Cuba's President Raul Castro (C-L) and First Vice-President Miguel Diaz-Canel (C-R) arrive for a session of the National Assembly in Havana, Cuba, April 18, 2018. Irene Perez/Courtesy of Cubadebate/Handout via Reuters
Reuters: Castro nears retirement as Cuban president; lawmakers vote on successor
HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba’s Raul Castro was just hours away from retiring as president after parliament proposed Miguel Diaz-Canel as his replacement on Wednesday, a shift that will usher in the island’s first non-Castro leader since the 1959 revolution.
Castro, 86, was due to step down on Thursday after 10 years in office. He announced his departure several years ago and has long signaled that Diaz-Canel, a 57-year-old Communist Party stalwart, was his likely successor, carefully managing the transition to ensure political continuity.
The move to a younger generation of Communist leaders is historic on an island dominated for nearly 60 years by Fidel Castro and then his brother Raul. But in the short term it is unlikely to herald major changes to the one-party system or state-dominated economic model.
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2 comments:
How many senior Europeans parties will be represented at his swearing in? How many senior US Democrats?
Probably more than you would expect.
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