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Miguel Díaz-Canel

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Díaz-Canel and the second or maternal family name is Bermúdez.
Miguel Díaz-Canel
Miguel Díaz-Canel 2019.jpg
Díaz-Canel in 2019
First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba
Assumed office
19 April 2021
Prime MinisterManuel Marrero
Preceded byRaúl Castro
President of Cuba
Assumed office
10 October 2019
Prime MinisterManuel Marrero
Vice PresidentSalvador Valdés Mesa
Party LeaderRaúl Castro (2019–21)
Himself (2021–present)
Preceded byHimself (President of the Council of State)
17th President of the Council of State
In office
19 April 2018 – 10 October 2019
Vice PresidentSalvador Valdés Mesa
Preceded byRaúl Castro
Succeeded byEsteban Lazo Hernández
President of the Council of Ministers
In office
19 April 2018 – 21 December 2019
PresidentHimself
Preceded byRaúl Castro
Succeeded byManuel Marrero Cruz (Prime Minister)
First Vice President of the Council of State
In office
24 February 2013 – 19 April 2018
PresidentRaúl Castro
Preceded byJosé Ramón Machado
Succeeded bySalvador Valdés Mesa
Minister of Higher Education
In office
8 May 2009 – 21 March 2012
PresidentRaúl Castro
Preceded byJuan Vela Valdés
Succeeded byRodolfo Alarcón Ortiz
Personal details
Born
Miguel Mario Díaz-Canel Bermúdez

(1960-04-20) 20 April 1960 (age 61)
Placetas, Cuba
Political partyCommunist
Spouse(s)Marta Villanueva (div.)
Lis Cuesta Peraza
Children2
EducationMarta Abreu University of Las Villas
Signature

Miguel Mario Díaz-Canel Bermúdez (Spanish: [mi.ˈɣel ˈdi.as ka.ˈnel]; born 20 April 1960) is a Cuban politician serving as the president of Cuba since 2019 and as the first secretary of the Communist Party since 2021.

He was previously President of the Council of State of Cuba from 2018 to 2019 and First Vice President from 2013 to 2018. He has been a member of the Politburo of the Communist Party since 2003, and he served as Minister of Higher Education from 2009 to 2012; he was promoted to the post of Vice President of the Council of Ministers (Deputy Prime Minister) in 2012. A year later, on 24 February 2013, he was elected as First Vice President of the Council of State.[1] He was selected to succeed Raúl Castro as the candidate for President of the Council of State and the Council of Ministers on 18 April 2018 and was sworn into office the following day after the National Assembly voted for his nomination. His two predecessors in the role were brothers by blood; notably, Díaz-Canel's succession (following Raúl Castro) represents a non-dynastic form of succession for the Communist Party as well as for the Republic of Cuba.

Díaz-Canel is 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. He succeeded Raúl Castro, brother of Fidel Castro, as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba on 19 April 2021, marking the end of the Castro era in Cuba.[2]

Early life

Díaz-Canel was born on 20 April 1960 in Placetas, Villa Clara, to Aída Bermúdez, a schoolteacher, and Miguel Díaz-Canel, a mechanical plant worker in Santa Clara, Cuba.[3][4] He is of direct paternal Spanish (Asturian) descent; his great-grandfather Ramón Díaz-Canel left Castropol, Asturias (Spain) for Havana in the late 19th century.[5][6]

He graduated from Central University of Las Villas in 1982 as an electronics engineer and thereupon joined the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces.[7] Beginning in April 1985, he taught engineering at his alma mater.[8] In 1987, he completed an international mission in Nicaragua as First Secretary of the Young Communist League of Villa Clara.[9]

Political career

In 1993, Díaz-Canel started work with the Communist Party of Cuba and a year later was elected First Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee of Villa Clara Province (a top position higher than a governor).[7][10] He gained a reputation for competence in this post,[10] during which time he also championed LGBT rights at a time when many in the province frowned upon homosexuality.[11] In 2003, he was elected to the same position in Holguín Province.[7][12] In the same year, he was co-opted as a member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of Cuba.[13]

Díaz-Canel was appointed Minister of Higher Education in May 2009, a position that he held until 22 March 2012, when he became Vice President of the Council of Ministers (deputy prime minister).[7][14] In 2013 he additionally became First Vice President of the Council of State.[7]

