Miguel Diaz-Canel:
Cuba marked the end of an era with the transfer of power from the Castro clan, in charge for six decades, to the communist country’s first-ever civilian leader, Miguel Diaz-Canel.
- As Raul Castro, 89, enters retirement, he handed the all-powerful position of the first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba to Mr. Diaz-Canel, 60, already Cuba’s president.
- Miguel Díaz-Canel is a Cuban politician serving as the president of Cuba since 2019 and the first secretary of the Communist Party, the most senior position in Cuba, since 2021.
- His two predecessors in the role were brothers, by blood, and notably, his succession from Raúl Castro represents a clearly non-dynastic form of succession for the Communist Party as well as the Republic of Cuba.
- Díaz-Canel is, therefore, the first president to not be a Castro family member since Osvaldo Dorticós in 1976 and the first leader of the government who is not a Castro since José Miró Cardona in 1959.
