Cuba now is under a non-Castro president
‘Revolution continues,’ Díaz-Canel declares
After six decades of rule by Fidel Castro and his brother Raúl, Cuba turned a new page Thursday when it named Communist Party loyalist Miguel Díaz-Canel president.
Cuba’s National Assembly concluded a two-day session at which Raúl Castro stepped down after 10 years in the presidency and endorsed the election of Díaz-Canel, his handpicked successor. Castro will remain head of the Communist Party.
Cuban state TV showed the two men embracing after the historic vote as hundreds of National Assembly delegates cheered. Addressing the crowd, Díaz-Canel vowed to fight any attempts at subversion by capitalist forces, to defend the regime established by his predecessors and to continue “perfecting” the socialist model he inherited.
“The revolution continues,” he said. Though largely unrecognizable outside Cuba, Díaz-Canel is well-known inside the regime after spending years rising through the ranks of the Communist Party and convincing Castro he could be trusted to carry on the nation’s revolutionary ideals.
Díaz-Canel, 57, represents a symbolic change for a regime that has been dominated by the guerrilla fighters who overthrew U.S.-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista and rode into Havana on New Year’s Day 1959.
Díaz-Canel used much of his acceptance speech to praise the Castro brothers, focusing on Raúl, who sat in the front row, watching and nodding.
Díaz-Canel called the younger Cas- tro the “best disciple of Fidel” and listed his accomplishments, from military successes during the revolution through his time as president after Fidel Castro stepped down because of illness. He even complimented Castro for re-establishing diplomatic relations with the United States.
He made clear that Raúl Castro would still guide the Cuban government in the years to some.
“I confirm to this assembly that Raúl Castro, as first secretary of the Communist Party, will lead the decisions about the future of the country,” Díaz-Canel said.
Castro spoke next, providing the first glimpse into his thinking about his future and that of the regime. He expects Díaz-Canel to serve two fiveyear terms as president. He said he would hand over control of the Communist Party to Díaz-Canel in 2021.
“From that point on, I will be just another soldier defending this revolution,” he said.
Thursday’s succession coincided with the 50th anniversary of the failed U.S.-supported Bay of Pigs invasion and comes during a downturn in U.S.Cuban relations. President Trump ordered most American diplomats out of Cuba after a series of unexplained “health attacks” against personnel at the U.S. Embassy in Havana. That move narrowed what had been a rare opening between the Cold War foes, a detente brokered between Presidents Barack Obama and Raúl Castro that led to Americans flooding the island to visit and more business opportunities between the countries.
Díaz-Canel is responsible for resolving Cuba’s anemic economy and restless population by depending more on countries such as Russia, China, Iran and Venezuela.