Cuba set for non-castro leader

HAVANA: Miguel Diaz-canel was proposed in Cuba’s Parliament on Wednesday as the sole candidate to replace Raul Castro as president, which will make him the island’s first non-castro leader since the 1959 revolution.

Castro, 86, is stepping down after 10 years in office. The national assembly was due to vote later in the day on the proposal to replace him with DiazCanel, a 57-year-old engineer who is currently first vice president.

Diaz-canel, born after the revolution, embraces technology and appears socially liberal. Also a stalwart of the ruling Communist Party, he is considered a safe bet to inherit the ideological mantle of Castro and other elderly leaders who helped Fidel Castro oust Us-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista.

The new president is likely to be cautious at first, seeking to consolidate support among conservatives despite desire among young Cubans for faster development. He is unlikely to challenge one-party rule.

While this week’s assembly is promoting younger leaders of government, Castro and other elders of the revolution will likely retain a degree of power on the Caribbean island as senior leaders of the Communist Party until a party congress set for 2021.

Raul Castro became president in 2008 when his brother, Fidel Castro, formally handed over power as his health deteriorated. Fidel Castro died in 2016 aged 90.

Raul Castro brought change, significantly thawing relations with the US for the first time since the revolution took the island on a sharply leftward path. He also introduced market reforms to the Soviet-style centrally planned economy.

But the economy is smaller than it was in 1985, when it had the support of the Soviet Union, and many are pessimistic about their lives improving.