Castro’s successor pledges ‘continuity’ for Cuba
The Washington Post
HAVANA — In his first hour as Cuba’s new head of state, Miguel Diaz-Canel sought to make one thing clear: Raul Castro may no longer be president, but he is still the power to be reckoned with in this island nation.
“Raúl … will be key to the process of making the most important decisions on the future of the nation,” Mr. Diaz-Canel, 57, said Thursday on the floor of Cuba’s National Assembly after he was formally named the country’s new head of state.
The National Assembly’s procedure ended Castro rule here after nearly 60 years, shifting power to a younger generation born after Cuba’s revolution. Yet everything about the transition Thursday suggested a path ahead of supremely cautious change with a heavy dose of continuity.
Raul Castro, who took over from his older brother Fidel Castro in 2008, will remain head of Cuba’s powerful Communist Party. Insiders say he may leave Havana, moving to the southeastern city of Santiago, not far from the family farm where he and his brother grew up, and which Fidel later nationalized.
Fidel Castro died in 2016 at age 90.
But any move to the countryside should not be seen as Raúl Castro fading into the background.
On Thursday, Mr. Castro followed Mr. Diaz-Canel’s stiff, serious speech with a far longer, more animated and sometimes playful discourse that stole the thunder of the day. Seeming supremely comfortable, he often digressed, tackling issues from diversity to Cuban history to climate change.
He openly described the choice of Mr. Diaz-Canel as a hand-picked succession, calling him the only one of a group of politicians in their 50s who had risen to the occasion of top leadership.
“His election is not by chance,” Mr. Castro said. “It was planned by us in group, and we decided that he’s the best option in our opinion.”
Mr. Castro vowed to stay on as head of the Communist Party until his term ends in 2021, a post he said he hoped Mr. Diaz-Canel would take afterward.
“When I’m gone, and that’s in the future,” Mr. Castro said, “he will assume as first secretary of the Communist Party, if he does a good job. That’s how it’s been planned.”
Signaling reforms to come, however, Mr. Castro said that in July, Cuba would create a new committee with the aim of revamping its constitution.
The socialist character of Cuba, he said, would not change. But he acknowledged that “we thought, at this point, we would have advanced more” on the road toward greater economic reforms.
“We haven’t renounced the pursuit of private-sector work,” he said.