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The official journalist Arleen Rodríguez Derivet published an effusive tribute to Miguel Díaz-Canel on her Facebook account this Monday in honor of his 66th birthday, calling him a "man of love" while Cuba is going through one of the worst crises in its recent history.
The message, disseminated on the same day that the Cuban president turns 66 years old, describes Díaz-Canel as someone who "embraces his people like family," who "attracts children with the magnet of his nobility," and who "tackles problems as if he were just starting to govern, blocked and without resources."
"I wish him, as he deserves, a free day to love without worries," wrote Rodríguez Derivet. "I know he will, because he is a man of love. One of those who love and build," he added, before concluding with a "Happy day, President."
The idyllic portrait painted by the regime's main propaganda spokesperson starkly contrasts with the reality faced by Cubans at this moment: blackouts lasting up to 22 hours a day affecting more than 50% of the territory, a economy that has contracted by 23% since 2019, over 200,000 people without access to clean drinking water, and a minimum wage of just 4,000 pesos, equivalent to about 16 dollars a month.
The energy crisis worsened since January 2026 following the cut-off of Venezuelan oil supplies after the capture of Nicolás Maduro. Díaz-Canel himself acknowledged last Wednesday that "there is no fuel for almost anything."
The president's birthday also coincides with the climax of the "My Signature for the Fatherland" campaign, launched on Sunday by the Communist Party of Cuba to collect signatures in support of the statement "Giron is today and always." Opponents such as José Daniel Ferrer and Manuel Cuesta Morúa label the initiative as a "farce" and a pressure mechanism in light of the president's extremely low popularity.
Rodríguez Derivet, presenter of Mesa Redonda, contributor to Cubadebate, and host of the podcast Chapeando bajito, is not an isolated voice: she is the central figure in the regime's communication machinery. Díaz-Canel himself referred to her as "sister of the soul" in a public greeting in April 2023.
His recent unconditional defense of the president includes episodes that have drawn harsh criticism. In November 2025, he described Díaz-Canel's outburst against a victim of Hurricane Melissa as an "honest and human" response when the president said, "I don't have a bed to give you right now." In January 2026, to justify the blackouts, he stated in an interview with Rafael Correa on RT that "José Martí never knew electric light," a historically false statement that went viral and forced her to apologize, although she insisted on defending the power cuts.
According to a survey from October 2023, 95% of Cubans disapprove of Díaz-Canel's management and 77% rate it as "the worst possible", figures that have only worsened with the deepening of the crisis.
The AP agency reported in March 2026 that Díaz-Canel might not complete his term and that a Castro could succeed him, indicating the level of political fragility of the president to whom Rodríguez Derivet today dedicates his most flattering praises.
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