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Castro to Step Down But Not Until 2018

By Marc Frank and John Paul Rathbone

Christopher Sabatini comments on President Raul Castro's announcement to step down on 2018, "laying the groundwork for the continuation of a post-Castro era."

Raúl Castro accepted a new five-year term as Cuban president on Sunday promising that it would also be his last, thereby potentially dating the end of the Castro era for the first time since bearded rebels swept down from the Sierra Maestra in 1959 and launched the country’s revolution.

But analysts and human rights activists cautioned not to expect major change in the island’s more than five decade-long communist regime after Mr Castro named a rising party star as vice-president and first in line for succession.

Raúl Castro, 81, made the announcement in a speech broadcast shortly after the National Assembly elected him to a second term as president. “This will be my last term,” he said.

Mr. Castro starts his second term immediately, which would theoretically leave him free to retire in 2018, aged 86. Miguel Diaz-Canel, 52, a politburo member who has risen steadily through the party ranks in the provinces, will automatically step into Mr Castro’s shoes if he is unable to serve out his term.

“For the first time the party is clearly trying to put a younger face on the government’s highest echelons,” said Christopher Sabatini, senior policy director at the Americas Society/Council of the Americas. “While overdue, it is clear that they’re trying to lay the groundwork for the continuation of the government post [the] Castro[s]….”

“Regardless of what happens in Venezuela, the Cuban regime needs to ‘update’ the revolution,” said Mr Sabatini. “Even with the 100,000 or so barrels of oil the regime receives every year it is still struggling fiscally, is still strapped for hard currency and is still failing to meet people’s basic needs….”

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