HAVANA \u2014 In his first hour as Cuba\u2019s new head of state, Miguel D\u00edaz-Canel sought to make one thing clear: Ra\u00fal Castro may no longer be president, but he is still the power to be reckoned with in this island nation.<\/p>\n
\u201cRa\u00fal .\u2009.\u2009. will be key to the process of making the most important decisions on the future of the nation,\u201d D\u00edaz-Canel, 57, said Thursday on the floor of Cuba\u2019s National Assembly after he was formally named head of state.<\/p>\n
The National Assembly\u2019s procedure ended Castro rule here after nearly 60 years, shifting power toward a younger generation, born after Cuba\u2019s revolution. Yet everything about the transition Thursday suggested a path ahead of supremely cautious change with a heavy dose of continuity.<\/p>\n
Castro, who took over from his older brother, Fidel Castro, in 2008, will remain the head of Cuba\u2019s 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 Castro later nationalized. He died in 2016 at age 90.<\/p>\n
But any move to the countryside should not be seen as Ra\u00fal Castro fading into the background.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, he followed D\u00edaz-Canel\u2019s stiff, serious speech with a far longer, more animated and sometimes playful discourse that stole the day\u2019s thunder. Seeming supremely comfortable, he often digressed, tackling issues from diversity to Cuban history to climate change.<\/p>\n
He openly described the choice of D\u00edaz-Canel as a handpicked succession, calling him the only one of a group of politicians in their 50s who had risen to the occasion of top leadership<\/p>\n
\u201cHis election is not by chance,\u201d Castro said. \u201cIt was planned by us in group, and we decided that he\u2019s the best option in our opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n
Castro promised to stay on as head of the Communist Party until his term ends in 2021, a post he said he hoped D\u00edaz-Canel would assume afterward.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I\u2019m gone, and that\u2019s in the future,\u201d Castro said, \u201che will take over as first secretary of the Communist Party, if he does a good job. That\u2019s how it\u2019s been planned.\u201d<\/p>\n
Signaling reforms to come, however, Castro said that in July, Cuba would create a committee with the aim of revamping its constitution. The socialist character of Cuba, he said, would not change. But he acknowledged that \u201cwe thought, at this point, we would have advanced more\u201d on the road toward greater economic reforms.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe haven\u2019t renounced the pursuit of private-sector work,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Though highly symbolic for Cuba, the narrative of the end of the Castro era was largely played down here by state media, which sought to portray the transition as an exercise in continuity.<\/p>\n
D\u00edaz-Canel\u2019s name was put forward Wednesday as the sole candidate to head Cuba\u2019s Council of State, a post that effectively serves as the presidency. On Thursday, officials announced the results of the vote: 603 to 1 backing his nomination as Cuba\u2019s new leader. D\u00edaz-Canel, a consensus builder, is almost sure to make decisions in concert with the country\u2019s Communist brain trust.<\/p>\n
At a time when a thaw in U.S.-Cuban relations under President Barack Obama has turned to winter under President Trump, D\u00edaz-Canel opened no immediate window in his speech for improved relations.<\/p>\n
Instead, he paid homage to the Castro brothers, Ra\u00fal and Fidel, as well as \u201cthe historic generation\u201d of older revolutionaries who have run Cuba for decades. He promised to bring \u201ccontinuity to the Cuban revolution,\u201d and talked of cautious change, but always in the context of Cuban socialism.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no room for those who aspire to a capitalist restoration,\u201d he said. \u201cWe will defend the revolution and continue to perfect socialism.\u201d<\/p>\n
Always the more reform-minded of the brothers, Ra\u00fal Castro leaves the presidency having set in motion an important period of political and economic changes to Cuba\u2019s one-party state \u2014 including the introduction of term limits, the lifting of travel restrictions for Cubans and legalization of the sale of real estate.<\/p>\n
But he left just as much undone, and D\u00edaz-Canel is now poised to inherit significant problems. He must confront the task, for instance, of converting Cuba\u2019s outdated and cumbersome two-currency system into a one-currency system.<\/p>\n
Last year, Cuba also put the brakes on the issuing of new licenses for small private businesses, mostly restaurants, taxi companies and Airbnb operations aimed at the tourism industry. Cuban officials argued that they needed to ensure such businesses were paying taxes and obeying the law.<\/p>\n
But some observers said rank-and-file party officials also resented that upstart entrepreneurs were obtaining a higher standard of living than they could. It will be up to D\u00edaz-Canel to find a balance between those in Cuba who are reluctant to embrace economic change and those who are clamoring for it.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/span>Instead, he paid homage to the Castro brothers, Ra\u00fal and Fidel, as well as \u201cthe historic generation\u201d of older revolutionaries who have run Cuba for decades. He promised to bring \u201ccontinuity to the Cuban revolution,\u201d and talked of cautious change, but always in the context of Cuban socialism.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is no room for those who aspire to a capitalist restoration,\u201d he said. \u201cWe will defend the revolution and continue to perfect socialism.\u201d<\/p>\n Always the more reform-minded of the brothers, Ra\u00fal Castro leaves the presidency having set in motion an important period of political and economic changes to Cuba\u2019s one-party state \u2014 including the introduction of term limits, the lifting of travel restrictions for Cubans and legalization of the sale of real estate.<\/p>\n But he left just as much undone, and D\u00edaz-Canel is now poised to inherit significant problems. He must confront the task, for instance, of converting Cuba\u2019s outdated and cumbersome two-currency system into a one-currency system.<\/p>\n Last year, Cuba also put the brakes on the issuing of new licenses for small private businesses, mostly restaurants, taxi companies and Airbnb operations aimed at the tourism industry. Cuban officials argued that they needed to ensure such businesses were paying taxes and obeying the law.<\/p>\n But some observers said rank-and-file party officials also resented that upstart entrepreneurs were obtaining a higher standard of living than they could. It will be up to D\u00edaz-Canel to find a balance between those in Cuba who are reluctant to embrace economic change and those who are clamoring for it.<\/p>\n HAVANA \u2014 In his first hour as Cuba\u2019s new head of state, Miguel D\u00edaz-Canel sought to make one thing clear: Ra\u00fal Castro may no longer be president, but he is still the power to be reckoned with in this island nation. \u201cRa\u00fal .\u2009.\u2009. will be key to the process of making the most important decisions on the future of the… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1592"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1592\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1593,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1592\/revisions\/1593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}