After six decades of rule by Fidel Castro and his brother Raúl Castro, 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, where 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 against 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.
While largely unrecognizable outside of 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, also 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 a large portion 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 Castro 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 due to illness. The new president praised Castro for his work keeping the country together, helping broker the Colombian peace process and maintaining a "peace zone" throughout the Caribbean.
He even complimented Castro for re-establishing diplomatic relations with the United States. "That's the Raúl we recognize, admire, respect and care for," Díaz-Canel 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.-Cuba relations.
President Trump has ordered most American diplomats out of Cuba following a series of unexplained "health attacks" against personnel at the U.S. Embassy in Havana. That move thawed what had been a rare opening between the Cold War foes, a detente brokered between then Presidents Barack Obama and Raúl Castro that led to Americans flooding the island to visit and more business opportunities between the countries.
Now, Díaz-Canel is responsible for resolving Cuba's anemic economy and restless population by depending more on countries like Russia, China, Iran and Venezuela.
In the months leading up to the ascension of Díaz-Canel, Cuban state media has cautiously introduced him to the outside world. The former engineering professor shot up through Cuba's leadership, first as a local party official and later as the country's education minister. He was tapped by Castro to become first vice president in 2013.
Díaz-Canel becomes the first leader of Cuba born after Fidel Castro and his band of bearded guerrillas took control of the island in 1959. State media has portrayed Díaz-Canel as a man in touch with the generation of Cubans who only knew of the revolution through black-and-white TV footage and history lessons in school.
He is said to be a fan of the Rolling Stones, who were once banned in Cuba but allowed to perform in Havana in 2016 as a sign of the changing times. Cuban media have said he's the first high-ranking official to attend government meetings with a laptop and is often seen checking his iPad, a rarity in a country with little Internet penetration and limited personal technology.
Source: UsToday
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