Reuters:
“Cuban President Raul Castro announced on Sunday he will step down from
power after his second term ends in 2018, and the new parliament named a
52-year-old rising star to become his first vice president and most
visible successor. … In a surprise move, the new parliament also named
Miguel Diaz-Canel as first vice president, meaning he would take over if
Castro cannot serve his full term. Diaz-Canel is a member of the
political bureau who rose through the Communist Party ranks in the
provinces to become the most visible possible successor to Castro.”
Here’s the bigger picture: “The new government will almost certainly be the
last headed up by the Castro brothers and their generation of leaders
who have ruled Cuba since they swept down from the mountains in the 1959
revolution.”