Cuban president accuses US of 'genocide' at July 26 rally; Raúl Castro conspicuously absent

Accusations of 'political genocide'

President Miguel Diaz-Canel used the main holiday on Cuba's revolutionary calendar to deliver his sharpest condemnation yet of Washington's oil embargo and sanctions. Speaking at a dawn rally in Pinar del Rio before thousands of government supporters, he called the US policy 'political genocide' and, later, 'cold-bloodedly calculated genocide'.

I denounce that Cuba is the victim of a cold-bloodedly calculated genocide.

Diaz-Canel portrayed the measures as 'economic strangulation' designed, in his words, 'to suffocate an entire people in order to appropriate the country.' He explicitly referenced President Donald Trump's earlier statement that he would 'take over' Cuba, a remark made after the US abduction of former Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro in January.

The empty chair beside the podium

For the first time in at least 30 years, former President Raúl Castro, 95, did not attend the annual July 26 commemoration. No official explanation was offered. Diaz-Canel read a congratulatory message from Castro to the crowd of hundreds waving Cuban flags.

Castro's last public appearances were in June, at an event to establish the Ministry of the Interior, and on May 1 for Labour Day. Although he holds no formal positions, his symbolic weight remains strong; he was recently identified as one of the negotiators in stalled talks with the United States following the imposition of the energy embargo. In May, a US indictment charged him with murder and other crimes for his alleged role in the 1996 downing of two civilian aircraft operated by Miami-based exiles. Cuba's government rejected the accusations.

An economy under 'maximum pressure'

The oil embargo, imposed on January 29, has caused daily blackouts lasting more than 20 hours and triggered multiple national-level grid collapses. Employers have been forced to reduce workdays, industrial production has stopped, and the school year was cut short for lack of fuel. Water and medicine shortages have compounded the crisis, which comes on top of earlier US sanctions and domestic financial reforms that spurred inflation.

International companies have been leaving. Payment firms Visa and Mastercard, Spain's Melia hotel chain, Air Canada and Air France have all exited the country. Diaz-Canel pleaded for an end to the sanctions and oil blockade and thanked international groups that have sent humanitarian aid.

A diplomatic flashpoint widens

The immediate trigger for Diaz-Canel's speech was a US State Department report, published last week, that accused Cuba of running a leftist espionage and influence network against Washington and Latin America. Rejecting the report from the podium, the president said, 'Every day they issue a threat against the revolution, and every week they announce a new punishment for Cuban companies and officials.'

By accusing Cuba, they are not only looking for a scapegoat, an external agent. They are looking for someone to blame for the protests of the sectors hardest hit by an economy that makes the rich richer and the poor poorer.

Talks between the two countries have largely stalled, Cuban officials said in June. Diaz-Canel framed the pressure as a bid to force a change in Cuba's economic and political model, describing it as 'a genocidal policy whose objective is to suffocate an entire people.'