A 57-year-old bureaucrat replaced Raul Castro as the president of Cuba on Thursday, launching a new political era as a government led by a single family for six decades tries to ensure the long-term survival of one of the world’s last communist states.
The silver-haired Diaz-Canel, 57 — a top Communist Party figure who has served as first vice president since 2013 — will become the island’s first leader born after the 1959 revolution, and the first in 60 years who is not named Castro.
Between them, father of the nation Fidel and his younger brother Raul made the Caribbean island a key player in the Cold War and helped keep communism afloat despite the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Raul, now 86, has been in power since 2006, when he took over after illness sidelined Fidel, who seized power in the revolution.
Diaz-Canel, who has spent years climbing the party ranks, was named the sole candidate for the presidency on Wednesday.
He will formally be confirmed as the country’s leader at roughly 9:00 am (1300 GMT) Thursday — the anniversary of the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion, when Fidel Castro’s forces defeated 1,400 US-backed rebels seeking to overthrow him.
Havana has long hailed the showdown as American imperialism’s first great defeat in Latin America.
It is also the day before the new president’s 58th birthday.
– In Raul’s footsteps –
Diaz-Canel, who some say bears a passing resemblance to American actor Richard Gere, is a fan of The Beatles whose penchant for wearing jeans has set him apart in Havana’s corridors of power.
Although he has advocated fewer restrictions on the press and a greater openness to the internet, he also has a ruthless streak, with harsh words for Cuba’s dissidents and the United States
