End of an era as the last Castro to rule communist Cuba resigns

‘His exit is an important symbol. He is one of the last revolutionaries, and now there is a power vacuum’

FOR the first time in more than 60 years a Castro will not be ruling Cuba after Raúl, brother of Fidel, stepped down as head of the country’s all-powerful Communist Party.

The island nation of 11 million people is at a precarious tipping point, with the economy in tatters and the clamour for personal freedoms growing as more Cubans gain access to the internet.

There have been protests and clashes with police as an underground opposition movement has increasingly ventured into the open. Late on Friday

Raúl, 89, announced his resignation as the first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, a position more powerful than that of the president.

He has handed over to Miguel DíazCanel, a bicycle-riding, jean-wearing Beatles fan who has championed LGBT rights and advocated for a freer society.

As president for the past three years, Mr Díaz-Canel has followed Mr Castro’s lead, but now activists are hoping he can forge his own path.

Cuba is facing a multitude of problems. Fidel Castro seized power from the US-backed Fulgencio Batista in 1959 and imposed a communist regime on the population until his death in 2016. His younger brother Raúl has been in charge ever since, only gently opening up the country to the Western world in the past two decades.

The economy contracted by 11 per cent last year. The handouts from Venezuela are shrinking, and the queues for basic goods are growing.

The average salary is $30 a month, about 17,000 people leave the country each year and by 2030, a third of the population will be 60 or over.

The historic standoff with the United States has kept Cuba in a chokehold, loosened under Barack Obama but tightened again under Donald Trump. Now in a global pandemic, coronavirus cases are running at 1,000 a day, but the country has decided to develop its own vaccine and the population will not be inoculated until the end of the year.

“The exit of Raúl Castro is an important symbol. This is going to be a radical change,” said Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, head of the San Isidro Movement, a collective of artists who have been leading protests against the government’s censorship rules. “He is the last Castro to take power, one of the last revolutionaries, and now there is a big power vacuum.”

Mr Alcántara said that he was effectively under house arrest, with 15 police stationed around the block where he lives in Havana.

He has been to prison many times for his performance art, which often mocks the country’s leadership, and claims he has been beaten up by the authorities.

“I know they could kill me. Franco killed his opponents. I know they could do the same,” he said. “But I would happily die for this cause. Cuba is waking up to the injustices. Enough is enough.”

Mr Castro is not likely to disappear completely. He is rumoured to have built a retirement compound in Santiago de Cuba, on the country’s southern Caribbean shore.

“I think Díaz-Canel will have a lot of leeway,” Carlos Alzugaray, a former Cuban diplomat based in Havana, told The Washington Post.

“But Raúl will still be consulted on issues that are important – especially anything to do with the US.”