Cuban Revolution and New President after the Castros

Last Updated on July 16, 2018 by Bharat Saini

Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, the first person outside Casto dynasty to lead Cuba, took over as its 19^th President on Thursday April 19, 2018, the day before his 58^th birthday on April 20, 1960. Fidel Castro seized control of the island nation in 1959, after the Cuban Revolution that began in 1952 when former Army Sergeant Fulgencio Batista seized power before the elections when it became apparent that he would lose. Batista had been president from 1940 to 1944. Fidel Castro or Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz ruled over Republic of Cuba as Prime Minister from 1959 to 1976 and then as President from 1976 to 2008 with ironclad control, bolstered by a cadre of loyalists, nearly all of whom had fought alongside them in the revolution. Fidel Castro handed power to his brother Raul Modesto Castro Ruz in 2008 and then died on November 25, 2016. Raul Castro, who was born on 3 June 1931, remained President of Cuba up to April 18, 2018 and is currently serving as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, the most senior position in the Communist state, succeeding his brother Fidel Castro in April 2011.

Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez was born in 1960 after the Cuban revolution and has spent his entire life in the service of a revolution he did not fight. While nearly everyone knew of Cuba’s president, Raúl Castro, his handpicked successor, Díaz-Canel, was virtually unknown. He is taking on a difficult balancing act. Most expect him to be a president of continuity, especially because he arrives in the shadow of Raúl Castro, who will remain the head of the armed forces and the Communist Party, arguably Cuba’s most powerful institutions

• Díaz-Canel grew up in the central province of Villa Clara, about three hours from Havana, the son of a schoolteacher and a factory worker.
• He studied electrical engineering at the Central University of Las Villas, where he was active in political life.
• He was viewed from an early age as a rising star within Cuba’s Communist Party.
• He served three years in the army, another node of power in the country, after which he resumed his slow climb up the party ladder.
• He was previously the first Vice President from 2013 to 2018.
• He has been a member of the Politburo of Communist Party of Cuba since 2003.
• He served as Minister of Higher Education from 2009 to 2012.
• Díaz-Canel also has to figure out how to resuscitate the economy at a time when President Trump is stepping back from engaging with Cuba.
• Whereas, the U.S. had begun to engage Cuba under the direction of President Barack Obama, and by 2015 announced that the long-standing embargo would gradually be loosened.
• Díaz-Canel must find a way to manage the frustrations of a Cuban population impatient with the pace of change on the island, without the heft of his predecessor’s revolutionary credentials.
• He must seize the opportunity to refresh economic and foreign policies.
• Havana-watchers will look for cues of change or continuity in a country that once symbolised global anti-imperialist revolution.
• Sustaining Cuba’s education and health-care services will be a formidable challenge for the President.
• Reforming the economy to attract more investment to major industry sectors and to boost growth and jobs in Cuba would be another challenge to Díaz-Canel.