14ymedio/Yucabyte, Havana, December 16, 2023 — Cuba is plummeting, and the first head to roll could be that of President Miguel Díaz-Canel. As he finishes without a single success to his credit, in what should have been his “better year” — he had promised it at the end of 2022 — the rumors collected in November by 14ymedio and Yucabyte foresee a conspiracy to “politically liquidate” the president after the death of his protector, Raúl Castro, which some see as imminent.
Díaz-Canel faces, say several Internet users, is becoming an imminent social outcast. The catalyst for his removal from office, they add, will be the power struggle that will follow the death of the last “historic” generals. The families that make up the leadership will change the rules of the game, and the current president, with no one to protect him, will have to cede the powers that the regime has offered him in favor of new candidates.
Although rumors do not indicate that this “transition” will be violent, they do expect a “large-scale repression” if Cubans take to the streets to demand a change, as happened during the protests of 11 July 2021. Since then, some say, the Government has had time to prepare “exits” to the crisis, which include Díaz-Canel as a scapegoat in the face of popular discontent.
If what is already known as “fraudulent change” does not work, they speculate, the authorities have drawn up a Plan B: the rapid response paramilitary brigades, composed of recruits from the eastern provinces who have been offered homes and work in Havana, in order to guarantee their loyal