Cuba awaits the first president born after the revolution

Cuba awaits the first president born after the revolution
Cuba's National Assembly has nominated First Vice-President Miguel Diaz Canel to head the country and is expected to approve his appointment to the highest post in the country on Thursday to replace Raul Castro.
Although the results of the National Assembly session vote on the appointment of Diaz Canel to the presidency, the candidate is expected to receive the support of deputies, where the Assembly usually votes by consensus or by overwhelming majority in favor of candidates for the most important positions in the state.
The transfer of power will be a historic event for the country after Fidel Castro and his 60-year-old brother Raul. Miguel Diaz Canel will be the first president born after the 1959 revolution and the first civilian president since the 1952 coup by General Volhyncio Batista.
Who is Miguel Diaz Canell?
Miguel Diaz Canel was born in 1960 in Palacetas, in the province of Villa Clara on the northern coast of Cuba, to a simple family. His father is a mechanical worker. He graduated from the central Las Laslas University in Santa Clara.
After his military service, he became a teacher at the university where he graduated, and joined the Union of Young Cuban Communists in 1987. In 1994 he was elected Secretary of the Cuban Communist Party Committee in the province where he was born.
In 2003, Diaz Canel went to the political bureau of the party's Central Committee with Raul Castro's proposal. In 2009-2012 he was Minister of Higher Education in the Government of the country, until he was elected as First Vice-Premier.
Diaz Canel became the first politician to take up the post and did not participate in the events of the socialist revolution in Cuba.
Cuba in the post-Castro era
Observers expect Miguel Diaz Canel to continue the cautious and gradual reform approach begun under Raul Castro, known for his adherence to the Marxist-Leninist ideology. In one of his press statements, Diaz Canel confirmed his confidence that the approach should continue.
The candidacy of Diaz Canel is contrary to the expectations of some who had hoped the Castro family would remain in power by nominating the daughter of Raul Castro Mariela, a member of the National Assembly, or his son, Alejandro, the Cuban military intelligence colonel who had secretly negotiated with the United States. .
However, Raul Castro will not emerge from Cuba's political arena and will retain the post of first secretary of the Communist Party until 2021.
Source: RT, Agencies
Anton Zweif