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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/04/08/we-will-prevail-a-conversation-with-cubas-president-miguel-diaz-canel/">counterpunch.org</a>
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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">‘We Will Prevail’: A Conversation With Cuba’s President Miguel Díaz-Canel</h1>
<span class="gmail-post_author_intro">by</span> <span class="gmail-post_author"><a href="https://www.counterpunch.org/author/manolo-de-los-santos/" rel="nofollow">Manolo De Los Santos</a></span> - April 8, 2022<br></div>
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<p>In 1994, Miguel Díaz-Canel began a new position in Santa Clara, not
far from his birthplace of Placetas, as the provincial secretary of the
Cuban Communist Party. He set aside the air-conditioned car given to him
and went to work each morning on his bicycle, his long hair and jeans
defining him. Díaz-Canel organized rock concerts, spent time with his
family at <a href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/-leader-brings-hope-gay-rights/nlsrcz/1030191404?h=abiNyYGx1N8mzDjmHwhSpfyg6F4VJG6WbhB_VaCmCng">El Mejunje</a>,
the local LGBTQ cultural center, and roamed about talking to people on
the streets. This closeness to the people defined his tenure at Santa
Clara, which shaped the man who is now the president of Cuba.</p>
<p>In March, I spent a few hours talking to Díaz-Canel, who—born in 1960—has <a href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/Miguel-DC3ADaz-Canel/nlsrd3/1030191404?h=abiNyYGx1N8mzDjmHwhSpfyg6F4VJG6WbhB_VaCmCng">lived</a> his
entire life as Cuba struggled against the suffocating policies from
Washington to shape its socialist path. Raised by a teacher and a
factory worker, Díaz-Canel saw firsthand the Cuban Revolution’s
comprehensive program of social justice in which millions of members of
the working class, peasants, Black people, and women began to access for
the first time on equal terms the right to work, study and live with
dignity. Díaz-Canel’s generation grew up in a period under Fidel
Castro’s leadership in which, despite the existence of a U.S. blockade,
most Cubans saw their standards of living and quality of life rise
significantly due to national development plans, favorable trade
relations with the Soviet Union and a growing network of support in the
nonaligned world. Díaz-Canel studied electrical engineering at the
Central University of Las Villas, but early on in his career teaching
engineering there, he devoted much of his time to local activism with
the Young Communist League. That led him to an internationalist mission
in Nicaragua where, along with thousands of Cuban doctors and teachers,
he served among the poorest, often in remote corners of this Central
American country that was then <a href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/wiki-Contras/nlsrd6/1030191404?h=abiNyYGx1N8mzDjmHwhSpfyg6F4VJG6WbhB_VaCmCng">trapped</a> under a U.S.-funded war of counterinsurgency.</p>
<p>Díaz-Canel returned from Nicaragua in 1989 as the USSR neared its
final days and as the U.S. government seized the opportunity to tighten
restrictions on Cuba. In 1991, Cuba entered a <a href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/-review-socialism-soviet-union/nlsrd9/1030191404?h=abiNyYGx1N8mzDjmHwhSpfyg6F4VJG6WbhB_VaCmCng">Special Period</a> as trade fell by <a href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/xports20both20fell20over208025/nlsrdd/1030191404?h=abiNyYGx1N8mzDjmHwhSpfyg6F4VJG6WbhB_VaCmCng">80 percent</a>. Cubans were eating less (caloric intake decreased by <a href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/5D-caloric20intake20statistics/nlsrdh/1030191404?h=abiNyYGx1N8mzDjmHwhSpfyg6F4VJG6WbhB_VaCmCng">27 percent</a> from
1990 to 1996), long queues for food became common, electricity became a
rare occurrence, and millions took to riding bicycles as the island
faced a severe oil shortage under an intensified blockade. Díaz-Canel
was one of those on a bicycle. Cuba’s resilience during the Special
Period shaped his view of the world.</p>
<p><strong>Special Period II</strong></p>
<p>In 2018, Díaz-Canel was elected to be the president of Cuba. U.S.
