Cuban “president” Miguel Díaz-Canel, a figurehead who stands in place for 92-year-old dictator Raúl Castro on foreign engagements, spent Thursday in celebratory engagements with sympathetic American activists, self-proclaimed religious leaders, and radical leftist actor Danny Glover in New York.
Díaz-Canel is in the United States on the occasion of the United Nations General Assembly, which he addressed on Tuesday. He spent most of the speech condemning the country that is lodging him for the affair and announced that Cuba would seek re-election to the Human Rights Council. Like Cuba, 70 percent of the current makeup of the Council is authoritarian regimes that routinely violate the rights of their citizens.
Díaz-Canel boasted of the celebrations in his honor in New York through his social media accounts, while the official newspaper of the Communist Party of Cuba, Granma, and state organs such as the website “CubaDebate” declared that a “growing harmony” was developing between the communist regime and the American consciousness.
“Our peoples will continue communicating; our peoples will keep sharing the best of their traditions, their essences, their roots, their histories, and their cultures,” Díaz-Canel reportedly proclaimed, “and thus our peoples will become happier.”
The figurehead hosted “artists, intellectuals, philanthropists, businesspeople, and attorneys,” at Cuba’s permanent mission at the United Nations. Cuba’s regime maintains a robust presence in America despite being officially designated a state sponsor of terrorism — as a result of its ties to groups such as Hezbollah and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) — and its status as a significant espionage and national security threat to America.
Díaz-Canel – whose regime regularly imprisons both children and adults for their suspected beliefs and tortures all its political prisoners — also warned the communist sympathizers of the alleged threat they face in the United States for convening at the permanent mission.
“Take care of yourselves very much because we know that doing this here, in the United States, is a gesture of courage,” Díaz-Canel advised.
The meeting, CubaDebate claimed, “took place in the form of a large family getting together on the basis of affection and gifting each other truths and dreams.”
Among those identified as attending the events were Mark J. Spalding, the head of the Ocean Foundation; Valerie Miller, representing the Cuba Oceans Program; Vashti Murphy McKenzie, the head of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States, and unnamed alleged scientists and “creators.”
“And in that moment,” CubaDebate dramatically narrated, “in which all united around the human fire, arrived American actor Danny Glover, and impassioned friend of Cuba.”
Díaz-Canel used his Twitter account to personally thank Glover for his appearance.
“The beloved Danny Glover, to whom we owe so much for his unconditional solidarity, couldn’t miss it,” the Castro regime representative celebrated.
Gratísima tarde en nuestra misión en Nueva York con buenos amigos de #Cuba, artistas, creadores , promotores culturales y activistas por la paz.
No podía faltar el querido Danny Glover, @mrdannyglover, a quien tanto debemos por su solidaridad incondicional. pic.twitter.com/93unPddAqz
— Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez (@DiazCanelB) September 22, 2023
Díaz-Canel’s mention of “unconditional” support from Glover is a reference to decades of the actor traveling to Cuba, despite restrictions on Americans doing so meant as a response to Cuba’s atrocious human rights record, and publicly supporting late dictator Fidel Castro. CubaDebate made special mention of Glover’s support for the “Cuban Five,” a group of spies whose work in Miami resulted in the Castro regime’s murder of four American citizens in 1996: Carlos Costa, Armando Alejandre, Mario de la Peña, and Pablo Morales. The last of the “Cuban Five” imprisoned in America for their role in the murders, Gerardo Hernández Nordelo, was released by President Barack Obama in 2014. Prior to his release, Obama approved using American resources to send Hernández’s sperm to Cuba to help him inseminate his wife from prison.
Outside of his meeting with Glover, Díaz-Canel held meetings with alleged scientists and faith leaders. Cuba is one of the world’s most aggressive repressors of faith communities, particularly Christians who seek to worship outside of the confines of the Communist Party, but also members of the Nigerian-origin Yoruba santería faith, who face state-sponsored racism and persecution.
“We appreciate in the name of our people the multiple displays of solidarity, initiatives in favor of policy change towards Cuba and the calls to the government of the U.S. to end the blockade,” Díaz-Canel said of the meeting with “religious denominations.” “Blockade” is a term the Castro regime uses for mild sanctions imposed on Havana in response to its poor human rights record, which pale in comparison to the onerous restrictions Havana places on Americans who seek to send aid to impoverished Cubans.
Intercambié esta mañana con líderes de diversas denominaciones religiosas de EEUU.
Agradecimos en nombre de nuestro pueblo las múltiples muestras de solidaridad, las iniciativas a favor del cambio de política hacia #Cuba y el llamado al gobierno de EEUU a poner fin al bloqueo. pic.twitter.com/QhkPw3wlep
— Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez (@DiazCanelB) September 21, 2023
En el contexto de #UNGA, me reuní con profesionales de E.U vinculados a la ciencia y las tecnologías. Les expliqué lo que #Cuba ha logrado, a pesar del bloqueo; hablamos de colaboración y de cuánto puede seguirse haciendo para tender puentes. Ahí también debemos ser innovadores. pic.twitter.com/jFQSU19qrU
— Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez (@DiazCanelB) September 21, 2023
Notably absent from these meetings was any visible representation of Cuban Americans. Cuban American groups spent much of the week organizing protests against the presence of the Cuban delegation – and other socialist oppressors, such as Venezuela and Nicaragua – in the United States, convening in Times Square on Wednesday to demand respect for the human dignity of their kin on the island.
“The [U.N. General] Assembly is gathering here those who call themselves presidents,” Cuban activist Ana Olema told the outlet Cibercuba. “And we are here in support of the Venezuelans … Cuba is with Venezuela, with Ukraine, with Colombia, with Nicaragua, so that all countries suffering dictatorship may live in freedom.”
“Freedom for Venezuela, Freedom for Cuba, freedom for our political prisoners,” Cuban activist María Teresa Rafaelly told Martí Noticias from the protest. “Let’s keep united, where one falls, all fall.”