Who is Díaz-Canel grooming for a possible promotion? Jaime Gómez Triana, a shadowy cultural commissar
14ymedio, Yunior García Aguilera, Madrid, 27 July2024 — In Díaz-Canel’s recent closing address to the rubber-stamp National Assembly, the appointed president referred to a statement that was totally unrelated the rest of his speech. The focus of the address was supposed to be the economy. Therefore, one might logically have expected him to reference something an economist had said, or to mention a comment by an entrepreneur he had casually met on one of his endless walk-abouts around the island.
But no. He only mentioned the heroes of these supposed “success stories” in passing, as if to fulfill an obligation or justify the enormous expense of these junkets. It seems not a single one of their opinions was worth mentioning. Just blurting out their names, to elicit that primitive feeling of self-satisfaction: “Wow, the president talked about me. That’s me, the guy from the Santa Rosa estate.”
However, the person he did mention — by both first and last name, quoting from a long speech that the person had given — was a bland, virtually unknown figure who has been rising through the ranks of the powerful groups that promote cultural policies in Cuba. Aware that he had gone completely off-topic, Díaz-Canel justified this digression with a question. “Why do I choose to mention this, which seems so far removed from the harsh economic reality that we are facing right now?” He answered his own question with the usual refrain: That if Fidel, Raúl, Che, etc. . . That if socialist society, etc. . .
The herd of delegates applauded out of habit, as usual. But the two or three people whose suspicions can still be aroused immediately began adding things up and whispering in the corridors. The meeting seemed like the prelude to an imminent appointment. It was a sign of favor, the equivalent of when the alpha male in a troop of chimpanzees chooses another primate to pick the fleas off his back.
So who the hell was Díaz-Canel referencing with his random quote? Who is he groom
