End of Cuban era as Castro retires

COMMUNIST STALWART DIAZ-CANEL

An era ended in Communist-run Cuba yesterday when President Raul Castro retired, handing over the reins to his right hand man, Miguel Diaz-Canel, born the year after brothers Fidel and Raul led their 1959 leftist revolution.

However, after nearly 60 years of Castro rule, the change is not expected to herald sweeping reforms to the island’s state-run economy and one-party system, one of the last in the world.

First Vice-President Diaz-Canel, 57, is seen as a stalwart of the Communist Party, designated by the constitution as Cuba’s guiding political force, who has worked his way up the party’s ranks over three decades.

Raul Castro, 86, will retain considerable power as he will remain head of the Communist Party until a congress in 2021.

For many Cubans struggling with economic hardships, the transition in leader is seen as merely symbolic.

“We always wish the symbolic would translate into real and concrete actions for our lives,” said Jose Jasan Nieves, 30, the editor of an alternative news outlet to the state-run media monopoly. “But this isn’t the case.”

Lawmakers gathered at a convention centre in a leafy Havana suburb to announce the results of their vote on the unopposed candidacy of Diaz-Canel, put forward by a party-backed commission on Wednesday.

Cubans hope the next government can resurrect one of the world’s last Soviet-style centrally planned economies that has failed to improve under limited market reforms by Castro.

Those domestic economic woes have been exacerbated over the past year by a decline in aid from ally Venezuela and a partial rollback of the US-Cuban detente, dampening a tourism boom.

Analysts say it will be tricky for Diaz-Canel to get the party and government to deepen the reform process, given his predecessor struggled to do so, despite his clout as one of the revolutionary leaders.

Cuba’s relationship with the United States, that has nosedived since Donald Trump was elected US president, is another challenge Diaz-Canel will inherit. –

We wish the symbolic would translate into actions.