Anniversary

DIARIO DE CUBA: Ten Years Forming Part of Cuba's Public Debate

DDC marks a decade. On this occasion, we are thinking back and reflecting on the main issues facing the country.

Today, December 4, DIARIO DE CUBA turns 10. Over the last decade we have actively participated in Cuba's public discourse through news briefs, reports, opinion and analysis pieces, interviews and audiovisual materials. We have also taken a stand on the most important issues affecting our society through editorials that have presented our ideas, condemned what we have found objectionable, presented proposals, and contributed to enriching the social debate; that is, we have spoken out for the country in which we would like to live.

A rereading of this set of editorials today yields an overview of our vision, from multiple angles.

In February of 2013, after the designation of Miguel Díaz-Canel as the regime's "number two", we said that it was "true that the appearance of a factor external to the ruling family is viewed by some with hope, but this does not necessarily mean progress. Transitions tend to be surprising. The democratic community yearns for a Cuban Adolfo Suarez, but this shift could lead to the authoritarianism of a Vladimir Putin, or another Castroism, without Castro."

Earlier, in October 2012, we expressed our view that the recent electoral victory of Hugo Chávez in Venezuela was "bad news for ordinary Cubans, as it frees Raúl Castro from the pressures that could force him to implement the necessary changes."

Also in 2012, before the visit to Cuba of Brazil's president at the time, Dilma Rousseff, we warned that "despite what was asserted by [the] president and [the] chancellor of Brazil, the economic agenda and human rights are inseparable," a position we expanded on in January 2014, with words that we find as valid today as they were then:

"If in order to contribute to a way out of the crisis in Cuba the western democracies want to establish relations with Havana resembling those they have with any other country, they will have to reach out to civil society and the opposition. This step, done openly and without complexes, would legitimize the new policy in the eyes of the whole world.

Now, if relations with Castroism are not accompanied by determined and clear movements of support for civil society, it will be clear that this change in strategy is shaped more by economic and commercial interests than by a true commitment to democracy."

Obviously, our voice has also been heard in the most decisive moments in recent years.

In November of 2016, after the death of Fidel Castro we pointed out that the dictator emeritus not only failed to fulfill most of his promises, but was the architect of an iron-fisted regime that curtailed all kinds of freedoms. Before that, in December 2014, when covering Washington's policy change towards Cuba, we observed that "the success of the economic measures announced by Barack Obama depends mainly on the regime's posture. And it does not seem likely that those who, by law, prevent the prosperity of small entrepreneurs, and hold a monopoly on productive process, will allow the ‘empowerment’ outlined in this new American policy. There is nothing more to be expected from Raúl Castro, not even a glass of milk. Beyond the realpolitik wielded, or pragmatic or aberrant international alliances, the solution lies in Cubans' attitude towards change."

Almost two years later, in November 2016, the conclusion, expressed in another editorial, was that anticipated: "It has been the fear harbored by Cuba's rulers of losing their power that has caused them not to introduce more open policies of their own in response to Obama's measures, thereby greatly curtailing the impact of the outgoing Democratic leader's initiatives."

For this 10th anniversary of DIARIO DE CUBA we will now take a look back at some of those editorials (in Spanish) that, as a set, illustrate our positions on core issues, such as human rights, international relations, specific challenges and the regime's responses to them, as well as the transfer of power currently taking place on the island, among others.

On the death of Fidel Castro