The country’s Communist Party hierarchy on Monday chose Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel for the powerful position of first secretary, replacing Raul Castro after he announced his retirement last week.
As head of state and leader of the only political party allowed by law on the island, Diaz-Canel must chart the course for the Cuban revolution, now that the guerrilla commanders who took power in 1959 have dead or have aged.
“Comrade Raul will be consulted on the most important and most important strategic decisions for the destiny of our nation. He will always be present,” Diaz-Canal said of Castro, while accepting the new position.
Born in 1960, the same year that the Castro family nationalized all U.S. property in Cuba, Diaz-Canel exudes neither Fidel’s charisma nor Raúl’s authority. While living in the army for three years, unlike the Castros, Diaz-Canel is a bureaucrat who pushes the pencil instead of a revolutionary olive green uniform. That said, he will make history as the first Cuban to head the government and the communist party not named Castro.
And knowing how to navigate Cuba’s dysfunctional bureaucracy can be a more vital skill than commanding a battalion, as even many of Raul Castro’s signature proposals — refer to Mariel’s port in a manufacturing center and unify the two currencies of Cuba — were trapped in the swamp of bureaucracy that seems to be ruining all the efforts of the Cuban government.
The new Cuban leader has made it his job to join the Communist-led system, while enjoying the lasting support of Raul Castro.
“Diaz-Canel is not the result of improvisation, but a thoughtful selection of a young revolutionary with the conditions to be promoted to higher positions,” Castro said in his speech Friday at the Communist Party Congress, convened to select the replacement of the aged revolutionary.
Castro’s legacy
Since assuming the Cuban presidency in 2018, Diaz-Canel has presented the image of a younger and more dynamic leader, who posts messages on social media and reads from a tablet at government meetings. His policies, however, have been as conservative, if not more so, than those of Raul Castro. It is a strategy aimed at assuring the older generation that it still holds key political positions that it will not undermine its revolution.
It will need this political support to deal with widespread discontent over a declining economy, rising US sanctions and increasingly tech-savvy anti-government dissident groups.
Addressing opposition activists whom he called a “lumpen mercenary,” Diaz-Called warned that “people’s patience has limits.”
Some critics of the Cuban government say the transition is really a smokescreen.
“The Castro regime is trying to deceive the international community by saying,‘ Oh, now the castros are no longer in power, now a new man has the reins of the country and he will really run the country in a different way. BS! “said Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-FL), a Cuban – American congresswoman who won her seat in 2020 promising tougher sanctions on Cuba.
“The Castros are still in power,” he said.
Even if no member of his family holds leadership positions, there is no doubt that the Castros will continue to have great influence as long as the communist-led government and the powerful military they built remain intact.
On Monday, General Luis Alberto Rodríguez López-Calleja, son-in-law of Raúl Castro, who runs an extensive military company that controls hotels, marinas and state-owned infrastructure projects, was appointed for the first time to the Politburo. executive committee of the Cuban Communist Party.
A few years of retirement in the works
Raúl Castro has said for years that his retirement was ready.
Unlike his older brother Fidel, who was head of state for 49 years and planned to remain in office until his death, Raúl Castro implemented measures to restrict Cuban presidents to two five-year terms and demand that they were less than 60 years old at the beginning of their first term.
He turned 90 in June, the same age as his older brother and mentor Fidel Castro when he died in 2016.
After a mysterious illness forced Fidel Castro to step down in 2008, he continued to write articles and weigh in on the current situation. By contrast, Raúl Castro is expected to maintain a low profile in retirement.
Since leaving the presidency in 2018, Raúl Castro has made few public appearances. During those of Miguel Diaz-Canel, he lets his successor speak.
He spends most of his time in a large, well-kept house, in what had been an upper-class neighborhood before the Cuban revolution, in the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba, near where Fidel Castro is buried.
When CNN visited Santiago in 2020, city residents referred to the house as “zero point” or “zero point,” the same nickname it received as the residence of the head of state, where Fidel Castro went living the last years in Havana.
While Fidel Castro’s funeral plans were, before his death, a state secret, Raúl Castro had already erected a grave in his name next to the grave of his wife Vilma Espín, a fellow guerrilla who died in 2007. , in a pantheon to the revolutionaries. who fought by his side.
Raul Castro, rarely delivering long speeches made by his brother, delivered an uncharacteristic speech on Friday that lasted more than two hours.
“I will continue to militate as one more revolutionary fighter,” he said. “Ready to make my modest contribution to the end of my life.”