The king is missing and the dictator is many – DW – 09/27/2024

The heated controversy that broke out between Mexico and Spain when it became known that King Felipe VI was not invited to attend the inauguration of Claudia Sheinbaum, left in the background the names of the leaders who were summoned to attend the ceremony on October 1. In the official report circulated among the media, the name of Cuban ruler Miguel Díaz-Canel, who in recent years has often been celebrated by outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, stands out.

Raúl Castro’s successor was a regular guest at official ceremonies and public events in the neighboring country during his six-year term. In September 2021, a few weeks after the historic popular protests that rocked the island on July 11 of that year, López Obrador not only hosted Díaz-Canel for several days, but also shared the stage with him during Mexico’s Independence Day celebration. The famous “Gritto de Dolores”.

This rapprochement, which served as diplomatic support for the Havana regime, also included economic support through large quantities of oil. In 2023, Mexican state-owned Pemex sent nearly $400 million worth of crude oil to Cuba. López Obrador also helped calm criticism from foreign ministries and governments in Latin America after the suppression of demonstrations chanting “Freedom!” and “Home and Life!” toured the Cuban streets for more than three years. The Mexican governor has played an active role in watering down charges against Castro due to the presence of more than a thousand political prisoners in his prisons, stifling independent journalism and driving many activists and opponents into exile.

Now, when a presidential replacement is knocking on the door of the founder of the Morena party, Sheinbaum’s assumption of power seems to bear the same fingerprint as the aging leader towards the tyranny imposed in Cuba for more than six decades. The mutterings between the two governments, the complacency in the face of the excesses of the Revolutionary Palace in Havana, and the complicit silence in the face of the aggressions of the Castro regime, will remain the tone that will characterize the relationship between the two countries. . In this collusive diplomacy, the Mexican authorities did not even convey their concern to the island’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs regarding the thousands of Cubans who were forced to cross its territory to escape their country due to the lack of freedom and the chronic crisis that controls their lives.

Next Tuesday, when among the faces of those invited to the official ceremony that will inaugurate Claudia Sheinbaum’s term is the face of Miguel Díaz-Canel, it will be a sting stuck in the pain of migrants, political prisoners and our victims. Official intolerance. Will the Mexican president apologize for this crime? Would you be willing to change the course of the bilateral relationship that only leads to the culmination of tyranny? Do you think that time will make us forget the names of those who removed the dictator who muzzled us?

(sand)