Raúl Castro Prepares to Resign as Cuba’s President, Closing a Dynasty
President Raúl Castro of Cuba, center left, with Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, center right, in Havana in January.Ramon Espinosa/Associated Press
By Azam Ahmed
April 18, 2018
HAVANA — Raúl Castro, who took over from his brother Fidel 12 years ago and led Cuba through some of its biggest changes in decades, is expected to step down as president on Thursday and hand power to someone outside the Castro dynasty for the first time since the Cuban revolution more than half a century ago.
During his two terms as president, Mr. Castro opened up his Communist country to a small but vital private sector and, perhaps most significantly, diplomatic relations with the United States. It was a notable departure from his brother’s agenda, yet it was possible only because he, too, was a Castro.
His handpicked successor, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, 57, is a Communist Party loyalist who was born a year after Fidel Castro claimed power in Cuba. His rise ushers in a new generation of Cubans whose only firsthand experience with the revolution has been its aftermath — the early era of plenty, the periods of economic privation after the demise of the Soviet Union, and the fleeting détente in recent years with the United States, its Cold War foe.
Officials started gathering here in Havana on Wednesday morning and put forward Mr. Díaz-Canel as the sole candidate to replace Mr. Castro, all but assuring his selection by the Communist Party.
People shouting slogans while waiting at the Plaza de la Revolución for a ceremony in memory of Fidel Castro in Santiago de Cuba in 2016.Mauricio Lima for The New York Times
Beyond that, Cuba’s next president will be hemmed in from multiple sides: Raúl Castro is expected to remain the head of the Communist Party, and the diplomatic opening with the United States has closed abruptly under President Trump.
lost its defining leader, Fidel Castro, which made way for Raúl to take unprecedented steps to loosen the state’s grip on the economy and begin to nurture a private sector.
Then, two years ago, the nation brokered a détente with the United States, paving the way for the reopening of the American Embassy and the first visit of a sitting United States president in 88 years.
But change is often a managed affair in Cuba, orchestrated to maintain order while leaving little to chance or, especially, political uncertainty. While historic, the economic changes in Cuba have been halting, to the frustration of many Cubans hoping for better pay and more opportunity. So, too, has foreign investment, with leaders leery that it could grow to the point that they can no longer control it.
lashed out at Cuba and reversed, in spirit if not entirely in deed, the new relationship that President Barack Obama established with the Cuban government.
As Cuba seeks to modernize its moribund economy with a new generation of leaders less tethered to the past, the United States appears to be moving back toward a policy of isolation. Fewer American tourists are visiting Cuba and bringing dollars with them, in no small part because of Mr. Trump’s decision to undo some of Mr. Obama’s easing of restrictions on travel to the island.
And then there are the mysterious ailmentsthat affected a group of American diplomats stationed in Havana. American officials say they were attacked by unidentified devices that damaged their hearing. In response, the United States issued a travel warning to its citizens and reduced the size of its embassy staff by two-thirds. For now, there is no office in Cuba that can issue visas for Cubans seeking to visit family members in the United States.
Mr. Díaz-Canel preparing to vote in the Nautico neighborhood in Havana in 2015.Adalberto Roque/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
How the sudden slide in relations with the United States will affect Mr. Díaz-Canel’s ability to sustain the economy and stave off domestic pressure remains unclear.
Fidel Castro lecturing students in 1964 at Ciudad Libertad, a former military base, on the virtues of agriculture and the evils of bureaucracy.Jack Manning/The New York Times
He will have to foster the growing private sector, the future engine of the economy and the fulcrum on which employment will hinge, while guarding against the income inequality it often brings.
collapse of Venezuela, a longtime benefactor of Cuba, has expedited the crisis and robbed the country of much-needed resources. Venezuela has already cut its oil shipments to Cuba drastically, worsening the island’s finances.
Perhaps most immediately, Mr. Díaz-Canel will have to unify two separate currencies in widespread use on the island, a gambit that will produce big winners and losers in a country that prides itself on equality.
“It’s a high-wire act,” said Julia Sweig, a Cuba expert at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. “The expectation dynamic among the Cubans is that they still want a functioning state that delivers services. And yet they also want the state to get out of the way.”
President Raúl Castro of Cuba, left, and Nguyen Phu Trong, the Vietnam Communist Party secretary general, reviewing an honor guard in Havana in March.Reuters
To say that Cuba has remained in stasis would be unfair. Beginning with a slate of economic reforms pushed forward by Raúl Castro, all the way through to the decision to restore diplomatic relations with the United States, the nation has been opening.
