Appointed first secretary – the most powerful position in the Communist-run country – at the party’s congress on Monday. Diaz-Canel, 60, told delegates he would consult with his predecessor regarding important decisions.
While this stance may be strategic, to win over the trust of party elders, it has disappointed many younger Cubans, who had eagerly seized on earlier hints of openness to change.
He has also avoided the show-boating that ended the careers of other pretenders to the crown.
Still, he has often appeared more modern than his khaki-clad elderly predecessors. As a young party chief in two provinces, Diaz-Canel bucked party orthodoxy by backing an LGBT-friendly cultural center, listening to rock music and sporting long hair.
And as president, the silver-haired, burly leader often appeared at events holding hands with his wife, who has forged a position of first lady that did not exist before in Cuba and quietly championed the fledgling private sector.
Despite such nods to a more open, connected Cuba, Diaz-Canel has made “We are Continuity” the mantra of his government, which kicked off its mandate with a tightening of state control over the creative and economic sectors.
His presidency coincided with former U.S. President Donald Trump’s move to tighten the decades-old trade embargo on the island.
It was not until this year that his government forcefully resumed market-style reforms to the centrally planned economy launched by Castro a decade ago, pressured by a liquidity crisis that has spawned widespread shortages.
The leader who grew up in a modest home in the central province of Villa Clara has cultivated the image of the hard-working everyman.
In the 1990s, following the collapse of Cuba’s former benefactor the Soviet Union, he was known to cycle to work wearing shorts instead of commuting by Soviet-made Lada like other party leaders.
He spent his first year as president – before the pandemic hit – traveling to get a better insight into Cubans’ lives in visits broadcast on state television, contrasting with the low profile of his camera-shy predecessor.
Diaz-Canel’s governance has likely been constrained by a perpetual state of crisis since he took over, from dealing with a tornado and plane crash to U.S. sanctions and the pandemic, said Michael Bustamante, an assistant professor of Latin American history at Florida International University.
“But they would do themselves a favor to ease a path out of crisis mode by articulating a forward-looking vision and Diaz-Canel defining his own voice,” he said.
And dissent is growing as the internet allows Cubans new platforms to express their frustrations and allows the opposition to better mobilize.
“We have yet to see Diaz-Canel’s governance,” said Yamile Gonzalez, 41, a saleswoman at a state shop who struggles to get by on her salary of around $80 per month.
Comments
There will be no meaningful reforms as those in power are happy with the situation. Real reforms mean loss of control. Authoritarian regime do not like that….