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How Much Change Will Cuba’s New President Bring?

By Lidia Hernández-Tapia

Raúl Castro will hand off the presidency – likely to his vice-president Miguel Díaz-Canel – leaving Cubans to speculate on the true impact of the shift.

By the end of the week, for the first time since its 1959 revolution, Cuba’s leader will not be a Castro.

Fidel Castro, then his brother Raúl, have had a firm grasp of the island’s political leadership for nearly 60 years. By April 19 Raúl Castro, 86, will have handed off power, likely to the man who has been his second-in-command, Miguel Díaz-Canel.

The hand-over will signal a generational shift – Díaz-Canel, 57, was not yet born when Fidel Castro toppled Fulgencio Batista and assumed power. But little can be said with absolute certainty about Díaz-Canel’s approach, leaving...

Read this article on the Americas Quarterly website. | Subscribe to AQ.

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