{"id":207364,"date":"2019-10-11T20:51:55","date_gmt":"2019-10-12T00:51:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/?p=207364"},"modified":"2019-10-11T20:51:55","modified_gmt":"2019-10-12T00:51:55","slug":"diaz-canel-confirmed-as-president-of-cuba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/cuba\/diaz-canel-confirmed-as-president-of-cuba\/","title":{"rendered":"D\u00edaz-Canel confirmed as president of Cuba"},"content":{"rendered":"

Miguel D\u00edaz-Canel was confirmed as president of Cuba by the island\u2019s <\/span>National Assembly<\/span><\/a> during the extraordinary session of the legislative body held this Thursday at the Havana Convention Center, in which the new Council of State was also elected as well as the presidency of Parliament.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Assembly\u2015made up of 605 deputies, of which 580 were present\u2015elected <\/span>D\u00edaz-Canel<\/span><\/a> as President of the Republic, as the position of president is again named according to the new Cuban Magna Carta, which recovered it nominally after more than 40 years of absence in the island\u2019s political scene.<\/span><\/p>\n

He was elected by \u201cabsolute majority,\u201d with 579 votes.<\/span><\/p>\n

Until Thursday, D\u00edaz-Canel, 59, held the position of President of the Councils of State and of Ministers, which disappeared in the <\/span>Constitution<\/span><\/a> in force since April, which establishes deconcentrating the Executive branch as compared to the model that governed in Cuba for decades.<\/span><\/p>\n

He had been elected as such by the National Assembly in April 2018, taking over the presidency from Ra\u00fal Castro\u2015who, however, remained at the head of the Communist Party (PCC) and as a deputy\u2015and became the island\u2019s first President to not bear the surname of Castro since the approval of the previous Magna Carta in 1976.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bachelor of Electronic Engineering in 1982, he held several positions in the structure of the PCC, including those of first secretary in the central province of Villa Clara and in eastern Holgu\u00edn. In 2009, under the mandate of his predecessor, he became Minister of Higher Education. Three years later he was appointed Vice President and then elected First Vice President of the Councils of State and of Ministers, until in 2018 he finally held the presidential chair.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Cuban President Miguel D\u00edaz-Canel (c-l) greets former President Ra\u00fal Castro during the session of the National Assembly that confirmed him as the head of the island, on October 10, 2019. Photo: Juventud Rebelde.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In this position, he has defended a discourse that insists on the \u201ccontinuity\u201d of the precepts of his predecessors and on the construction of a \u201cprosperous and sustainable socialism,\u201d and he has strengthened alliances with \u201cstrategic\u201d partners of the island such as Russia and Venezuela, maintaining his “unrestricted support” of the latter\u2019s president, Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, in the midst of the political crisis that is shaking the South American country.<\/span><\/p>\n

His mandate has also been marked by a setback in relations with the United States, after the thaw experienced in the last years of the Obama administration, as well as disasters such as the May 2018 plane crash in Havana that caused the death of 112 people, and the devastating tornado suffered by the Cuban capital in January of this year.<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition, he has had to face a complex economic situation, whose most recent chapter, marked by the fuel deficit, forced his government to recover savings measures that were not seen on the island since the so-called Special Period, the severe crisis of the 1990s<\/span><\/p>\n

Similarly, in his year and a half at the head of Cuba, the process of the constitutional reform was completed, which ended with the approval in a referendum of the new Magna Carta, and the salaries and pensions of a large sector of state workers were raised.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now, with his election as President of the Republic, D\u00edaz-Canel will be responsible for the country’s policy, foreign relations and the Armed Forces, and in the coming days he will propose a Prime Minister, who must be approved by the Assembly and will head the Council of Ministers.<\/span><\/p>\n

