For the first time in about 60 years, Cuba will be led by an individual outside of the Castro family as the National Candidacy Commission of the Cuban Parliament on Wednesday proposed Miguel Diaz Canel, 57, as the nation’s new president replacing Raul Castro.
The 86-year-old Castro will remain head of the Communist party, designated by the constitution as “the superior guiding force of society and the state”. As a result, Castro will remain the most powerful person in Cuba for the time being. His departure from the presidency is nonetheless a symbolically charged moment for a country accustomed to 60 years of absolute rule first by revolutionary leader Fidel Castro and, for the last decade, his younger brother.
The Candidacy Commission also proposed the other 30 lawmakers to make up the Council of State, the highest governmental body that represents the National Assembly in between periods of sessions.
Diaz Canel leads the list as the Council’s President, who in Cuba is the Head of State and Government, while Salvador Valdes was nominated as First Vice President.
Ramiro Valdes, Roberto Morales, Gladys Bejerano, Ines Maria Chapman and Beatriz Johnson are the candidates to be the five Vice Presidents, and Homero Acosta was proposed as the Council’s Secretary.
They should all be ratified by the 605-member plenary.
