In Cuba, Miguel Diaz-Canel takes power in the footsteps of Raul Castro
Miguel Diaz-Canel succeeds Raul Castro at the head of the Cuban Communist Party and becomes Cuba's new strongman.
YAMIL LAGE AFP / File
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4 min
Havana's new strongman is no Castro.
The current Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel took the head of the single party on Monday, April 19, at the end of the Eighth Congress of the Cuban Communist Party.
In office for three years, he will now have to establish his political legitimacy and face new challenges in a country in economic crisis.
If he puts an end to the Castro era, Miguel Diaz-Canel does not represent a change in Cuba.
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With our correspondent in Havana
,
Domitille Piron
"
He is a leader loved and respected by Cubans,
" headlines
Granma
, the party's official newspaper.
In fact, Miguel Diaz-Canel is above all the first leader of the party and of the country which did not experience the triumph of the Cuban revolution.
Born in 1960, he only knew Fidel and Raul Castro in power and a country under embargo.
►Also listen: Cuba: "President Miguel Diaz-Canel will have to establish his political legitimacy"
Originally from Santa Clara, this electronic engineer is also and above all a party apparatchik.
It is a pure product of the PCC where he spent his entire career, in Villa Clara, then Holguín, before being appointed Minister of Higher Education, then Vice-President.
Not very charismatic, he denotes his predecessors, and will have the difficult task of establishing his legitimacy in a country where the crisis is worsened by increased American sanctions and the Covid-19 pandemic.
President for three years
President for three years and now First Secretary of the party, he intends to follow the policies of the revolution, but times have changed.
If he occupies a lot of space by increasing the number of field visits and being very present on social networks, he seems indifferent to the rise of criticism.
Yet it is a page of history that is turning for the communist island which is closing its eighth Party Congress and will no longer be led by a Castro.
If the current president Miguel Diaz-Canel takes the place of Raul Castro who is retiring, this change in Cuba is above all symbolic.
The new generation at the head of the party is part of the continuity of the historical leaders of the Cuban revolution, the figures change but not the policies.
Raul Castro leaves with the feeling of a duty accomplished and the conviction that its continuity is assured.
"
I have the satisfaction of handing over the leadership of the country to a group of prepared leaders, seasoned by decades of experience within the party, and who will defend the ethics and principles of the revolution,
" he said. declared.
"Companion Raul will be consulted"
After decades of monopoly of power on the island, there is no more Castro in power in Cuba, at least officially, because for the current president Miguel Diaz-Canel, Raul Castro remains inescapable.
"
Companion Raul, by his legitimacy and because Cuba needs him, will be consulted on strategic decisions of greater importance for the destiny of the nation,
" he said.
It is therefore above all a symbolic relay passage that must be remembered from this April 19, 60 years to the day after the victory of the Cubans against the attack on the Bay of Pigs led by the United States.
Sovereignty and socialism remain the watchwords in Cuba, in a country which has nevertheless changed, paralyzed by the economic crisis and
upset by the arrival of the Internet
.
In reaction to the renewal of the party's political office, which therefore only brings the illusion of change, Internet users have expressed their dismay and despair.
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Cuba
Miguel Díaz-Canel
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