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Miguel Díaz-Canel took the opportunity this Saturday, on the 64th anniversary of the Young Communists Union (UJC), to give an interview to the official newspaper Juventud Rebelde and publish X black and white photographs from his time as a youth leader of the regime, accompanied by the phrase "Yesterday I reflected on my years as a youth leader".
The images, with a vintage 80s aesthetic, depict a young Díaz-Canel at assemblies, volunteer work days, and scenes from Cuba at that time, which the leader seems to consider a source of inspiration for young Cubans in 2026.
Díaz-Canel was the second provincial secretary in Villa Clara in 1989, a position that marked the beginning of his rise within the Communist Party apparatus.
In the interview, the leader offered that youth a recipe for happiness based on struggle, although he made it clear that neither connection nor continuity should be uncritical, in an attempt to project generational openness from power.
The nostalgic speech of the ruler contrasts with the reality faced by young Cubans today. Jonathan David Muir Burgos, 16 years old, was arrested in the context of youth mobilizations promoted by the regime itself, in an example of the repression exercised against those who do not conform to the official narrative.
The persecution also extends to critical voices: the activists Kamil Zayas Pérez and Ernesto Ricardo Medina are just two examples of young people who have paid a high price for dissenting against the system that Díaz-Canel celebrates with black and white photographs.
While the ruler reminisces about his revolutionary youth, more than a million Cubans have left the island in recent years, a significant proportion of whom are young people who chose exile over the future promised by the revolution.
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