{"id":1600,"date":"2018-04-27T11:18:14","date_gmt":"2018-04-27T11:18:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/?p=1600"},"modified":"2018-04-27T11:18:14","modified_gmt":"2018-04-27T11:18:14","slug":"miguel-diaz-canel-becomes-cubas-president-raul-castro-steps-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/2018\/04\/27\/miguel-diaz-canel-becomes-cubas-president-raul-castro-steps-down\/","title":{"rendered":"Miguel D\u00edaz-Canel becomes Cuba’s president, Ra\u00fal Castro steps down"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Cuba has a new president, and for the first time in over 40 years, his last name is not Castro.<\/h2>\n

by\u00a0Nicole Acevedo and Carmen Sesin\u00a0\/\u00a0<\/span>Apr.19.2018 \/ 9:18 AM ET<\/span><\/div>\n<\/header>\n

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Cuba has a new president, and for the first time in over 40 years, his last name is not Castro.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0Miguel D\u00edaz-Canel officially became president on Thursday morning after Ra\u00fal Castro stepped down and D\u00edaz-Canel was confirmed by the National Assembly.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Castro, 86, will remain head of the Communist Party, the most powerful governing body on the island, but his departure from the presidency represents a symbolic shift in an aging leadership.<\/p>\n

The transition is an effort to guarantee that younger leaders like D\u00edaz-Canel \u2014 who has served as Cuba’s first vice president since 2013 and turns 58 on Friday \u2014 can maintain the power of the Communist-run government put in place by the party’s now octogenarian founders.<\/p>\n

Among D\u00edaz-Canel’s immediate challenges are Cuba’s economic stagnation and a younger generation’s disenchantment with its limited opportunities.<\/p>\n

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Ra\u00fal Castro served two five-year terms as president, succeeding his brother in 2006 after Fidel fell ill and transferred power to Ra\u00fal. (Fidel died in 2016.)<\/p>\n

Analysts debate how much power D\u00edaz-Canel can wield as president with Ra\u00fal Castro still at the helm of the Communist Party.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“I think it’s going to be very tough for him,” said Pedro Freyre, chair of international practice for Akerman LLP. “I don’t know that he can do it.”<\/p>\n

D\u00edaz-Canel had long been seen as the overwhelming favorite to replace Castro, after climbing the ranks of the Communist Party.<\/p>\n

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Before becoming first vice president, D\u00edaz-Canel was the minister of higher education. From 1994 to 2003, he headed the Communist Party in the province of Villa Clara where he gained prominence. It was a time when the country was suffering from a severe economic crisis after the fall of the Soviet Union, which had heavily subsidized the island. He became known as an easygoing person who wore Bermuda shorts and got around on a bicycle.<\/p>\n

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The presidential transition comes at a time when Cuba faces an economic recession and an average salary of around $30 a month. Additionally,\u00a0Cubans are feeling frustrated over the slow pace of market-style reforms<\/a>\u00a0initiated by Ra\u00fal Castro in 2011 and as relations with the U.S.\u00a0have cooled significantly under the Trump administration<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In early March, the Trump administration\u00a0announced it would permanently reduce the staff<\/a>\u00a0at the U.S. Embassy in Havana by 60 percent. The decision came after the\u00a0U.S. evacuated nonessential personnel in October<\/a>\u00a0after embassy staff members were sickened in a series of\u00a0unexplained health incidents.<\/a>\u00a0As a result, the State Department issued a warning, recommending Americans \u201creconsider\u201d traveling to the island.<\/p>\n

Cuba\u00a0denied any role and has cooperated with an FBI investigation.<\/a><\/p>\n

The diplomatic incident came on the heels of President Donald Trump’s reversal of Obama-era\u00a0policy changes<\/a>\u00a0regarding Cuba. And as the U.S. has hardened its policy, Cuba has responded with tough talk.<\/p>\n

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In November, D\u00edaz-Canel told NBC News during municipal elections, \u201cwe continue to be open to relations\u201d with the United States. But in March, during National Assembly elections, he said the revolution is being \u201cattacked and threatened\u201d by an administration that \u201chas offended Cuba.\u201d<\/p>\n

Due to a legal limit established by Ra\u00fal Castro, D\u00edaz-Canel can only govern a maximum of 10 years \u2014 equal to two terms.<\/p>\n

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Cuban President Raul Castro at the Cuban National Assembly in Havana on Thursday.Alejandro Ernesto \/ EPA<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ra\u00fal Castro attended the unusual two-day legislative ceremony that started Wednesday where the 605 members of Cuba\u2019s National Assembly voted D\u00edaz-Canel as Cuba’s new president.<\/p>\n

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The Cuban National Assembly has generally met and selected the president in one day. Its votes are nearly always anonymous and seen as reflecting the will of the country\u2019s top leadership.<\/p>\n

According to Cuban\u00a0state-owned media<\/a>, the decision to extend this year’s vote was made to streamline “a session such importance requires.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cuba has a new president, and for the first time in over 40 years, his last name is not Castro. by\u00a0Nicole Acevedo and Carmen Sesin\u00a0\/\u00a0Apr.19.2018 \/ 9:18 AM ET Cuba has a new president, and for the first time in over 40 years, his last name is not Castro. \u00a0Miguel D\u00edaz-Canel officially became president on Thursday morning after Ra\u00fal Castro… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1600","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\/70"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1600"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1600\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1601,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1600\/revisions\/1601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}