In what will be seen as a break from customary state practice, recently installed Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel on Wednesday, July 14, used a public speech intended as an official pronouncement on the recent street protests in Havana to look inward at what he said were his government’s shortcomings in handling what, reportedly, are mostly public concerns over food shortages that triggered the demonstrations.
Whilst the boisterous street protests which always appeared to be under the control of the island’s security forces were a rarity in the history of a government led for over half a century by one or another Castro, Diaz-Canel, who has been attributing the protests to the United States and to social media, said in a televised statement that his administration’s own handling of the country’s various social problems had played a role in the protests.
