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Why Cuba’s Díaz-Canel Is Still in Trouble

By Javier Corrales, Scott Brasesco

Protests may seem to have subsided. But the president's outdated authoritarian tactics will create more instability.

Since taking office in 2018, Cuba’s President Miguel Díaz-Canel has aspired to be the Fidel Castro of the 1980s, abandoning the more recent reform approach taken by the younger Raúl Castro and doubling down on the worst of the regime’s autocratic traditions – with few innovations. What Díaz-Canel likely did not expect was that applying Fidel Castro’s recipe in the 21st century would backfire – like it did this month and will continue to. Cuba’s society, after all, is markedly different today. The new generation has gained little, if anything, from the revolution. It is...

Read this article on the Americas Quarterly website. | Subscribe to AQ.

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