President of Cuba

As First Vice President of the Council of State, Díaz-Canel acted as deputy to the President, Raúl Castro. In 2018, the 86-year-old Castro stepped down from the presidency, though he retained the most powerful position of First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba and the commander-in-chief of the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces.[15][16] On 18 April 2018, Díaz-Canel was selected as the only candidate to succeed Castro as president.[10] He was confirmed by a vote of the National Assembly on 19 April[10] and sworn in on the same day.[17] He is a party technocrat who was little-known to the public before becoming president. Policy experts expected that he would pursue cautious reform of his predecessors' communist economic policies, while preserving the country's social structure.[16] He is the first president born after the 1959 Cuban Revolution and the first since 1976 not to be a member of the Castro family.[11]

He received a visit from Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro just two days after his inauguration. He met with Maduro again in May 2018 in Caracas, during his first official foreign visit as head of state. In his first multinational political trip since becoming president, Díaz-Canel traveled in November 2018 to visit all of Cuba's Eurasian allies. Diplomatic meetings were held in Russia, North Korea, China, Vietnam, and Laos. Brief stopovers in the United Kingdom and France also included meetings with British parliamentarians and French leaders. In March 2019, Díaz-Canel and his wife hosted Charles, Prince of Wales and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall in Havana as the first British royals to visit the island.[18]

In October 2019, Diaz-Canel became the President of the Republic of Cuba, an office that was recreated that February after a series of constitutional reforms were approved in a constitutional referendum.[19] This office replaced the one he had held since April of the previous year, which was the President of the Council of State, which was previously the head of state of Cuba. The position of President of the Council of State became a less important position and is now carried out by Esteban Lazo Hernández in his authority as the President of the National Assembly of People's Power. Diaz-Canel's reforms among other things, limited the presidency to two consecutive five-year terms and banned discrimination based on disability, gender, gender identity, race or sexual orientation.[20][21][22]

First Secretary of the Communist Party

On 19 April 2021, he officially became the First Secretary of the Communist Party, the most powerful position in one party ruling Cuba, following the resignation of Raúl Castro. He is the first non-Castro to be in such position since the Cuban revolution of 1959. BBC News stated that Díaz-Canel is loyal to the Castros' ideologies. In 2020, Cuba's economy shrank by 11% due to COVID-19 and increased restrictions, part of the continuing United States-imposed embargo.[23]

State visits

As First Vice-President

Country Areas visited Date(s) Notes
South Africa South Africa Pretoria 16 March 2015 [24]
Angola Angola Luanda 17 March 2015 40 years of independence of this African country and the establishment of relations between Cuba and Angola.[25]
Namibia Namibia Windhoek 20 March 2015 25th anniversary of Namibian independence [26]
Angola Angola Luanda 26 September 2017 Inauguration of Angolan President[27]

As Leader of Cuba

Main article: List of international trips made by Miguel Díaz-Canel

Awards

Personal life

Díaz-Canel has two children with his first wife, Martha. He currently resides with his second wife, Lis Cuesta.[31]

