The Cuban regime has just executed a surprising maneuver by removing Rogelio Polanco Fuentes, the Ideological Chief of the Communist Party, and appointing him as ambassador to Vietnam.
The movement of this "figure" has not been explained by the ruler Miguel Díaz-Canel, First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) and direct chief of the person responsible for the ideological department of the only legal party in the dictatorship.
"The appointed ambassador of Cuba in Vietnam, Mr. Rogelio Polanco Fuentes, presented today the copies of the letters of credence to the deputy director of the Protocol Department of the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ms. Vu Hoang Yen," stated the regime's Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a brief communiqué on Thursday.
For his part, the architect of the "continuity" propaganda used his social media to announce his new mission as ambassador, acknowledging in his message the "level" of the reception by the Vietnamese authorities.
“Honored to present style copies to the Deputy Director of Protocol of the Chancellery, Vu Hoang Yen, as the designated ambassador of Cuba to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. I reiterated my commitment to further deepening our close friendship and the historic diplomatic relations between Cuba and Vietnam, which will celebrate their 65th anniversary in 2025,” he stated.
With a degree in international political relations, Polanco Fuentes began his career at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MINREX). He was a member of the National Secretariat of the FEU and the National Bureau of the UJC, and he led the official media outlet Juventud Rebelde for 12 years.
In August 2009, he was appointed ambassador to Venezuela, where he served for a decade. Upon his return to the Island, he was appointed rector of the Raúl Roa García Higher Institute of International Relations.
Since 2013, he has been a member of the Central Committee of the PCC, and in 2021, he was elected as a member of the secretariat of that committee. In April of that year, Díaz-Canel received the position of first secretary of the party from Raúl Castro, while Polanco Fuentes was responsible for shaping the regime's narrative.
As head of the Ideological Department of the PCC, Polanco Fuentes accompanied Díaz-Canel's arrival at the Palace in April 2018 and was presumably one of the architects of the concept of "continuity," which adorned the supposed transfer of power in Cuba to mask Raúl's "anointment."
From their offices—control centers for state media and Palace communicators—there could have emerged or received approval for just as many propaganda occurrences, such as "creative resistance," the tiresome mantra of "correcting distortions and revitalizing the economy," or labels like "haters," "Cuba is love," and "Cuba advances and it hurts them."
Having lost the battle for narrative on social media and with the official press at its lowest point—much like the increasingly mediocre propaganda—the gap between Cubans and those in power has widened in recent years, during which Díaz-Canel and his associates have reached unparalleled levels of stupidity and hypocrisy in their discourse.
In January 2022, Polanco Fuentes called for the "regeneration of the soul of the country" during a meeting with university students, communication professionals, artists, and intellectuals from the province of Sancti Spíritus.
"Along with economic recovery, we are also concerned about the regeneration of the country's soul. In this regard, we need to strengthen education based on values, which have been wounded by the harmful bombardment on social media and within communities, where optimism and commitment should prevail," he stated.
Faced with the pressures of Cuban civil society, which had played a key role in the events of 27N, the San Isidro Movement, the rise of activism, and the opposition movement that erupted with the massive and spontaneous protests of July 11, 2021 (11J), Polanco Fuentes emerged in October of that year to desperately claim that the United States was organizing and promoting the march on November 15 (15N).
"The government of the United States is the true organizer and promoter of the provocation set for November; the facts and statements prove it," he said. And: "We will not legitimize imperialist actions in internal politics nor give way to the neocolonial restoration desires that some have accumulated and which strengthen during times of crisis. It is not an act of civic duty; it is an act of submission to Yankee hegemony."
In February 2023, Polanco Fuentes had one of his final outbursts in his role as the Chief Ideologue of the dictatorship when he called to "take social media from the enemy."
When asked by the leftist portal Rebelión whether they would be able to neutralize an alleged war on social media against Cuba, he said: “We need to act like the Cuban independence fighters, the mambises during the War of Independence, like the members of the Rebel Army in the Sierra Maestra: seize those weapons from our enemy. Learn to master them and use them for our own goals.”
Recognizing the failure of their mission, the discrediting of the regime's narrative, and the collapse of the talisman of the so-called "revolution" at the hands of the "continuity," Polanco Fuentes stood firm this Thursday in Hanoi, where he will observe the future course of events while managing donations of rice, gestures of friendship between nations, and denunciations of the "genocidal blockade."
At the moment, the name of the person succeeding the head of the regime's outdated propaganda machinery is unknown.
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