As Castro Era Drifts to Close, a New Face Steps In at No. 2
Feb. 27, 2013
U.S. to Open Formal Inquiry on Americans Sickened in Cuba
Jan. 9, 2018
President Raúl Castro of Cuba, center left, with Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, center right, in Havana in January.Ramon Espinosa/Associated Press
By Azam Ahmed
April 18, 2018
HAVANA — Raúl Castro, who took over from his brother Fidel 12 years ago and led Cuba through some of its biggest changes in decades, is expected to step down as president on Thursday and hand power to someone outside the Castro dynasty for the first time since the Cuban revolution more than half a century ago.
During his two terms as president, Mr. Castro opened up his Communist country to a small but vital private sector and, perhaps most significantly, diplomatic relations with the United States. It was a notable departure from his brother’s agenda, yet it was possible only because he, too, was a Castro.
His handpicked successor, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, 57, is a Communist Party loyalist who was born a year after Fidel Castro claimed power in Cuba. His rise ushers in a new generation of Cubans whose only firsthand experience with the revolution has been its aftermath — the early era of plenty, the periods of economic privation after the demise of the Soviet Union, and the fleeting détente in recent years with the United States, its Cold War foe.
Officials started gathering here in Havana on Wednesday morning and put forward Mr. Díaz-Canel as the sole candidate to replace Mr. Castro, all but assuring his selection by the Communist Party.
People shouting slogans while waiting at the Plaza de la Revolución for a ceremony in memory of Fidel Castro in Santiago de Cuba in 2016.Mauricio Lima for The New York Times
Beyond that, Cuba’s next president will be hemmed in from multiple sides: Raúl Castro is expected to remain the head of the Communist Party, and the diplomatic opening with the United States has closed abruptly under President Trump.
lost its defining leader, Fidel Castro, which made way for Raúl to take unprecedented steps to loosen the state’s grip on the economy and begin to nurture a private sector.
Then, two years ago, the nation brokered a détente with the United States, paving the way for the reopening of the American Embassy and the first visit of a sitting United States president in 88 years.
But change is often a managed affair in Cuba, orchestrated to maintain order while leaving little to chance or, especially, political uncertainty. While historic, the economic changes in Cuba have been halting, to the frustration of many Cubans hoping for better pay and more opportunity. So, too, has foreign investment, with leaders leery that it could grow to the point that they can no longer control it.
lashed out at Cuba and reversed, in spirit if not entirely in deed, the new relationship that President Barack Obama established with the Cuban government.
As Cuba seeks to modernize its moribund economy with a new generation of leaders less tethered to the past, the United States appears to be moving back toward a policy of isolation. Fewer American tourists are visiting Cuba and bringing dollars with them, in no small part because of Mr. Trump’s decision to undo some of Mr. Obama’s easing of restrictions on travel to the island.
And then there are the mysterious ailmentsthat affected a group of American diplomats stationed in Havana. American officials say they were attacked by unidentified devices that damaged their hearing. In response, the United States issued a travel warning to its citizens and reduced the size of its embassy staff by two-thirds. For now, there is no office in Cuba that can issue visas for Cubans seeking to visit family members in the United States.
Mr. Díaz-Canel preparing to vote in the Nautico neighborhood in Havana in 2015.Adalberto Roque/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
How the sudden slide in relations with the United States will affect Mr. Díaz-Canel’s ability to sustain the economy and stave off domestic pressure remains unclear.
Fidel Castro lecturing students in 1964 at Ciudad Libertad, a former military base, on the virtues of agriculture and the evils of bureaucracy.Jack Manning/The New York Times
He will have to foster the growing private sector, the future engine of the economy and the fulcrum on which employment will hinge, while guarding against the income inequality it often brings.
collapse of Venezuela, a longtime benefactor of Cuba, has expedited the crisis and robbed the country of much-needed resources. Venezuela has already cut its oil shipments to Cuba drastically, worsening the island’s finances.
Perhaps most immediately, Mr. Díaz-Canel will have to unify two separate currencies in widespread use on the island, a gambit that will produce big winners and losers in a country that prides itself on equality.
“It’s a high-wire act,” said Julia Sweig, a Cuba expert at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. “The expectation dynamic among the Cubans is that they still want a functioning state that delivers services. And yet they also want the state to get out of the way.”
President Raúl Castro of Cuba, left, and Nguyen Phu Trong, the Vietnam Communist Party secretary general, reviewing an honor guard in Havana in March.Reuters
To say that Cuba has remained in stasis would be unfair. Beginning with a slate of economic reforms pushed forward by Raúl Castro, all the way through to the decision to restore diplomatic relations with the United States, the nation has been opening.
As Castro Era Drifts to Close, a New Face Steps In at No. 2
Feb. 27, 2013
U.S. to Open Formal Inquiry on Americans Sickened in Cuba
Jan. 9, 2018
america about to rape the shyt out of that island
A transitional economy and a shift more towards Chinese soft autocracy isn't a bad play.