Do we like them?

Do we like Miguel Díaz-Canel?

Our score: 2 out of 10. A genuine win on same-sex marriage, set against a crackdown on dissent that rights groups describe and that he denies.

Born in 1960 in Placetas, Villa Clara, he trained as an electronics engineer, graduating in 1982, then taught at university and worked in radio communications in a military unit. He served in Nicaragua from 1987 to 1989, then climbed through the Communist Youth and the party, running the Villa Clara and Holguín party committees. After a stint as higher education minister from 2009 and first vice president from 2013, he succeeded Raúl Castro as president in 2018 and as party first secretary in 2021.

The moment that defines his presidency came on 11 July 2021, when protests broke out across the island. Human Rights Watch reported that he called on supporters to take to the streets and said “The order to fight has been given.” HRW alleged that authorities then used systematic arbitrary detention and abusive prosecutions against protesters, and it found the demonstrations overwhelmingly peaceful.

Fast forward to April 2026 and he told NBC that the claim critics get jailed is “that's a big lie”. Prisoners Defenders says it has documented more than 1,200 political prisoners, and Cubalex estimates over 1,000. Amnesty recognises seven people still held as prisoners of conscience and says authorities treat freedom as a discretionary concession.

On LGBTQ+ rights he has a real record. In 2018 he said he backed marriage “between people without any restrictions”, and in October 2021 he met more than a dozen LGBTQ activists at the Palace of the Revolution. Cuba's Family Code then passed with 66.85% in a 2022 referendum, making it the ninth Latin American country to legalise same-sex marriage. The flip side: in 2019 the state-run CENESEX cancelled Pride and police arrested people who marched anyway.

The harm check has a Russia-shaped problem too. Citing a State Department report to Congress, Axios reported in April 2026 that US officials believe Cuban authorities “knowingly tolerated, enabled or selectively facilitated” Cubans joining Russia's forces. That is a US government allegation, and Cuba had earlier said it dismantled trafficking rings involved in recruitment, so treat it as unproven.

He is also at the centre of a huge standoff with Washington. He confirmed in March that Cuba had held talks with the US, and told NBC in April he would not step down, saying Washington has “no moral to demand anything from Cuba”. Cuba blames a US energy blockade for its blackouts, the US sanctioned him personally in June, and this week the foreign minister accused Washington of “collective punishment”.