Posted on 02/24/2013 3:44:34 PM PST by re_tail20
Cuban leader Raul Castro announced on Sunday he would step down from power after his second term as president ends in 2018, and the new parliament named a 52-year-old rising star to become his first vice president and most visible successor.
Castro, 81, made the announcement in a nationally broadcast speech shortly after the Cuban National Assembly elected him to a second five-year term in the opening session of the new parliament.
"This will be my last term," Castro said.
In a surprise move, the new parliament named as his first vice president Miguel Diaz-Canel, a member of the political bureau who rose through the party ranks in the provinces to become the most visible possible successor to Castro. Diaz-Canel would succeed Castro if he cannot serve his full term.
The new government will almost certainly be the last headed up by the Castro brothers and their followers who have ruled Cuba since they swept down from the mountains in the 1959 revolution.
Raul Castro starts his second term immediately, leaving him free to retire in 2018, aged 86.
Former president Fidel Castro joined the meeting, in a rare public appearance. Since falling ill in 2006 and ceding the presidency to his brother, the elder Castro, 86, has given up official positions except as a deputy in the National Assembly.
Governments, Cuba watchers and Cubans were keenly observing to see if any new, and younger, faces might appear among the Council of State members, in particular its first vice president and five vice presidents.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
If anyone could post a picture of Miguel Diaz-Canel on this thread, it would be helpful. (I’ve misplaced my instructions.)
Hopefully God has other plans.
No different than zero. Castro calls the shots. He retires when HE says so.
Migi Diáz, AKA Miguel Díaz-Canal Bermúdez, AKA Caesar to Raul's Augustus.
Adopting a successor is communism's new paradigm for overcoming the succession crisis that is the bane of all authoritarian systems.
My thanks to you.
Note the positive tone of the article towards two men that have ran a gulag state of leftist totalitarian terror for 54 years.
Well, after a year of rest, relaxation and golf, I guess O-Blamer will be ready for his next “executive” assignment.
I cant’ believe these two old s.o.b’s are still alive.
Given the leftists who make up the bulk of the media, it’s no surprise that the tone of the Reuters article is favorable. Substitute Chile’s Pinochet, right wing military dictatorship, with Cuba’s Castro, left wing military dictatorship, and the tone of the article would be 180 degrees in the other direction.
That's just marvelous... how "George Washington" of him.
...or maybe before...
He really needs to hang in just long enough for Zero to move in after his second POTUS term.
Thanks re_tail20.
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