Cuba has a new leader and it’s not a Castro

Miguel Díaz-Canel becomes head of the Communist Party, and retains the title of president.

Miguel Díaz-Canel has been named first secretary of the Cuban Communist Party (PCC), the most powerful role on the island. He will be the first person without the name Castro to run Cuba since the 1959 revolution. The move, announced Monday, was widely expected. It means the tall, silver-haired 60-year-old now holds Cuba’s two most important positions, head of the party and president of the state, and buries rumours that he was a placeman, subject to more powerful forces. “I never believed that rumour,” says former Cuban diplomat Carlos Alzugaray. “He was in charge, probably in direct consultation with Raúl Castro. But I think the signal is that he’s in charge of everything now. He stands way over everybody else.”