Miguel Diaz-Canel | The successor of the Castros

When Miguel Diaz-Canel, the newly designated first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba and who has been the President of the country since October 10, 2019, was born on April 20, 1960, it was barely a year since the revolutionary movement led by Fidel Castro had won power by overthrowing Fulgencio Batista’s regime. Fidel’s brother and fellow revolutionary Raul Castro, who gave way to Mr. Diaz-Canel as the first secretary after a 10-year tenure, was then Defence Minister, a post he held till February 2008. When Mr. Diaz-Canel became a member of the Central Committee of the CPC in 1994, after having taught engineering at Villa Clara University and having worked his way up the party’s ranks in Villa Clara province, Cuba was three years into the “special period” — an economic crisis that began after the collapse of the Soviet Union, on which the Cuban economy was heavily dependent. Within four years, when Raul Castro took over as President and later as First Secretary from his brother, Mr. Diaz-Canel was elevated to the post of first vice president and signalled to be the heir-apparent to the two powerful posts in the country as it transited from its revolutionary-era leadership.