This is the first time one of the Castro’s has set a deadline for stepping down since the 1959 revolution
February 25, 2013 – On Sunday, Raul Castro the leader of Cuba announced he would rule for one more five-year term and then hand over the reins to a relatively young newly named vice president. The 81-year old Castro said he would recommend Miguel Diaz-Canel take the role of president when his term ends on 2018.
This is the first time one of the Castro’s has set a deadline for stepping down since the 1959 revolution that ousted a regime that was backed by the U.S.
Sunday’s meeting of parliament included the ratification of Castro as the Cuban president. The parliament also confirmed the naming of Diaz-Canel, a former official in the education system and engineer, whose political profile continues to get bigger.
Castro will be 86 when his term ends and Diaz-Canel will be 57. Until this point, Castro and his top officials in the Cuban government had been criticized regularly for not promoting future leaders that were younger, favoring instead to place older members from the revolution era in senior positions within the Communist government.
Fidel, the older brother of Raul, and the revolution’s historic leader as well as the country’s leader for many decades, resigned in 2006 due to a very bad illness and Raul took over power officially in 2008.
Raul has shown through his actions that he can be pragmatic, ordering economic reforms that opened up some free enterprise in the island nation, as well as the buying and selling of private property. He also lifted the decade’s long ban on travel by citizens of Cuba.
When announcing he would retire following his new term, Castro also said he would be proposing new limits for the number of terms a president can be in power and the retirement age for the president and other government officials.