President Donald Trump had tightened the U.S. blockade on Cuba, with <a href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/the-november-15-cuba-protests-/nlsrdl/1030191404?h=abiNyYGx1N8mzDjmHwhSpfyg6F4VJG6WbhB_VaCmCng">243</a> new
sanctions measures, the prevention of remittances from overseas Cubans
coming to the island, and Cuba being placed back on the United States’
State Sponsors of Terrorism <a href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/the-blockade-and-the-pandemic-/nlsrdp/1030191404?h=abiNyYGx1N8mzDjmHwhSpfyg6F4VJG6WbhB_VaCmCng">list</a>.
This campaign of maximum pressure has hurt the Cuban economy, which
began to see fuel and food shortages that echoed the Special Period. The
Biden administration has <a href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/maximum-pressure-trump-1608971/nlsrds/1030191404?h=abiNyYGx1N8mzDjmHwhSpfyg6F4VJG6WbhB_VaCmCng">kept</a> each and every one of these measures in place.</p>
<p>During the pandemic, the U.S. did not allow Cuba any relief from its unilateral blockade. The Cuban government <a href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/the-blockade-and-the-pandemic-/nlsrdp/1030191404?h=abiNyYGx1N8mzDjmHwhSpfyg6F4VJG6WbhB_VaCmCng">spent</a> $102
million on reagents, medical equipment, protective equipment, and other
material; in the first half of 2021, the government spent $82 million
on these kinds of materials. This is money that Cuba did not anticipate
spending—money that it does not have because of the collapsed tourism
sector. Despite the severe challenges to the economy, the government
continued to guarantee salaries, purchase medicines, and distribute food
as well as electricity and piped water. Overall, the Cuban government
added $2.4 billion to its already considerable debt overhang to cover
the basic needs of the population.</p>
<p>In this context, public discontent spilled onto the streets in 2021,
notably on July 11. Díaz-Canel’s first instinct was to go to the heart
of the matter and speak with the people. He went to great lengths not
merely to dismiss their concerns but rather to understand them within
the broader context of what Cuba was facing. Díaz-Canel <a href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/the-blockade-and-the-pandemic-/nlsrdp/1030191404?h=abiNyYGx1N8mzDjmHwhSpfyg6F4VJG6WbhB_VaCmCng">said</a> of
the people that most of them are “dissatisfied,” but that their
dissatisfaction was fueled by “confusion, misunderstandings, lack of
information, and the desire to express a particular situation.” “Imagine
facing that situation in a country that is attacked, blocked, demonized
on social networks, and then COVID-19 arrives,” he told me. “Therefore,
I am convinced that they [the U.S.] bet that Cuba had no way out: ‘They
cannot sustain the revolution; they cannot get out of this situation.’”</p>
<p>Among the many creative responses to these many challenges was the
decision by the Cuban government to develop its own vaccine. On May 17,
2020, Díaz-Canel called together Cuba’s scientists. “I told them, ‘Look,
there is no alternative; we need a Cuban vaccine. Nobody is going to
give us a vaccine. We need a Cuban vaccine that guarantees us
sovereignty,’” he told me. Seven weeks later, in the second half of
July, the first bottle of a Cuban vaccine candidate was ready. Soon
after Cuba would have <a href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/-but-5-covid-vaccines-its-cuba/nlsrdw/1030191404?h=abiNyYGx1N8mzDjmHwhSpfyg6F4VJG6WbhB_VaCmCng">five</a> vaccine
candidates. Of these, three are already in use: Abdala, Soberana 02,
and Soberana Plus. Two others are in the final stages of clinical trials
and are quite promising, including one called Mambisa, which can be
applied <a href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/articles-d41586-021-03470-x/nlsrdz/1030191404?h=abiNyYGx1N8mzDjmHwhSpfyg6F4VJG6WbhB_VaCmCng">nasally</a>. This is all short of a miracle considering that Cuba was only able to invest $50 million to develop these vaccines.</p>
<p>With the many economic problems that Cuba faces, President
Díaz-Canel, in line with his predecessors Fidel and Raúl Castro, has
renewed the principle of self-reliance. “We have to face the economic
battle ourselves with the concept of creative resistance,” he said. With
a growing number of workers in the non-state sector, the economy has
encouraged small local businesses. A new energy has <a href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/Off-in-Cuba-20220329-0003-html/nlsrf3/1030191404?h=abiNyYGx1N8mzDjmHwhSpfyg6F4VJG6WbhB_VaCmCng">emerged</a> between the state-led sectors of the economy and these growing new businesses.</p>
<p>In regular visits made by Díaz-Canel across the island, a great deal
of emphasis is being placed on the local capacities of each
municipality. He advocates a line of continuity with politics based on
the ethics of José Martí and Fidel Castro, whose premise is to study the
contradictions that exist in society, find the causes of those
contradictions, and propose solutions that eliminate the causes. “We are
defending the need to increasingly expand democracy on the basis of
people’s participation and control in our society,” said Díaz-Canel.