He will continue to be accompanied by Salvador Vald\u00e9s Mesa, who\u2015following the letter of the Constitution\u2015goes from being First Vice President of the Councils of State and of Ministers, to Vice President of the Republic, a position for which he was elected this Thursday by the National Assembly, in a session that coincided with the 161st anniversary of the beginning of the wars of independence against Spain.<\/span><\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/PresidenciaCuba\/status\/1182349457591095296?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1182349457591095296&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Foncubanews.com%2Fcuba%2Fdiaz-canel-ratificado-como-presidente-de-cuba%2F<\/p>\n

Vald\u00e9s Mesa, 74, is a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC). Before being elected Vice President in 2018, he had been general secretary of the Central Organization of Cuban Trade Unions (CTC) and first secretary of the PCC in the province of Camag\u00fcey, among other Party and government positions.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Constitution establishes that the president and his vice shall serve for five years and may be re-elected consecutively only once.<\/span><\/p>\n

D\u00edaz-Canel: \u201cI don’t come to make promises\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cToday begins a new stage of work for those of us who represent the State and the Government,\u201d D\u00edaz-Canel said in a speech after assuming the new position, in which he affirmed that \u201cthe number one task has to be the future\u201d and said, as he did a year ago, that he would not make any promises, but would fulfill \u201cthe mandate of the revolutionary people.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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The president\u2019s address was broadcast in real time through the Cuban Presidency\u2019s account on Twitter, since the television broadcast of the parliamentary session, to which in addition the accredited foreign press on the island was not allowed access, had a two-hour delay.<\/span><\/p>\n

D\u00edaz-Canel established as priorities of his government \u201cexports, foreign investment, housing construction, food production, tourism, transportation and renewable energy sources,\u201d and called for \u201cresisting\u201d to overcome the current energy crisis in the country due to fuel shortages.<\/span><\/p>\n

In this regard, he called for \u201creducing expenses and to save,\u201d as well as \u201csystematizing the good solutions born of the toughest years of the Special Period.\u201d He also referred to the United States, an \u201cempire, old and demoralized\u201d headed by a \u201chorde of mediocre and mendacious politicians,\u201d once again blamed the Donald Trump administration for the economic problems Cuba is experiencing and again accused the neighboring country of wanting to dominate the island.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Miguel D\u00edaz-Canel delivers a speech after his election as President of the Republic of Cuba by the National Assembly, on October 10, 2019. Photo: Irene P\u00e9rez \/ Cubadebate \/ EFE.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWhoever tries to appropriate Cuba, will collect the dust from its blood-soaked soil, if he doesn\u2019t perish in the struggle,\u201d he said, quoting independence hero Antonio Maceo in his speech, also full of references to Fidel Castro and other historical leaders of the island, and which he closed with the traditional slogans of the political discourse of the Cuban Revolution.<\/span><\/p>\n

Presidency of the Assembly and Council of State<\/strong><\/p>\n

The presidency of the National Assembly was also confirmed in this parliamentary session on Thursday, which, according to the current Magna Carta, will also head the Council of State, which went from 31 to 21 members.<\/span><\/p>\n

In this way, Esteban Lazo will be in charge of the Assembly and the Council of State, at least until 2023, when the current legislature\u2015the ninth\u2015of Parliament will end its functions. Lazo, 75, has chaired the legislative body since 2013, and previously had held several political positions on the island, including that of first secretary of the PCC in the provinces of Santiago de Cuba and Havana, and that of vice president of the Council of State between 1992 and 2013.<\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Ana Mar\u00eda Mari Machado and Homero Acosta were confirmed as vice president and secretary of the Assembly, as they had been elected a year and a half ago.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Nueva direcci\u00f3n de @AsambleaCuba<\/a> #Cuba<\/a> y del Consejo de Estado:
-Presidente: Esteban Lazo Hern\u00e1ndez
-Vicepresidenta: Ana Mar\u00eda Mari Machado
-Secretario: Homero Acosta \u00c1lvarez. #PoderPopular<\/a> #10DeOctubre<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/AG1iVO22gU<\/a><\/p>\n

— Asamblea Nacional Cuba (@AsambleaCuba) October 10, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n