HAVANA: Cuba marked the end of an era on Thursday as Miguel Diaz-Canel was formally elected as the country’s new president, becoming the first leader of the Caribbean island in six decades who is not named Castro.

Diaz-Canel, a top Communist Party figure who has served as first vice president since 2013, assumes power from Raul Castro, who himself took over from his elder brother Fidel, father of the 1959 revolution.

In his first speech as president, Diaz-Canel vowed to keep the country on the path of that “revolution,” but also on the road to economic reform. “I am here to work, not to make promises,” he said.

Diaz-Canel was elected in a landmark vote of the National Assembly which took place on Wednesday — he was the sole candidate for the presidency — with the result formally announced on Thursday.

He is the island’s first leader born after the revolution, and will be 58 on Friday. The National Assembly erupted into applause as the result was read out. Diaz-Canel’s new right-hand man, his First Vice President, will be 72-year-old Salvador Valdes Mesa, a former union leader.

As Diaz-Canel walked to the front of the chamber, he high-fived the front row of delegates and embraced Castro as he took the stage, images broadcast on state television showed.

Then the 86-year-old Castro raised his successor’s left arm in the air in victory, prompting another wave of applause from the delegates — some of whom were in civilian attire, while others wore military fatigues.

It was a historic, though understated, handover.

As Castro got up from the seat he has occupied for the past 12 years, it was immediately taken by Diaz-Canel, a man nearly 30 years his junior who has spent years climbing the party ranks.

Next to him was the empty seat once occupied by Fidel, who died in 2016.

Published in Dawn, April 20th, 2018