Havana. President Miguel Díaz-Canel has been re-elected by the Cuban National Assembly for a second term. The opening session of the newly elected parliament at the end of March (america21 reported) took place in the midst of the worst economic and energy crisis since the “special period” of the 1990s.
The graduate electronics engineer received 97.3 percent of the votes for his confirmation in office. All but 12 of the 470 members of the Cuban Parliament are members of the Communist Party, which Díaz-Canel has headed as Secretary General since April 2021.
In its Network Díaz-Canel thanked MEPs for their support and announced that reforms would be implemented more quickly. He reaffirmed his loyalty to the revolutionary process in Cuba that began in 1959. Among those present was Raúl Castro, who congratulated his successor on his re-election and expressed the support of the “historic generation”. Under the new 2019 constitution, this will be Díaz-Canel’s final term.
“We must accept this gigantic challenge without discouragement,” Díaz-Canel told delegates. In the coming period, the main focus of his government will be on food production. As other priorities in the economic field, the President named “the use of idle capacities, the increase in foreign exchange earnings, the reform of state enterprises, more efficient investments, the linking of all economic actors and the participation of foreign investments”. All of this serves to increase the supply of goods and services and “bring triple-digit inflation under control,” according to Díaz-Canel.
The President called for the reform process to be accelerated. “We have to convince our young people, but above all prove that they can find fulfillment in their homeland,” said Díaz-Canel, referring to the ongoing wave of departures.
Díaz-Canel’s first term in office was marked by numerous crises: just a few weeks after taking office in May 2018, a serious plane crash claimed 112 lives. In autumn 2019, the first energy crisis broke out in the country as a result of tightened US sanctions, which seamlessly merged into the three-year economic crisis in connection with the corona pandemic and the slump in tourism. 2021 saw the largest anti-government protests since 1994. Last year, a gas explosion at a Havana hotel, a fire at a fuel depot in Matanzas and a severe hurricane further impacted the island’s economy. Lack of fuel and inadequate maintenance brought the power system to the brink of collapse several times. Successes include the development of its own vaccines against Covid-19, which enabled Cuba to win the fight against the pandemic.
“Not a single day in these years has spared us the blows of this undeclared war against our economy and society, against the daily life and dreams of progress of an entire nation,” said the President, referring to the 63-year economic blockade of the United States. Addressing Washington, Cuba is still ready for a dialogue on an equal footing “without pressure and conditioning.” At the same time he called on MPs to fight “bureaucracy, indifference and corruption”. “We must overcome the blockade without waiting for it to be lifted!” said Diaz-Canel.
In addition to the President, at the meeting on Wednesday there was also a New Council of State and Ministers elected. Prime Minister Manuel Marrero was appointed for a second term at the suggestion of Díaz-Canel. Vice President Salvador Valdés Mesa and Speaker of Parliament Esteban Lazo will remain in office. There were no changes in the top offices.
Almost half of the posts in the State Council, which was reduced to 21 seats, were filled. Revolutionary veterans Guillermo García and Leopoldo Cintra Frías left the body. New members include the economist Iván Santos Prieta and the director of the “Faustino Pérez” hospital in Matanzas. The average age of the new Council of State is 47 years.
The number of new appointments in the Council of Ministers was lower. 20 of the 26 ministers were confirmed in office. Foreign Trade Minister Rodrigo Malmierca had to vacate his post after 14 years. His ministry has recently been increasingly criticized for the slow progress in reducing bureaucracy. Finance Minister Meisi Bolaños was replaced by her previous deputy, Vladimir Regueiro. The cabinet reshuffle also included the Ministries of Education and Higher Education and the Institute for Regional Planning.
As the only foreign guest straightened Vietnam’s Parliament Speaker Dinh Hue to MPs. He highlighted the support Cuba has given his country in times of war and stressed that Vietnam is currently the “most important Asian investor” in Cuba. Hue quit a donation of 5,000 tons of rice and 300 tablets to the deputies of the National Assembly. Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also traveled to the island immediately before the meeting met with Díaz-Canel and Castro on energy talks. Chinese President Xi Jinping congratulated Díaz-Canel for re-election and on Friday called for the establishment of a “Cuban-Chinese community with a common future”.
Díaz-Canel was born on April 20, 1960 in Placetas (province of Santa Clara). His father worked for a brewery while his mother was an elementary school teacher. In 1982 he graduated with a degree in electronics engineering from the University of Santa Clara and served in the armed forces until 1985. In April of the same year he began working as a lecturer at his former university, while also working full-time as a functionary for the communist youth organization UJC. He worked in the ranks of the Communist Party in several provincial-level leadership positions. In his hometown of Santa Clara, he held the hand of Cuba’s first dedicated gay nightclub in the 1990s. After rising to become the youngest member of the Politburo in 2003, he served as Minister of Higher Education between 2009 and 2012. During his time as Vice President of the Council of State from 2013, he focused on the topics of digitization and renewal of the media. On April 19, 2018, he was elected to succeed Raúl Castro.