, etc.).
Going back to Canel… every time he meets with Cubans in the First World or in other places, they are always his supporters, or at least those who don’t openly oppose him. I’m pointing this out because they are two very different things.
One thing is to support him, it’s another thing to oppose him to his face. The consequences of the latter (basically that they aren’t able to return to Cuban to visit their families) is the only thing that makes them sit down and listen to him speak and pretend like they support him. The truth is that if they didn’t have their families as “hostages”, they’d be singing another tune.
Do the Cubans who want him out of power not want the best for Cuba? Do you hate Cuba if you don’t like him? According to him, these aren’t “real Cubans”, even though they are all advocating to stop families separating, poverty and the anguish of their fellow Cubans.
His discourse advocates for inclusion, but it’s an inclusion with conditions: “only those who defend Cuba”, which according to his judgement, are those who defend the Communist Party and condemn the US embargo. In fact, it’s the only thing they want from emigres, to help them end the embargo so they can have greater resources to remain in power doing and undoing whatever they want, without looking at the consequences.
Just a few hours before leaving for the United Arab Emirates, Canel was dressed in his olive-green union in the middle of Operacion Baragua, receiving instructions from Raul Castro and his military entourage.
“The Cuban that defends Cuba” is a person who can sit down at the table and speak to them, not the Cuban who wants prisoners of conscience released or general elections, because it seems that these demands are anti-Cuban.
In the middle of the United Nations Climate Change Conference for 2028, better known as COP28, he began by recalling that genocide is happening in Palestine (not in Cuba), that the global temperature is rising (to criticize developed countries) and other common messages at this kind of meeting.
It’s the same old story: the developed nations need to pay the underdeveloped based on their historic responsibilities, including Cuba, who refuses to operate like the rest of the world does. It’s like the fable of the fisherman, who in this case is refusing to learn to fish and prefers to be given fish his entire life.
Event of the week in Cuba
On the island, the news that really caused a stir this week was the crisis created after six doctors at the Provincial Hospital in Granma were sentenced to two and three years in prison for the death of a patient who was involved in a car accident in 2021.
What the state-controlled press didn’t tell the public was that these experts were fighting to save this person’s life without all the resources they needed, which are becoming more and more scarce in Cuban health institutions.
In this specific case, there weren’t any Levin type nasogastric duodenal tubes, suction devices, or vesical catheters or equipment for stitches, and the CT scan machine was broken, which is quite common in surgery rooms over the country.
One of the defendants, Yoandra Quesada, explained what happened in detail and reported that the Public Prosecutor’s Office didn’t know what was going on in Cuba’s operation rooms and as a result, the events weren’t being analyzed properly from a medical perspective.
The remark was such a blow that the PCC’s first secretary in Granma, Yanaisi Capo, was removed from her position, which is clear proof of the strength of the outcry, even if it only happened in the virtual space. Of course, they didn’t blame the death on this, but the measure was so suspicious and out of the ordinary after the stir it caused.
When we were in the middle of celebrating Medicine Day in Cuba, it was a real scandal for them to use doctors as scapegoats, when they are practically working magic to save lives without the proper resources they need.
That’s why many doctors are resigning, because they are at risk of being blamed by a deceased person’s relatives when the solution is out of their hands.
Of course, Diaz-Canel said not a single word about any of this, or about the reports of deaths in hospitals nearly every day because of malpractice and medicine and medical supply shortages. Propaganda is still rampant in Dubai, Paris or New York, and the worst thing is that it will continue to be so.
Read more from Cuba here on Havana Times
