Miguel Diaz-Canel rose to the Cuban presidency by executing orders, not by showing creativity or independence: Our view
For nearly 60 years, the president of Cuba has been named Castro, first Fidel and then brother Raul. And for most of those years, the Cuban economy has been stagnant and personal freedoms have been suppressed.
Now, Cuba’s president will be Miguel Diaz-Canel, a former regional administrator who turns 58 Friday. This is no doubt a new chapter of some kind. But it would be wise not to expect much change, at least not right away.
For starters, Diaz-Canel is a prototypical party loyalist who rose to the top by executing orders, not by showing creativity or independence. In fact, he brings to mind the character in Gilbert and Sullivan’s H. M. S Pinafore who advanced from errand boy to admiral through fastidious attention to office cleanliness: “I polished up that handle so carefully that now I am the ruler of the Queen’s Navy.”
What’s more, being a president of Cuba isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Raul Castro will retain the position of Communist Party head, which will allow him, and his successor when he dies, to keep Diaz-Canel in check were he to show signs of departing from party doctrine.
Multiple generations of Cubans have come of age knowing nothing put privation and having no memory of the heady days of the revolution. It is not hard to imagine them rebelling some day against the mismanagement of the economy that has been the hallmark of Cuban communism.
Nor is it hard to imagine that they will demand more than the limited experiment with small-scale free enterprise that Cuba’s leaders have sanctioned. Free enterprise is the only thing that has kept Cuba from collapsing in recent years. National leaders allow it as the economy founders, then pull back when they think it is going too far.
For the United States, the best approach is to not allow itself to be scapegoated. One reason the Castros stayed in power for so long is that they were able to blame Cuba’s woes on ill-conceived and counterproductive sanctions imposed by Washington.
Former president Barack Obama had moved to neutralize that approach by partially normalizing relations with Havana, including allowing people to travel between the countries more easily. President Trump has unwisely decided to roll back those Obama policies, again setting the United States up for blame.
Eventually, more freedom will come to the island nation. But none of this is destined to happen just because Cuba has a new president not named Castro.
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