What Will Cuba's Revolution Look Like Without a Castro in Charge?
What Will Cuba's Revolution Look Like Without a Castro in Charge?
By
Ana Campoy
"Because it was a Castro who was introducing these reforms, there was a lot more willingness to implement them," said AS/COA's Cuba Working Group Head Alana Tummino on the prospects for further opening in the island under Miguel Díaz-Canel's leadership.
Cuba just got a new president. In a momentous change for the island, for the first time in nearly 60 years, its leader’s last name isn’t Castro.
The National Assembly on Thursday confirmed the only candidate for the post, Miguel Díaz-Canel, the country’s first vice president and a Communist Party loyalist. He replaces Raúl Castro, who took over the country’s leadership from his brother Fidel in 2006.
In another big departure from the past, Díaz-Canel is also be the first president since the Cuban Revolution to not have fought in the revolt. (He was born in 1960, one year after a triumphant Fidel Castro marched into Havana after toppling dictator Fulgencio Batista.)
