Photo: Ernesto Mastrascusa / EFE
For: EFE Updated 01 May 2022, 16: pm EDT
The former ruler of Cuba, Raúl Castro, totally retired from political life in 2021, expressed this Sunday his “joy” and “hope” in his successor
at the head of the Cuban Government and the Communist Party (PCC, only legal), Miguel Díaz-Canel.
Castro made these statements after participating in the Plaza de la Revolución in Havana in the central celebration for Labor Day, according to a video released on Twitter by the general director of Press, Communication and Image of the Foreign Ministry, Juan Antonio Fernández.
“ I have, like millions of Cubans, hope (…) in the new generations leading the party and especially for the president”, declared Castro, who advocated “continuing to fight”.
The former Cuban president, who came to power on an interim basis in 2006 due to the illness of his brother Fidel and officially in 2008, transferred in April 2021 to Díaz-Canel the position of first secretary of the PCC during the VIII Congress of the formation, which marked the generational change.
It was a succession that Castro had announced in 2018, when he left the Presidency in the hands of Díaz-Canel to guarantee the continuity of Cuba’s single-party socialist system and centralized economy.
Castro, who attended the ceremony dressed in the olive green uniform of an army general, praised Díaz-Canel for his work at the head of the PCC and the Government and said that “it is working very well” and “sometimes more than necessary”.
“ I have the heart, already with 91 years that I will fulfill on June 3, full of joy “, sentenced Castro to close his statement.
Since he withdrew from power, his public appearances have been reduced to meetings of the PCC, the National Assembly (unicameral Parliament) and other specific events, such as the parade this Sunday, May 1st.
It may interest you:
– Mother of a prisoner of 11-J in Cuba asks the UN for the freedom of all protesters
– Cuba says that the United States excludes it from the Summit of the Americas
– Cuba demands that the United States comply with the migratory agreements