From our Russification of Cuba Bureau with some assistance from our Bureau of Mandatory Gestures Required of Colonial Subjects
As Cuba falls apart, Trucutú Díaz-Canalla is flying to Moscow, so he can join Czar Vlad the Invader at a military parade. Such are the duties of viceroys, even fake ones. Babalu has a recommendation to make to Czar Vlad: Hey, you should make Trucutú pay for the killing of that Russian commander in Ukraine by Cuban mercenaries. You wouldn’t want to be seen as a weakling, would you? What kind of ruthless emperor lets colonial subjects get away with murder? Here’s a word of advice for you, Vlad, about what that Cuban puppet deserves, and the word comes straight from Cuban history: Paredón! Paredón! Paredón!
Loosely translated from Diario de Cuba
Miguel Díaz-Canel intends to visit Moscow to participate in the Victory Day Parade on May 9, a diplomatic source not identified by the official TASS agency confirmed.
“The visit is planned,” the source stated, without providing further details.
The visit would signify support for Vladimir Putin, who is isolated and bogged down in his invasion of Ukraine. In recent years, the Kremlin has appropriated the date, which in 2024 marks the 79th anniversary of the Nazi Germany surrender in World War II, to bolster its nationalist and militaristic stance.
In November 2022, Díaz-Canel visited Russia, where he spoke at a plenary session of the State Duma and held negotiations with Putin, who accompanied him to the inauguration of a statue of Fidel Castro in a Moscow square. He had previously been in Russia in 2019.
Since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Havana and Moscow have drawn closer in geopolitical and economic terms. Likewise, the Cuban regime has abstained in several votes condemning Moscow in multilateral bodies or has voted against resolutions that are not to the liking of its ally.
If the visit of the Cuban leader to Russia is confirmed, it would serve to legitimize Putin alongside a handful of leaders from Moscow’s orbit regimes. According to Russian media, the following leaders are confirmed for the celebration: the President of Laos, Thongloun Sisoulith, as well as the leaders of Tajikistan, Emomali Rahmon, Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, and Guinea-Bissau, Umaro Sissoco Embaló.
It remains to be seen whether Díaz-Canel will address the presence of hundreds of Cubans as mercenaries in the Russian Armed Forces invading Ukraine. Havana denounced the existence of a recruitment network for this purpose on the island in the summer of 2023, but has not mentioned the issue since.
Continue reading HERE in Spanish
I’ll say this: Cuba’s “president” always looks better in Russia than he does in Cuba (partly because he looks more Slavic than Hispanic).