Miguel Díaz-Canel Named New Leader of Cuba's Communist Party

Cuban President Díaz-Canel pictured in 2018 at the Kremlin (Wikimedia Commons).

The Cuban Communist Party (PCC) announced on April 19 that current President Miguel Díaz-Canel will serve as First Secretary of the PCC, the most powerful political position in Cuba. This announcement followed Raúl Castro’s resignation from the position on April 16. Díaz-Canel represents the first non-Castro leader of the PCC since the 1959 Cuban Revolution.

The party selected Díaz-Canel to join the Politburo, the executive committee of the PPC, in 2003 and became the minister of higher education in 2009. He subsequently rose to the vice-presidency of the Council of State in 2013 while Raúl Castro served as both first secretary and the president. In 2018, Díaz-Canel won the Cuban presidential election via a process entirely overseen by the PCC, reportedly garnered 99.83 percent of the National Assembly’s vote.

Observers attribute Díaz-Canel’s rise to Raúl Castro’s support as well as to his appointment as first secretary of the PCC; both instances indicative of Raúl Castro’s desire for a younger generation of party members to take party leadership.

Díaz-Canel continues to emphasize continuity instead of reform. For example, as president, Díaz-Canel prevented the liberalization of Cuba’s private sector. As first secretary, Díaz-Canel made clear to the PCC in a closed-door meeting that he plans to continue discussing policy decisions with Raúl Castro, highlighting the 89-year-old’s ongoing influence over Cuban politics.

Although many Cubans appreciate Díaz-Canel’s efforts to personally meet with Cubans prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, young Cubans disdain Díaz-Canel’s emphasis on continuity. Local musician Javier Menendez told Reuters that “[Díaz-Canel] needs to win over the youth... because there are many young people unhappy with the path Cuba is taking." The spread of internet access throughout Cuba has contributed to the rise and strength of opposition sentiments. For example, Cuban rapper Denis Solís was arrested in November 2020 for insulting a police officer and filmed his arrest on a Facebook live stream. The Facebook live stream rapidly circulated around the internet, which allowed the San Isidro Movement (MSI), a group of Cuban artists and intellectuals that advocates for freedom of expression, to organize hunger strikes and protests. William LeoGrande, a specialist on Cuba at American University, told the New York Times that “it is this awakening of civil society, facilitated by the spread of the internet and social media, which is posing this challenge to the [Cuban] government.”