Voices from Cuba: Cubans contemplate a non-Castro president and a new generation of leaders
March 1, 2018
Mimi Whitefield,The Miami Herald
Photo Credit: Ismael Francisco
HAVANA- There are no campaign buttons or rallies and no one will lose when Cuban voters go to the polls March 11 to ratify pre-chosen slates for the National Assembly of People’s Power — Cuba’s parliament — and for provincial assemblies.
But this year’s election will be different.
On April 19, the newly seated National Assembly will select Cuba’s new president and for the first time since the early days of the Cuban Revolution the country won’t be led by someone whose last name is Castro. Raúl Castro, 86, plans to retire and apparently move to Santiago de Cuba, the cradle of the revolution, on the other end of the island. He is still expected to lead Cuba’s powerful Communist Party.
The coming election marks a generational shift in power, a last hurrah for the octogenarians who fought alongside Fidel and Raúl Castro during the Cuban Revolution, and the introduction of the protagonists of Cuba’s future.