On 23rd March 2021, Díaz-Canel obtained a PhD in technical sciences, defending a thesis entitled "Government Management System Based on Science and Innovation for Sustainable Development in Cuba." [32]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Ratificado Raúl como presidente del Consejo de Estado y del Consejo de Ministros (+ Fotos)". Cubadebate.
  2. ^ "End of the Castro era: Diaz-Canel becomes Cuban Communist Party chief". The Straits Times. 10 April 2020. Retrieved 21 April 2021 – via Reuters.
  3. ^ "Díaz-Canel no es un relevo histórico". Martinoticias. 25 February 2013. Retrieved 10 January 2016.
  4. ^ Ahmed, Azam; Robles, Frances (19 April 2018). "Who Is Miguel Díaz-Canel, Cuba's New President?". The New York Times. Retrieved 20 April 2018.
  5. ^ Cuba ya tiene un nuevo presidente, de ascendencia asturiana – ileon
  6. ^ De ruta por las raíces asturianas de Miguel Díaz-Canel – El Comercio
  7. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e Damien Cave, Raúl Castro Says His Current Term as President of Cuba Will Be His Last, The New York Times, 24 February 2013
  8. ^ "Cuban president highlights Fidel Castro's thoughts about education". www.radiohc.cu. Retrieved 19 April 2021.
  9. ^ Staff, Al Jazeera. "Miguel Diaz-Canel: Cuba's post-Castro president". www.aljazeera.com. Retrieved 19 April 2021.
  10. ^ Jump up to: a b c d Press, Associated (19 April 2018). "Miguel Díaz-Canel: Cuba selects first non-Castro president since Fidel". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 April 2018.
  11. ^ Jump up to: a b Augustin, Ed (18 April 2018). "After six decades of Castro rule, Cubans greet end of era with a shrug". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 April 2018.
  12. ^ "En sustitución de Juan Vela es designado Miguel Díaz Canel ministro de Educación Superior". cubaheadlines.com.
  13. ^ Ryan Villarreal (26 February 2013). "Sustaining The System: Cuba's New VP Diaz-Canel Marks Ascent Of Younger Generation". International Business Times.
  14. ^ "Nota oficial". Diario Granma. 22 March 2012. Retrieved 31 March 2019.
  15. ^ "Raul Castro to lead Cuba's Communist Party until 2021". FRANCE 24. 19 April 2018. 'I confirm to this assembly that Raul Castro, as first secretary of the Communist Party, will lead the decisions about the future of the country,' Diaz-Canel said.
  16. ^ Jump up to: a b Andrés Oppenheimer (20 April 2018). "Cuba's new 'babysaur' to replace a dinosaur is no cause of celebration—it's shameful!". Miami Herald. Retrieved 23 April 2018.
  17. ^ "Cuba's Raúl Castro hands over power to Miguel Díaz-Canel". BBC News. 19 April 2018. Retrieved 19 April 2018.
  18. ^ "Charles and Camilla make history in Cuba". 25 March 2019 – via www.bbc.com.
  19. ^ Cuba’s Reformed Constitution, a Democratic and Participatory Process Havana Times, 23 July 2018
  20. ^ Marc Frank (21 February 2019). "Explainer: What is old and new in Cuba's proposed constitution". Reuters. Retrieved 24 February 2019.
  21. ^ "Cuba expands rights but rejects radical change in updated constitution". UPI. Retrieved 2 March 2019.
  22. ^ Mega, Emiliano Rodríguez (8 March 2019). "Cuba acknowledges climate change threats in its constitution". Nature. 567 (7747): 155. doi:10.1038/d41586-019-00760-3. PMID 30862928.
  23. ^ "Cuba leadership: Díaz-Canel named Communist Party chief". BBC News. BBC. 19 April 2021. Retrieved 19 April 2021.
  24. ^ Russell (23 March 2015). "Díaz-Canel reaffirms Cuba's unconditional support for the African cause". Youthandeldersja.wordpress.com. Retrieved 1 April 2019.
  25. ^ "Diaz-Canel: We come to Angola to confirm our friendship, our brotherhood". Youthandeldersja.wordpress.com. 23 March 2015. Retrieved 1 April 2019.
  26. ^ "Cuba´s First Vice-president Attends Inauguration of Namibian President". Cadenagramonte.cu. Retrieved 1 April 2019.
  27. ^ "Radio Havana Cuba – Miguel Diaz-Canel Heading Cuba's Delegation to New Angolan President's Inauguration". Radiohc.cu. Retrieved 1 April 2019.
  28. ^ "Cuba. Condecoran a Raúl Castro y Díaz-Canel con la orden Agostinho Neto" [Cuba. Raúl Castro and Díaz-Canel are awarded the Agostinho Neto order] (in Spanish). Resúmen Latinoamericano. 2 July 2019.
  29. ^ Cuban President Diaz Canel awarded Libertadores Order in Venezuela. Radio Artemisa. Published: Thursday, 31 May 2018 10:45
  30. ^ "Vietnam condecora a Miguel Díaz-Canel con la Orden de Ho Chi Minh" [Vietnam honors Miguel Díaz-Canel with the Order of Ho Chi Minh] (in Spanish). Cuba Debate. 9 November 2018.
  31. ^ "Quién es Miguel Díaz-Canel, el sucesor de Fidel y Raúl Castro". 25 February 2013. Archived from the original on 27 November 2016. Retrieved 12 June 2015.
  32. ^ "Califican de "totalmente espectacular" tesis doctoral del presidente cubano Miguel Díaz-Canel".

External links

Party political offices
Preceded by
Raúl Castro 		First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba
2021–present 		Incumbent
Political offices
Preceded by
none
(last held by Osvaldo Dorticós Torrado
until 1976) 		President of Cuba
2019–present 		Incumbent
Preceded by
Raúl Castro 		President of the Council of State of Cuba
2018–2019 		Succeeded by
Esteban Lazo Hernández
(not head of state)
President of the Council of Ministers of Cuba
2018–2019 		Succeeded by
Manuel Marrero Cruz
(as Prime minister)
Preceded by
José Ramón Machado Ventura 		First Vice President of the Council of State of Cuba
2013–2018 		Succeeded by
Salvador Valdés Mesa
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