http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-cuba-diaz-canel-20130227,0,5971888.story
Cuba's apparent successor to Castro was carefully groomed
Miguel Diaz-Canel climbed through the ranks of communist Cuba, serving in the
military and winning praise from the leadership for loyalty and a
roll-up-the-sleeves work ethic.
Miguel Diaz-Canel, right, confers with Cuban President Raul Castro at the
closing session of the National Assembly in Havana. Diaz-Canel, the country's
new first vice president, is seen as the likely successor to Castro. (Ismael
Francisco / Cubadebate / February 24, 2013)
a.. Cuba leaders
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By Tracy Wilkinson, Los Angeles Times
February 26, 2013, 4:45 p.m.
MEXICO CITY — To most outsiders, Miguel Diaz-Canel was an unknown. But in Cuba,
the newly anointed possible heir to the Castro brothers was a carefully
groomed, hardworking and familiar figure.
Diaz-Canel emerged as the likely successor to lead a post-Castro government
over the weekend when he was named first vice president and President Raul
Castro announced that he would step down at the end of his just-ratified
five-year term.
It marks the first time an expiration date has been put on the Castro era,
during which the island was led first by Fidel and then by Raul after the 1959
revolution that ousted a dictatorial U.S.-backed regime.
Diaz-Canel, 52, is part of a new generation of Cuban political operatives. Raul
is 81 and Fidel, who formally stepped down in 2008, is 86.
The heir apparent worked his way up through the ranks of communist Cuba,
serving in the military and filling posts in the provinces. He won praise from
the leadership for fidelity and a roll-up-the-sleeves work ethic that put him
in the trenches alongside regular people.
"He is not a test-tube politician," said a Cuban official who spoke on
condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss political
matters. In other words, he was not a latecomer dilettante who felt entitled by
virtue of class or family. "He worked closely with the people and gained lots
of experience."
Essentially, he paid his dues, putting hard work ahead of the overt ambition
that has felled many an up-and-comer on the Cuban political landscape.
Tall, with thick silvery hair, Diaz-Canel is a striking if not particularly
charismatic figure. In nearly three decades of work on behalf of the state, he
earned a degree in engineering, taught at the university level, ran local
governments and dipped his toe into international tourism. He was assigned
management of what Cuban officials consider major areas of accomplishment by
the revolution: education, sports and biotechnology.
"His legitimacy comes from governing and doing," said Julia E. Sweig, an expert
on Cuba at the Council on Foreign Relations and author of the book "Cuba: What
Everyone Needs to Know." "He is a problem-solver and very grass-roots. He comes
from real on-the-ground actions."
More recently, as his profile rose and his appearances on Cuban television
increased, he filled in for Raul Castro at important events, including a
symbolic inauguration of the cancer-stricken President Hugo Chavez of
Venezuela, Cuba's most important ally. He also attended the swearing-in of
Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto at a time when Cuba is hoping to restore
its formerly close relationship with the country.
Raul Castro himself sang Diaz-Canel's praises Sunday after the appointment. "He
is not an out-of-nowhere [figure] nor an upstart," Castro said, and went on to
detail the younger man's 30-year career.
Castro said Diaz-Canel's appointment represented a historic point in a
generational transformation.
Of course, this is Cuba and many things could yet derail the career of
Diaz-Canel. If he does succeed Castro, the task before him is enormous. Castro
has embarked on a slow but steady program of reform, loosening the state's grip
on the economy and opening travel for citizens — steps, he says, that were
necessary not to do away with the country's socialist model but to modernize
and improve it. Yet it is a painful and uncertain period for a population
mostly reared by a paternalistic state.
Castro apparently trusts Diaz-Canel as a figure of continuity. That may
reassure members of the government, but it riles the exile community that is
hoping for more definitive change.
"Shifting the deck chairs on the sinking Titanic won't produce positive
changes," Havana-born U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) said in a
statement.
It is probably Diaz-Canel's military experience, along with his years of
Communist Party duty, that make him most trustworthy to Castro. He served in an
antiaircraft rocket battery in his youth and is believed to maintain good
contacts with the armed forces.
"He clearly supports the economic opening and is trusted by the party and the
military, and these are the principal pillars of government at this time," said
Robert A. Pastor, director of the Center for North American Studies at American
University in Washington and a former Carter administration official involved
in Cuba.
"The naming of Diaz-Canel is a further sign that the transition — from caudillo
rule to cautious institutionalization of the revolution, from a closed
state-controlled economy to one that is opening gradually — is well underway,
and the Communist Party is firmly in control."
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