While millions of Cubans survive without electricity, potable water, or medicine, Miguel Díaz-Canel presided over the swearing-in of 26 new ambassadors of the regime this Friday, in a high-profile ceremony held in Havana, which the Foreign Ministry shared on social media with its customary triumphalist rhetoric.
The event brought together the power elite: the President of the National Assembly, Esteban Lazo Hernández; the Prime Minister, Manuel Marrero Cruz; and the Secretary of Organization of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, Roberto Morales Ojeda.
The ceremony took place on the same day that the electrical disruption in Cuba neared another historical record, reaching 2,315 MW at 9:10 PM, just below the maximum of 2,341 MW recorded on July 8, when nearly 73% of the territory was left without electricity simultaneously.
As of 2026, Cuba has experienced at least four total collapses of the National Electric System. In provinces such as Matanzas, interruptions of up to 87 consecutive hours have been recorded, and blackouts exceed 20 hours daily in large areas of the country.
The United Nations () described in April 2026 the impact of the Cuban crisis as “systemic and increasingly severe,” with effects on health, water, sanitation, education, transportation, and telecommunications. One million people rely on water transported by tank trucks.
The state budget for 2026 was approved with a deficit of 74.5 billion Cuban pesos, with revenues of 484.121 billion compared to expenditures of 550.590 billion, in a context where the minimum wage for state workers amounts to just about 4.65 dollars per month.
In that scenario of collapse, the regime allocates foreign currency and human resources to expand its foreign diplomatic network, which its critics interpret as a clear indication of its true priorities: to maintain its apparatus of power and international influence while the population lacks the most basic necessities.
Cuban diplomacy is not merely about external representation. According to a report of about 100 pages published on July 21 by the U.S. Department of State under the title "Cuba: the Capital of 21st Century Communism," the regime has maintained a global network of political influence, espionage, and subversion for nearly seven decades.
The document states that Cuba is home to 18 signal intelligence facilities, including operations linked to China and Russia, and identifies the Cuban Institute for Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP) as the central node of that network.
The Cuban chancellor Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla described the report as a "slanderous pamphlet," but the document reinforces the interpretation that the regime’s diplomatic missions serve functions that go well beyond conventional representation: they are tools for internal legitimization, garnering external support, and, according to Washington, covert influence platforms.
This practice is not new. In 2018, Díaz-Canel already presided over the swearing-in of 22 heads of mission in a similar ceremony, and in August 2025 he recognized the services of Johana Tablada de la Torre by appointing her as ambassador alongside her husband, Eugenio Martínez Enríquez, head of mission in Mexico.
These ceremonies also serve an internal propaganda function: they project an image of institutional normality and international integration that stands in stark contrast to the reality experienced by the Cuban people.
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