This approach has already opened the door to deep debates about how to <a href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/tiges-of-racial-discrimination/nlsrf6/1030191404?h=abiNyYGx1N8mzDjmHwhSpfyg6F4VJG6WbhB_VaCmCng">eradicate</a> the vestiges of racism that remain in society, the <a href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/ions-in-vulnerable-communities/nlsrf9/1030191404?h=abiNyYGx1N8mzDjmHwhSpfyg6F4VJG6WbhB_VaCmCng">transformation</a> of neighborhoods in disrepair, and a <a href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/all-to-debate-new-family-code-/nlsrfd/1030191404?h=abiNyYGx1N8mzDjmHwhSpfyg6F4VJG6WbhB_VaCmCng">proposed</a> legal
code that would radically expand the rights of LGBTQ people, including
marriage. In hundreds of meetings, many of which are recorded and
televised, Díaz-Canel listens patiently to religious leaders, university
students, artists, intellectuals, community organizers, social
activists, and other sectors of Cuban society who have much to say.
These meetings can quite often be tense. Díaz-Canel smiles and says, “We
have learned tremendously, proposals are made, we can share criteria,
we can clarify doubts, and then we all go out together to work.”</p>
<p>Cuba continues to face great challenges, and many problems remain to be solved.</p>
<p>Yet it’s clear that Díaz-Canel is leading a profound renewal of the
Cuban Revolution in a process that seeks to face many complex challenges
by empowering local leaders and citizens to become democratic
problem-solvers within their communities. Those who continue to see the
Cuban system as a repressive dictatorship refuse to come to terms with
an evolving society that, despite the cruel violence from Washington,
exists and is creating its own future.</p>
<p><em>This article was produced by </em><a href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/2022-04-07/nlsrfh/1030191404?h=abiNyYGx1N8mzDjmHwhSpfyg6F4VJG6WbhB_VaCmCng"><em>Globetrotter</em></a><em>.</em></p>
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<em>Manolo De Los Santos is a researcher and a political
activist. For 10 years, he worked in the organization of solidarity and
education programs to challenge the United States’ regime of illegal
sanctions and blockades. Based out of Cuba for many years, Manolo has
worked toward building international networks of people’s movements and
organizations. In 2018, he became the founding director of the <a href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/2021-07-13/kl4qy9/871414862?h=4RirQm5ydPQLPEfeGf79hui_7X56bwTZ1t21QOewtWM">People’s Forum</a>
in New York City, a movement incubator for working-class communities to
build unity across historic lines of division at home and abroad. He
also collaborates as a researcher with <a href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/2021-07-13/kl4qyc/871414862?h=4RirQm5ydPQLPEfeGf79hui_7X56bwTZ1t21QOewtWM">Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research</a> and is a Globetrotter/Peoples Dispatch fellow.</em>
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